Scaling and Expansion – Dutch Uncles

Stepping Stones To Thrive In The New Era Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Abhilash Bapanasha — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 05:35:12 +0000

Innovation is the key factor impacting the business world and is increasingly catalysed by the omni-presence of the internet. The concept of entrepreneurship is steadily adapting and changing to meet the demands of the new technological dawn and the economic cycle. It is a lemon and lemonade theory today, which focuses on adapting a new age skillset with entrepreneurial skills for resilience. In order to elucidate the relevance of new age skills in this new era of entrepreneurship, Dr. Nancy Juneja was the speaker for MentorED, our weekly live 45-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity.

Dr. Nancy Juneja is an Educationist, highly acclaimed Success Coach and Leadership Mentor with more than fifteen years of experience. Sought out by numerous Educational Institutes, Corporates & Industries, she has been mentoring entrepreneurs, youths, corporate employees, coaching start-ups and providing quality skill education to the individuals and communities. Her initiative, MENTORx School of learning is all focused to inspire youth to lead a purpose driven life.

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Entrepreneurship has always been about versatility. Talking about the challenges, it is seeing the opportunity before anyone else.

In brief, the session had the following takeaways:

Scaling the stages of economic cycle
How to have an entrepreneurial mind
How digital economy has opened worldwide opportunities to succeed
New age skillset for ushering the new era
The entrepreneur mindset

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

Change being the only constant, for an entrepreneur too it is indispensable to evolve with circumstances. Be it economic adversity or one owing to the pandemic, there are new age skills that define the sustenance to thrive in this era of entrepreneurship. According to Dr. Nancy Juneja, “An entrepreneur identifies opportunity in every situation. He is the person with a vision, an audacious tech leader successful in bringing brilliant ideas to the market, an initiator who creates something new every moment and converts it into a business idea and the whole process as we gloriously call as entrepreneurship.” While it is important to survive, but more importantly it is necessary to thrive.

The digital transformation has been happening in a very rapid form for several years now but the COVID era reinstated it as the new norm. It is vital for each entrepreneur to believe in the notion that opportunity lies in the middle of difficulty. Innovation emerges as the norm and needs to be aligned according to the stages of the economic cycle. Thereafter, she listed the stages as – Boom (or the period of expansion with the rate of growth rising at a faster rate), Early Recession or Slowdown, Full Recession, Depression and Recovery.

The mentor touched upon the issues of the Indian economy and focussed on the skill sets that can make any entrepreneur bounce back and move ahead. “Entrepreneurship has always been about versatility. Talking about the challenges, it is seeing the opportunity before anyone else. It is much more in today’s world apart from critical thinking, effective communication, analysing your mindset, your patience and persistence. Being a digital entrepreneur, the empathy and the motive of value creation along with the social responsibility – there is much more which is needed in the long run.”

The indispensable skillsets that define an entrepreneur

From her own experience in being in the entrepreneurship arena for more than eighteen years, she urged on evolving and being a learning person throughout. It is the learning curve that defines the skill set. “It is moving ahead, continuously learning and unlearning to learn which is a powerful reminder given to each and everyone. Be it any number of years you are into the business – you need to be learning, testing, sharing, collaborating and in this mode, you need to think upon something to apply and discard.”

Decision making in the entrepreneurship journey is a paramount skill because a present approach determines the course of action in the future. Again, it is also important to stay calm in crisis and lead the team through the challenges. Dr. Juneja listed four means to achieve it –

Having an outsider approach to a problem
Remembering past obstacles that have been successfully overcome
Focusing on what can be done to get started
Keeping oneself motivated and entertained

Also, as exemplary as it stands, it is vital to prioritise team work by coordinating among different departments.

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The thumb rule is to innovate or evaporate. That is how it goes in today's world. It was the scenario earlier too but now we need to be ready. If option A is not working, we need to be ready with option B and so on and so forth.

Critical thinking – the route to sail through any adversity

The mentor then talked about critical thinking that allows one to develop intellectually and to make hard decisions as per the need of the hour. “Even if you feel that the circumstances are not in favour, you can manipulate the present and you can focus upon the future, it is all binding up your team and encouraging them. Being an entrepreneur is taking everyone along and focusing upon your goal. The thumb rule is to innovate or evaporate. That is how it goes in today’s world. It was the scenario earlier too but now we need to be ready. If option A is not working, we need to be ready with the option B and so on and so forth.”

Added to this is the introspection to ask oneself some questions like – Should I have a more agile supply chain? Can we make manufacturing more competitive in higher cost environments? How can supply chains pivot fast yet still be robust and resilient to the next disruption? Can I shift my supply chain to a new geography without huge cost or risk? Well, for all of these questions, digital transformation comes as the single loudest means to proceed.

An interactive session

During the Q&A session, viewers from YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter took the opportunity to seek advice on various concepts and business challenges. Dr. Juneja addressed questions with her experiential insights. Topics varied from steps to revive business in the pandemic, techniques to make businesses processes more efficient, action points to solve challenges in rural, semi urban areas while pursuing digital avenues and upskilling with the new age entrepreneurial skills. Dr. Juneja’s guidance reflected her firsthand experience of working closely with entrepreneurs and giving a glimpse of her role as Vice President of the National Child and Women Development Council.

Thus, as the mentor elucidated through her informative presentation, the only option for an entrepreneur is to either innovate or evaporate. In a nutshell, it is all about developing the entrepreneurial mindset with a renewed perspective of creating your idea from the current problem and nourishing it gradually.

Watch the complete video on YouTube to know more of all the skillsets shared by the mentor in her presentation.

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Byju Playing Down The Euphoria

Aakash Sharma — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 03:35:08 +0000

Byju’s, founded in 2011 and the brainchild of engineer turned tech-billionaire entrepreneur Byju Raveendran, has become one of the most worthwhile companies in India and is the highest valued start-up in India. According to Forbes, Byju Raveendran is now one of India’s youngest billionaires with a net worth of $3.05 billion.

Like every start-up, Byju’s started small, and its “BYJU’s-The Learning App” was launched in 2015. Since then, it has evolved into a powerful online training platform with comprehensive training and coaching platform for multiple exams. Today, Byju’s provides online learning classes for kindergarten to Class 12 students and training for entrance tests to engineering colleges, medical colleges and civil services.

According to a recent report titled “EdTech in India” by Omidyar Network India and RedSeer Consulting, the hitherto untapped market of edtech, joint with the rapid growth in internet access, awareness and digitisation of primary education, is driving the growth of education technology in India.

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Byju’s is now India's most valuable unicorn - a decacorn - valued at $16.5 billion, surpassing the $16 billion valuation of fintech and payments giant Paytm.

Edtech is the fastest expanding industry in the world

Globally, education technology is expected to grow at 16.3% from 2019 to 2025, with total international spending reaching $404 billion during the period. Even at this level, by 2025, spending on education and digital technologies will only represent 5.5% of the global education market that is pegged to be worth $ 7.3 trillion.

The size of the Indian edtech market

As per data by the Statista Research Department, the market value of the Indian K-12 education market in 2020 was approximated to be worth $1.16 billion, compared to less than $500 million valuation in the development market for education skills. In 2020 the total market value was around $2.8 billion, but by 2025 this situation will change drastically, and the whole market size will reach $10.4 billion.

According to the Omidyar Network India and Redseer Consulting report, by 2022, online education services across Classes 1 to 12 are predicted to increase 6.3 times to form a $1.7 billion market. The post-K-12 market is set to grow 3.7 times to build a $1.8 billion market.

Byju’s is ‘taking space’ in India and the world

While Byju’s is growing its own services and platform rapidly, it is also overtaking new spaces and platforms at both national and global levels to become a genuinely international education and training company.

