The Problems Of Mixing Family and Business

Any smart entrepreneur would second the statement Mr. Subroto Bagchi ( COO of MindTree Consulting) made “Blood is a poor substitute for competence”. There are times when an entrepreneur is tempted to involve family into the intricacies of the business and worse, get them to be part of the business.

The presence of family removes a clear reporting structure. Wrong decisions can be made with emotions being in play. Let’s just say you are the CEO and your wife heads the HR. Can you see the devastating effect it could have? Your people would never have the confidence to speak up about the flaws that a management has. Flaws if corrected, would transform the value that your organization imparts.
Family and business don’t really mix well. The presence of family usually results unnecessary politics within your organization. The value chain is ruined. It would not be long with vultures flying in destroying what’s left of your business.

As with everything in life, there are exceptions. With increased people maturity, It sometimes make sense to have a smart and more importantly a trust worthy family member handle certain functions of the business. Let’s say for example finances could be one.

Summarizing it in a nutshell, it’s prudent not to involve business and blood. But if your judgment with perfect logical backing says otherwise go on and make the best of it.

Feel welcome to post your thoughts, views and questions in the comments.

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal

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Transform Your Dream - Your Path To Entrepreneurship

Everyone wants to be his own boss. The path to entrepreneurship is something that all of us dream off. It’s great to dream, because it’s those dreams that present to us the goal that we need to achieve. To a whole lot of us, the dream sometimes seems blurry. We fail to truly understand what we need to tread on, to reach the dream of transforming from an employee to an entrepreneur.

Here are 5 steps to kick start a successful entrepreneur journey

1. Dream Big – Only if you can dream, can you see what you want. Dream Big, that’s what gives you the hope to move on.

2. Make The World A Better Place – If your aim is to make money from a business, the probability of you achieving success would be very low. Work on making the world a better place, this is what every big corporation has done. Look at Sony, Microsoft, Philips, HP, Dell, Honda, Wal-Mart all of these corporations are what they are because they have made products that have made the world a better place. Once your goal is clear, the money would automatically flow in.

3. Communicate – Most people are very worried that if they talk about their ideas to start a successful business, there is a high chance that someone might steal it. This is NOT TRUE. There definitely are a thousand other people in this planet thinking about the exact same idea that you have, to start a business. The best bet here would be to talk to reliable and “Smart” friends, family about your idea. There is always a huge possibility of them adding a new thought to what you’ve talked to them about. This will give you an edge when you start off.

4. Reason Over Passion – Like I always say “let your passion not take over your reasoning”. Have a just logical reason for your decisions. Make decisions which are good for your business, not ones that make you happy.

5. Teams – Once you have the Idea in place, build a team of the best of the folks that you think are the ones who would be the founding pillars of your business. There is a catch to this step though. There are times when no one is ready to venture out into the deep sea with you. This is when you have to look at the option of asking your proposed team to at least stand in as consultants with you.

I have a lot many steps more that I would like to share, but I’d do it some other time in another post. Feel welcome to post your thoughts, views in the comments.

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal

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Recession: “In A NutShell” - “For Dummies” – “Demystified”

Every day in my inbox there are mails from a couple of people asking me to explain as to, what really does the term “Recession” mean. So I finally decided to write this little post explaining what it means in the simplest way possible.

Let’s say I earn 10,000 Rs every month as my income and I am pretty sure that I would not lose my job for the next 10 years. Now if I fancy that new LCD TV in the electronic showroom worth 30,000Rs I would probably buy it on an installment even though it is 3 times my monthly earning. This is simply for the fact that, I am assured that I would continue earning and I can easily pay it off in time. Similarly I would probably not even think twice before you spend 500Rs on a nice meal with my family in a decent restaurant.

Now let’s say, my boss comes up to me and says, “Dennis, your job is not secure and you may probably lose it in the next 6 months”. What is the direct impact it has on me? Fear !! the obvious answer. I would think 50 times before spending 50Rs let alone 500Rs. I would try to save up as much as you can, which means I “Stop Spending”.

If I am the only person who is to lose my job in 6 months it does not matter because, the effect I single handedly have on the economy is insignificant. Imagine half the country is in the fear of losing there jobs in the next 6 months. No one would be ready to spend. This would result in excessive stocks coming in from manufactures and just lying in warehouse’s or shop shelves. This would result in companies reducing their manufacturing, which would result in people within these companies losing jobs. So these people would stop spending. This basically is a vicious circle. The whole economy stops growing. The money is present but it is not changing hand, thus resulting in a recession.

So in simple words recession is an economic fear that is at a very large scale. There are a lot of other factors that are involved of course, but explaining that would just complicate the way this post is structured.

Share in your thoughts and join discussions in the comment section.

