Highlight The Problems

It is very normal to tell the positive things or the highlights to others. I will give a few examples. I was among top 10 in college. I was so lucky, I got this. I made so much money on stocks. But at the same time, people generally don't talk about the related negative things. Like they will never say, I once failed in one exam or secured less marks. It was so unlucky day for me, everything went against me. I lost so much money in stocks. And some of them are such that they will tell those better things about themselves, which really do not exist. I hit a six to their best bowler (may be he was out on first ball). 

In practical life, especially when in business, we need to highlight the problems among our staff. There are things like specific requirement from customer. It should be immediately highlighted among the concerned staff. No harm in telling the whole staff about this. This makes the staff aware about the need of the customer. If there is certain production that is urgent, you should immediately tell all the concerned person about the urgency of the situation. Remember that if you highlight the problem, more solutions will come towards it. More and more people will be aware about it and will be extra cautious in the activity. 

If the problem is not highlighted, it is up to you to keep an eye on it. But, once it is highlighted, it becomes everyone's responsibility to give a solution. If there are certain complaints from a customer regarding some products or service, you should give standing instructions to check that these complaints are taken care of during each delivery. This will smoothen the processes and the complaints in the service/product will be eliminated.

Value Of Your Words

Businesses are made out of values. If you have values in you, you would not falter much. You need to remember that if you do not value your words, no body & I repeat nobody will value it. As I had expressed in one of my articles that we should keep our promises low and deliver high to our customers, so should you be with your commitments. When we do not promise or promise low and deliver better - be it in packaging, timing, value wise or in whatever way,  customers will be delighted by you. In a similar way, you need to weigh every word of yours. And for doing this, you need to remember a rule. A rule which will keep you in good stead. Never announce anything whenever you are very happy or very angry. Normally these are the times when we do not speak, but our emotions speak. And with our emotions, sometimes we spell out such a thing that you may not be able to honor. You may regret. Like in a recently concluded Test Cricket series with Australia, Virat Kohli did manage to comment that now he is not friends with Australian cricketers. He had to anyway say later that his comments were blown out of proportion. 

Likewise, when we are very happy, we tend to promise a few things. I advise not to do so. When you think back logically, you may lament on your decision to give a certain privilege or certain thing to someone. Do not let your emotions to take control of you and announce something, which you cannot honor. If you are to go back on your words, people will notice that you do not do what you say. In short, you do not value your own words. And people who do not value their own words, cannot win confidence of people. Whenever you think of such a announcement, just keep that thing in your mind, think over it and then if you find it okay, announce it.  

Lead Generation To Successful Lead Conversion!

In the last article we learnt how we need to generate lead from different mediums. You need to increase the number of lead generated so that even if your lead conversion is same, you would have more converted customers. For 100 customers with 10% successful lead conversion, you have 10 customers. But for 200 customers with 10 % successful lead conversion, you will have 20 customers. The lead generation itself will bring in more customers even if your conversion ratio is low. Think about it for a minute. If you have indiamart account and there are enquiries from indiamart, are you able to cater to them. 

Once your lead generation program is done, you need to shift to Lead conversion program. You need to look at the number of leads coming in and then at the conversion ratio. If you are converting just 10% leads into customers, you need to improve that figure. Just imagine that you are able to convert 15 % of those leads generated. If you have enquiries of 100 numbers and you have increased the conversion ratio, your customers will increase to 15 from 10 nos. And if you are working on both the factors - Lead Generation and Lead Conversion together, just guess the effect. You have a lead of 200 nos and conversion ratio of 15 %. Your customer base will increase to 30 nos. from the current 10 nos. Now, can you imagine how this happened. You can triple your turnover by doing this. Now, tripling your turnover in a short period is not simple considering the physical movement of things and the credit limits. But, you can certainly see the impact that both of these things have on your future generation of business. 

Multiplying factor and compounding are the wonders of mathematics. Though you have made minor changes to your lead generation and lead conversion, the multiplying effect that it gives changes the results significantly. You need to focus more on these things to go a distance in the next year.

Keep Mini in Mega Dreams / Habits

Discipline is the most important thing that matters most. In fact, I would advocate a stint with the military for a year or so for youngsters to underline the importance of discipline that students will learn in military. Even in best schools, discipline is the most important factor which molds students into better individuals. Successful people have some of the best habits which they always keep with them. How are these habits formed? Say, if you want to run around 5 km daily. You get up in the morning and run on first day. You are not able to run and so you quit it after a week or so. If you are looking to get up at 5 am, one day you will get up and then feel sleepy for the whole day. Similarly take any target, be it in business or related to your weight loss, the result will be same. 

The major reason for this is the will power. To get any habit successfully, you need a lot of will power. If your will power is good then you will get disciplined in any habit. The goal of running 5 km daily is daunting if you are not accustomed to running at all. It is not easy to walk 5 km, let alone run the distance when you are not doing any of the walking or running at present. Your legs may pain, you will get tired and then eventually you will lose the will power to run daily. The best thing to do is to go 'Mini' way. Set mini goals and achieve them. This does a lot of good to your will power. Once your will power is with you, start increasing your distance. Once you have reached the distance that you want to cover, it will be quite easy to do it on a daily basis. It will form into a habit. Similarly, if you aim to get up at 5 am from present 7 am, then rise early gradually. first get up at 6.30 am for a few days, then 6 am and then 5.30 am and 5 am. Once you start with mini step, your body will get into a habit of getting up at 5 am. 

Similar mini steps can be used to complete your goals - personal or business. Step by Step is the way to go.  