Starting, for example, from its acquisition of the US-based start-up, EPIC – the digital reading platform for children, at $500 million, Byju’s has made space for itself on the global start-up map. No wonder it is the 11th most valuable start-up in the world.

By expanding its US footprint, Byju’s is reaching for more than any other edtech company in the world. In many of its acquisitions, the edtech start-up retains the original teams and lets them carry their functions under Byju’s umbrella, making them a Byju’s company. EPIC co-founders Suren Markosian and Kevin Donahue have also been retained in their roles. They continue carrying out the company’s mission to ‘unlock the potential of every child through reading’.

New-age business and division of success – lessons for upcoming entrepreneurs

More people ought to be credited for Byju’s expansion and success, along with Byju’s co-founders Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath and the company’s C-suite.

For instance, take Anitha Kishore, the maths teacher and Chief Strategy Officer driving acquisitions at Byju’s. Kishore is considered to be the driving force behind Byju’s massive expansion spree across international borders.

As head of the strategy, Anita Kishore works closely with Byju on inorganic growth strategies. She also plays the role of a strategic CFO, working on capital allocation decisions and fundraisers, along with investor management. This type of multi-level involvement of teachers in Byju’s growth is seen as the main force behind the edtech giant’s success.

Divya Gokulnath, Byju’s co-founder, was among the first people who started teaching on Byju’s platform. Despite being the company’s co-founder, Gokulnath counts herself as a teacher first. At Byju’s, she first started teaching easy hacks to get through campus recruitment and then shifted to mathematics, English and reasoning classes.

This goes on to show that teachers, as well as executives, at Byju’s are witnessing their renaissance as not only educators and subject matter experts but also as pioneers of business formation and market capturing. And new businesses in the segment can learn a lot from these recent trends.

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Indian D2C Beauty Brand MyGlamm to Scale across the South Asian Market

Aakash Sharma — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 08:35:07 +0000

MyGlamm, a direct-to-consumer beauty brand in India that sells most of its products through its website, app and retail touchpoints, has recently raised $71.3 million in funding. Following this fundraising round, the company is aiming to scale its business across the South Asian market.

The start-up had raised $23.5 million in its four-time subscribed Series C financing round from Amazon, Ascent Capital and Wipro in March 2021. It has recently added $47.8 million as part of the round.

Darpan Sanghvi founded MyGlamm in 2017 and today also has on its board POPxo founder Priyanka Gill as a co-founder after the acquisition of ‘India’s largest digital community of Women’ in 2020. The company wants to go beyond traditional online distribution and put forth MyGlammxo as a channel to get its products.

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With WebEngage, MyGlamm currently has a 45% retention rate and is targeting Rs. 500 Crore Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by next year.

What propelled the creation of MyGlamm?

Started in 2017, the fashion-focused company found its roots in the goal of providing ‘glam quotient’ to its customers regardless of their busy days, without a compromise. MyGlamm is backed by one of Europe’s largest natural beauty companies, and it collaborates with international makeup artists and experts to create exciting innovations to achieve its goal of serving fashion clients with ease.

The start-up today operates as a house of brands in the beauty and personal care spaces. It works in the cosmetics, skin, hair, bath, body and personal care sectors. MyGlamm has been able to build this because the start-up is truly based on a direct to consumers (D2C) model. This allows it to communicate directly with customers. Most other firms operating in this sector are too reliant on third-party marketplaces for their sales.

How does MyGlamm plan to scale to the South Asian market?

The start-up plans to deploy the fresh funds to expand its product development, data science, and technology research teams. It is also working on expanding its offline presence and broadening the digital reach of POPxo.

By doubling down on its D2C cosmetic and personal care setup, MyGlamm plans to leverage its digital presence and community-driven growth model for global scalability. It is looking to bypass the traditional online distribution channels and offer the best products from its multiple touchpoints to consumers across the spectrum.

MyGlamm D2C – what can others learn from this upward multi-channel growth?

By its unique website portal, easy-to-use application, and an already growing offline presence via the 15000 over-the-counter sales points, MyGlamm has come a long way in acing the D2C race in the fashion industry. The start-up’s physical presence accounts for 40% of the revenue it generates today. The fact that the beauty and personal care sector remained one of the few sectors that did not face a slump during the pandemic also served the start-up’s growth.

The beauty and personal care market in India is increasing due to the boom of D2C. The industry is expected to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 4.23% between 2020 and 2025, with an estimated value of $8 billion. The rapid growth of the D2C beauty industry is in line with the growing penetration of internet services in India, the popularity of e-commerce and social trading platforms, and interactions on social media. This gives a sufficiently large base for new businesses to explore their growth avenues.

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What Should a Start-up Pitch Deck Include?

Anju Nambiar — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 05:35:08 +0000

A start-up pitch deck should be neither overly complicated nor too laid back. Creating a winning pitch deck is an art that you need to master with careful planning and execution.

What is a start-up pitch deck?

A start-up pitch deck is a document, specifically a collection of slides that explains concisely about the company overview, its vision and mission, team, problem statement, the solution you are offering to address the problem statement, market opportunity for your offerings, a bird’s eye view of what your product/service will look like, your target customers, sales, and marketing strategies. In simple words, a potential investor should get a snapshot of your business by viewing your pitch.

How is it the first step in your fundraising journey?

Every start-up that wants to raise capital needs to first work on creating an impactful pitch deck. Your deck is your start-up’s ‘why’ for acquiring funding. The more impressive your ‘why’ is, the better your chances are at raising investments. Although making a pin-point precise pitch deck is an art, it’s also the toughest to crack for early-stage start-ups. It’s also the first step to master before approaching the right investors.

Do’s and Don’ts for an Investor Pitch Deck

Most investors provide one opportunity for start-ups to present their pitches. Depending on the investors, your pitch must be sharpened to show precisely what they are looking for in an investee. Here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind while making an investor pitch deck

Dos:

Highlight important slides

Investors are mostly interested in key slides like your financials, problem statement and team. Highlight these slides and keep them at the focus of your pitch deck.

Present your traction achieved

Investors are interested to see everything you’ve already achieved before raising funds. Present the progress you’ve made so far in your pitch deck, add your milestones and add growth numbers clearly for them to see.

Your pitch deck must tell a story

Your pitch deck must be created in a way that it tells a compelling story about your business. It shouldn’t just be a dump of facts and figures but a narrative of how your start-up adds value to the industry.

Don’ts

Mix your metrics

Investors want to see clear and concise numbers and metrics. They don’t want a confusing concoction of data. So don’t mix metrics into a single slide or a poor depiction because it may lower your credibility in the eyes of the investor. Segregate them according to revenue received, sales, traffic, ARR (annual recurring revenue) and so on.

Drag your pitch

Keep it short and precise. Show only the data which is most important for investors. Don’t include too many redundant slides and don’t add long text or too much creative copy.

Use too many Jargons or Acronyms

It may confuse the investor and not give much room to consider your pitch seriously. They usually don’t have much time to allocate for each pitch so use your time and their attention judiciously.

How to create an irresistible and compelling pitch deck

The key to creating an irresistible and compelling pitch deck is to restrict it to four important points:

The problem your start-up is solving
What exactly your product/service is
The market opportunity
Your business model

Why structuring your pitch is important

Structuring your pitch is important because it will capture the investor’s attention. A poorly structured or cluttered pitch can instantly put off an investor. With structuring, you keep all the key points of your start-up on the table so that investors are crystal clear on what’s in it for all the stakeholders.

What to cover and what to ignore

Here are some essential points to include and others to omit from your pitch deck

What to cover

Your company’s value proposition
Business roadmap

Marketing and Sales strategy

Competitor landscape

What to ignore

Excessive text and descriptions
Fund allocation

Estimations and guesswork

Forecasting and predictions not backed by credible statistics or data

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Depending on the investors, your pitch deck must be sharpened to show precisely what they are looking for in an investee.