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal

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Understanding The Importance of Competition

Every entrepreneur out there is trying to start his own business and has tons of ideas why his venture is the best with numerous reasons, why it would never fail. A small bunch of aspiring entrepreneurs have the mindset where they believe, “They would succeed in flying colors since they face, or have no competition”.

The truth is “A business is not worth venturing into if you do not have competition”. Competition is the only way to evaluate the existence of the market that you are trying to sell to. There are 6 billion people on this planet. Assuming that no one else has seen potential in the business that you are trying to establish is quite dumb.

Summarizing what Guy Kawasaki says in the ‘Art of the Start', The best venture is where you have evaluated your competition and worked out smarter ways to leap frog them. It’s smarter to have someone else make the mistake and you learn from it. This would give you the advantage to zip past them successfully. Look at the mobile phone industry, Motorola was the first company to launch the mobile phone, not Nokia or Apple. Compare the market that Motorola has captured and that of Nokia and Apple.

The lessons learn't here, for any want to be entrepreneur are

1. Know your market well
2. Understand your Competition better
3. Innovate by learning from the flaws of your competition.

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal

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Cut Costs Not People - Ways to Avoid Layoffs In An Organization

The fear looms when recession is around and the most obvious dread is that of the Pink Slip. The fear that is present here is not just in the person getting fired, but also the person firing. The best brand ambassador on an organization is its employees. A organization looses huge reputation and credibility when they layoff people.

Here are ways and alternatives on how avoid layoffs

1. Salary cuts starting from the top – This is an efficient way of saving an organization. People are a lot happier with a lesser income than NO income. A 50% cut in salary of the top most individual in the organization would probably save 50 jobs in the bottom

2. Re-visit Inventory – Cut on ‘Nice to Have inventory’ and be judicious. The classic example here could be to move to stop color print out and allow only black and white print outs. If the number of people occupying the work space in a building is loosely scattered across different floors, get them together and save on Air conditioning or Heating.

3. Sell, dont just donate or Trash – You probably may have a lot of old computers that your employees no longer use. At bad times it is better to find someone to buy them than just donating or trashing them.

4. Encourage longer working hours\weeks – People may groan initially, but they would prefer this to sitting at home idle with no work or salary. This would help you deliver better products at shorter times to your clients

5. Remove lunch subsidies – The saving from this can be huge especially if you have a lot of employees. People would be ok getting lunch from home

6. Avoid travelling abroad – As much as it is possible avoid sending people abroad. Look at alternatives like video conferencing to cut costs. If the travel is an absolute must, look at cheaper means like an economy ticket instead of a business class seat.

7. Aim at Zero Bench – Effectively use your existing bench strength to help out in marketing. This would avoid costs of additionally having people hired to make marketing collateral.

8. Inculcate Innovation – Encourage every employee to come up with one unique idea every fortnight to bring more value to the organization. You may probably get a lot of trash, but the chances of getting a couple of really good ideas are high. This might just be the life savior.

9. Slow down on Unnecessary Advertising – It does not sense to have trade booths at shows where nobody is really going to come. Use prudence when advertising.

10. The Last and the most important piece of Advice – Try eliminating all of the above suggestions in your organization as soon as possible, simply because your company is what it is because of the people in it. The happier they are, the better they perform. The suggestions above are definitely not the ones that would show happy faces in the short term, but your people will be loyal to you to have given them the support they needed at the worst of times.

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal

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Ride The Recession With Success

I have scouted around the net on how to not just overcome the recession but rather beat it. Experiencing success and emerging victorious at the end of the cycle can definitely be turned from a dream to reality.

These are seven ways how to achieve success during recession, be it an individual or a enterprise.

1. Revisit Your Borrowings - The interest rates for loans drop big time during bad economic times. Re-finance your loans at a lower rate to save up and increase cash reserves.

2. Negotiate On Your Lease – Appalling economies show their trace on real estate. If you are a corporate or individual in a leased accommodation, negotiate on a new and lower lease. If moving to a different premise with the same facilities at a lower price seems like a viable option; Consider it.



3. Invest In Trainings – If you are a corporate, invest in training your best employees. These are the ones who would remain loyal and would help you grow in extensively in the next boom. If you are an individual, training and gearing yourself with new skills would definitely be good since it gives you an edge to market yourself better against competition.

4. Cut Costs Not People – An enterprise would only gain in the long run when they hold on to people and not discard them like trash during troubled economic conditions. Examine the feasibility of salary cuts starting from the top. People would prefer a lower pay to no pay. This would also result in tremendous loyalty once the bad times are over.

5. Technology: The Investment’s Worth It- Invest on technology, this would keep you ahead of competition the when the boom arrives. Cut cost on advertising when it’s not necessary, instead invest it on technology. Man is as good as his tools only !!!