Have You Ever Focused On The Lead Generation?

When year end comes, it is a perfect occasion for stopping, looking back, looking ahead and plan the next step or rather the movement on the road. Tomorrow is the Marathi New Year or Gudi Padwa and a time to celebrate and think about future steps. It is very normal to look back at your business and then see what has been your growth and then look forward and see what you want to achieve in the next year. Do you want to be at a flat growth or do you want a steep growth. Whatever you might decide, you need to gauge what is the difference between where you are and where you want to go by the time next New Year comes. You not only need to identify the location you want to go, but also the speed that you need to go to reach there. You know that the time is limited. If you want to achieve certain thing, then it is imperative that you need to take a certain momentum. You cannot go at one speed and then just spike up at the last 2-3 months of the next year. It would be better if you go at fairly same speed.

To look at the growth options, you need to see where are the opportunities. You can look at the opportunities in different places. You can look at the competitors and who they are serving. You can identify those and then let them know about you and your capabilities. Many a times, we may have known many customers but at that time either we do not have enough experience or our capabilities are less and the clients do not trust that they would be safe with you. But with time, our capabilities increase, we also gain experience and are wiser than what we were earlier. You should again contact those lost leads/opportunities and let them know that you are still there and are more capable than what you were last time. You can write an article in the magazine or forum where your customers often visit or read. You can also start an email campaign and let people know about the services you offer. 

You need to find such different stages from where you can announce that your shop is open and you are ready to serve. You have so many capabilities and customers who can certify you. You can call vendor development teams and ask about any opportunities. The more you do these things, more leads would be generated. The more leads are generated, better is the chances of conversion. If you are getting double leads (say 200 instead of last year's 100), even at same conversion, you would have double new customers. So, if you have 10 % conversion rate, you would have 20 customers as against last years 10. Already you have increased your business. Just focus on the leads first. 

Use Good Service As Differentiating Factor

Due to technology, the market has become very small. Location is no longer as responsible for business as it was a few years ago. You can almost instantly chat, message or call up a person sitting in Chennai, Delhi or Rajasthan at any time and discuss the availability, rate, etc. There are also some firms who offer as an cover for purchase directly so the trust question is thrown out. One party can buy from other party by paying. The payment is held with the third party. As soon as the first party confirms that they have received the material, payment is released by third party.

Things are quickly turning into commodity with less and less differentiating factors. You cannot compete on things like delivery, quality, even costs. All parameters are same for commodity. The things that can come to your aid here is Good Service / System. You can educate your employees so that they can take care of the customer. If you give good service to your customer, your customer will not only come back to you regularly, but also tell 10 more people about you. In service, you can give different things. You can give transportation, you can give good packing, you can give faster delivery at low costs, you can give credit, you can give information and knowledge. 

There is also an angle of relationship which comes into picture. If your relationship with your clients are good, they will back you no matter what. Even if there is other competitor sitting out there, they will let you know and tell you about the problem that they might have. You are given full chance to continue with them. For this, you need to be in touch with them even out of business. You can talk and discuss different topics with them. You need to create at least some differentiating factor, so that people remember you. Among other things, Himesh Reshmiya was famous for his cap. It set him off differently.

Monitor Your Raw Material, Inventory & Receivables

At one of our customers place, a board is seen 'Raw Material is also bought by giving money! Don't waste it'. At one of the companies where I worked, it's Chairman said in a meeting, 'If you see iron ore particles or coke particles going up in air, you should see money going up in air'. It is not normal to associate your raw material with money, but think about it. You pay your raw material supplier. Agreed that it is quite low in value with respect to the goods that you prepare out of it. But still you can see a lot of money is wasted in the raw material. Then there is other thing called inventory. Normally, we associate this word inventory with the material 'Ready For Dispatch'.

We do planning for our inventory. But many a times, there are products which need to be made as per customer request. But the quantity is not enough. At times it happens, that the schedule is less, but still production is taken as there are no more products lined up for production. And then comes the time, that there are no takers for the inventory. This inventory gets stuck up. You do not see any movement in this inventory. Regular cleaning of your factory place will give you many such products which have been lying idle. Don't see the parts, products there. See money. See that your money is blocked in that product. If your view to look at your product changes, your life will change. Instead of looking at the physical size & shape of the product, you should look the equivalent of money. You will get a solution in some time for that.

Monitoring of the Receivables is similar to monitoring of physical money. You need to monitor receivables, simply to see who has been using your money. There are times when you have low businesses and at such times it is better to concentrate on business. But you need to look for people who are using your money and paying up late. With some customers, they have their own accounting practice. Their accounts will release money when it is due. For some customers, they are more owner oriented. They will normally give only when you ask. For others, situation is worst. They will not give money even after asking many times. And when you see the money coming, it is ultimately their immediate requirement of parts which brought the money in. You need to recognize the customer type and ask money accordingly.

Year Ending Blues!

March has arrived and went past at a much higher speed than what normally other months do in same time. For other months, we have until the last day to complete the delivery of the schedule that we have. There is no problem with the month end. The month end is a blurring line and we can dispatch just smoothly on the last day of the month as on the first day of the next month. But there is a problem in the month of March. We had completed most of the schedules by 20th of the month. By 24th/25th you will be told by the customer that they have closed the incoming material because of year end and all accounting has to be closed. For companies which have excise, there is a special purpose. For most of the other part of the year, the payment of the duties can be made by 10th of the next month or quarter as the case may be. But for March it has to be done in March itself before the last day. For this reason, many companies close their inward as well as outward after 25th or so. 

