Entrepreneurship | wealthymatters

Be A Brand

August 14, 2012 4 Comments

Just look at Richard Branson and how he clowns himself personally to create awareness of the various businesses he launches.

In India, no one has perfected this better than Narayan Murthy of Infosys. Tales about how he believes in simple living, wears ordinary clothes, gives his driver millions of dollars of Infosys shares, etc. etc. are now folklore. But they all finally reflect on his Company – Infosys.

Individuals can take a much larger and direct role in communicating messages than a ‘non living’ Company. Use your personal charisma, intelligence and passion to communicate what your business and Company stand for. Start by blogging, tweeting , updating your facebook and linkedin profile etc.Make the time and don’t proffer the excuse of lack of time.

Filed under Entrepreneurship, Tidbits Tagged with be a brand, Infosys, Narayan Murthy, postaday, Richard Branson

Hijack Marketing

August 14, 2012 4 Comments

wealthymatters.com

Here is Alok Kejriwal with another interesting way of getting your company and its offerings noticed:

Do you have the guts to go to an industry conference or convention, sit in the back rows and then announce your name and Company and ask a question (intelligent please) in every session?

You will be effectively ‘hijacking’ a high profile industry event and getting quickly noticed amongst trade, press and potential customers.

Last year, at the flash gaming conference in San Francisco (organized every year by Mochi Media), there was an entire panel dedicated to ‘high quality games’. At the end of the session, I stood up and said ‘I am a successful games company that makes medium quality games, in large quantities. I believe in the Cartoons model of decent quality with lots of content vs. the Hollywood model of few movies that cost trillions. I don’t believe your hypothesis. And I have comScore numbers to back me’. The panelists broke into a fight with me, but the silver lining was that for the entire week, wherever I went (it was game developers week), I would meet people who said ‘Hmm…you’re the dude who questioned quality vs. quantity…. Good question’…

It’s not about being disruptive. It’s about going to events and conferences where the center of gravity of your business is and making your self get noticed.

I believe that this is high impact, albeit non-scalable marketing that has its own unique role to play.

Filed under Entrepreneurship, Tool Kit Tagged with Alok Kejriwal, comScore, convention, Hijack Marketing, industry conference, Mochi Media, postaday

Piggyback Marketing

August 14, 2012 10 Comments

wealthymatters.com Cost of sales is a big expense for start-ups.However without sales a business is not going to survive.One smart way to grow one’s business without much expense is to adopt piggyback marketing.Here’s Alok Kejriwal on piggyback marketing:

“When I launched contests2win.com, I really got lucky. I managed to convince MTV’s VJs in India to scream ‘log onto contests2win.com to win x and y prizes’ on the MTV channel all day long. MTV was keen to create online contests – I swapped my service for free mentions on TV.

I was piggy back riding them to a trip to the moon!Going piggyback marketing is hard work. It involves pavement pounding to find a gigantic and huge partner (compared to your size) who gifts you a winning lottery ticket in exchange for your unique product or service. Read more of this post

Filed under Entrepreneurship, Tool Kit Tagged with Alok Kejriwal, contests2win.com, Cost of sales, Discovery, Discovery Kids, Discovery media properties, Foursquare, MTV, partner, Piggyback Marketing, postaday, start-ups, Viacom

Imbibe The Spirit Of Improv

August 12, 2012 15 Comments

wealthymatters,com Have you watched “Whose Line is it Anyway” on TV? Then you know what improv is.

If ever you get to take an improv class or workshop,don’t miss the opportunity,grab it.Alternatively you could get together with a group of people and copy the format of this show.Its even better if you can throw a party and have an audience.

When you take up inprove you will see the following benefits:

Increased Confidence
Improved Public Speaking Skills
Enhanced Acting Abilities
Increased Comfort in Social Settings
Better Brainstorming Abilities
Better Listening and Observation Skills
Greater Creative-Thinking Abilities
Improved Decision-Making Skills
Team Development Skills etc.
If you approach life and your businesses in the Spirit of Improv you will see manifold benefits.Do give improv a shot if you haven’t.You will find yourself a better business person for it.