What’s in it for me?

Before becoming a unicorn, your start-up has the single biggest milestone to cross, securing seed funding. Getting the first few rounds of funding are the most difficult part of raising investment for start-ups. Because this is when you need to prove that your company has the spark to grab investor interest. A pitch deck or deck slide is thus very important for early-stage start-ups.

A lot of start-up founders who have never made a pitch deck before may not know where to start. But it always pays to be simple and straightforward if you don’t have experience creating a pitch deck. Restrict it to a maximum of 10-11 slides. List out the features or characteristics of your product/service and don’t forget to include your go-to market strategy. Also, the pitch is only one half of the interaction. Investors usually have a lot of questions they need answers for before they are ready to invest in a start-up. Prepare for potential questions beforehand. With ample preparation and research on past successful start-up pitches, you will be ready to win over the toughest investor.

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Marketing Mis-steps that Entrepreneurs Should Watch Out For

Saurabh Bajaj — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:35:12 +0000

The term unicorn was coined in 2013, by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, to refer to technology start-ups with valuations over US $1 billion. At that time there were 39 unicorns in the US and none in India. India today has a total of 50 plus unicorns, the third largest number in the world after the US and China. However, firms like Ola, Flipkart, Lenskart, Nykaa, UrbanClap, Paytm and Zomoto make the journey look easy. There are a number of firms that have struggled to scale-up the founder’s visions or the market’s expectations.

Let’s study the journey of some of these companies, each of which have done many things right, but have taken a few marketing missteps that they have then had to pivot to recover. As we investigate these stories, perhaps there are learnings for other entrepreneurs to learn as they navigate their own passion projects.

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The legend goes that the inspiration for Paper Boat came from the flask of Aam Panna, Suhas Misra's mother would pack for him every day.

Hector Beverages

Paper boat is one of the companies that have caught the imagination of consumers and investors alike. They have had years that have been extremely successful and a few in which the market questioned if the growth story has come to an end.

Hector Beverages was founded in 2009 by Neeraj Kakkar, Suhas Misra, Neeraj Biyani and James Nuttall. Today Neeraj Kakkar and Neeraj Biyani run the show after Suhas and James decide to exit the company.

The company started operations with Frissia (protein water) and later Tzinga (energy drinks) but later smartly pivoted to their third venture Paper Boat. The legend goes that the inspiration for Paper Boat came from the flask of Aam Panna, Suhas Misra’s mother would pack for him every day.

The company started its operations through the Manesar Plant and subsequently roped in its first investors in 2011 including Catamaran and Foot print. The next reached out to Elephant Design that helped them both with the naming as well as pack design leading to the launch of ‘Paper Boat’ in 2013.

The Brand saw strong initial success and they quickly expanded to a second factory in 2014, which was their Mysore plant with a speed of 380 bottles/minute versus 80 bottles/minute in the Manesar Plant, along with the capabilities for coconut water and sugar cane juice.

From 15-16 to 17-18 the Brand kept its focus on three key levers of growth:

Brand Building: They launched Paper Boat with a novel purpose of trying to preserve traditional recipes that go back thousands of years, and were handed down from one generation to another, in a modern form. On this Brand core they invested aggressively in digital engagement and also launched a TVC on main line television.
Innovation: They launched a slew of products including more than 11 types of ethnic drinks and juices: Jal jeera, aam panna, aam ras, alphonso aam, jamun kala khatta, chilli guava, nimbu pani, kokum, neer more, kanji, sugarcane juice, lychee ras, apple and orange.
Distribution Expansion: They also partnered with the Japanese food giant Indo Nissan Foods to strengthen its distribution and brand presence in tier II cities and rural markets.

However, while all three strategies are based on sound business fundamentals, their premium pricing of Rs 30 for 200 ml proved to be an impediment to scale growth and their turnover appeared to stagnate at under 100 Cr.

As a result, the analysis, started to question if the product and packaging novelty has worn off and has the impact of competition in the form of Daburs Hajmola Yoodley, B Naturals Zero Concentrate Promise and the entry of Coke and Pepsi into healthier beverages started to make its impact on the major.

The company pivoted smartly again and has launched a mega push in the last couple of years into several mainstream categories:

Paper Boat Swing at much affordable prices of Rs 10 for 150 ml
Juices in Tetra Pack at Rs 130 for 1 Ltr
Dairy Beverages like Lassi, Thandai etc

Their largest gamble to date is the entry into traditional Indian snack-based products like Peanut Chikki, Banana chips, Aam papad, Bakarwadi, Namak para, Gur para and Shakar para.

The key challenge that the expansion of such a wide portfolio would be Brand stretch. However, what appears to be helping the majority is the fact that the Brand has been based on an emotional promise of ‘nostalgia’, rather than a functional promise and that appears to be assisting them, despite sharp reduction in advertising investments every subsequent year. And the second is distribution expansion where the partnership with Indo Nissan foods only took them to 100,000 outlets. They have now started investing in their own field force to expand to 250,000 outlets and are now targeting 350,000 outlets.

The key thing on the mind of the founders now appears to be an IPO to continue to fund their expansion as they make steady steps towards profitability.

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Mounting losses, restless investors and the pandemic eventually led to the firm being acquired by Wingreens Farms. Raw Pressery business has picked up substantially post the acquisition by Wingreens Farms.

Raw Pressery

Raw Pressery and Wingreens Farms are two Sequoia Capital backed food start-ups which have boasted of innovative food products capturing the imagination of the growing millennial audience. Interestingly the learnings that we take from the challenges these firms have faced very closely mirror what Paper Boat taught us. Let’s now investigate their journey.

Raw Pressery was founded by Anuj Rakyan in 2013-14, with the dream of preparing cold pressed juices at a shared kitchen in Mumbai. He wanted to deliver these juices directly to the customer daily, by utilizing spare time of Mumbai’s daddawalas.

The original insight for the Brand emerged when Anuj Rakyan suffered a back injury playing football. He wanted to heal himself naturally without surgery through rest and nutrition. He made juices at home, but realised that something equally good was not available on shelves. He realised that there was an opportunity for a clean label product with only goodness inside and nothing else.

It was indeed an inspiring vision, and enabled him to take the brand across 15 cities in the country.

This allowed the brand to scale-up to a business of 65 Cr 2020 however they retained very high operational expenses and hence a loss of almost 60 Cr. In chasing their vision, the company made several logical pivots. The first was the realisation that while a few core consumers may take subscriptions, a large part of the business is going to remain offline. So, despite a very premium product, the online share of the business in 19-20 was only 10%, however the bulk of their business came from airports (30-35%) and organized modern trade stores like Food Hall and Reliance (50%).

Next, the group believed that the product should do the talking for them and they kept their advertising expenses persistently low at 30% in the initial years and under 10-15% by 2020. Their biggest challenge with the low shelf life of the products and the very expensive cost of refrigerated logistics. Though investments in technology were able to expand their shelf life quite substantially, logistics remained a persistent challenge. The softer challenge that the organization was not able to solve was the high cost of employees which accounted for as much as 40% of their top line. The equivalent numbers in scale firms are between 4-5%. These challenges could only be solved by expanding their range into products with a more affordable entry price and a range which holds its core promise of goodness but can move into the non-refrigerated aisle. And hence in Oct’18 the company expanded into Almond Milk at a pricing of Rs 80 – Rs 200. By Nov’19 they launched Coconut water with a pricing of Rs 50- Rs 60 and by Dec’20 into High Protein Smoothie.

