The One Thing Your Startup Really Needs to Succeed

Your startup is not special. You are not going to get the big bucks from investors. You did not go to Stanford and are not located in Silicon Valley. You have no track record of running a business, and your business plan is based on made-up numbers and hoped-for assumptions.

All you have is a good idea -- and you know that history is littered with failed startups that were born of good ideas.

You suddenly realize that no more paychecks are coming in. Your friends who cheered you on when you launched your startup have disappeared into their own problems. No one is knocking on your door or offering help. You start to realize that people promise things and then don't deliver. You don't feel like you're accomplishing anything.

You look around and find that there are many others like you -- people dreaming of business success. And you know that most will fail. Will you?

Don't panic. Your startup can still succeed. But it will depend on one thing and one thing only. Can you guess what?

Customers.

Really? Doesn't this sound obvious? It is obvious. And yet, I meet so many "entrepreneurs" that get so wrapped up in being an "entrepreneur" and monkeying around with their spreadsheets and pontificating about their grand plans that they forget that in the end they're supposed to be running a business. And a business simply needs customers.

Your startup will likely need one or two years to be profitable. During that time you must bring in work. That means that while you're building your product you're also hiring yourself out as an engineer at an hourly rate. Or while you're developing that new killer application you're doing some other programming work on the side. Or while you get that shop set up you're selling your products on eBay or Craigslist. You will lose money, but you will learn and build some history.

Potential investors and lenders don't want stories, they want results. They're interested in an existing, viable business that needs their help to grow. They want to see real financial statements showing revenues from live customers that you're turning into a future model rather than fictional plans and ideas based on assumptions.

I'm sure your idea is good. And I'm sure your plans are fine. Just don't spend too much time obsessing over them. Build a business -- go out and get some customers with what you have.

  

 

No End To The Horror

Indian Woman Raped Twice On Christmas Eve In Pondicherry

 

One year after the fatal gang-rape of a young female medical student in Delhi triggered massive protests and demonstrations across India -- along with demands for tougher punishment against sex predators -- the carnage against girls and women continues unabated in the sub-continent. In the southern coastal district of Pondicherry, a 21-year-old woman suffered the horror of getting raped by two unrelated gangs of men -- on Christmas Eve.

The BBC reported that the victim was visiting friends in the former French colony when three men abducted her and one of the assailants raped her. After that ordeal, she was targeted a second time by an apparently unrelated group of men, who gang-raped her. OneIndia News reported the second gang comprised seven men.
Monika Bharadwaj, Pondicherry’s Senior Superintendent of Police, told the BBC that the victim endured a peculiarly bizarre and tragic sequence of events. "One among that [first] group of three [men] sexually assaulted her," Bharadwaj said. "When they [the victim and her girlfriends] were going back [home], they were waylaid by a second group [of men] who again picked up the victim, and she was taken to a secure place. There again she was sexually assaulted six times.”
The incidents took place in Pondicherry's port city of Karaikel. Local police have arrested 11 men in connection with the two rapes. The suspects have reportedly confessed, although they have not yet faced formal charges in a court of law. OneIndia reported that the men face charges of wrongful restraint, kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person, rape and criminal intimidation. One of the culprits is believed to be a minor, OneIndia added.
Two policemen were suspended for refusing to register the victim’s initial complaint, the BBC said, in addition to other lapses. The Bihar Prabha news website reported that the victim works for a technology firm in Chennai, which is about 100 miles north of Pondicherry. The young woman has been taken to a hospital with serious injuries, but she is reportedly in stable condition.
However, the case has taken another unpleasant twist. OneIndia reported that a local legislator claimed the victim of the gang-rape was actually a prostitute and not an innocent figure in this drama. "A rape case has been registered but it could be a case of prostitution,” a local lawmaker named A.M.H. Nazeem said. He bizarrely added that such incidents occur in the Pondicherry area because many young people are “depressed."
I WONDER, IS THERE AN END TO THIS...
 

 

Personal Brand Marketing Tips from an Influential Woman

 

 

Before social media turned practically everyone into a public figure, few CEOs included the word persona in their everyday vocabularies, much less hired publicists and marketing strategists to help them craft a personal brand.

But now that business owners are among the 72 percent of online adults who use social media, they are branding themselves with every tweet they post, every YouTube video they produce.
If you want to turn your personal brand marketing into a powerful part of your digital marketing strategy, spend some time studying the habits of your industry leaders. And take some lessons from Marilyn Monroe.

 

Permanent imprint: Marilyn Monroe

Norma Jeane Mortenson carefully crafted the voice, walk, pout, and smile that became indelibly identified with Marilyn Monroe, the sex symbol whose posthumous celebrity has lived for more than a half century since the actress’s death in 1962.
Marilyn Monroe is an example of perfect personal branding. Her public image was so well rehearsed that, when Marilyn slipped back into her Norma Jeane mannerisms, she could go out in public without being noticed. As an actor, Marilyn grew to resent how well she perfected her bombshell image — she was repeatedly rejected for serious roles.
But for CEOs, there are numerous advantages to typecasting. Take the effort to secure a distinctive, memorable personal brand, and it’s locked in for life. You don’t have to keep proving yourself over and over again to your clients.
Here are three ways to take the Marilyn Monroe approach to personal brand marketing:

1. Create a visual gimmick

Marilyn Monroe is easy to picture: red lipstick, skin-tight, cleavage-baring dress, and platinum blonde hair.
Make yourself memorable. Always wear orange, carry a walking stick or hand out personalized M&Ms instead of business cards. Establish a memorable visual image — and reinforce it daily. 

