Seriously?

Started this blog a while ago and i like to believe i've grown a lot over the years. i've posted sporadically so is that what's contributing to such a high level??

Hmm the benefits of delayed posting :D

New Beginnings

I've been in Mumbai for a while now (arrived here last sunday) and its been good so far. Travelling is a bit of a pain but there's a healthy walk at the end of it. Then again, i've been gettin home really late each day.

Work's interesting. I dont know if i've honestly done anything worthwhile so far :D but i'm working with a really small team that's young and fun. Work's been a joy so far and i guess its going to remain that way.

The sad things however is that I have no net at home. I have the (ex)company laptop but that has to go back soon and i dont see where i'm going to place my desktop. A lot of things are suffering because of this lack of internet. Didnt realise i was so dependent on it :-| Even my pendrive's burnt out due to faulty wiring at the office :'(

Lots of stuff needs to be done.

Ideas/Follow Ups

I really should start to index every idea i get. Otherwise i'm apt to forget about it. Sometime last week, Neha reminded me about something that I had completely forgotten. It is/was a great idea( Hey! I'm the one with the idea so you either accept its great or Keep Quiet :-P ) but i've done absolutely no work on it. Sure, I've got the first few pages set.... atleast i know what the first few pages should be but I havent done a thing beyond that. I havent even put the first few pages together. Think i should be start sometime soon no?

I also should keep things ready for a presentation. The other day, I realised that I should have started promoting the 3rd Company product at the earliest. Arranged to meet a member of the market i wanted to target, but when push came to shove, I wasnt even the least bit ready. Now i'm only partially ready, I have to still burn a cd with the software.

But i've begun pursuing people in colleges and other people for registerting the company.

Funny, just when i'm about to leave Hyd do i start to put things into overdrive :-|

Lots of Water...

has flown under the bridge since my last post. Things have changed and i'm beginning to see different things. Where once i saw trust and loyalty I've now seen betrayal.Where once i saw excitement and possibility i now see boredom and non-existence.

It was during this period of betrayal that another door opened up for me. It involves me moving out to Mumbai, the pay is good( as an afterthought, so is the job :D ) and its Mumbai!! A place where i've always wanted to spend some more time. I'm far too comfortable where I am right now, the city is not at all fast paced and change would be a good thing for me. The question is "Am i ever going to make that change?"

So

So i finally log in with my desktop only to find that my account for the first website has been suspended. I wondered if it was going to be worth it to renew as I really wasnt making any money off it. I thought about shifting servers as I was anyway going to launch another site and I could use the same for hosting two different websites. I've mailed my original service provider to find out what's the cost to activate the account because the other one doesnt come cheap. Either way that site will be back up soon.

Feedback on my Business Plan

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP NETWORK

SCREENING FORM

Criterion Factors Max. Score Score Potential Impact Understanding of Market Situation 10 06 (40 marks) Competitive Analysis 10 03 Identification of opportunity 5 03 The Idea and its Innovation 10 08 Potential to disrupt status quo 5 03 Potential Executability Strength of current team 20 10 (40 marks) Marketing and sales strategy 10 04 Finance Strategy 5 02 Unique Selling Points 5 03 Potential Fundability Revenue and growth potential 10 07 (20 marks) Potential to go public / get acquired 10 06 Grand Total: 55

SUGGESTIONS:

COMMENTS: Idea is good but is presented with very poor analysis. Many of the important aspects are presumed to be granted which need to be dealt in proper perspective.

IS THE ENTRY FIT TO PROCEED TO THE NEXT STAGE? In the present form is should not be proceed to the next stage.

First Sale!

I remember how excited I was when I made my first sale from the other site. I called up everyone who knew about what i was doing to share the news :-D

Today, I made my "First" sale from the second site. "First" is because somebody had already made a purchase before we realised that I didnt deliver till there. So i had to refund their money. Now, another person has made a purchase so i guess this must count as First Sale right??

:-D

Timing!

I'm in the middle of my GMAT prep, my job isnt going exactly the way I want it to and I'm wondering what I can do to improve my candidature, make money and i start to toss ideas around in my head. And then it hits me!! I stick to what I'm good at-- Teaching! and i do something that revolves around that. So after a little searching i figure out what I can do.

The problem is that i can get pretty obsessive with an idea. I'll think about only that to the exclusion of everything else. I've spent the last coupla days obsessing over it. I think i should be ready by next year. I've spoken to one who could have been a prospective client. She thinks its a good idea. Spoke to a coupla other people. One person asked me to focus on the GMAT. The other is neutral.

As of now, i still think its possible. It would be awesome if I could pull off something like this!! Then again, the timing is all off. I have GMAT in a few weeks time and i really need to be studying for it.

Fingers crossed!

Opposites

Last night I did two opposite things.

Tired of the way things are going at my current job, I sent in an interview request with a company that's had a lot more success doing what i originally set out to do.

Then i sent in a Executive Summary to GenPortal hoping to get selected which basically means i'll be doing something entrepreneurial then.

Nice opposites no? One a corporate job and the other an entrepreneurial venture but even here i'll still be reporting progress and fund spending to somebody or the other.

