Sometimes Copying is More Profitable Than Innovating

One Wise Man has said, "What is the use of reinventing the wheel, when it is already there?". It is true, sometimes.If you locate something - product or a service - which is a hot one and everybody wants it, there is no reason why you should not copy it. How many times have you thought that this is a good product, but still people don't buy it. You might have noticed some problems about it. May be it's location; may be it's service; may be it's presentation. Anything, which you think, if changed will bring in a great demand for the product. 

Go ahead and copy it. Sometimes, you need to learn from the First mover. First mover may have done many mistakes, which you will be able to correct. Being in the system, you may not know what are the problems. This things happens with everyone. That is why, Kamath hotel management has a unique model of carrying out surprise audits from Guests. When some external party looks at your systems, they can pinpoint any deficiencies, any lacuna that your system has. This same lacuna can be taken advantage of while copying. If you are copying a hit product, there are chances that it will be more profitable. 

In fact, I would go to the extent of saying that when you start up, don't go for innovation immediately. While successful innovation might bring in huge amount of success, the chances or the probabilities of successful innovation are quite low. Hence, I would suggest that you should go for a copy cat model at the start of your company or a business. Once, you have settled and there is a good cash flow, you can then think about the innovation model. 

Working Space

We start in the morning and go to office. We remain in office/factory/workspace for almost the whole day before returning home in the evening. If you really think, you spend more than 8 to 10 hours per day in your office. And all that time is your productive time. The time in which you work. You create. You multiply. The whole time that you are at your workplace, you are normally working and seldom get time to take a nap or rather the power nap like the Virus. Oh! It is our Viru Sahastrabuddhe from 3 Idiots. 

And when you consider your home against that. Suppose you start to your work at around 8.30 in the morning and return back by 7 pm. From 7 pm till 8.30 am, you watch TV, you sleep, you go to some shops, you walk around. I am just trying to point out that in the less than 12 hours that we are at home, normally you sleep for major time. I will not say anything about home here, but I must say that if the workspace is in your control, you must keep it so that it is the most comfortable for you. Whatever you have, the arrangements, the table, the chair, etc., everything must be what you comfortable with. Afterall, it is here where you generate a business. 

It must also be said here, though in lighter vein, that the people where you work should also have a very good frequency with you. Because if they do not have the right frequency, how will your working time go? You have to face that person for majority of your work time. If the frequency is not right, imagine what happens to your mood. And this mood actually then sets the tone on how your work. 

Think About It !

Motivate Yourself After Failure

Whenever someone has tried to do something, failure has been there. It took more than 10000 experiments to perfect the bulb. Had Thomas Edison not motivated himself after each failure to make the commercially possible bulb, we might not have seen the light of the Bulb. Similarly, it took many efforts to invent each and everything that we see it easily today. The manufacturing techniques that we see are made possible after many trials and after each trial the team had to get up and see that they discovered another way to make things possible. 

These failures sometimes are so big that it puts everything out of the track. Imagine something in which you have poured your heart being destroyed. It is painful. However, it takes an immense amount of courage to bounce back. The most important thing in the process is to accept. Accept that something can go wrong; something has gone wrong. Once your mind has accepted this, it should come to the terms and understand that this is not the end of the Road. There is a world beyond the thing you were doing and you need to do something else. Whatever you do, you need to take it positively. While success teaches us how to do things, failure teaches how not to do things. We should learn our lessons from failures too. It is time to move on. Once bitten twice shy - This is the mode in which the world operates. Once our tongue burns due to hot milk, we blow the buttermilk too. (I know this is a very bad translation, but I hope you take the point home). 

It may take some time to feel confident about yourself, but you need to meet different mentors, different successful people and read books. Your life must not be made of failures only, you might have done some good things too. You need to go into your past to dig out the good things you did, the successes you met. This will increase your confidence. And confidence is only the main thing that you need. Once you have confidence, you can do anything in the world. 

Payment Service For First Time Customers

Business are no longer local. For a whole-seller or a manufacturer, it was previously the physical visits that were necessary to sell their products across different places. You have to move physically or you have to advertise so that your customer notices you and orders you. Not anymore. Internet age started in India somewhere in the last decade of the last century. But it really picked up pace in this age of Mobile. First it were net cafes and then it was mobile where people surfed the internet. Then came the 3G which really moved people from internet cafes to the mobile. And the real game changer was the Jio launching 4G. It catapulted India to a big user base of internet. 