Secondly, many companies are wary of increasing the stock in the month of March. For most part of the year, they would not mind any inventory. But the inventory left behind in the month of March adds to the profit booked. Higher the profits higher are the taxes that have to be paid. For actual working, people don't mind. But the profit only due to the excess inventory is a no-no because paying tax on this unused inventory is a no-brainer. This is the other reason why many companies will give lesser schedules to their vendors. People are running here and there as the target is seen clearly and depending on the role, people scramble for targets or the accounting.These blues can be systematically avoided if there is a system of maintaining balance sheet regularly. Last two days should be enough for getting the accounting work complete.

Missing Gift & Misunderstanding

Recently I came across a story of a graduating boy. He was from an affluent class and had a taste for luxurious things. He had recently set his eyes upon the recently launched sports car. He had let his intentions known to his father. He wanted that coveted gift on the day of graduation. It was not that his father could not afford it and so he was sure he would get it. On the day of the graduation, his father came and gifted him a small box. Upon opening the box, he found a Bible in it. He was so disappointed with the gift that he did not even open the Bible and read it once. He kept the Bible as it is in the box and he went out of the home and never came back. He never replied to his father nor did he give any specific reason for being out of home. 

After some years, he received the telegram that his father was serious and that he should see him. By the time he went, his father had passed away and he had to look after this business now. As he was going through the different possessions, he came across the same Bible which was looking new. It flashed across his mind and somehow he found courage to open it. After opening, he found a key kept in the Bible, a small bill saying 'Paid in Full'. The keys were nothing but the keys for that coveted sports car which he had always wanted. He could not control his emotions and cried till all his emotions were out. There was no use crying now. Had he only opened the gift at that time.

There are many such missed moments and opportunities in our life & business. We need to wait for a moment, wait just to look at the gift carefully. Maybe, just maybe, you will find what you want over there. We have our own expectations, our own speed of doing things and busy in our own work. In this, if we do not find what we are expecting, we just dismiss the things. Instead, you must go through the things presented to us by life and may be you find some opportunity.

How An Assistant Might Get You To That High Target?

The higher the position in the company, the bigger is the responsibility. You cannot just carry on with your time to time job, but have the responsibilities which need to be completed. Time then is no limit. Often people have to stay back out of their hours and complete the work. In long term, this becomes an habit. When your responsibilities rise, normally you are given a team to complete the task. You are also a part of the bigger team which has bigger role and you play your part in that organization. Normally, when you are at the top, your prime responsibility is to give directions. Giving directions is not enough at times. Because we are responsible for the bigger picture, it becomes our responsibility to see that whatever directions are given are followed through by the team members. 

Here is where an Assistant comes into picture. Depending on your job profile or responsibilities, the assistant can be anywhere between a simple graduate to a hi-fi MBA from top university. Normally, the job of the assistant is simple. It is to do the regular tasks for his boss, so that he is free and can think of bigger tasks and vision. The bigger responsibility given to the assistant is to make the minutes of the meetings and set time limits for each task and each member. This has to be followed up by regular talk with the team members to see if each task is on its line and will be done by the set time limit. This is the most important thing and it is better if an assistant is there to do this job. 

If the top boss is coming into picture each time, his value or his aura will decrease. His delegates may just not be as serious with the tasks given. But if there is one layer in the form of assistant, who is given a long rope and can ask other team members in a very friendly manner about the completion of the task. Better it is if the other team members too are senior and they also have their own assistant. This assistant can then directly get in touch with other assistants and follow up about the completion of the task. 

The main reason of not achieving target is that whatever plans are drawn, they must be executed. And it will purely depend on the execution of the job, what targets are achieved. It is a wise step to keep an assistant then. But remember that you have a big team before implying this structure.

Dmart - India's Own Walmart

Today history was created at Dalal Street when Avenue Supermarts listed on exchange. It listed at a premium of more than 100 %. Market was frenzy over the IPO listing and many of the investors did not get allocated any share because of the over subscription of more than 100 times. Why the market is so much crazy over D mart? In a market where many a supermarkets are not able to find the right combination, where many of them started and closed or are thinking of shutdown, D mart is the one who has been growing and posting profits in a market where others are bleeding. D mart was able to crack the model and has been favorite of customers. It is said that there is an unwritten rule 'Not to place a Supermarket in an radius of 1.5 km of D mart'. 

D mart has placed its complete focus on savings. From customer point of view, even a MNC branded product will be available at  approximately 2 % discount. You do not have to worry about the prices here. They work with different smaller vendors which helps them to get better product and better pricing. Vendors are very happy with the payment policy and the volumes that they get from D Mart. Further, the bigger the packages that people buy, the bigger are the discounts if we consider per unit. People do compare that and buy more and more thus driving consumption. This way D mart is just not helping themselves but towards consumption story also. Unlike others who try to keep the negotiated and discounted rates to themselves and add to their contribution, D mart is smart enough to pass on them to their customers. Thus, the customers are sure that when they buy at D mart, they are getting the best deal available in the market. All these things, ensure their revenue end. They do not need any marketing as the word of mouth and the experience of customers ensures repeat visits. Customer experience and needs are the center spot of its strategy. All else takes a backseat. 

It is no surprise then that D mart has driven investors into frenzy to get smallest bite of its share. And it did disappoint many as many of them did not get the allotment of shares. Cheers to D mart and its business model.

