Website Launch of FIrstbiggleap.in

First Big Leap will be an online platform that will connect Entrepreneur seeking for investments to the Active Investors based in any part of the world. The aim will be to provide a platform that will help the entrepreneurs find investment for start up of their business or expand their existing business. We believe that for a business plan, the most important aspect is seeking an investment, hence we support entrepreneur and investors by our product/services like nurturing or mentoring them and organise or promote their investment proposal in a quick streamlined manner.

Lost in Documents and Mails - Dear Entrepreneurs – Happy New Year 2012, but Cleanup the Mess before you Kickstart 2012

It’s an Indian tradition to cleaup one’s house during Diwali – people do it inside out (white washing etc etc) and following the same trend, startups too need to clean up their house.

For people like me who didn’t follow this, its high time now….year end awaits us…in just a couple of days

At least, finalization of Accounts till year end is a must..

Many a times (actually most of the times), you end up deprioritizing some features who lose out to other important ones. They end up becoming a second priority feature – and eventually the list of second priority piles up and is generally lost in the entire cycle.

Bring back the list and ask yourself – which ones were really important? There are a certain things like cleaning up the mail-box, documenting the loose sheets which are generally lost in the ‘big scheme of things’.

Can one of those improve your efficiency and overall productivity enticing you to work for longer hours ?

If yes, then do it.

Just finishing off the year with Financial results may not be the right idea….

This New year, take a look from the Micro perspective, the Marketing strategy, the lags in operational performance, employee productivity,  the overall product visibility and the response rates from advertisements which you would have liked to play as a Key Performance Indicator.

Meanwhile, First Big Leap wishes Happy New Year to all !!!

Enjoy the last day of the year 2011, party hard and have a good time with your family.

And do tell us what mess are you cleaning today?

  

Happy New Year from First Big Leap Team.

Welcome to Firstbiggleap.com. Take us home - subscribe to our RSS feed or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting! Do get in touch for any further info, mail us on info@firstbigleap.com

“Raaste ka maal saste mein” – Is this the real meaning of ‘Discount’ ??

A casual interaction with a friend of mine led me to writing this Article mindset and thoughts of Startups and the Indian Consumers on  “DISCOUNTS” as a Launch-pad Strategy

While having a word with Nilesh (name changed) this  Saturday afternoon, who is  looking forward to start up his own venture, I asked him how will he attract customers ?

 I was amazed hearing his response. He said “I will offer discount on my products and services for attracting customers during the initial stage of my business”

After hearing the same, I spoke to few more people trying to understanding their strategy to attract customers and believe it or not most of them think offering discount on their products as a logical strategic Launch-pad to bring in business and get noticed

Personally, I disagree with this strategy but on second thoughts decided to carry out a Survey with sample size around 100 people to understand about this notion of discounts.

 I went to the nearest ‘South City Mall’. On interviewing around 75 – 80 customers , I found many customers believe that offering discount on your product might lead them to believe “Raaste Ka Maal Saaste Mein” i.e. your services are not worth what you are charging or you are willing to compromise on Quality by charging less.

Every coin has a head and tail, and if this is the head, the story on other side of the coin is different. 

By the time I completed this activity, I won’t say the Start-ups  are at wrong but the strategy can also become a hindrance for a business.

The question that might pop up here - ‘What are the factors that made me judge that the biggest mistake my young business owners are making by offering discount for their products and services ?

There are many but I would like to share three of them :-

      A)     BATTLE OF PRICE :  By offering discount, the main focus shifts from quality of product to price resulting in a battle of price starts between you and your competitors. If you are in a red sea with deep pocket players, situation favours the deep pockets. To stay competitive, you really need to rely on quality of product rather than price.

      B)      REDUCED PROFITS : The most obvious result of offering discounts. Not only that, if the competitor also strategies Price Matching theory,  and starts offering its product at the same price, the company has to produce the  high quality product with a low price and empty pocket , which further may give an negative impact on profitability margins.

Another aspect can be looked with Inventory Turnover as the factor. If the discount strategy works out and customers are attracted to buy products at discounted price , the moment discount is removed, the same customer may not buy the product which might lead to pile up of Inventory  stock thereby resulting in higher costs and reduced profits.

