Leverage On Layoffs

I happened to read this article on entrepreneur.com on how to leverage on layoffs. The article is quite interesting and showcases the life of Diane Lindquist, Veteran journalist and an expert on the trade economy of the U.S.-Mexico border.

She was offered a buyout from the San Diego Union-Tribune after being at the news paper for nearly 30 years. Older journalists were shown the door for younger blood to take their places. With the knowledge she had acquired over the years helped her move to a role of a consultant on the border business, thus transforming a Layoff into an Entrepreneurial birth.

The key notes from Diane Lindquist story are

1. Knowledge Is Power - Re-visit your skills. Build on them further and transform yourself into an expert on it. You don’t necessarily have to quite your day job to offer consultation. Build a platform online and freelance your skill sets. If you are good, people would come knocking at your doors.

2. Be Positive - Diane Lindquist did not brood and cry over the loss of her job. She looked at the positive side of her layoff by focusing on providing her skills online, through her blog. This is what each one of us has to look at, a positive side of the situation that we are in. It would alter the way we live life.

3. Adapt To Change – The move from being a busy worker bee to a lonely boss is not very nice. Change is the only thing that is constant in life. There are pro’s and con’s to everything. Being a lonely boss, would further push you to expand on your business for the very sake of working with more people.

Here are the Reference links
Cover Story
Diane Lindquist Site

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

Read more...

Entrepreneurship – The Courage Needed To Get Started

There is a general feeling that runs in a lot many of us folks who come from middle class families. The feeling where we think, 'The road to entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted'. It takes a lot of courage to get started. This is not always true. You don’t have to be the bravest soul in this world to kick start your entrepreneurial dream.

Many entrepreneurs that we see around us were not necessarily very courageous and were people who hesitated to take risks. Given the fact that they having done their homework really well, had contingency plans in place and a lot of safety measures in position anticipating a failure. They needed something more to propel them forward and generate that spark of entrepreneurship.

The way they moved out of their cocoon is by convincing themselves with this fact. The fact that their nice ‘safe’ job that they currently hold is ‘not necessarily as safe’ as it seems. This triggered the thought process of examining the risk in of being an entrepreneur is not as scary as it always looked. Think of it, during these troubled economic times and recession, Is your job really that safe?

Once you have an idea which when applied can be transformed into something that can change the world, it’s worth taking the risk of trying it and seeing it implemented. It is a lot more satisfying to give it your ambition of being an entrepreneur a shot, than live in regret all your life that you did not do 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

Read more...

Maximize The Impact Of Your Television Advertisements

The reason why television channels exist is because of the revenue advertisements get them. The ads paid by business folks like you, are to reach people and maximize the impact that it has on your business. Television Ads to a large does impact the way your product is publicized, but then a simple tweak in the way your advertisement is shown on screen can further increase the impact it has on viewers.

On examining most Advertisements show on the television, I noticed that the way an Advertisement was structured.

1. A Problem – The Advertisement highlighted the problem that is faced by the viewer. A problem does not always mean a tedious or painful situation; for example a headache or a toothache. It could also be as simple as enhancing your lifestyle and comfort from a stage at which it already is; for ex: - A car with much better comfort features than an existing luxury car.

2. Tackling the Problem – The Advertisement further talks about what can be done to solve the problem. Using the above example, the solution could be to use an analgesic or toothpaste or own a car which is much roomier and has better seats.

3. The Product solving the problem – This is the stage in which the advertised product solves the problem to near perfection and emphasis the reason why the ad viewer should buy the product.

4. The Brand Logo – This is the final stage of the Advertisement, where the Brand Logo of your business is displayed.

The ad in spite of being really good, would in time fade out of your viewers mind. Your business would make tons of products advertise and sell it. What is permanent is your business and to the world it’s your Brand Image portrayed as the Brand Logo.

You spend less than a second in a ten second advertisement to show your Logo. Do you see the problem here? The solution to the problem is simple. Have the Brand Logo of your business be present during the entire duration of the advertisement. Place the Logo as an opaque watermark at one of the corners of the screen. Just as a television channel has its logo constantly in the screen. This would definitely imprint your brand logo in your viewer’s memory far better, than a fraction of a second flash of the logo.

One Indian company has seemed to do it and it’s worked really well for them. The company that I am talking about is Reliance. Below are a couple of links to a TV ad of Reliance Mobile. Notice that the Logo is always present during the entire duration of the Ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qhJdqMz7-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OqGr8Gwxm4

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

Read more...