This is probably why I want an MBA. So that i never have to do two oh-so-contrasting job hunts again!

Sometimes a mistake can be good

Lots of learning in a span of 2hours today!

Learning No: 1 Clearly mention the places you will ship to.

From Company 2 i made my first sale today. so Yaayyy!!

I then had to refund it as the address was a US address and shipping there would have meant a Loss on my first sale!!

Learning No:2 : My version of Msgtag works!!! In order to initiate a refund i transferred a mail from one account to another. i use Google mail in the sense my company mail is hosted on Gmail and i didnt expect my version of msgtag to work. Atleast, that's what even the website says. But it DOES!!!

I'm going to have to re-think my original intent to purchase the more expensive version of msgtag because apparently i dont need to anymore.

I wanted to shift company 1 ka mail also to Gmail so that should happen by the end of the day :D

Good fun no?? :D

Patience!

Its now 24hours or thereabouts since i sent out the e-mail blast for site2. However analytics doesnt show any increase in numbers :-( Now i'm beginning to think i should have gotten the MSGTAG linking. Atleast I would know what's happening to my mails. DAMN!! this is so frustrating!!

Pricing Pricing Pricing and of course Marketing

Last night I decided to forsake profits for market share. I slashed prices(well actually, inspired by the MSGTAG people i put up a discount coupon)by 40%. This should hopefully start bringing in the people. With the discount offering, the price is really really low and with a price-conscious Indian market its the only thing i could do. I also sat and mailed nearly 50addresses that I had collected over a few weeks. Analytics hasn't started to show anything but its early days. I actually wanted to upgrade my MSGTAG product and then send out the mails, but decided to wait till i bring in some money. I know you need to spend money to make money but i've spent enough already.

I've also activated adwords for the other site. Currently I have 2 ads running which while getting a lot of impressions havent generated any clicks. I'm targetting a niche category so i suppose that plays a part.

Waiting with fingers crossed.

Dumped!!

Just like that. Up until a few days ago I could proudly say I was the Center Manager for the place where I worked. Even though I knew it was only temp I still enjoyed it, took it seriously. From the previous post you'll know that the Big Boss Man wasnt entirely happy with my performance vis-a-vis target sales. I've always sucked at Marketing/Sales hell my first company would have done a whole lot better if i'd been any good at marketing :D

But I still didnt expect this.

On a weekly Tuesday meeting, it was announced that somebody else was the new CM. I was shocked. When they wanted it, they asked me but if they were going to replace me, the decent thing would have been to atleast inform me about it? I spent the rest of the meeting in numb silence.

Given the amount of crazy paper work that CMs are now being asked to fill, in some ways I am glad I am no longer the CM. That still doesnt take the sting out of what happened. While I have no intention to brood over it, I havent told the family yet. I have no idea how they are going to react and I dont want to know. All i'm going to do is focus on company2, my GMAT and my MBA prep.

$100!!

Just closed a student :-) Not only is it my largest sale till date its worth more than all my previous transactions put together. Which is kinda sad if you think about it. I had so many hopes and dreams for this and it never did take off the way I had hoped it would. The Big Boss Man recently told me that the one thing he saw lacking in me was "Fire in my Belly" the desire to meet deadlines. I was more laid back more content to let things happen and he said that that way, I would never be able to achieve much no matter which field I chose. In some ways, I had already been wondering if that was true about me and this direct pointing out only confirmed it for me. I looked back on the website venture or any other venture and saw that each time i started something, I never followed it through. I was content to let things happen.

This has got to change. After all, even the $100 student hasnt paid up. Only promised to.

Prototyping Prototyping

So I finally get my hands on one model. Its a beauty!! I've shown it off to a few people as well as to the lady who's helping me with the import tax part and even she liked it!! Minor hitches with respect to hardware required ( power adaptor, card reader) but both should soon be sorted out. Once all this gets sorted, then only Marketing and Sales is left. Wishful thinking na :-D

On the other hand, for the other company i thought prototyping and then manufacturing would be easier than this. However things hardly seem to have improved. I dont even have a single prototype and that's pretty sad considering it shouldnt have take so long. Its a pretty simple thing so why on earth am i taking so long??

Many things to work.

A look back

over the past 3months since I quit my job. Wow! When I though about writing this post I wanted to do it exactly 3months, thinking 5th. I just realised that 2nd was the day I quit my previous job so it all works out well.

So, the past 3months have been interesting. It was fun in the beginning. I got to attend seminars, bataao gyaan and talk to students abt GD/PIs and CAT. I guess after having given the CAT 3 times I am reasonably qualified so I enjoyed the process. Since the Boss Man was busy with his other venture, I got sent to the Ameerpet center where I am to this day. My responsibility there was simple-- take classes, counsel students and generally lend a helping hand.