Preparation Is The Key To Success

Success does not come easy. You need to be passionate about success. There is lot of preparation and practice that goes into preparation. Sachin Tendulkar is God of Cricket not for nothing. For the full 24 years, he used to hit the gym regularly, each day. Even at the height of their success, successful people don't get complacent. They gauge their achievements and practice accordingly. Writing on preparation reminds me the most famous episode of Shivaji-Afzal Khan fight. We all see the result that Shivaji killed Afzal Khan. In true spirit of the words, it was like David Vs Goliath. The whole India took notice of the incidence even at that point. 

But we only look at the result. It was not easy to sit on the fort when his opponent was destroying temples along his way to Wai. Even after trying different things, Afzal Khan could not induce Shivaji into coming on open ground. This whole thing was a plan laid upon by Shivaji. He drew Afzal Khan in the jungles of Wai, where no ammunition could be taken on hills. He prepared his men to fight the army. All the plans were discussed with key men, all the responsibilities were thrusted. But somehow Shivaji's people were not happy. The spirit was missing. The confidence that they can beat Afzal Khan was missing. They feared about the outcome of the direct dual between Shivaji & Afzal Khan when whole of India knew the physical body and power of Afzal Khan. 

But Shivaji was confident of his plans. To give confidence to his people, one day he woke up from sleep and told his near ones that he had a dream and Mother Bhavani came in her dreams to give him blessings of a win over Afzal Khan. This directly increased the confidence of his people. The people started believing in themselves and backed themselves to win over the enemy. When Goddess herself is behind them, then why fear. After the aftermath of Afzal Khan, Jijamata was very happy on the win. She wanted revenge and Shivaji gave her that himself. He killed Afzal Khan with his hands. On asking Shivaji, how did he do it, he explained all the preparation that into it. 

They sent spies in enemy camp to know the exact size of Afzal Khan. They selected one man from Marathas who was of the same size & strength of Afzal Khan. Shivaji practiced with him different positions from where Afzal Khan can attack. Counter moves were planned. How to meet & greet him with least risk and how to come out of the attack. Everything was planned and preparations were done accordingly. It was not for nothing that he wore the steel wire jacket inside his clothes. He cut his beard so that no pulling can be done. He also chose arms which could be hidden into daily clothes.

If we are even 10 % at planning our activities, we too would get success. Preparation to complete things after planning is utmost importance. Prepare until it becomes your habit. Your body should not think but directly do the needful. This is the level of preparation that is required.

Big On Promises; Low On Delivery

Imagine two situations. You get a new customer. You take their order and promise them delivery on Day 10. You know that it will be difficult to make delivery on Day 10. But you still try and you deliver on Day 12. The customer is not very happy. Depends on type of business, but in some businesses time is extremely important. 

Imagine second situation. You promise delivery on Day 15. You deliver on Day 12. Can you imagine the happiness of the customer. You get into these situations many times. The marketing department has its task cut out. They promise big. If the systems of the company are so good that all the quality and delivery metrics are set and 100 % guaranteed, then there is no issue. In case, such systems are still building up, especially in the start up stage when many things are outsourced and not under direct control. If you keep on promising big things to customer and are not able to deliver that, the customer is not at all happy. Have you ever noticed that Flipkart may promise 7 days for delivery, but may deliver in next two days itself. Can you imagine the delight of the customer.

In number terms, if you promise customer 100 and are delivering 70, he is not happy. Other way round, if you promise him 100 and give 120 he is delighted. I am not saying you give extra without cost, but make the experience of customer delightful. If you are not able to exceed expectation, at least don't fall short of it. Customer experience is of utmost importance. If he is happy, he may tell no one. He may give views only when asked. But if he is not happy, he will tell 100 people even when he is not asked. Have you ever noticed that no body may praise a good drawing. But ask for one fault and they will point out 100's. 

The whole point is that when you put your deliverable on paper, they should be very safe. And once these are agreed upon, you try to exceed on those expectations. Be Low on Promises and Big on Delivery rather than being other way round.

Setting Up A One Person Company

The nation is getting ready for GST. It is expected that business would be easy as there would be no state boundaries for businesses. No C forms. The whole nation would be a market for any manufacturer or trader. There is expectation that new entrepreneurs will set up companies. Previously, if company had to be formed, minimum two people were required. That would form a Limited Liability Partnership firm. There was also a option of Pvt Ltd company. If people had to go single, the option was Proprietorship. Proprietorship though had one disadvantage. Unlike LLP or Pvt Ltd, where the liability is limited to company assets, a Proprietor is liable for the whole liabilities along with his personal assets. 

But now, it will be easy to set up your dream company alone. This comes after the Company Act 2013 came into force. You can now set up One Person Company (OPC). OPC has a limited liability just like LLP and has a separate identity from that of the owner. The liabilities are also separate. Owner is not affected by the liabilities or credit default of a company. OPC is also exempted from AGMs, General Meetings & Extraordinary General Meetings. They have relatively less compliance as compared to Private Limited & Public Limited. Even a running Proprietorship company can be converted to OPC.

If you are itching to set up a OPC, then the procedure is not so difficult. First you have to get a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) and a Director's Identification Number (DIN). After you have done so think about your company name and check with MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) about the availability of the name. You can file the AOA (Article of Association) OR MoA (Memorandum of Association) with the ROC (Registrar of Companies). Make Payments & stamp duty payments to MCA and get the Certificate of Incorporation.

If you are not comfortable with doing it yourself you must take services of a Company Secretary. And I highly recommend that. 