6. Re-Evaluate Your Customers – These are times to re-evaluate your customers. See if they are worth keeping. In the long run if you find that holding on to certain customers would cost you more that you earn, you know what you should be doing !

7. Broaden Your Engagements – Be ok with signing short term deals too. This would give you the required income to run your organization and these might be the High Net worth organizations coming back to you in boom times.

The most important of all, Keep faith, work smart, deliver value. Don’t just wade through the recession, ride it with success.

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal

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Satyam Fiasco – The Effect It Has On You And Me

Ramalinga Raju’s recent confession on the scam at Satyam has resulted in a change of tide not just for the thousands of investors and employees, but for you and me working in different software companies.

The implication of the fiasco at Satyam has basically turned close to 50 thousand experienced professionals into job hunting populace. The experience in this group ranges from that of a fresher to that of a top level manager with 15 – 20+ years in the industry.

There are tons of people who have huge loans to payoff and some may also have dismal financial commitments. This would result in these professionals underselling themselves in the market, thus in turn change the dynamics of the cost of skilled labor.

If you were to get 25 thousand as your take home as a mid level engineer, these folks would be ready to pick up the same job for let’s say 20 thousand or maybe even 15. This would impact the already failing economical state transforming it further into a gloomier one. The Indian IT sector would lose credibility and thus this would evolve into a situation where the Chinese and Pilipinos would have more work that India should be doing.

There is a positive side to this though, with the further depreciation in the job market, our costs would reduce and thus in turn we would be fighting the cost factor against China and Philippines that has loomed around as a threat.

The lesson that we all have to learn here is, ethics and honesty is truly the best policy and no matter how smart or cleaver you are, The Truth Will Be Exposed !!!

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal 2009

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Marketing– Economic Recession and Economic Boom

The marketing team of any company is the sole group that makes sure that the company survives, expands and grows. No matter what the economic situation is, the last in the line of fire is this team. The dissolution of this team directly implies that the shutters are down for the organization.

Why is marketing the best profession to be in? To answer this, let’s look at the 2 different economic situations.

1. The economy is booming – This is the stage when an organization is looking to expand and bloom into something larger. The expansion is direct result of increased business which of course is because the marketing team stepped in and did their job well.

2. The economy is in a recession – Sales are down, customers seem apprehensive to do business, people think 10 times before opening up their wallets. This is the stage when every organization is trying to survive and make sure they never hit an iceberg. The only way to sail through and weather the storm is by having customers do business. This can happen if and only if the marketing team can make it happen. The marketing team is the last hope for an organization to have sustained business. This implies that the jobs of the members of this team are the safest. They are the saviors.

The irony here is the marketing team does not really have to exist, if the product that you sell to your customer carries value. The best marketing that you can get is a happy satisfied customer talking positively about your product.

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal 2009

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Legitimate Ways To Make Money Online

These are interesting times that we are living in. It does not hurt to have a small addition income apart from the monthly pay cheque that you take home. If you are someone who likes using computers and would love to write interesting things that other people would love to read, the additional income is not too far off.

There are a number of ways to make money online, but a handful is legitimate and safe. Beware of all the scams that ask you to pay a small fee to register yourself promising you thousands of Dollars overnight.

Here is list of the 5 most popular ways to make legitimate money online.

1. Google Adsense (Contextual Advertising)– Start by writing a blog on something that is interesting and attracts a lot of visitors. Google Adsense is a great way of having Google placing the right ads on your blog. Create an account in Adsense, write a great blog and start seeing those dollars flowing in.

2. Yahoo Publisher Network (Contextual Advertising) – Similar to Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network allows you to place contextual ads to earn money.



3. Affiliate Programs – This is a great way to earn money online. You place products that a certain merchant wants to sell. Every sale that you generate from your site would yield you a percentage commission from the merchant. Amazon.com has a great affiliate program.

4. Ebay – This is a great place to make money online. Sell products online on Ebay for a tidy profit and that is a huge income based on the sales you do. Simple things like importing electronics from China and selling them in your country would give you tremendous profits.

5. Freelance Writing – If you are knowledgeable and know your stuff well enough, you should look at a lot of places that would pay you for writing. Helium, Shvoong are some places that you can start with.

There are tons of sites which talk about high paying keywords. Words like Chicago Lawyers or Accident Attorney’s or Real Estate and many other high paying keywords. The most important thing here is, do not make a site or a blog to just make money, “Add Value”! You will automatically attract a huge set of dedicated readers if you put in the right content. Till then have fun making those additional dollars :-)

For more entrepreneurial talk and ideas visit the Home Page of my blog

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal 2009

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