      C)      WRONG IMPRESSION : Business Owners take a big risk at the time of offering products and  services at lower cost or discounted value. This might cause repercussion inn customer’s mind whether the services provided by a company is actually worth the Price demanded

Would like you all to share your opinion “Does  offering  DISCOUNTS really means RAASTE KA MAAL SAASTE MEIN……???

TIME MANAGEMENT – A CRITICAL ELEMENT OF BUSINESS

Time Management is a critical aspect which is required in everyone’s day life and being an Entrepreneur it’s more important to manage time effectively as there is not enough time during the day.  Here, are two steps I follow, as an Entrepreneur which help me to manage time and improve productivity:

                        I.  Divide the Calendar into different Sections

As a promoter of business, it often happens we have lots of responsibility for different functional areas and at times we have to step into various shoes. By saying this, I mean, it may happen that we are not only managing the Accounting or Finance Division of the company but we are also in charge of Sales, HR, legal etc. leaving loads of incomplete duties and responsibility, at the end of the day on our desks which leads us towards completing only tactful activities throughout the day.  Sometimes, even having adequate resources might also not help us to fulfill our responsibilities, as a major part of Work in an organization requires our attention so much so that even multi-tasking is also not possible.

Hence, dividing the calendar into different sections according to functional areas helps in better focus and devotion of time for different functional areas which helps in better results of an activity and improved productivity. If I could take an example:- If every Saturday , a reconciliation of accounts is done and every Monday, a strategy for sales is focused for the week, the result of productivity is higher.

                        II.   Delegate or Outsource

We need to understand that as an Entrepreneur,  we need time to plan our business activities but often we tend to invest all our time on activities we don’t specialize into. I remember, I almost invested two weeks into developing the website reading all the materials for website development. Though, we did succeed but ended killing two weeks precious time for a two day activity.  It’s important to outsource or delegate job to the Specialists which gives ample amount of free time and better results increasing overall productivity.

Would like you to share, what you do to “MANAGE YOUR TIME”  ????

Website Launch of FIrstbiggleap.in

First Big Leap will be an online platform that will connect Entrepreneur seeking for investments to the Active Investors based in any part of the world. The aim will be to provide a platform that will help the entrepreneurs find investment for start up of their business or expand their existing business. We believe that for a business plan, the most important aspect is seeking an investment, hence we support entrepreneur and investors by our product/services like nurturing or mentoring them and organise or promote their investment proposal in a quick streamlined manner.

Hum log KHAATE-PEETE ghar ke log hai - Barista Lavazza now offers FREE INTERNET at its outlets !!!!

Food & Beverages is the next BIG thing after Movies and Social Networking among the Gen-next ( After all Hum log KHAATE-PEETE ghar ke log hai ).  Coffee ( Pronounced Caafee – south Indian Accent), obviously  takes the top-spot, especially with a number of Coffee outlets like Cafe Coffee Day, Barista etc. offering great ambience wherein you can  meet clients or just sit and work on your laptop without much worry over Just a Cup of Coffee. Their staff never bothers you !!!

So why should the Companies operating in this sector not Cash-in the spending Power of the so-called Gen-next…..!!!!

Even brands like Nescafe who already have a established market had to rope in actors like Deepika Padukone and Purab Kohli….the obvious thing only Karan Johar could play “UNCLE” to Deepika…

The most recent marketing strategy, probably to attract the growing number of Internet users in India (the last time I checked it was 100 million) is by Barista Lavazza….Barista Lavazza in association with Spectranet is all set to enable Wi-Fi connectivity across all its cafe’s and connect the fast moving consumer to the virtual world for free.

This is indeed a GREAT move and a perfect way to engage and attract more customers.

Mr. R. Shivshankar- Director, South Asia, Barista Lavazza said "The idea behind introducing Wi-Fi is to provide a value-added service to our customers by enabling them to relax and surf the net while they enjoy their coffee. The intent is to provide a truly enriching experience. Barista Lavazza is aggressively tapping into the social media space. Provision of Wi-Fi services at our cafés is part of the larger strategy that Barista Lavazza wishes to follow with an aim to achieve greater customer delight. We intend to bring synergy in the manner we operate not just in the traditional space but the digital medium as well"