By 2020, the contribution of these businesses was 40% for Cold Pressed Juice, 10% for Dairy, 35% for Coconut Water & 15% for Almond Milk. However, these initiatives only increased the dependence of the company towards offline channels and as the pandemic hit the company could only increase their business contribution from D2C to 15% and modern retail then accounted for 80% of their business. The lucrative Airport channel which was the backbone of their business could only account for 5% of their business. Mounting losses, restless investors and the pandemic eventually led to the firm being acquired by Wingreens Farms. Raw Pressery business has picked up substantially post the acquisition by Wingreens Farms. Let’s understand Wingreens business model a bit more to understand the synergies that have kicked in for both the companies.

Wingreen Farms

Wingreens Farms was incorporated in 2011 by Anju Srivastava and Arjun Srivastava. The products of the firm include dips, spreads, sauces and bakery products. The couple was working in the US for several years advertising and marketing and decided to return to India. They were taken aback by the condition of farmers in the country and the company was originally christened as WIN (Women Initiative Network) in Gurugram in 2008 with a capital of Rs 10 Lakh.

The initial idea was to work with farmers who had land but no money. The business model was to rent out land and pay the farmers the same both for renting the land and also as salaries for the women working in the company. In 2008, Anju started growing potted herbs in a half acre of farmland that she rented from the farmers in Tauru village, Haryana. She grew varieties of basil, thyme, oregano, peppermint, and other herbs for sale. However, she struggled in the initial years due to the extreme weather conditions in northern India.

She finally tasted some success in 2011, when Anju made pesto out of the basil she grew, and approached Spencer’s in MGF Megacity Mall, in Gurugram. The plan was to allow customers to taste the pesto, however they didn’t have any pasta and hence used chips. To their surprise customers showed good acceptance for the product as a dip. Following the successful launch of pesto as a dip, WIN was rebranded as Wingreens Farms, and the company then went on to launch 150 variants in 50 SKUs including, chipotle sauce, fiery desert mustard dip, dill tzatziki, peri peri hummus, rosemary hummus, peppermint with green tea leaves dip, etc.

Within a span of 8 years, the brand has built a presence in 1300 Modern trade stores and 9,000 general trade stores across 140 cities across India. The company has plans to expand its distribution network to over 200 cities, over 2000 modern trade stores and over 1 lakh general trade stores over the next year. They also plan to extend their portfolio to 220 products across the range of dips, spreads, sauces and bakery products.

Despite accessing good funding from the market Wingreens has managed to deliver a far more sustainable business model. The pandemic has been an issue and an opportunity for the company. At one end the cost of business escalated, on the other the consumer was actually drawn to better cooking because of the rise of in-home dining.

However, all in all the acquisition of Raw Pressery has been a big opportunity towards the sustainability of both companies due to the following reasons:

Raw Pressery and Wingreens Farms have a complimentary set of products with little overlaps giving the combined entity the right to build a Holistic Food and Beverage company that is structured as a House of Brands.
Both company portfolios have a presence in the refrigerated isle and the sampling and activation infrastructure of both companies can be synergized.
Further promoters believe that combining both portfolios should help them reduce their logistics and transportation costs by half.
Also, with the enviable portfolios of both companies there is an opportunity to negotiate better with retailers when it comes to shelf space and commissions.
And finally, most importantly, a strong portfolio combined with significant distribution heft is the magic formula for success in the Indian landscape.

There is a lot to learn from the three Brands that we have investigated, Paper Boat, Raw Pressery and Wingreens Farms. However, the key learnings can be gleaned in the form of the following steps and missteps that entrepreneurs should factor in their plans.

First, as entrepreneurs seek to launch innovative offerings in the Indian market, there remains a large role for storytelling and Brand building. This is something Paper Boat did very well. A large part of the allure of their 3rd product after Frissia (protein water) and Tzinga (energy drinks) was Paper Boat. And the platform of Drinks and Memories allowed them an opportunity to charge a premium and hence build a product that can be fuelled with advertising to command a premium. Perhaps this is where Raw Pressery missed a trick. While a clean label positioning is strong. It would have taken a while to catch up with the consumer.

Secondly, entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted and business pivots are a part and parcel of the game. Hector beverages showed their resilience in reinventing themselves time and time again. This was perhaps something Raw Pressery took a little longer to do.

Thirdly, distribution expansion alone doesn’t ensure top line growth as Hector Beverages learnt the hard way in the period between 15-16 and 17-18. It has to be complimented with an accessible portfolio and the right branding strategy.

Fourthly, it’s critical to marry your business opportunity with consumer expectations, as Wingreens Farms learnt to their delight, almost by accident when they uncovered the opportunity for a dips market.

Fifth, as one discovers a significant business opportunity, it’s critical to make infrastructure investments to improve technology and set up factories; however it’s critical to keep a keen eye on cash burn and operational profitability. Solving for the right supply and logistics costs, employment costs and marketing spends is critical to build confidence with investors as Raw Pressery learnt to their peril.

Lastly, it’s important to start one’s business through a pilot mode across limited markets or channels, however the final path towards profitability in a market such as India, depends on building a robust distribution infrastructure for expansion.

The post Marketing Mis-steps that Entrepreneurs Should Watch Out For appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

The Way Ahead, Simplilearn’s Global Expansion

DU Desk — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 09:02:36 +0000

The legacy players in the online education market who have been in the business since before ed-tech became a hot sector are now market leaders. The start-up is one among those players who are on their way to conquering the globe in their ambitious market plans.

Who is Simplilearn?

Simplilearn is an ed-tech start-up headquartered in Bengaluru and is a veteran start-up in India’s online higher education sector. Founded in the year 2010, they are a market leader in its league and provides differentiated offerings in the digital skilling space. They provide training in disciplines like Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Project Management, Digital Marketing, Data Science, etc.

Simplilearn’s Online boot camp

Simplilearn provides an online ed-tech boot camp by partnering with world leading universities and companies. Through the boot camp, they provide post-graduate and master’s programs as well as certification courses for consumers. The bootcamp is mainly aimed at offering digital skills training.

Simplilearn’s Global Expansion Plans

Simplilearn’s Global Expansion plans come on the heels of their recent investment received by Blackstone, a Private Equity Firm who purchased a majority stake in exchange for $250 M. Simplilearn will take advantage of Black Stone’s global network to fuel its expansion plans. Blackstone’s global expertise in education technology will act as a stepping stone for Simplilearn to go global.

Products going global

With the new funds in place, Simplilearn plans to reinvent the company as the ‘world’s largest digital skilling company’. By leveraging Blackstone’s global footprint, Simplilearn will launch new programmes and build better ed-tech products.

Markets being targeted

Simplilearn will first target the US and European markets as part of their global expansion. They will double down on their primary markets US and India. They will also be expanding to Latin America.

Partnership with global universities

The company will partner with global businesses and universities through Blackstone’s value-add to the firm and their scale. Empowered by the partnerships, Simplilearn will continue its expansion plans across the world.

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Simplilearn will take advantage of Black Stone’s global network to fuel its expansion plans.

What’s in it for me?

Simplilearn’s growth story is a lesson in start-up evolution for budding companies in ed-tech. Their growth and success are attributed to a number of milestones along their journey which have turned out to be defining moments along their growth. Simplilearn broke into the ed-tech market when there were close to 0 market players. Slowly awareness around ed-tech platforms for upskilling grew and so did Simplilearn. What really helped Simplilearn expand were the multiple investment rounds received. This was a crucial milestone since they were able to diversify their product offerings and target global markets.

Finally came the ed-tech revolution which took Simplilearn to an all-time high. When teaching and learning became completely digital, it was just more investments, expansions and new products for Simplilearn. Learning from their journey, ed-tech start-ups need to align their business model with the current market needs. You also need to create an investment worthy business and invest heavily in technology talent. It’s also important to bring disruption into the business at the right time before it’s too late. Expansion is key to growing as an ed tech start-up. You need to target new, uncharted territories and new markets early on.

