Starting a New Business?

People often ask me about things to be kept in mind or precautions to be taken if they are starting with a new venture. Starting a business is a multi-step process that can feel overwhelming when you're on your own, but I will make it easy to stay organized and on track while you start your business. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and I was surfing the Internet when I landed on this page which had 10 most common mistakes listed to look out for if you are creating a new business. Here I am warning you guys about each one of those mistakes.

Don’t forget to take the Start a Business in 30 Days at the end of the article.

1. NOT THINKING THROUGH YOUR BUSINESS NAME

Your business’s name says a lot. It’s the first thing people encounter about your brand. If it’s too silly or cutesy, people won’t take you seriously. If it’s too hard to say or spell, you cause issues with branding. If it’s too milquetoast (think AAA Towing), it’s easy to forget. Spend the necessary time to not only come up with a few memorable names for your business, but also to search to see if others in your industry are using the same name. Ideally, you want to appear at the top of search results for your business name, not 10 pages later.

2. NOT HAVING A WEBSITE

In this day and age, you simply can’t afford not to have a website. And yet half of small businesses don’t have one. Websites are no longer cost-prohibitive, and many you can create on your own with templated site builders or simple content management systems. As for maintenance? A little ongoing effort can go a long way in terms of keeping your dedicated website looking fresh and remaining relevant in search results.

3. NOT HAVING A BUSINESS PLAN

You might think that your little ole business isn’t big enough to necessitate a business plan, but you’d be wrong. Even if it’s a two-page document outlining what your business is about and your goals for the company, it’s something you can look to over time to ensure that you’re staying on track.

4. STAYING A SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP

By default, when you start your business, you operate as a sole proprietorship. But with this business structure, your personal assets aren’t protected. That means that if someone were to sue your company, you personally would be liable. You don’t want that, so look at creating an LLC or corporation.

5. NOT MARKETING

Sure, you scored a few customers early on, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need marketing. The trick with marketing is: you’ve got to do it when you don’t need it. You might be flush with business now, but in a few months, that could change. It’s what you do now that will ensure that you keep a steady stream of customers coming all year long.

6. NOT NETWORKING

This is especially true for people who work from home. It’s all too easy to stay in the office and focus on the business, but the truth is, you need to get out and meet other people. Not only can it help you find new customers, but it can also connect you with powerful players in your industry who can serve as mentors or help you in other ways.

7. TRYING TO DO IT ALL

At the start of your business, you’ll need to take on everything yourself, but many entrepreneurs make this a habit. After a year or two, they’re ready to have a nervous breakdown because they can’t. handle. so. much. stress. You’re better off delegating the stuff you’re less good at to others. Hire freelancers or outsource work to a firm. If you’ve got enough work and budget, hire your first full-time employee.

8. PUTTING ALL YOUR MARKETING EGGS IN ONE BASKET

Another mistake many new entrepreneurs make is using only one channel to market their business. But it takes a well-rounded marketing strategy, including content marketing, public relations, email, and maybe advertising to get the best results.

9. STAYING STAGNANT

Are you of the line of thinking that “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it?” If so, you’re missing out on serious opportunity for growth. If you continue to innovate, improve and expand your product line, and find new ways to be relevant to your audience, you’ll always remain competitive.

10. ASSUMING YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LEARN

Sure, you have plenty of knowledge about your industry, but there’s always more room to grow. When you stop learning, you stop developing, and that’s deadly for your business. Stay sharp about your industry and business in general by reading blog content, books and magazines, and by attending webinars, seminars and workshops.

I you are all set to start your business but just need some guidance, take this Start a Business in 30 Days: http://articles.bplans.com/start-a-business-in-30-days/.

Do let me know if this post was helpful in the comment section below. Love…BSR.

Defeat Negative Voices in Your Head

We all go through a phase in our lives where we self-doubt and act like paranoids. There is this nagging little voice in our heads that rules us. It tells us not to do anything productive because it may require efforts and there are chances that we could fail. It tells us that we are not good enough to do a certain task. So, all we want to do is keep on lying in our beds waiting for things to happen and life to unfold. And while we wait in our so called comfort zone, we end up becoming a slave to this negative voice and it starts governing our lives.

Let’s defeat that negative voice!

Acknowledge the voice

The inner voice has always been there.   Since it has always been there, we tend to go about life without acknowledging that it is actually there and what it does to us.  So the first step, just like with any problem, is to acknowledge it.  Be truthful and honest with yourself, as this is not something that can be easy for some people to admit, but it is necessary.  Once you make yourself aware that it is there and what it does to you, then you are in a better position to deal with it correctly.