While there were e-commerce companies in the first decade of this century which pulled funds electronically from individuals or retail customers, it is not slowly coming into B2B too. The internet age has started a string of companies which list different businesses on their website - free or paid. The front-runners in them are the Indiamart and the Tradeindia. They focus mainly on Manufacturers. There is another one called as the JustDial. This is also a business listing service but it's focus is rather on shops and traders. They have a good database for each cities and their people have scanned the city to list many shops. They also have different categories. So, if a business wants to look for a distributor, they can look at the JustDial. If distributors want to look for a manufacturer, they can look at Indiamart and Tradeindia. 

Though this considerably eases the finding part, the other part still remains a problem. Trust. The manufacturer needs to be liberal to supply goods on credit or the trader should trust  the manufacturer to pay in advance. Only then a deal or a business can happen. This space has now been addressed by Indiamart through their service. Businesses can now list prices or their products on Indiamart and traders can buy them. If they want to negotiate or discuss with supplier, they can call them. After that, the businesses can actually generate a proforma invoice with goods details and send a link as sms or email to the trader so that the payment can be done online. The payment is through Indiamart and this service is only for a paid customer of Indiamart (I guess). So, the manufacturer is genuine and trader can trust the manufacturer. This can really be a Gamechanger. 

Have You Got The Big Picture

One who takes time out to see the Big Picture will be the one who will get it. Because he has already decided what he wants. In that Big picture, he has visualized and found the mojo of his life. That mojo will drive him towards that Big Picture. Instead of going to office daily and doing the day to day activities, it is better off to visualize the Big Picture and then work towards it. The Big Picture is like a Dream. Someone has truly said that Dreams are not what we see during sleep, rather Dreams are that which won't let you sleep. Once you have seen the Dream, it is only in your hands to run after it. You have to work the details. You have to see if the Dream in indeed possible. What are the steps that need to be done? Is there a team needed? What type of team is needed? What type of resources are needed? 

What are the parallel activities that can be carried out. Many of you might know about Mukesh Ambani. He is the Chief of Reliance Group. When he was young and his Father the Great Dhirubhai was setting up a factory, Mukesh was called to work for the Factory. The project completion speed of Reliance group are second to none. While setting up the project, many companies do not allocate appropriate resources and they do not complete the project on time. The time lost is never considered as a loss because it does not come into accounting. But the time lost should be considered as an Opportunity cost. Say Reliance & 'OTHER' company start a similar project at the same time. The estimated completion date of the project is one year. What Reliance does is that it identifies all the steps that could be done in parallel and sequence. Then it allocates all the resources required, often more, and completes the project in 9 months. The factory starts production in the 10th month and is already catering to the customers. The 'OTHER' meanwhile is allocating its resources as and when they get it. The result being that the project is late by 3 months. That three months is never bothering to the company. But in those six months, Reliance has already got the upper hand and has garnered enough market share. Secondly, it has started earning in these six months and already paid back on its capital. These opportunity costs matter. 

Similarly, to advance towards the Big Picture of yours, you should allocate all the resources properly at a very early stage. 

What To Do When Nothing To Do?

Things happen very fast. Time flies by at break neck speed. We plan our time, our meetings so as to align them to our goals. But once in a while it happens that some meeting is cancelled or there is power failure or might be some other reason (reason is not important), & you have time - free time. This time is unscheduled and it takes you by surprise. You are not used to spending time free; whenever you find you have some, you plan entertainment or play, etc. And so when it comes at unexpected free time on unexpected occasion, you suddenly get bored and are unprepared to do anything. You fumble upon and take out your telephone and go past the contact list to see if you want to call anybody. You just roam around, may be! 

Whenever such time comes, you can do a couple of things actually. You can actually go through your schedule again and see if you want to add anything. Or if there are certain things which can be pre-poned or can be completed now instead of waiting for the scheduled time. You can also look at organizing your bag/cupboard/table. Many a times it happens that you just stuff your bag or cupboard with something thinking that someday you will sort it out. And you don't find time. This free time is the perfect time. Take out your bag and clean it. Throw out the things that you want. You might also have kept some articles or some movie to be read/watched in free time. Do that. This is the free time that you got. 