The post The Way Ahead, Simplilearn’s Global Expansion appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How Investors Read Your Financial Statements, And Why Should You Master Them for Successful Fundraising?

Chayanika Sen — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 14:16:20 +0000

Starting up a business is not easy. And with limited resources and budget, you need to wear several hats throughout the day. You need to manage the day-to-day operations, admin tasks, marketing your products, manage sales, and keep a tab on your finances. As a new business owner, you might not be familiar with keeping accounts of your financial statements. While hiring a professional accountant is always a great idea, it is not so difficult to do it on your own in the initial days. No matter what, remember that you need to keep your accounts clean. The key is to keep accounts of every transaction you made, not just for you to know how your business is performing, but in the long run, if you need to raise funds for the growth of your business, that’s what the investors are going to look at. So, make it a habit of keeping track of your financial records from Day 1. Maintaining proper financial records also ensures that you are compliant with statutory compliance. It enables you to create budgets, financial projections, and better investment decisions.

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The key is to keep accounts of every transaction you made, not just for you to know how your business is performing, but in the long run, if you need to raise funds for the growth of your business, that’s what the investors are going to look at.

How to master creating financial statements that investors will love:

Start with a business bank account:

No matter how small your business is, always maintain a separate financial record for your business and don’t mix it with your accounts. Establishing a business bank account is a good idea that allows you to keep track of all your business transactions. So, if you’re setting up a business, have a separate bank account for your business as a rule of thumb.

Avoid cash transactions:

Cash transactions may seem to be convenient, especially for small amounts like a food bill or a travel expense for business, but it makes it challenging to keep a tab on the financial transactions of your business. When you deal with cash, you tend to forget the transaction and thus miss out on entering it in your logbook later. Instead, it is recommended to use business credit or debit cards to do any financial transaction. This way, you will have a record trail, and everything will go into your audit book. When you use cash, you could also potentially miss out on taking advantage of write-offs since there won’t be any documentation of the transaction. If there is no other way to deal with a particular transaction other than using cash, use an ATM card to withdraw money, and make a note on the receipt with the purpose of the withdrawal. That way, you will always have a record, and you can put it up in your record book. Needless to say, your future investors will love it when they see how meticulously you have recorded all the data from day 1.

Invest in good accounting software:

At the beginning of your business, you might be sceptical about making investments, but investing in good accounting software is something you would like to ponder. Accounting software can help you access your accounting information anywhere if you have an internet connection. This makes it easier to access your files if you are hiring an accountant. Additionally, accounting software comes with cloud storage, so you don’t need to maintain physical files and tons of paper. An online program will continually back up your files on the cloud as you progress. However, it is recommended that you still maintain a hard copy of all the files, just in case there is an emergency.

Have a schedule:

Managing an account is a time taking task. And you need to be regular and consistent to have your financial statements clean. Thus, it makes a lot of sense to maintain a schedule or a routine to manage your books. For example, the first hour of the morning can be an excellent time to update your accounts when your mind is fresh. Having a schedule makes it easier for you to be consistent and stay on top of things. Your future investors will acknowledge and admire this habit because they know that the amount you are fundraising would have clear spending records. Letting your expenses pile up can become challenging when you have to do year-end tax planning. Also, keep a tab on important deadlines like VAT, insurance premium payment, corporation tax, etc., because late payment can attract heavy penalties, something your future investors wouldn’t like to see on your financial statements. When you keep accounts up-to-date, you will know what you owe and what you need to pay. So, it would be easier to keep track of all your dues.

Leverage the power of data:

Keeping a tab on all your financial records is not just to impress your investors or understand your revenue. An up-to-date financial statement can give you a lot of useful insights if you’re paying close attention to it. The real advantage of maintaining an account record is much more than that. It can give you real insights into how much revenue you are making and how much you are losing, and where your business is going. Accordingly, it can help you tweak your model. And your investors will definitely acknowledge it when they invest in your company.

Training helps:

If you are a first-time business owner, training will help master your financial statement. In your early days, it is worth investing in training so that you can make the most of your accounting software. While most people think that the software can do everything, well, you need the knowledge to operate it to reap maximum benefits.

Ask for help:

Accounting and maintaining books is no easy job. It is not uncommon to feel overwhelmed, especially when you are managing the entire business operations on your own. Reaching out for help from professionals at early stages will always save you from later troubles.

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It is essential that you keep your financial statements clean and up-to-date from the first day of your business.

Being at par with your tax obligations:

One thing that your future investors would like to see in your financial statement is your tax obligations. This is no brainer that you need to be clear on your debts if you have future plans to fundraise. No one would like to spend money on a business that has bad credits. So be sure to meet all your tax obligations and file your tax returns regularly. Avoid paying penalties for late payment fees. Keep records of all the tax returns. If you have employees on your payroll, you will need to enroll for payroll tax and remit on a monthly basis. If you are dealing in vatable goods, then ensure to fill your value added tax (VAT) returns too. Having reliable accounting software can be a valuable asset, so consider investing in one. It can help you to streamline and automate the business process.

Reconciling your bank statement:

Matching information on your bank account to the transaction history is one of the most crucial parts of maintaining account records and bookkeeping. Automating the process can fully prove that all income and expenditures are accounted for. For example, accounting software can pull your bank statement and tally it against each of the spending. You can see what has been added and whatnot, so you can amend manually. Making it a practice from your early days will definitely help you to maintain a clear account. And when you reach out to investors for fundraising in the future, this will certainly help you win some brownie points.

Don’t miss out on the invoices:

Late payments can affect your cash flows. You need to spend extra time following up on the payment. So, it is critical that you keep constant vigilance on the invoices and follow up if there is a default. It is also a good idea to add a default fee in case of late payments. You can also take advice from your accountant on how to implement these. Having a late fee attached will ensure you stay on top of payment collection against your invoices.

Apart from keeping your financial records up-to-date, your investors may also want to see some documents to verify. Certain documents that you should maintain a record of include:

Invoices and receipts that you provide and receive for your business and service
Invoices for goods, services, or other business purchases for your business
Bank account and credit card statements
Records of stock purchases at the end of the financial year and asset register
Filing of business tax returns proof
All financial statements related to your business. These may include profit and loss statements, and balance sheets
Records of payments made to employees plus payroll source deductions submitted on behalf of employees

What will investors look into?

Apart from maintaining a detailed record of all your transactions, there are some parameters that investors will check before considering you for giving funds. So, keep a tab on the following while growing your business:

Net profit: Net profit is an important parameter to determine the financial health of a company. Investors pay a lot of attention to this. So, ensure you have a stable profit. Losses can be good if you’re on track to profitability as you grow. Ensure to have a good understanding and vision about our net profit.
Sales: No matter how attractive your business model, the one thing your investor will pay attention to is how much sales you have. So, focus on setting up an exemplary sales record before approaching an investor. Remember, investors also like to see sales growth. Are you showing an upward trend, or the initial excitement is going to fizzle out soon? Clear your grounds before making a pitch.
Cash flow is the king: A sign of sustainable operation is free cash flow or the amount of money left in your account after you meet all the overheads. Investors like to see if you have steady cash flow so that you can invest in new opportunities or fight any unannounced problems.
Break event point: Short-term losses are often acceptable by investors, but they would like to see that they can earn a profit by investing in your company. The break-even point would help them understand that. A break-even point can be a sales target that can help you pay all the overheads and make some profit. A break-even point can also be built on other assumptions like increased production, optimised marketing, economies of scale, etc.

While many other factors that an investor may consider, a strong financial statement will help you earn some extra points. Even if you are not considering approaching an investor at the moment, you may want to reconsider it in the long run when you want to grow your business. So, it is essential that you keep your financial statements clean and up-to-date from the first day of your business.