Drown it with positive thoughts

Whenever you catch that voice telling you something negative, counter it with something positive.  For example, say you are supposed to go work out, but that voice says “no, we’re comfortable here, let’s not move”, counter it right away with a “yes, I can do it, and I am doing it!”  The more you do that, the more that negative voice will be eclipsed quickly, and eventually all that will remain is the positive rebuttal.  So in that regard, you are submerging the negativity with positivity.

Visualize your goals

Typically that negative voice is a direct result of having the wrong visualization in mind.  For example, you focus on how comfortable you are and that’s why you are less likely to move and go work out.  Now, instead of feeding that negative voice with the imagery that it needs in order to get you to do what it wants, change the imagery to what you WANT to accomplish instead.  Say you have that dessert in front of you and that voice tells you how much you should get it and how it will be good…think about that body you want to have and that feeling of being in complete control of yourself.  If you have this huge task to do, instead of thinking about how boring it might be and listen to that voice that says not to do it, think about the feeling of completing that task and how it will help you be more successful.  Visualization is key and having the right kind of visualization makes all the difference.

Afterthoughts

Think positive.  Life is good.  Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting pure gold.  Positive thinking isn’t about expecting the best to always happen, but accepting that whatever happens is the best for the moment.  So keep smiling and keep staying true to your heart.  Someday, the negative voice inside you will have nothing left to say.

What negative thoughts do you often struggle with?  How do you cope?  Please leave a comment below and share your insights with us.

I will be sharing a lot of other tips also during my upcoming event ‘The Power of Real You’ on 17^th May in Pune. To know more about it, visit my site: www.bhupendrasinghrathore.in, will love to see you there.

Love..BSR

Give your Career an Early Start

To begin with, I am working away and enjoying my time in Chandigarh and I am having super fun. Therefore I wasn't able to upload any blog in the previous week and I got a few texts over WhatsApp regarding the same. So I decided to take some time out from my schedule and say hello to MS Word.

I am a regular visitor of job portals and other sites. It gives me an idea about the current industry trends and I like to keep myself updated at all times. I also enjoy reading the blogs which are a part of these websites since they give so much information in a dynamic way.  So I landed on one of the blogs which was about all about ‘Starting Young’. It basically talked about how giving your career an early start in life can make difference and give you an edge over the others. It was a good write –up which encouraged me to search for all the biggies who started at a very young age and left a mark in their respective industries. So here they are:

Mark Zuckerberg

We love Facebook don’t we? So here is the story of all the hard work what this little boy put in. He mastered programming while still in middle school. He was making computer games as a 13 year old boy. He made a music player called Synapse at 16. He was brave enough to reject buy-outs from AOL and Microsoft. He created Facebook at 19. He became a billionaire at 23. He had been working for 15 years already.

Steve Jobs

This American entrepreneur, marketer and inventor who gave us our iPhones and iPads began his journey even before he entered his teenage. His first internship was at the age of 12 with HP. He started working with Atari games at 19. He was already selling his first product at 20. He had his first company "Apple" at 21. By this time, he had already worked for a decade.

Richard Branson

Here come my personal favourite. He started his first business, a magazine at 16. By 20 he had an audio record mail order company. By 22 he created Virgin Records. By 32 he had an airline and was already a millionaire. And all of this happened in a time span of 16 years.

Michael Jackson

The legend was an early beginner too. He was a part of a band at age 6 and became a lead vocalist by 8. By age 10, he was already touring and opening acts. By 17 he had released four solo albums and delivered a billboard no.1 hit as part of Jackson 5. By 24, he released thriller and won 7 Grammy's. By this time he already had a singing career of 18 years.

Christiano Ronaldo

He played his first club match at the age of 8, beat that! Interestingly, his father was a kit-man there. At age 10, he got his first league match. He got his first signing by 12. He scored his debut league goal at 17. By 18, he was signed by Manchester united and given jersey no. 7. Today, he is worth more than a 100 million$ and has been playing over two decades. Isn't he a miracle child?

Too much inspiration in four paragraphs, isn't it? There are many more on the list, but the point I am making here is that we should understand the importance of time. If there is something that you are passionate about, make an effort to pursue it instead of waiting and becoming a victim of the rat-race. Remember one thing that there is a price you need to pay for making your dreams come true. It depends on you if you are willing to take that risk or if you want to live within the boundaries of a secured life.

I am coming back in the city real soon and am starting off with a massive event ‘ONE TEAM, ONE DREAM - a power talk by Mr Bhupendra Singh Rathore’ on the 5^th of May. This workshop is going to be all about mastering the art of building world class teams and the secrets of keeping people connected.

To know more about it please visit my site: www.bhupendrasinghrathore.in ‘or’

Contact: Girish 8055572233
                Prashant : 9730180048

See you at the event and until that time, loads of love, BSR.