It is also time to review your time table or goal list to see if they are relevant or they need a change. Things need to be updated with passing time. May be this is the time to do that. May be this is the time to redefine your goals. Redefine your steps towards the goal.  Go and find stuff like that and utilize your free time. You will be free of the guilt that you did not utilize your time properly.

Story Of Sinhagad!

Sinhagad! This is a famous fort in Pune, Maharashtra. It has a story attached to it and the story has a great lesson. The fort was called Kondana. Previously with Adilshah, this fort was taken by Shivaji Maharaj only to be given to Mughals over a treaty. It was at this time that Shivaji wanted to win back the Kondana Fort. He called his friend and a fighter Tanaji Malusare and entrusted him with the task. Tanaji postponed his son's marriage date to get the control of Kondana. The famous words of Tanaji 'Aadi Lagin Kondanyache mag aamchya raybache'. He climbed the stiff cliff of Kondana using the Ghorpads (big lizards) and got on Kondana from back side along with his brother and his few troops. There was no other way to reach on Kondana. 

There ensued a fight between the Mughal Sardar Udaybhan and Tanaji Malusare and after fighting bitterly, Tanaji was killed. Seeing their leader die, all the Maratha troops started to go back from where they came. It is here that the main turning point of the story lies. Tanaji's brother spotted that the Maratha troops were going back. He immediately ordered cutting of all the ropes using which they came on top of the Fort. There was no way out for the Maratha troops. They thought they are going to die any way. They turned and fought back. And they just did not fight to live, but they fought to win. And they defeated the mighty Mughals. On learning the news, Shivaji Maharaj was deeply grieved and could not help but utter words, 'Gad aala pun Sinha gela'. He renamed the Kondana after Tanaji Malusare as 'Sinhagad'. 

There is a great lesson in the story. If you have other options, you will simply quit and chose the easier option. But if your all options are cut then you do all the possible things because you simply are aware that all other options are cut. Business is similar. If you have options, you would just run around. Quit and seek the easy way. 

Time is Cake. Timing Is Icing On The Cake!

There are many things on Time Management. But few highlight or know the importance of Timing. The only time, I remember people appreciating timing is while watching a cricket match. When someone like Kohli uses delicate hands and times the ball perfectly so that it zips past the cover fielder and reaches boundary before anybody knows. That is the timing. Had it been stroked a few microseconds early or late, it would have ended elsewhere. Or when somebody waits till the last moment to counter the opponent's move by surprising him. Timing is doing the right thing at the right time to affect the maximum damage utilizing the minimum resources. Each and every word is important in this. 

Timing may be a part of strategy which will help David go past that Goliath. This might sound somewhat filmy but just remember the scene in the films when a rope tied to a tree right across the road is pulled to trip down the horses or men. Timing is a player like Rahul Dravid or Anil Kumble, do did not get their due just because they were in the age of someone who is God of Cricket. Timing's importance is undermined just because it's sibling Time is so important. Every body focuses on time. In general, offices start around 9-9.30 in the morning. That is the maximum rush time. If you start early just by 10-15 minutes, you can save precious 30-40 minutes simply because you are ahead of the crowd. You can simply reach office early and prepare for your day. 

Procrastination can tell you more about timing. When we procrastinate, it is opposite of timing. Remember that if you do not rectify the small mistake, a hill might be created out of a mole within no time. That is why it is necessary to timely rectify the small mistakes. Preventive Maintenance is one such activity which is about rectifying small mistakes and keeping machines in best shape. Timing is also important when you call your customers. If you call them when he might not be at his work or he might be in a meeting, the call may not bring in the results that you wanted. Remember to call them in a time when they might be ready to take action. If you are looking for order, call them when they might be comfortable to look at the inventory. If you are looking for payment, ask them in the morning or afternoon, so that they might take the action and immediately send someone with payment or transfer payment. Timing is the Key to achieve something big with limited resources. 