Expert Connect

Chinmay Ananda
Business Storyteller, Financial Educator Finance Academy
Connect with our expert to analyse your financial statements and evaluate the risks and potential of your business

The post How Investors Read Your Financial Statements, And Why Should You Master Them for Successful Fundraising? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Scale Your Business: Adopting The CENTS Framework

Kanan Shah — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 16:35:04 +0000

“No point in chasing money. The moment you start chasing money, money will start eluding you,” says Sameer Kaul, Entrepreneur, Market Leader and a Speaker to a virtual audience of startup entrepreneurs and small business owners. A 30-minute LIVE workshop on “Scale your business” was conducted by Dutch Uncles as a part of its ongoing workshop series – MentorED. This session was virtually attended by business enthusiasts on YouTube, LinkedIN, Facebook and Twitter with the intent to learn from the industry expert about how to scale up their businesses.

An award-winning management professional, Sameer Kaul has been acknowledged for launching, building, scaling and transforming many leading brands in India across sectors such as retail, FMCG, hospitality and healthcare. He was instrumental in launching the brand Windshield Experts in India from scratch to around 25 cities, transforming a small lab business, Dr Lal Path Labs into a national consumer brand. He has worked across Australia, India, USA with Boards of topmost companies. His 25 years of stint includes Oberoi Group of Hotels, VJT, Asahi Glass, Metropolis and Private Equity companies.

A Practical Perspective

In this workshop, the mentor put forth a perspective that every entrepreneur should adopt. He emphasized on:

Practical ways of looking at scaling up
Practical ways of looking at growth
Whether growth itself is required
Whether growth is a good thing for my business
What are the commandments of scaling up
What is the framework?
What do you look at when you’re scaling up?

To Scale, or Not To, That is the Question

Observing some entrepreneurs, Sameer Kaul points out an error in their strategy. “Sometimes out of nostalgia, we like that we should have 10 employees, 50 employees or even 100 employees in our company. But whether bigger denotes success is the moot point. Whether bigger is a destination or whether bigger is a strategic intent of a company is what one should analyse first.”

Kaul identifies two issues in the minds of business owners while processing a growth strategy. “A lot of times, owners of businesses or small businesses who have moved from zero to one, or zero to five, but would like to scale from five to 10, or five to 50 are always embroiled in this kind of a trade-off: whether they should grow or not.

They’re always in that kind of a dilemma. Sometimes it is to satisfy the ego of the business owner himself, other times it is out of competition or out of one upmanship that ‘we want to scale up the business or we want to grow the business.’ So, the first thing to understand is that bigger is not always better.”

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There is nothing called luck in business. But there are ways of becoming lucky in business.

Scaling Up is Always a Right Option: Bursting the Myth

Elaborating with a powerful example, Kaul says, “If Harvard Business School or if Oxford University were to open 100 campuses all across the world, recruit 1000s of teachers, 1000s of professors, would their quality be better? Would they do a better job? Definitely not.

Why is scaling up not a right option for Harvard Business School?

The mentor explains the shortcomings of plans to scale: The focus on quality, the focus on exclusivity, to focus on building a brand gets diluted.

“In certain businesses, in certain business situations, bigger makes sense. But in all businesses bigger may not be the right strategy for a company. So that’s the first myth I wanted to burst,” he states. Once this perspective is set straight, entrepreneurs can take the right decision, identify the right time and the right plan to scale.

How to Structure the Right Scaling Strategy for Your Business

Kaul affirms that the purpose of business is to scale. The purpose of business is to grow. But the parameters vary for each business.

“A size which is right for one company may not be the size which is right for some other company. Sometimes we have even heard big businesses saying that they always wanted to be more flexible,” he adds.

Have an opportunistic mindset

“The first thing of a business when they’re scaling up is to have an opportunity mindset.” Entrepreneurship is a learning process. The mentor guides that all business owners must “start learning to get lucky. There is nothing called luck in business. But there are ways of becoming lucky in business. And that’s a mindset, an opportunistic mindset.

First is to create the conditions, the groundwork or the platform for attracting opportunities to you.

Second is to spot those opportunities.

Third is to assess the opportunity. Just because there’s an opportunity, it doesn’t mean that’s the right opportunity for you.

Five Commandments: The Litmus Test to Scale Up

One should start small, but should always envision the growth from the very beginning. That’s the quality of a visionary entrepreneur. In the MentorED workshop, Sameer Kaul shares a very insightful framework: The CENTS Framework. It acts as a litmus test to scale up a business.

The CENTS Framework consists of 5 Commandments:

C – Commandment of Control

E – Commandment of Entry

N – Commandment of Need

T – Commandment of Time

S – Commandment of Scale

Commandment of Control

Sameer Kaul explains, “If you are a business owner, you want to be on the driver’s seat all the time. You cannot be a hitchhiker. You have to have control over the revenues, over the strategy of the company and over the whole business plan.”

“You shouldn’t be diluting your equity, you should be calling the shots, whether it is talent or whether it is strategy. Raising money is not about growth. Having control over the business is the first thing that a lot of promoters and a lot of entrepreneurs are losing out these days. So, the first commandment of scaling up which you have to build from the design stage is to have control.”

Commandment of Entry

“The commandment of entry talks about building a business that gives you some core competency. Either it is through your proprietary technology, or either it gives you economies of scale, as you grow,” the mentor explains.

Commandment of Need

It’s high time to adopt the new school mindset. “It talks about an outside-inside perspective which is called a customer-based business strategy.” Kaul explains, “You have to look at your customers, you have to look at the needs:

What needs are unmet in the market.

What needs a funnel?

In the market, is there a service gap?

Is there a pain point which is not getting addressed?

Is there an emotional disconnect?

Sameer Kaul asks all entrepreneurs to look at these perspectives and then start working on those.

Commandment of Time

Time should be in your control. Elaborating on the importance of this commandment, the mentor states, “If you are spending all the time in your business, you will not be able to scale it up. Then you have found yourself a job but you’re masquerading as an entrepreneur. That’s a different mindset.”

“We see a lot of these retailers, shopkeepers who are 90% involved in their business. That is why they build the business so dependent on them that they are not able to scale. Because they are not able to delegate or because they are not able to trust, they become small business people who can, at the most, run one shop but they cannot expand. If you want to expand you need to have control over your time. In fact, as they say, you should be able to make money while you sleep. A good business has to be a good business system.”

Commandment of Scale

Scalability is measured with two parameters:

Reach

Reach refers to the number of units sold

Magnitude

Magnitude refers to the unit profitability

“If you want to scale, you need to have both reach and magnitude. It is very important not to get a false sense of scale,” he warns.

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If you are spending all the time in your business, you will not be able to scale it up. Then you have found yourself a job but you're masquerading as an entrepreneur.

Expert Advice to the Attendees

In the workshop, Sameer Kaul also shared a strategic framework called a CN framework. The 30-minute workshop was followed by an interactive Q&A session. Many questions poured in including asking advice on identifying customer needs, understanding control in business, creating the right balance in equity and funding and climbing up the different stages of business scaling.

The post Scale Your Business: Adopting The CENTS Framework appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How to Add New Customers to Your Business?

Preeti Verma — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 10:35:03 +0000

Have you ever caught in a situation where you juggled to bring in new customers into your business? The journey from finding new customers to loyal customers can be a taxing task. So where to start from if you are looking for more customers?

Learning to generate new sales leads is an essential skill for an entrepreneur. Even if you do not consider yourself a salesperson in a literal sense, still you need to understand the business pyramid. You need to understand that the possibilities of finding new customers range from calling them from the phone book to buying lists of potential customers. Now, this has extended further to using newer internet techniques like search engine optimisation (SEO) to drive new business to once website.