Best Quality Is Not Always Best Seller

I had heard one thing in my teenage. A top class engineer makes a best quality product. It could do many things that other things cannot. But the cost was so high, that no one is willing to buy it. The question then is, is it wise to make such an expensive product which no one is willing to buy? To put the example in real perspective, which company/business will you rate high? There is one company which makes niche product that are very costly that there is very low business while there is other company which sells same product with the cost which customers accept. The quality may not be best, but it is still good to be used. The best quality product may not sell in high quantities, but the good product becomes the best seller and a favorite among the customers. 

You need to build products which have price that the customers will accept. There is normally a demand and supply. If the supply is more than the demand the price starts to go down. If the demand is more than the supply, then the prices of the products increase. You need to keep the price at such a point at which the customers can buy it. If the customer is not able to buy, he will find another alternative to go without the product or build another product. There are many a patents products of which were kept so costly that they could not be bought by any customer. Since it is a patent, no body else could develop it. A good invention can die a natural death because of this.

Always try to gauge the demand supply before arriving at the price. Do not kill the product and your business by keeping exorbitant price. Yes, if you believe that the product does give a great value to the customer and there is no competition, then you can see what price is suitable. After all, you want to make best sellers. 

Some Personal Advice Too

This is time of the year when all the attention shifts to the taxes that are to be paid. In case your salary falls in the bracket where taxes are to be paid then people scramble around to find good places to park their money where they can also get a tax benefit. March is also the period when tax saving instruments sale is at its peak. Among different things available, there are National Savings Certificate, Public Provident Fund, Insurance policies, School fees, Principal paid in home loan, Stamp Duty & Registration, Equity Linked Savings Scheme, etc. which fight for that Rs. 1.5 lac slot under Section 80 C. The mad rush is mainly for Insurance policies where the agents sell policies to people in distress over saving tax. They can be sold policies worth 1 lac or so. Not many people know much about whether or not to buy insurance policies. 

Insurance is a priority. It needs to be done. Normally, it should be anywhere between 10 to 20 times your annual expenses. So, if your annual expense is Rs. 1 lac, then you must buy insurance for minimum Rs. 10 lac. Now, if you approach an agent for the insurance they will offer you insurance which has money back written on it. The insurance will not be cheap; it could cost you around Rs. 10000/- or so depending on your age. This 10000 is divided into two parts, (i) term insurance - in case you die, your nominee gets the Rs. 10 lac. It will be around Rs. 1500-3000 approximately (ii) This second part is invested in different instruments and you are given the returns arrived out of it when the policy matures. The term insurance part is anyway the cost which you will never get back. 

You should buy this money back insurance only if you are a habitual spender and are not able to save money. The habit of saving is very important and this money back policy is good for persons who do not have discipline. But two things need to be remembered. You get the promised amount only if you pay for the whole tenure. In case, you are not able to pay your policy will become dormant. In case you want to cancel the policy, you will not get the full money. Even though, the invested portion is big enough, they have their own loyalty multiplier coefficient which moves from 0.3 to 1. So even if you are eligible for getting Rs. 25000/- after three years, you will get only Rs. 10000/- or so. So buy this insurance only when you are sure that you would complete the whole period.

Else, you can go for the Term insurance part. In fact, it is best that you go only for Term insurance. This is cheaper and it will be purely for the purpose of your nominee who gets it in case something untoward happens to you. Mind you, you will not get anything from this policy if you live for the whole period. You can put the balance amount in National Savings Certificate or the Public Provident Fund account. If you have appetite for some risk then it is best that you invest in Equity Linked Saving Schemes. These schemes have the shortest lock-in period of 3 years, unlike NSC or PPF. It is best that you invest possible amount in ELSS in year 1, year 2 and year 3. After that you need not invest. On year 4, your 1st year scheme matures and you can reinvest that to save your taxes. Moreover, the receivable amount is not taxable as it is considered as long term investment.

Creativity - Maximum Returns On Investment

There is one type of income which can give you returns even when the work on it is done. It is Royalty. The royalty is mainly given for things where some creative work is done and the for each sale, proceeds are given to the main creator. The creative work may have Art form, Idol making, book writing, play writing, creating music, making programs for TV or films. Idol making and Art work have limited appeal as they cannot be multiplied easily. But that will give you many times return than what is the cost of material. And the money is not for the material, but for the creative art that is brought out on the canvas. 

When writing books, it takes time to complete a book. Once completed, it is very easy to multiply that. If people like your material, it will be very easy to make the copies. For each sale, the writer gets the Royalty. If you remember some names, they are very famous and even their descendants get the Royalty today. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (My favorite one - Sherlock Holmes series), Napolean Hill, Dr. Joseph Murphy, J K Rowling, are all great names today. They wrote books decades ago, but are famous even now. Each book sold today gets them the Royalty. 

Similarly the classic movies and TV serials have recall value today. Even today people pay and see that work. Of course, it is not for any common man to make such creative work. Massive amount of money is needed. But it is not the only necessity. Good work will get a Producer and financier. The best example today is the Marathi film Sairaat. It was such a low budget film made with newbie actors and without big sets. Still it rung the right strings and became a massive hit. 

If you are also eyeing such Royalty income then you must also get into such creative things. The returns may not be easy, but only one hit will make you reach on cloud seven. Creativity is about showing the world the possibilities that can be there. There are so many creative videos out there. Some really exceptional. You too need to think in this direction.