That was 2months ago. Now I am beginning to tire of it all. Its getting boring. I havent been paid properly even once since i started work so that's on my mind too. Its the same old routine--Get up, go to the center, stay till closing time come back home. If there's a class, prep for it and take it. The annoying thing is that sometimes I get Monday morning class while there have been times when I've got early morning class Saturday to Monday!! I am now Center InCharge but that's not a big thing. As usual, there's no one at the center to handle stuff so I get the position. Funny na, even at Exaband i was becoming Team Lead because there was nobody else. If this is how I am going to get all my promotions in life, I am going to be one sad little boy in life :-p

The heat as usual is bad. The only saving grace is that unlike last year, where I was all alone, this year atleast Ronnie's in town. So every once in a while I get to catch a movie. Which is, I assure you, a whole lot better than last year :-D

Mom is putting pressure that I should seriously think abt leaving this. I had a cushier job at Exaband. Paid well too. I would have been getting 42 there compared to the 24 I am making now. Sundays AND Saturdays were off. The only way i console myself is by knowing that if we were to start what we are actually supposed to start, then its going to be worth it.

The Question is--When are we actually going to Start?

5/3

No! I know my Maths!! And No! I havent typed it wrong. No it isn't a date! Yes I wear specs but No! that's not my number. No that's not the number of failed to successful businesses. No its not the ratio of failed to successful love stories either.

So then???

Its my Google Rank!! Atleast for the new site. But still!!! 5 or 3!!! Depending on the way I search for the term!!!
5 if I use the term i think is most likely to be searched for and 3 with a slight tweaking.

I had a read a bit about SEO for my earlier venture and I remember, when deciding on the name, that a correctly chosen name would shoot me up the Google rankings. I certainly didnt expect to be on the first page! Ok, I hoped to be there but still to actually see it is well :-D

Have been having trouble with the image creation. I initially asked an artist friend if he would do it and at that point I told him I didnt have much money so asked if he would do it for free/some small token amount. When's he's almost done the job he asks for 5k! I mean, wtf???
We've finally settled on 1K but that experience was rather weird to say the least.

Anyway, time to go make some money off my new rankings :-D

Sabbatical!

Well it certainly feels that way. After I quit Exaband, I've been hanging out at one of India's top MBA coaching institute helping out with the place, taking classes, counselling students, pretending to be a mentor, attending college fests, acting as a judge , acting as an interviewer, ......... :-)

I've really enjoyed myself this past 1 month. Doing all of the above things is a welcome change from my old IT job. Working on my public speaking skills, presentation skills, time management-- lots of things that I probably wouldnt have done had I continued in my old job.

Feels Good :-)

p.s. Company 3 seems to have hit a roadblock but Company 4 seems to have hit an unexpected smooth patch. Win some to lose some I guess. No complaints :-)

Isn't she a Beauty :-)

Isn't she??

The Acer5571.

My newest sweetheart :-D

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow/Thank You EXABAND

Friday was my last working day at Exaband. For those of you who know me, you also know how much I cribbed about having to work there. Yet, when I finally had my papers in hand, I couldnt bring myself to leave. Exaband was my first job and I met a lot of people whom I know I will stay in touch with for the rest of my life. I spent only 2 years there and yet, I felt more sad at leaving that place than I did when I was leaving college. I wandered the office for a little over an hour remembering incidents at each floor. I was periliously close to tears. Nowhere have I ever received the warmth and love as I did at Exaband. The people there genuinely cared about me, the knew I lived alone so if I didnt turn up for work without prior intimation, they'd call me up to check what was happening. They put up with me during my mood swings,brought me sweets during their festivals, encouraged and helped me improve my Telugu and were genuinely happy for me when I told them I was leaving to start-up a company.

In many ways, this post is tribute, a Thank You to EXABAND. Words cannot describe how much I love you or how much I am going to miss you.

Hmm...

I remember the first time I made a sale, I was so excited I couldn't stop laughing and prancing all over the house. I called up everybody close to me and those who knew about what I was doing to share the good news.
Today morning I saw that I had made another sale. And all I could think of was "Hmm, I hope she mails in everything correctly" and quickly shot off a "Welcome" mail. No excitement over it.

Hmm...

p.s. I really should start remembering to log in to Meebo.

Awesome Feeling!!

The other day my future boss(The Boss Man) called me because sitting in front of him was someone who was into Market Research and TheBossMan wanted to know if we should/would utilise his services :-) He ended the call saying that I should think of the type of people I would want working under me.

What an awesome feeling that was!! I get to decide whom we hire!! And they'll be working under ME!!!

He then calls the next day to know more about the same since apparently he's been meeting a lot of people who are looking for a job and who he thinks could be a fit.

Man I couldnt stop grinning all day.

I met him today over dinner and go to work tomorrow. I also have to buy a laptop :-)

Awesome feeling!!!!

Cut your losses!

Cancelled the ad today. Man that was a bad investment. I've run it for a while and got only a few clicks early on. After that it was just throwing money away. And I really hate doing that. So I finally cancelled the ad. Pointless really.

Instead what I did was buy a MSGTAG Plus version. Really nifty little tool and I've totally enjoyed it. Since it was on Christmas sale, i got a license for the same price that I was putting on the ad. So while the ad wont run for Jan-Feb, I'll still have spent the same amount of money. This time,however, I think it's money well spent.

That's all the update for now. More later as and when it happens :-D