To build a marketing plan to reach new customers, you need to better understand first who you are already selling to? What are their demographics and what are their buying behaviours? Market research runs the extent from simple qualitative research to in-depth analysis. It can be done in no time and without putting a hole in your pocket. This can be done by sending surveys to your existing customers using various online survey tools. This market research can involve extensive interviews with customers, depending on the questions you are trying to ask and your research budget. This can also involve qualitative studies on how target customers feel about your business, its products and services.

There is a possibility that certain products and services may appeal to one audience but not to another. So, understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in your target market is crucial. Here are the few ways to attract new customers. Let’s understand them in detail.

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A reliable way to attract new customers is to show them how well you look after your current customers. Show your customers genuine concern and communicate with them on a regular basis

Choose the Best Channels to Attract New Customers

It is best for the business to meet potential customers on the channels they frequently visit. Are they on social media? Would they prefer email? You can determine how your customers prefer to be contacted by gathering data from your existing customers. However, do not put all your eggs in one basket! These days customers are joining several new platforms daily. A multi-channel marketing strategy is always best for attracting new customers.

There are huge benefits of social media that can be ignored easily. Most of us can handle Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, but what if you’re not reaching the right audience? A reliable way to tap into a whole new group is to explore new social media sites, especially ones where your customers are hanging out. Joining these social platforms will surely increase the traffic of your business’s online presence. But the audiences on social media can vary a lot from site to site, so do your research, find your market, and follow where they are!

Deals Sites Can Help in a Big Way

Daily deals sites are another trend that are picking up fast. Websites like Cashkaro, Nearbuy.com, Grabon.in, Mydala.com and more can add value to your business. You offer a discounted price, while they promote to their deal-loving audiences. Daily deals sites are great for getting first-timers in the door. Consumers are much more likely to try something new when it is a steal offer, which in return gives you the opportunity to turn one-timers into repeats.

Make it Realise that Customer is The King

Make your customer realise that they are the king and they are important as an individual. In most industries, consumers want to know if they will be taken care of or not. They want to feel like they aren’t just the mode for the business. A reliable way to attract new customers is to show them how well you look after your current customers. Show your customers genuine concern and communicate with them on a regular basis. These communications don’t need to be business related, but it can be personal. This will give the customer an impression that you are sincerely concerned to talk to them. Sometimes selling things is not important, but making contacts for the business matter.

Create A Multi-Faceted Plan

Okay, it is a little obvious. But it is important enough to need saying. There is no one, right way to build your customer base. Different customers will react differently to the same marketing campaign. The important thing is to use a variety of channels and tactics to reach your audience. Casting a wide net is the best way to appeal to a diverse audience and reel in as many new customers as you can.

It is advisable to create a multi-faceted plan of attack that will allow you to reach and entice the largest number of people and yield your business the most growth. The easiest way to combine different marketing tactics is to use both online and offline strategies. Send out e-mails and direct mailings. You can also combine different strategies within your online marketing. Experiment with email, social media, word-of-mouth advertisement, etc. and decide which channels work the best for you. This strategy has two keys: Make sure you’re consistent across platforms, and use analytics and metrics to track your success on different media.

Offer Discounts & Promotions to New Customers

Consumers these days are looking for good value and deals. Excite them by offering introductory discounts into your business. Offer special offers such as buy two and get one free, or buy two and get one for half-price, or free gift wrapping for the first three purchases. Bargains like these can attract new customers, who have been considering doing business with you but needed an incentive to actually change customers’ shopping habits. Then keep tracking what they buy and which offers they redeemed so you can better target them with future marketing messages that will build up their loyalty towards your products. Send personalised messages or emailers regarding the discounts and offers.

Ask For Referrals

The important part in any business is to gain their customers loyalty. Once you successfully achieve a customer’s loyalty, take a step ahead and ask them for referrals. Remember your current customers are one of the best sources of new customers. But you can’t be passive and wait for them to bring colleagues, friends, and family to your business. Instead, take control and create a systemised approach to actively solicit referrals from your satisfied customers. Build referral-generating activities into the sales process. Send follow-up emails and thank you notes to make sure your customers are happy with their purchases and make them feel special. And then follow that up with another email asking for referrals. Consider offering incentives if the sale price warrants it.

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Approach networking with a “how can I help you?” attitude, rather than thinking, “what is in it for me?” always help. People love to interact with friendly, socially active person

Reconnect with Old Customers

Revisit your old customers contact list. The old customers can be those who haven’t done business with you for a while. Create a regular schedule to do this, may be on a monthly or quarterly basis, or select customers you haven’t seen in the past six months. Reach out to them through email, direct mail, text, or message them with a ‘we miss you’ reminder. In the same way, you can lure them with some kind of deal or promotion to make them visit your store again.

Approach Networking

There is no better way to raise brand awareness than meeting new people, telling them who you are and what you do. Join your trade association, your local chamber of commerce, and networking organisations to interact with people regularly. Attend Meetup events. If you own a local business, even going to PTA meetings can be a good networking opportunity. Approach networking with a “how can I help you?” attitude, rather than thinking, “what is in it for me?” always help. People love to interact with friendly, socially active people.

Keep Updating your Website

With the changing trends and customers buying behaviours, online search is the primary way both consumers and B2B (business-to-business) buyers find new businesses. This means your website has to do the heavy lifting so customers can find you. Your company should popup, when they are trying to find something online. Review your search engine marketing and search engine optimisation tactics and techniques. Similarly, make sure your website is mobile-friendly.

Even your site design makes a difference. Too many graphics can slow your site’s load speed, which is a customer turnoff. If you don’t have the in-house expertise, hire a website design company and/or SEO expert to help.

Team up with Complementary Businesses

Join hands with businesses that have a similar customer base. But they shouldn’t be directly competitive. Together you both can strategize how you can market to one another’s customers to drive new business in a smart way to attract new customers while not spending a fortune. For instance, if you are into women clothing business, then working with a business that sells women jewelry or accessories would be a great partnership.

Promote your Expertise

By showcasing your industry expertise, you can generate interest and even create buzz, which can help you attract new customers as well as get more business from your existing client base. Volunteering to speak on industry panels, giving a webinar or workshop, speaking at industry events or to groups your target customers belong to, or holding educational sessions are just a few ways you can make a good impression with potential new customers and clients. This technique works particularly well for B2B business owners.

Benefits of Online Ratings & Review Sites

Consumers, both in the B2B and B2C (business to consumer) worlds, frequently turn to online ratings and review sites before they will do business with a company they are not familiar with. So, make sure you monitor those sites and respond to any complaints. Make the most of positive reviews by linking to them on your website and app. Post signage in your store, office, restaurant, or other location encouraging customers to add their perspectives. Social proofs such as reviews or comments, positive ratings are powerful tools these days. New customers are more likely to give your business a try if they see others praising it. I personally shop for those products or brands that are highly appreciated or have good ratings.

Participate in Community Events

Surveys show most people like to support local, independent businesses. Raise your profile in your community by participating in charity events and organisations. Sponsor a local fun run, organise a holiday ‘toys for kids’ drive, or supply a Little League team in your city with equipment. All this raises your profile, which helps attract new customers. Think of these strategies as a starter list. Add your own ideas. The key is to get started now so that when next financial year rolls around, you are already selling to an expanded customer base!

The post How to Add New Customers to Your Business? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Challenges You Should Consider Before You Expand Your Business Through New Products

Preeti Verma — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 10:35:05 +0000

So, you have decided to expand your business? If yes, then it is a good decision! But before expanding in to the new horizons, you will have to test the waters first. Expansion is one of the essential parts of any solid growth strategy. It is important to expand into new sales channels and leverage your operations. On the same time, it is also important to expand your product lines with new products to achieve the sustainable growth to fuel the business further.