Communication - Towards Your Goal

There is basic big difference between human & animals. Animals cannot communicate beyond certain level. We as humans have discovered different methods of communication. There are different languages, different signals, different instruments through which we can communicate. The written communication is so great that we can read today what was written decades, centuries ago. You don't need to be able to speak to each and every person to express your thoughts. Blog is also one of that kind of medium. You can express your thoughts, your thought process, your ideas and people who don't know you too read that. Don't know when it will help someone change his life.

If you are serious about achieving your goals, you should learn to be passionate about it. You need to communicate your passion to your team - be it the customer, be it the vendor, be it your staff and employees. Steve Jobs had famously asked John Sculley (who was Marketing chief at Cola company) 'Do you want to sell cola all your life or want to change the world with computer?', Steve Jobs communicated such that John Sculley had to join Apple. What happened later is a different story all together and this is not the forum. But the lesson to be learnt here is that if we can communicate our goals to the team or potential team member, then half of your job gets done. 

Startups often don't have those resources which those deep pocketed corporate have. How can they build a team? Even after building the team, you need to build right culture in the team. You need to communicate to them about how the culture is being build. You need to share your vision so that there are no confusions. They need to understand your thought process and for that communication is the most important thing. You must be able to listen and communicate effectively so that others are able to understand what you exactly want to say.

Communication - The Key To Success

In my teens, I had gone on one picnic and there was one game played along. There was a big circle formed between the players (roughly 20-25 nos.). All were seated in one circle and one member will start the game. He should tell one message to the person on his right in his ear in hushed voice so no other member is able to guess. This goes on repeating until full circle is complete and the person on the left of the person who started told the message loudly to the gathering. At the end of the game, the original message and the message announced loudly should be same. This has to be confirmed by the first member. 

Funny things happen in this game. First everyone should be able to tell effectively. Other person should be able to listen effectively. So, both the aspect of the communication come in to picture here. You must be able to give the message clearly and you must hear with full attention. You don't have to do any other thing here. I don't remember all the messages, but I do remember one of them. The first one started with 'A Mango on the tree'. When it circulated among all the members, it was announced finally as 'Ek Aadmi Ped Par Chad raha tha'. A man was climbing on the tree. Funny enough. It happened like this. The message 'A Mango on the tree', quickly became 'A Man Go On the Tree'. Someone in the link did not understand English. He was given a translation as was announced at the end. This message was in local language, so everybody else was able to deliver it as it is easily.

The game brings the important aspect of communication. We are communicating because others need to understand it. Whatever is communicated should be legible, understandable for person who is hearing. Many a times, there are pictures in assembly line with message in English and very small letters. The first thing is that the letters should be legible from the readable distance - they should be big enough and clear. Second, most of the members of the working group may not necessarily be good in english or even know english. How can they read then? This is just one example to stress the importance of communication. 

Comfort Zone Should Not Be Comfortable

Everyone likes a comfortable life. While comfortable life is good on personal level, you should not be in comfort zone in professional life. No one ever grows in comfort zone. Ideally the tree will like to be in shadow, but only sunrays can help it prepare food. If it doesn't get light, it will not be able to grow. If we do not let the children walk, they will never learn walking. To learn walking, they must fall a hundred times.

If we help the caterpillar to come out of the egg, it might not get enough strength to survive. Struggle or efforts are must if you want to grow into a strong personality. Do you imagine our body to be fit without workouts. It is true that if we got into a comfort zone, then we will not like to try different things. If we do not try things, we may not come up with new solutions.

You can try one out of comfort zone in a week. So if you are driving to office, don't take your vehicle. Try to stretch yourself a bit in doing things. You may also try your hand at some different sport or climb a hill, go for trekking. These things will refresh you. 

Power Of Having The Goals Written In Front Of You

Working hard without knowing the targets or setting the goals is like roaming around in a jungle without knowing where to go. If you know that you have to go to the east side of the jungle or cross the river, you will move in that direction. Mind you, you may not know the road, but yes you will know where you want to go and will discover the road for it. It is not very different in our life. It has similar parallels when we consider our professional life / business life. If you never want to move out of the jungle, you will  not move. But the day you decide that YES, I want to see the other side of the river, you will begin to find ways. If you just pass on your time and think about moving around, you will just do that. You just think about today and how to live today, then you will do just that. But the moment you think that YES, I want to move on to another level, MIND YOU, your energy will be different. 

Even if you do not have the road map, you will discover one. But you should be single minded about deciding on some goal. Deciding on some goal is like having something in mind a place where we want to go. But imagine that if you are in jungle and you have that photo or drawing of the temple which is on the east side of the jungle or the photo having the village on the other side of the river, then it will be much more easier. If you show the drawing or photo to someone, they may guide you towards that side. But if you don't have anything, it will be difficult for you to describe and for the other person to understand. 

A picture or the exact metrics of the goal would serve similar picture to your mind. If you place such a picture or the metrics in front of you where you can see it, either in office or at home, your mind will see that daily and will find some way. Whenever you are sitting idle and look at the photo, it will remind you. It will make an impression in your mind and your mind will make plans to draw you closer to your goal. You may meet someone who might guide you to that goal of yours. You can sit today and take a pen & paper with you. If you are sitting at some beautiful nature place, the better. Keep still for some time and then write down your goals within 2-3 minutes. Don't ponder. Write in as detail as possible. If you can draw some pictures, then it would be better.

Get More Space Out Of Existing Space

Real Estate is costly. Agreed that due to recent phenomenons, the real estate prices have stabilized or gone down slightly. But in essence, the real estate prices form a major cost of investment. More so in places near Metro cities. We visited some plants in Mumbai where they had made full utilization of the available space. The main utilization came by putting lofts at about 10/12 ft height. So the normal industrial gala of height 20 ft and 200 sq ft becomes that of effective 400 sq ft. They take out tremendous output out of this small space. 