Mr. Udit Mehrotra, Managing Director, Spectranet said "The web is now a routine part of everyday life. New Wi-Fi enabled portable devices are hitting the shops every day. Spectranet is taking the lead in enabling Wi-Fi hotspots across public places like Cafes, Malls, Airports etc. We are extremely pleased to partner with the leading global café chain in India, Barista Lavazza, enabling them to deliver hi-speed Wi-Fi to their customers. The service provides a simple and secure user experience, and of course comes FREE to the customer”

In 2008, CCD’s in some of their Cafe’s were offering Internet Access but it was chargeable. At that time it looked out of the world but later when I thought I realized that it was a nice idea, though CCD had discarded this initiative after some time

This new initiative by Barista Lavazza offering free internet would surely attract the younger crowd, especially because most of them now-a-days carry Smartphones which can carry out multitude of tasks on Internet.  This will also be a boon to professionals who need to work from outside office. Working professionals and businessmen alike are increasingly using Wi-Fi connectivity at commercial places making it the latest buzz among food chains while gaining popularity among students.

It is going to be interesting to see how other Cafe Chains like CCD’s react to this.  
But before that, the next time you happen to stop by for a cup of coffee at Barista Lavazza, switch on your Wi-Fi and experience high speed internet connection to get on with your work for FREE.

Finally, the growing Internet Population has made Companies offer “Internet in a MUG” courtesy  Barista Lavazza….

Have fun guys……Do share your opinions ….Food & Beverages is the next BIG thing after Movies and Social Networking among the Gen-next ( After all Hum log KHAATE-PEETE ghar ke log hai ).  Coffee ( Pronounced Caafee – south Indian Accent), obviously  takes the top-spot, especially with a number of Coffee outlets like Cafe Coffee Day, Barista etc. offering great ambience wherein you can  meet clients or just sit and work on your laptop without much worry over Just a Cup of Coffee. Their staff never bothers you !!!

So why should the Companies operating in this sector not Cash-in the spending Power of the so-called Gen-next…..!!!!

Even brands like Nescafe who already have a established market had to rope in actors like Deepika Padukone and Purab Kohli….the obvious thing only Karan Johar could play “UNCLE” to Deepika…

The most recent marketing strategy, probably to attract the growing number of Internet users in India (the last time I checked it was 100 million) is by Barista Lavazza….Barista Lavazza in association with Spectranet is all set to enable Wi-Fi connectivity across all its cafe’s and connect the fast moving consumer to the virtual world for free.

This is indeed a GREAT move and a perfect way to engage and attract more customers.

Mr. R. Shivshankar- Director, South Asia, Barista Lavazza said "The idea behind introducing Wi-Fi is to provide a value-added service to our customers by enabling them to relax and surf the net while they enjoy their coffee. The intent is to provide a truly enriching experience. Barista Lavazza is aggressively tapping into the social media space. Provision of Wi-Fi services at our cafés is part of the larger strategy that Barista Lavazza wishes to follow with an aim to achieve greater customer delight. We intend to bring synergy in the manner we operate not just in the traditional space but the digital medium as well"

Mr. Udit Mehrotra, Managing Director, Spectranet said "The web is now a routine part of everyday life. New Wi-Fi enabled portable devices are hitting the shops every day. Spectranet is taking the lead in enabling Wi-Fi hotspots across public places like Cafes, Malls, Airports etc. We are extremely pleased to partner with the leading global café chain in India, Barista Lavazza, enabling them to deliver hi-speed Wi-Fi to their customers. The service provides a simple and secure user experience, and of course comes FREE to the customer”

In 2008, CCD’s in some of their Cafe’s were offering Internet Access but it was chargeable. At that time it looked out of the world but later when I thought I realized that it was a nice idea, though CCD had discarded this initiative after some time

This new initiative by Barista Lavazza offering free internet would surely attract the younger crowd, especially because most of them now-a-days carry Smartphones which can carry out multitude of tasks on Internet.  This will also be a boon to professionals who need to work from outside office. Working professionals and businessmen alike are increasingly using Wi-Fi connectivity at commercial places making it the latest buzz among food chains while gaining popularity among students.

It is going to be interesting to see how other Cafe Chains like CCD’s react to this.  
But before that, the next time you happen to stop by for a cup of coffee at Barista Lavazza, switch on your Wi-Fi and experience high speed internet connection to get on with your work for FREE.