Planning and executing a growth strategy to develop new markets and expand your business before your current market flattens out will surely help your business survive tough times. Also, it could give you a considerable edge in the market. However, growing businesses may face a range of challenges. As a business grows, different problems and opportunities call for different solutions. What worked a year ago might not be the best approach today.

Recognising those problems and overcoming the common pitfalls associated with growth is important. And this is if you need your business to grow and thrive in the future. It is crucial to ensure that what steps you take today shouldn’t create additional problems for the future. Effective leadership will help you in making the most of the opportunities, and creating sustainable growth for the future. Here are the few challenges and mistakes that most commonly affect growing businesses. Let’s discuss those in detail what you can do about them.

Staying Afloat in The Market research is not something that you do only when you launch your business. Business conditions change time to time, so your market research should be continuous as well. Else, you run the risk of making business decisions based on out-of-date information, which can lead to business failure.

The more you succeed, the more competitors notice and react to what you do in the business. A market-leading offer one day may be no better than average a few months later. Unfortunately, your loyal customers can be quick to shift gears and find alternative suppliers, who can provide them a better deal. This is a bitter truth but that is how the business ecosystem work.

As products and services age, sales growth and profit margins get contracted. Time to time market research or a research before launching new products will give you a clear perspective. An idea where your products are in customers’ lifecycles can help you work out how to maximise overall profitability. At the same time, you need to invest in innovation to build a stream of profitable new products to market.

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Effective leadership will help you in making the most of the opportunities, and creating sustainable growth for the future.

Understand Market Information and Recent Trends to Launch New Products

Information that are published can provide useful insights into market conditions and recent trends. As a growing business, your own experience can be even more valuable. You should build up an in-depth information of what customers want, their market behaviour, and your best marketing approaches that work well with customers.

Customer interaction on frequent occasions pays off. Taking the time to talk to key customers help in a big way. Your suppliers and other business partners can be important sources of market information. You should encourage your employees to share what they know about customers and the market. Effective IT systems can also make it easier to share and analyse key information such as customers’ purchasing behaviour, and preferences.

Furthermore, you can also extend your research to test customer reaction to new products. This you might do it yourself, or use a freelance researcher or market research agency. This will give you a quick reaction on your new products. This can be done on spot, or through digital platforms.

Revisit and Update Business Plans

The plans that you made for your business a year ago do not necessarily will make sense for you today. Market conditions continually change, so you need to revisit, update and upgrade your business plan regularly. Stay abreast by updating your guide charts to keep up with the market.

As your business grows, your strategy needs to evolve to suit your changed circumstances. Let’s say, after a time your focus may change from winning new customers to building profitable relationships and maximising growth with existing customers. Existing business relationships often have greater potential for profit and can pump in reliable cash flow. Newer relationships may increase turnover, but the profit margins may be lower, which may not be sustainable. At the same time, every business should to be cautious to new opportunities. There are obvious risks to relying solely on existing customers. Diversifying your customer base spreads those risks.

However, following the similar business model is not the only route to growth. There are other strategic options such as outsourcing or franchising that can provide better growth opportunities. It is important not to consider your current success means that you will automatically be able to take advantage of these opportunities. Every major move requires planning in the similar way as a new business launch.

Ask yourself whether new ideas suit your strengths and your overall vision of where the business is going. Always keep in mind that every new development including launching of new products brings with it changing risks. It is worth to consider regularly reviewing the risks you face in your business and developing contingency plans.

Cash Flow and Financial Management to Plan Launch of New Products

A healthy cash flow control is important for any business. For a growing business, cash constraints can be the biggest factor limiting growth and overtrading can be risky. Making the best use of your capital should be the key element in business planning and assessing new opportunities. With limited resources, you may need to pass up promising opportunities if pursuing them would mean starving your core business of essential funding.

Every element of working capital should be carefully controlled to maximise your free cash flow. Effective credit management and tight control of overdue debts are essential. You may also want to consider raising financing against trade debts. Good stock control and effective supplier management generally become important as businesses grow. Holdings of outdated stock may become a problem that needs periodic clearing up. You may want to work with suppliers to reduce delivery cycles, or switch to suppliers and systems that can handle on time delivery.

Planning ahead helps you to foresee your financing needs and arrange required funding as well. For growing businesses with new products, bring in outside investors to provide the equity needed to underpin further expansion can also be considered.

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Making the best use of your capital should be the key element in business planning and assessing new opportunities such as launching new products.

Problem-solving Solutions

New businesses often run-in perpetual crisis mode. Each day is a new challenge, which brings in an urgent need to resolve. The management spends most of their time in troubleshooting. But with the growth of your business, this approach simply doesn’t work. While a short-term crisis is always urgent, it may not matter nearly as much as other things you could be doing. Spending your time soothing an irritated customer might just help protect that one relationship. But instead focus on recruiting the right salesperson, who can lay the foundations of substantial new sales in the coming years.

With the growing business, you must also prepare yourself for new problems and new priorities. Let’s say, your business might be increasingly at risk unless you take steps to ensure your intellectual property is properly protected. If you are focusing on individual marketing campaigns, you might need to devote more capitals to develop your brand.

Recognising the key drivers of growth is a good way of understanding what to prioritise. A disciplined approach to management focuses on leading employees, developing your management team and building your business strategy. Instead of treating each problem as a one-timer, you develop systems and structures that make it easier to handle those problems in the future.

The Right Infrastructure

All businesses produce bank on large volumes of information such as financial records, interactions with customers and other business contacts, employee details, regulatory requirements and so on. And it can become a daunting task if not done without the right systems.

Responsibilities and tasks can be delegated as your business grows, but without solid management information systems you cannot control business effectively. The larger your business grows, the harder it is to ensure that information is shared and different functions work together effectively. Putting the right infrastructure in place is an essential part of helping your business to grow by launching new products.

Documentation, policies and procedures also become increasingly important. The informality that might work with a handful of customers is not practical in a growing business.

You need proper contracts, clear terms and conditions, effective employment procedures and so on. Many growing businesses find using established management standards one of the most effective ways of introducing best practice.

Quality control systems can be an important part of driving improvements and convincing larger customers that you can be relied on. Investing in the right infrastructure is an investment that will pay off both in the short and long terms. You benefit every day from more effective operations. If you ever decide to sell the business, demonstrating that you have well-run, efficient systems will be an integral part of proving its value.

Right Skills, Right Attitudes

Entrepreneurs are the driving force behind creating and growing new businesses. The abilities that can help you launch a business are not the same as those you need to help it grow. It is important not to fool yourself into valuing your own abilities too highly. The chances are that you will need training to learn the skills and attitudes required by someone who is leading growth.

To grow your business, you need to learn to delegate properly, trusting your management team and giving up day- to-day control of every detail. It is too easy to stifle creativity and motivation with excessive interference. As the business becomes more complex, you also need to develop your time, management skills and learn to focus on what is important.

As your business grows and you launch new products, you may need to bring in outsiders to help. You’ll want to delegate responsibility for particular areas to different specialists, or appoint a non-executive director or two to strengthen your board. As you start tackling a new opportunity, someone who has experience of that activity can be vital.

For many successful entrepreneurs, learning to listen to and take advice is one of the hardest challenges they face. But it may also be essential if you are going to make the most of your opportunities. Some recognise their own limitations and appoint someone else to act as managing director or chairman.

Open to New Changes

Complacency can be a major threat to a growing business. Assuming that you will continue to be successful because you have been doing good in the past is unwise. Regularly revisiting and updating your business plan can help remind you of the changing market conditions and the need to respond to them.

An up-to-date plan helps you identify what action you need to take to change your business and the way it operates. Let’s say, rejig suppliers who can grow with you and meet your new priorities. As your business grows, consistent quality and reliability may be more important than simply getting the cheapest offer. Renegotiating contracts to take account of increased volume.

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