At places located in industrial areas, the rate may not be that high, but still you want to get more space out of the available. You need to understand one S of the 5S. A place for everything and everything in its place. Throwaway all the things that are not necessary. Do regular cleaning of the table and workplace to keep only important things in place. For the rest of the places, make racks and cupboards. Try not to go horizontal with the storage. If you want to make more space, go vertical. By making racks of good heights, you will be able to store more things in that rack. You can keep the rarely used things at top while the things which you use daily or more frequently can be kept below. 

You can also make tables & sofas which have storage places beneath it. You can store files or different things in the secret drawers of the tables & sofas and make your place look elegant & clean. Though you make these vertical spaces, the two mantras are extremely important. The first one is to clean your place regularly. The second one is - A place for everything and everything in its place. This message needs to go about every employee of the organization and they need to be taken on board. 

Customer Feedback

Customer is the most important element which completes the business cycle. The whole business actually is supported with customer. If customers are not happy, your business won't survive. You need to take care of the customer. If you give them the quality that they require, they will be happy. If you give them material on time, they will be happy. But have you ever thought about making better experiences.

Many customers won't tell you anything until you ask them. If you give them things that they need, they won't ask you anything. But if you ask for some feedback or improvement, they may tell you some suggestions & tricks. What you need to do is make one feedback form. Meet the customers once in a year especially for this feedback form. Other meetings might be for some other tasks like accounts, quality, schedules, etc. But this time you should not talk about any other things, until it comes from them. You just need to ask feedback about the things that you are doing. 

How is your service? How is the products? Anything on packaging? Anything on delivery? Anything on the quality side? Anything on the process side? If you ask these things, they may probably give you some information about some things that need to be improved. And this things should not be kept as it is. If you receive some feedback then you should make it a point to implement it in your area. The customer should feel it. You can also give them the thank you note and the photos after the improvement. This will just delight them.

Leverage - Small Efforts Big Results

Every man on the earth is given the same time. Time does run out of our hands if we do not utilize it. If you are able to understand how someone is able to achieve big results while others just linger around. Everybody does hard work. Hard work doesn't mean great work until and unless results are seen. If you to physically hard work, but don't have any goals, you may not achieve anything. If you are working just to pay bills, you will only pay bills. You will not be able to achieve other things. 

And if you want to achieve big results then you must learn the trick. Galileo once said that one small coin can life the whole earth, if both are kept on opposite ends of pivot bar. You just need to keep earth near the pivot point while coin at far end. The leverage that the distance and pivot gives the coin makes it take far greater load than itself. You too must use the available leverage towards the completion of your goal. 

In today's technology world, internet is a big leverage. You can use it howsoever, only if you have the right guidance to use it. A habit of sending emails to prospects daily might take your message to as high as 1 lakh prospects if done on a regular basis. If you get very few results, then also you would be very very happy. You can leverage the time of other people to work on your goal. Remember that if you are not working on your goal, somebody else will make you work for his goal. So, you must be pretty clear of using other's time, money to create value by leveraging what you know.

Give Credit To Team, Take The Blame Yourself

Great Victory by Team India today. Indian cricket team has shown that they belong to another planet- a planet where you have the will to believe in yourself. Belief is great. Belief in yourself can make you do great things. This belief was given by their leader First Kohli, the Indian cricket team captain. Have you ever noticed that almost whole Indian Team is flaunting their beard like their leader. Take Murali, Rail, Pinata, Ajinkya, Jadeja,etc. Even Ashwin kept beard albeit a different one.

Have you also noticed that though he is in sublime form, a form of a lifetime, seldom does Kohli talk about himself. Whenever the team wins, he is always putting the team first. Leadership is all about giving the Credit to team while taking the responsibility for the bad decisions & results. When the team knows that their leader is behind them then the belief also goes strong. And once the belief is strong, then there is no one who can stop you.

Have You Been Procrastinating Something For Long?

Procrastinating is not a sin actually. If you see lot of innovations around the world, they might well have come from people who are very lazy. Lazy people don't like to do work. They procrastinate till the very last moment. But they also have some boons actually. They do not like to put in too much of hours into their work. So they put pressure on their brain to develop ways on how they can cut short the time and method to complete the task. In their way, they develop some amazing Special purpose equipment which will make their task easier. If you have been a procrastinating for some reason or other, you will find an easy way to do the given job.

One fine evening or morning decide that today you are not going to do anything unless you complete what is possible in that time. For example, if you want to draw a plan, write emails, talk to some supplier or customer, anything of that sort, just decide that you are going to do that today. If you can put in 20 % of the work away, then there can be nothing better than that. If you do not have time, outsource your task. Guide others to do that. Pay for that, so you have the value of that. 

You can also decide that as long as you do not complete at least 50 % of the task or the major portion of the work, you are not going to eat a burger (whatever is your favorite). You may well see that you will take out some time to do that long pending thing. Often it is not the time that is a hindrance to your work, it is rather the start of the work that is a problem. If you shun everything and just focus on the job for a mere 4 hours, you may be able to plan or complete the whole job. You can also devote some time in the weekend for the task. You can do your things in other time, but don't touch the time earmarked for your project.

Sharpen Your Saw

This is the last medicine prescribed by Stephen Covey in his book 'The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People'. In his book, he explains seven different habits which can make you increase your efficiency & achievements significantly. The last one - Sharpen Your Saw - is the most underrated one. Normally we think that we have achieved so much and so know much about the business. We tend to not listen to others or do not want to absorb new things. We are very much comfortable with our knowledge. 