Finally, the growing Internet Population has made Companies offer “Internet in a MUG” courtesy  Barista Lavazza….

Have fun guys……Do share your opinions ….

Is Venture Capitalist and Angel Investors same?

Last evening, I was sitting up with some group of people, and found that often people believe that Venture Capitalist and Angel Investors are all the same.

Today, I would like to share the difference between Venture Capitalist and Angel Investors.

Differences	Angel Investors	Venture Capitalists
Demographics	Typically male with an average age of 49 years and has a graduate degree	Typically male with an average age of 42 years
Experience	Have been investing five years or more, have entrepreneurial experience, and will provide “hands-on” guidance to early-stage companies.	Have a decade or more experience and will provide their own associate staffing to ensure their investment.
Money source	Private investor- uses their own personal money to fund their investments	Professional money manager- theypool capital from other sources, such as pension funds and university endowments
Investment amount	$50,000 to $500,000	$500,000 to $5+ million
System for analyzing and managing investments	• Act solely as individual investors, many have professional investment experience, and will bring considerable industry knowledge to an entrepreneur and management team. • Have a practical, hands-on approach to building a company and are willing to work within the structure that the founders have put together.	• Have a formalized approach to investing where they employ a team of human capital to maximize profit and growth potential, i.e. consultants/ associates who are specifically involved in due diligence on potential deals, have a network of investment bankers and others in different capital markets to provide additional sources of financing for their portfolio companies, and have access to high-rank legal counsel to help them structure investments. • This structured method allows VC’s to have more financial, due diligence, and valuation skills when compared to angels. • Have “hands-off” experience.
Strategy for reasonable return	• Risky approach to investing- believes in early-stage investment (seed and start-up stages) strategy in which they can receive more slower and modest returns over their entire portfolio. • Angels may get involved with a company in its earliest stages because more equity is available at a lower price and there is an opportunity to shape the strategy and development of the business.	• Conservative approach to investing- even though VC’s invest in all stages of a company; they believe in the “home run theory” of investing, in which later-stage companies (mature, high market capital companies) will minimize their risk of loss.
Structuring the deal/financial decisions	Flexible	Rigid
Amount of control	More likely to play an advisory role for company founder and management team	More likely to require one or more board positions to gain control of corporate decisions
Requirements for investing	Provide the initial funding of small amounts (from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars) for a company, even before the company has demonstrated any kind of success; however, the company must show considerable potential for growth.	Provide millions of dollars per investment; however, VC’s are more likely to invest in companies with a proven track-record of business success. The company must gain $25 million in gross revenue potential from their unique product or service before the investment and need to make a 50% profit margin.
Reasons for investing	An angel funds companies for motives beyond financial return, social responsibility, and community involvement	Are obligated to maximize investor returns and to outperform other venture funds
Investment time	3-7 years	5-7 years
Investment approach for reasonable return	Risky- believes in early-stage investment (seed and start-up stages) strategy in which they can receive more slow and modest returns over their entire portfolio.	Conservative- even though VC’s invest in all stages of a company, they believe in the “home run theory” of investing, in which later-stage companies (mature, high market capital companies) will minimize their risk of loss
National recognition	No. There is no national directory for active angel investors; therefore, the entrepreneur must actively network their influences to find the right one.	Yes, VC’s advertise their location. There are many extensive directories listing active venture capitalists.
Follow-on investment	Rarely- angels tend to avoid follow-on investing because of the risk of losing more money if a company is not successful as predicted.	Yes- they will re-invest/put in additional amounts of capital at later stages to assist with growth
Industry and portfolio	Found in all industries, including technology, pharmaceutical,  publishing, insurance, finance, etc., and have diversified portfolios	Involved in limited industries (mostly technology), and have limited portfolios
Elevator pitch time (the term used to describe a sales pitch in the time it takes to ride an elevator)	Tells the investor how much the angel investor can make, the exit strategy, and business issues.	Should tell the investor how much the venture capitalist can make and how quickly s/he can get out of their business deal.
Investment Consequence	Angel investors believe in theentrepreneur and invest in them as a person.	VC’s are less emotional and are more process involved; they mainly evaluate deals and make offers.

source- go4funding

JaxtrSMS - UNLIMITED FREE MESSAGING APPLICATION

JaxtrSMS, a mobile application that allows users to send unlimited free text messages to any other phone anywhere in the world, was launched by Sabeer Bhatia,owner of Hotmail.com today.