Resource Allocation

Resources is a limited commodity. Everybody has limited resource. Take most of the companies and they will tell that their cash flow is very tight and that they need money. Unless of course, they have reached a steady state. A state from which they do not want to grow, but just want to consolidate. For someone, 1 lac might be a big amount but for some other person even 10 crore is small amount. All these definitions change with time and from person to person. But for all those persons, one thing is constant that they feel that they need more money. The fact is that your point of view changes as soon as you see money flowing in. If you want to start a project with Rs. 5 lakh but you get Rs. 20 lakh, the plan changes. May be your project remains the same, but the execution style will change. When resources are scarce, you tend to make good utilization of them. However, if the same resources are plenty, the efficiency reduces.

To make my basic point about today's topic, I would give one hypothetical example. A & B start a project with same amount 5 lac. But by the end of the year, A is struggling, while B has grown into 20 lac enterprise. While the reasons might be different, but main factor could be optimum use of resource. I have written this example in one of my earlier blogs too, but this example is special. When IPL had just started, Bangalore's team was mocked as a Test team by many. In the second IPL, Rahul Dravid was leading the side. I don't remember the exact numbers, but Bangalore had lost too many matches. Probably, 7 out of the 8 matches. Then, management changed things. They brought Kumble as captain. And with the same resources, Kumble won many of the next games to finish in the Top 4. This is what I call proper use of resources. There is nothing to take away from Rahul Dravid as he latter proved himself to be made of same stuff with Jaipur. 

There are similar cases when people with enough money have launched such businesses that they failed miserably. While there are other people who started with very limited resource, but have rose like a star. 

Miracles? How Do They Happen?

Heard about the book 'The Secret'? It was all about Law of Attraction. Many people must have seen the movie, read the book, but many fail to apply it. It is just because they don't do anything wholeheartedly. You will try something for about a week and then just leave it. Rome was not build in a day. And you want your desires to be built in a day. It is not easy to climb to the top. And it is harder to remain at the top. At each stage, there are ifs and buts. For climbing to the top, there are different steps and it is here that you have to pass each step to reach the top. First and foremost, you must decide first that you want to reach the top. Then only you will actually get a goal. Once you have your goal / dream set, you have to think about it. You need to do something to reach there. You need to make a plan and take action. Only then will the dream fructify. 

But even if you do not have the plan and have dream, you can think about the dream again and again. Do not forget that you have given too much of energy to your fears. The fears because of which you have not been able to go on the path to the top. The fears might be different for each person. But you give in to that fear and then do not take that action. Even if you don't see anything concrete, you will get some opportunities. It is only a matter of clarity in thought that you will be able to recognize the opportunities. Once you have recognized the opportunities, you also need to have talent or learn something about the opportunity. Then you need to take action to profit from the opportunity. When you have reached the top using the opportunity, only then you can think that your dream has been completed. 

If you give in to your fears, you will go nowhere. Instead of giving your energy to the fears, give it all to your dreams. Enliven them in your thought. And meditate often to clear your thoughts. This is a process. When you enliven your dream, your subconscious mind begins to feel it. It will begin to believe in your dreams. And it will do what it takes for you to reach there. To understand the messages, you will need to keep your mind clean. Keep yourself free from clutters, as far as possible. And last but not the least, Take Massive Action When Opportunity Presents Itself. 

Should You Have A Side Hustle OR Focus On What You Have At Hand

Grant Cardone! Ever heard this name. If not, search on the internet and you will find his name. He is the author of the book - 10 X rule. His book focuses on how to evolve your business 10 times as fast as what it is now. He says that you must have a die hard passion for what you are doing. The book focuses on Massive Action for whatever you want to do. The first step is as usual - To identify a goal. Next is to have a plan in place. And the third but the most important and the obvious one is Massive Action. Without Action, you will achieve nothing. And for this you need to focus on one and only one thing. 

There is second thought, however. I don't remember the author, but it is probably Kiyoski OR Investment Guru Buffet. He says that you must have multiple stream of incomes. When this happens, you will not be dependent on one source just in case it fails. It can also be called as Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Multiple stream of incomes can include anything - side hustle, part time job, consultancy, royalty, investment, income through assets, shares or alternative investments, etc. 