There is very good example given in the book. One man joins a company of wood cutters and is given responsibility of cutting trees. On Day 1, he cut 10 trees. On Day 3, he could cut only 9 trees and after a week, he could cut only 7 trees. His supervisor is worried and warns him that if he does not give good results, he could be fired. The man explains his supervisor that it is not that he is doing anything less. He is working as hard as on Day 1, he is also not doing any time pass activities. The supervisor watches him the next day and after seeing the results advises him to sharpen the saw. He observes that the intensity of the worker is okay, but he has not sharpened his saw from Day 1. In result, though he is working as hard as earlier, the axe was not good enough to cut the same number of trees.

The technology today is changing faster than earlier. Today is information age and in this age, it is difficult to remain at your best without technology. Technology is the thing with which you can leverage yourself and become the best. But for this, we need to forbid our ignorance of the technology and brace it. Not just technology, we need to be update in our area of working. We need to read different types of books so that we can come across different ideas written by different people. You may remember the story of 6 blind men who were asked to describe an elephant. Each of them described differently, one said that elephant is like rope, other said it is like wall while the other one said it is like trunk of a tree. All were right, but no description was complete. Similarly, we need to respect and read the views of other writers and take whatever is applicable to our lives and profession. 

Failure Is Not Opposite Of Success, It Is Part Of Success

There are many bright students who score heavily in their school years. If they get slightly less marks, they are depressed. Some of them take the feeling to heart and others work again to regain their position. In the road to success, many a times people fail. When you decide to go on a new mission, it is not necessary that there is a road. You may have to make a road on which others will follow you. And when you make a road, it is not necessary that you will be successful at each attempt. You may find a hard rock which you cannot do anything about. What do you do? Find a way around. You should not consider the hard rock as failure to make a road. You have to reach your destination. There is no road defined. You have to make it and you have to decide the time. 

In fact, you should develop a new conscience in which you should not consider failure as the absolute thing, thing which is clearly opposite to success. Because it is not objective - Yes OR No (Success OR Failure).  In every story of success, there are numerous stories of failure. But the real story behind this success is that the person did not QUIT despite so many failures. Had the person quit, his story might not have been known. Not quitting is also very necessary to succeed. Not quitting is related only as far as destination is concerned. You can make and quit roads at any point of time. You see that rather than being opposite of success, it is rather a part of success story. 

Before arriving at the design of Taj Mahal, they might have gone through different iterations in design. Only after cancelling those designs could they arrive at the final design that made the Taj Mahal as one the of the seven wonders of the world. You too can make one wonder. It is not necessary that it should be the one which the world knows. Rather it should be the thing that you dedicated your efforts to.

Diamond Can't Be Hidden

You must have heard million times that if you're diamond, then you can't be kept hidden for a long time. You will shine through the heaps of sand. Similarly, if you have a set up which is very good, customers will soon come to you. If you care about the customers & supply them high quality material, then no one can stop you. You can't be hidden despite your disadvantaged capital, location, etc. People will find you. It will be a question of whether you are ready.

But as a diamond won't be attractive/costly without the cuts & polish, similarly you too will need systems, 5S & presentation so your value increases. Even if you can make news due to your quality, bigger fishes will stay away because you lack the polish. Your value will multiply if you have these big fishes as customers. Because the mere mention of their names as your customer is like a certificate to you. You will get more recommendations.

As a result, your value will multiply. Get the polish now.

Discipline-A Lesson From Art Of War Writer

I have heard a great story about Sun Tzu, the writer of famous book 'The art of war'. He was quite new & not known commander then. One fine day, he is invited by King to show his method of training. He calls some soldiers and orders them some things. They obey. Not the one to be impressed, the King asks him whether he could put discipline in the royal ladies.

Sun Tzu calls all the royal ladies in front of him and tells them to stand in line. Once there, he gives them small orders like sit, stand, look back, right or left. One of the ladies cannot control laughter & seeing her others begin to overheat Sun and not obey him. Even after one warning they are not serious. Sun Tzu immediately orders the death penalty for the first disobeying lady. He even disallowed king to enter into matter.

After that all the instructions given by him are followed and soon Sun Tzu becomes famous. Sometimes, it is difficult to be strict, but it is nevertheless important. The small step can bring in large difference in discipline levels.

Use It! Reminder!

You have called your prospect. He tells you that he is out of town and he will come back after two days. You need to call him after two days. You get busy in some activity and ten days pass. Suddenly you remember that you had to call the prospect. This time he says that he has already closed the deal with someone else. 

Payment is due from one of the customers. You call him to ask him about payment. He tells you that some fund problem is there and you should call him after 3-4 days. You forget to call him and it is now 10 days. He again makes some excuse. Then after fifteen days pays you. 

You need to bring something while coming to office the next day. But you just forget about it due to your daily routine. All these things happen because you are not able to remember that you have to do them. You can improve your efficiency if you can remember to do the task. However, it is not as easy as it seems. There is something that you can do about it. As soon as there is some task, you can immediately take out your calender and enter that. For example, you need to call for order or payment after two days. Take out your calender, go on the date and enter - call 'customer 1'. The time should be put as such when the customer is free or most likely to heed you. 

You will get an alert just before that time. You will be able to take action. Don't remove the reminder until the work is done. If it has to be pushed to some different slot, change the date or time by going on edit. You will definitely do better by using this calender - a time management technique.