Jaxtr has a unique advantage of that a mobile user can send a text to any mobile phone in the world without requiring the receiver to have the application installed on phone. This “open” facet of JaxtrSMS distinguishes it from other free mobile messaging applications where messages can only be sent within a closed network to people who also have the same app installed like Whatapps, Kik Messenger.

Sabeer Bhatia, CEO & Co-Founder, Jaxtr Inc. and Co-Founder of Hotmail, said at the event, “15 years ago, we gave you Hotmail.com, the world’s first webmail service that freed up e-mail from the confines of the desktop and aided the creation of a global communications network which was completely open and free for users. 

Today, we present JaxtrSMS which does to SMS what Hotmail did for e-mail. Now, mobile users can leverage our free and open application to send messages to their contacts anywhere across the world without having to pay anything. The fact that our application has been downloaded by users across 197 countries in just a few weeks since our soft launch amply reflects our belief that JaxtrSMS will prove to immensely useful to mobile users across the world.”

Yogesh Patel, President & Co-Founder, Jaxtr Inc., commented, “JaxtrSMS was completely developed in India. I am proud to showcase this as an example of Indian innovation and ingenuity.”

The application after download:-

•  Asks you to Sign up with your name and phone number
•  Android, your phone number is verified by sending a self SMS & In i-Phone they send you a verification link by SMS to your phone.
• Once the phone is verified, the inbox looks very much like the native inbox in Operating System
• Select a recipient from address book and send a message.
• At the server the application determine whether the recipient is on Jaxtr or not.  If the recipient is “Not on Jaxtr”, then an SMS is sent (from a US number) with the message text along with a snippet to download jaxtr on the phone.
•  If the recipient is on Jaxtr then of course the message is sent directly to the user’s inbox

The application is a good product, but we will still like you to use and share your opinions.

How to Approach your Friend and Family when you want to Start Up ??

Design a Strategy: -

In order to get funding, it’s necessary to decide how to ask money, small amount from many or large amount from few investors?

Entrepreneurs believe that small sums have created less pressure in ruining a relationship. A research indicates that a friend will not think a lot about when he is losing $10 but only 10 to 20% of the population contributes out of the total population been asked. This means to raise $500 dollars at $10 per Investor, you need to ask 250 to 500 people.

Planning for large sums can turn out to be an easier option with proper planning in such scenarios.

Most of the sites raise funds by targeting dozen of people at $100 to $500 apiece.

Type of Investment:-

Before you accept the money and structure the transaction, it is important to decide on the type of Investment. What will you offer the investor:-

a) Stake in the Company

b) Pay Back Loans or

c) Offer a token of thanks through some freebies or gifts.

All investors look for return during the time of Investment and so do family & friends. If you take any investor, they will want a portion of your company or an equity stake or a place in the Board of Directors. Considering friends and family will lead towards selling of stake, buyback etc procedures.

Payback of Loans gives rise to interest and principal amount which will affect the cash flow in short and long term.

Nothing is free in this world. Offering of freebies or token of thanks will also incur cost and same has to be accounted for the free distribution of gifts.

I remember a friend saying it to me “ If you invest $1 in TATA’s start up, you will still want a return”

Draw an Executive Summary:-

Usually Friends and family members don’t prefer to read a 50 pager Business Plan. They will like to know the structure of the business from you sitting with a cup of coffee and hearing you explain the idea.

To avoid being too informal in such cases, writing down a 5-7 page executive summary helps in telling what you want to do, when and how you use this money with key challenges and issues, competition and risk associated with your plans. This gives an effective understanding of your idea.

Back Up your Business with Documents:-

Communicating with friend and family and getting into agreement often lead a casual attitude of dealing. At the time of dealing, with people whom you know well, insisting on agreement with help of structured documents help in avoiding hassles at the later stage.

Manage Expectations:-

It’s important to manage the expectation of family and friends in the business and the best way to meet this is to email them the monthly/ quarterly or half yearly performance of the business. Being honest to them and informing them continuously about things keep up their interest. If the things aren’t going right, these are the people who will guide you to the right people or support and can also help in raising or investing money at later stages.