You might agree with both thought processes. And both thoughts are powerful too. I personally believe that everything can be a success if proper time and efforts are given to any task. Unless of course, nature, government, rules or technology interferes and changes your world upside down. For this second reason, I recommend the second thought. However, to put it in perspective it is also necessary to give some time to it. What can you about it? See if the below thought provokes you.

You must be doing something which will take your maximum time and is your primary work giving you primary income. To have some secondary source of income, you must first build assets instead of spending on liabilities or what you call as 'spending on your needs rather than wants'. Once your assets are build, they should give you income which will be more than your needful expenses. This will give you financial freedom. If you want to do something part time or side business, then you must give it time. Unless, you have something automated or you have some person/team/system in place to take care of your side business/income. You must strictly follow the rules for that. Either you give a couple of hours daily or you give continuous block of time on your holiday. Even if you give 7-8 hours on weekend, you would be working close to 25-30 hours in a month. This is not a very small time. Think about it.

Why Positive Self Talk Is Important?

Have you watched movie 'Taare Zameen Par'? It is Amir Khan movie with Amir in supporting role. Yes, the main hero of the film is the child. In that movie, Amir tries to explain the condition of the child to his parents. The child's results in studies are not so good and are pale in comparison to his brother's. He is not able to understand because of his condition dyslexia. The parents are not happy at this as they don't know the condition and are seeing only the results of the child. They are constantly scolding the child. In one of the scenes, Amir explains to the father a system followed in South African tribe. Whenever the tribe had to cut a tree, they won't cut it directly. Before cutting the tree, all people would surround it. After that they will give all kinds of abuses *basically negative talk*, to the tree and return after a few days. Believe it or not, after a few days even a greener tree would have turned into a dry brown tree which is ready to fall. 

The effect of the negative talk is so much that even a tree cannot accept it. You might also like to hear stories of the nursery's where some good music or Om sound is being played and the effect is phenomenal. The plants show a marked improvement in good environment. When a tree or a plant shows such marked effect of the good & bad environments, how about the human mind. It is much more sharper than the tree. When there is bad / negative environment - be it at home, at work, in your neighborhood, or at other places that you visit - it is bound to affect your work. Remember the often said lines - Aaj mera dimag kam nahi kar raha. 

What others say is not in your hands? Of course, to some extent it is. If we talk with a smile, normally we will get back a smile. And if we talk in rude way, it will be greeted in a rude way. But the most important part comes when there is criticism and negative talk around you and it gets into your head. In such times, it is extremely important that you talk positively to yourself. This positive talk will instill confidence in your mind and you will be taken out of the negative effect. 

Productivity Tip

I don't remember whether I have written this earlier. But I remembered this tip now and thought to share it here. I think I read this in some book or book summary which was a special productivity book. The book was written at a time when there were no cell phones available. The internet also had a limited penetration. However, today it is a different case. Today, there is internet everywhere. There are smartphones all over. Smart phones today are available at a cost lesser than what feature phones cost when they were ruling. I remember, I bought a phone of 3315 - the most run phone during those times - 2003 and it cost around 5000 bucks. Today, you get a smart phone in that money and you also get Jio 4G which is at good speed. This has increased the smartphone penetration in India like wildfire. This smartphone has made an impact on our life. It has addicted us to it. We are continuously looking at our screen for any notification. After 5 min, 10 min interval, we lose our comfort and tend to look at the screen. This can make us lose focus. 

In such situations, a tip given in the book can help us. The author suggests that we keep a bucket / pocket / book near us at our work place or table. You should break your periods into half hour or one hour no break periods. In this period, focus on only one job. Only take any urgent calls because it is a part of our duty. There are fire fighting going on in our job and for that call taking is necessary. Except those urgent things, shun from looking into your phone. Or do it only if it is a part of your task like calling customer or calling supplier, etc. During this time, there might be many things that might creep into your head. You might be tempted to look at those things. You have to pay an electric bill. If you don't do this, it will creep into your mind. You might think that you may forget this and so tempt to do this task. Here is where the bucket will come in. Whenever such things strike you, immediately take the book or take some paper and list them and put it in the bucket. This will enlighten you from the load that your mind has to take while focusing on the task at hand. Once you know that the task will be looked after some time, you will be able to focus and this will increase your productivity.