2. Create a realistic personal brand

Marilyn’s brand was extraordinary, but it meshed with the dreams of Norma Jeane, who always wanted to become an actress. And she was a genuine beauty, as stunning with a bare face and messy hair as she was in artfully applied makeup.
Strive for a personal brand that is a better version of yourself, but don’t stray too far from the real you. Actors can leave their characters behind when they walk off a set, but you have to live your brand. So, keep it authentic. Because the truth will come out. Don’t pretend to love dogs, kids or apple pie if you hate them. But do strive to show respect for people whose views differ from your own. 

3. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

Don’t go public with your personal brand until you’re confident you can pull off the image you seek. Just as it takes practice to prepare for a game and rehearsal to get ready for a stage production, it takes repeated effort to develop your personal brand. Marilyn studied the art of movement, reading books such as The Thinking Body in order to perfect her posture and walk.
If, for example, you want to present a more polished image in public, videotape yourself and critically examine your performance. Do you mumble or speak too loudly? Do you interrupt people or create awkward silences? Privately work on improving such issues before debuting the new you.

# HASHTAG #

Use Hashtags More Effectively in Your Social Media Content.

If the hashtag possessed the ability to feel, it would surely have an identity crisis. It’s been mistaken for a number sign and a pound sign. It also bears an uncanny resemblance to the sharp sign in music, as well as a Chinese character that describes an ancient system of distributing land.

Yes, life for this humble metadata tag would be mighty confusing. As it happens, hashtags can be confusing for content marketers, too. We know we need to use them, but what’s the best approach? Facebook’s recent decision to support hashtags (users were already able to include them in status updates, but they weren’t clickable) has upped their cache in Social media content. As an integral part of social and content marketing platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Google+, hashtags represent an important means of digital marketing and communication.

 

1. Use them to categorize your brand’s messages

Hashtags are useful for defining content, but they can also extend the reach of your brand on the whole. Think of them as search marketing keywords, but with one differentiating feature: Unlike the keywords in your paid search campaign — most of which are built around highly specific, less common “long-tail” terms — most of the hashtags you use should already be popular. By employing tags that are frequently searched you’ll greatly increase the odds that your content will be displayed and get shared. 

2. Use them to extend the reach of your posts

3. Use them to start a topic trend

 

4. Above all, use them wisely, and sparingly

This may sound counterintuitive, but as useful as incorporating hashtags can be, it’s also possible to overdo it. Too many of them in a single post and your message will read like spam, which could alienate social media content consumers, or cause them to tune you out. While theories about the optimal number of tags vary, you’re generally safe with one to three per post. Think of viewers of your content as readers: Ultimately, hashtags are a distraction that detracts from the message you’re trying to relay. Include them, by all means. But always do so in moderation.

 

 

source: Content marketing Institute

 

 

Remembering Mandela..!!

14 Of Nelson Mandela's Best Quotes

 Mandela's best quotes that embody his mission to fight for equality and harmony for all people. 

1. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

2. There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

3. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

4. In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

5. If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.

6. If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

7. Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

8. Unlike some politicians, I can admit to a mistake.

9. Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.

10. There is no such thing as part freedom.

11. I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world.

12. There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

13. Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.

14. There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenceless people.

I am not as wise as Mandela but have learned a lot from him.

May your soul rest in peace sir...!!

Twitter Arabia..!

I recently came across this article and was keen to share it with you all. I am working on a social media live  project, so I found it interesting. So here it is.

Ever wondered which country has the most Twitter active population???

Its none other than Saudi Arabia.

When Twitter filed for its initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the risks it noted was that the U.S. has a higher proportion of Internet users on Twitter than other countries do, and that it may have a difficult time monetizing its products overseas.

But a study from  a social media analytics firm, found that Twitter  may not have trouble internationally after all. The firm looked at the percentage of people using Twitter in a country relative to the total number of Internet users in that country and found that the U.S. isn’t even in the top five.

Saudi Arabia actually had the highest percentage of Twitter users relative to its online population. In fact, a full 32 percent of Saudi Arabia’s online population uses the San Francisco-based microblogging service. The U.K. came in sixth place and the U.S., Twitter’s home country, came in eighth, though that may have a lot to do with how much of the U.S. population is on the Internet. The fact that the top two countries are Saudi Arabia and Indonesia should be encouraging for Twitter. The firm also  pointed out that most Internet users in these countries do not have access to a PC and rely on mobile devices for Twitter, meaning they can be lucrative sources of mobile revenue for Twitter. Meanwhile, Nigeria, Germany and India had the three lowest percentages of Twitter users. Study also showed which countries Twitter is likely to focus on to grow its user base.

Interesting.. Isn't it????

END OF AN ERA

Iconic Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed for 74 by Narsingh Deonarine, early on day two in second test match between India and West Indies.

In his final 200th test match, Tendulkar's home crowd was left stunned when West Indies captain Darren Sammy took a fine catch at first slip to dismiss the veteran batsmen off Narsingh Deonarine's ball.

Tendulkar's 74 runs inning is widely expected as his final inning as many commentators predict India to beat West Indies by and an entire inning. Starting at the overnight score of 152 for two wickets, India were 221 for three at Tendulkar's exit, which saw the 40-year-old receive an emotional standing ovation from the entire crowd of the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

While Cheteshwar Pujara grabbed the spotlight in the first half of the day, it was the retiring legend, who held the centre-stage in the last session with his entire family and childhood coach Ramakant Achrekar watching from the stands.

Tendulkar is regarded as one of the greatest cricketers ever and arguably the best in the history of Indian cricket.

The Master Blaster will hang up his boots following the end of the second test match against West Indies, ending a memorable and record-breaking career of 24 years.

"HEROES ARE REMEMBERED, BUT A LEGEND NEVER DIES..!!"