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Read your customer’s

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WHAT IS COMMON AMONG TOP CEOs?

COMMON AMONG TOP CEOs? 

INTRODUCTION

Some of the most influential people like Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, Jamie Dimon are the most respected, looked upon, and powerful people. They are the ones who create a strategy, a vision and communicate it effectively. They are the ones who build a team and make sure the company executes the plan and has enough capital. They are none other than the CEOs.The chief executive officer of a company is the much appreciated, celebrated, and authoritative person of any organization. There are a few powerful and unique traits these people possess that have paved the way for their success.

QUALITIES OF CEO

Managing their EGO: They are wise people and know how to manage their EGO. Of course, they are determined people with some EGO without which they would have been able to reach the position they are currently in.

Touch of humility: They care for their people and always consider the people around them before making crucial decisions. They are generous and have a touch of humility.

Delegation: Delegating tasks is something that is a must-have leadership quality and our top CEOs are excellent in that. They are extremely driven and keep the team going.

CEO practice optimism: Staying pessimistic all the time is quite impossible for anyone. They do stay a pessimistic maximum of the time and are self equipped to handle negativity and comfortable in confronting contradictions. A positive mental attitude is something that takes a long time to develop and retain. These people are great role models for us to aspire and learn to hold a positive mental attitude. Their goal-directed behavior is one of the crucial ingredients to their recipe of success. They are good leaders and not bosses which has a significant difference. They concentrate on being productive rather than being busy. Gary Miliefsky, CEO of SnoopWall, shares his habit of kicking his day off with a strong positive attitude and gratitude.

Unique ideas: Thinking out of the box is another innovative trait these powerful men and women have developed. They always provide creative and highly efficient ideas to resolve any issue A great example of this is the outrageous ideas proposed by Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX. He believes and is religiously working in bringing his ideas like colonizing Mars and making space tourism possible through his organization Spacex which is too close to make this a reality.

Great at asking questions: Asking questions is great but a lot of people are good at this, what makes the CEOs stand out is that they are great at asking the right question that solves the bigger issue or resolves most of the issues providing a clearer solution. This is something they excel in.

Upskilling: They keep upskilling, learning, exploring, and raising their standards. They are always prepared to widen their horizons. They never stop learning and always want more. Michael Bruch, the founder and the CEO of Willow believes that feeling informed is important. He says he manages to spend at least an hour enjoying the technological news on Twitter.

Build allies: They always build strong allies and ready to work together to create a win-win situation. They are multilingual. This doesn’t mean they speak different languages. They very well know how to speak to people of different cadre. They always speak appropriately and differently with their family, employees, salesperson, ambassador, and the media.

Self-analyzing themselves periodically: They are organized, have a fixed schedule, and religiously follow that. They are aware that their strengths have bought them to this peak yet they are self-aware of their weaknesses and work to fix them. They are also aware of what they don’t know which is significant to improve and enhance themselves and work in their betterment constantly. Adaptability is another great quality they have, they can adapt to changes quickly and they welcome changes.

Health is wealth: They realize the importance of their health and ensure they maintain good physical and mental health. They watch what they eat. They always take their meals on time besides their busy schedule. They make their health a priority. They also maintain good and sound mental well being by practicing meditation. They always have a separate space where they do not think about their job, relax, and refresh themselves. They are physically active. They practice yoga, workout, play a sport, cycle, or just walk consistently.

Welcome changes: They are always open to changes and welcome them with a positive attitude. They are always ready to try new things and easily adapt to the changes. Acceptance is a notable quality we need to pick up from these great icons. Acceptance helps them to face challenges easily.

Spend time on their hobbies: the secret to their efficiency and success is that they are balanced and work on keeping their mind fresh and preparing for big events by allotting time regularly to pursue the hobbies that make them happy, inspires, and helps them be productive. Focusing on another activity for a particular duration will help them declutter their mind and when they get back to work they take their fresh and stress-free minds.

Punctual: “A task well begun, is well done”. Punctuality is such a critical quality yet difficult to practice. These people have mastered the art of being punctual and they utilize their time effectively.

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of common qualities between successful CEOs yet not all are the same. They have these qualities in different yet right proportions . We all look at their fame now but is a lot of hard work and behind these success stories. Though they are special in their way these are some of the qualities possessed by the top CEOs.

The market is full of people trying to make it big in the game. And since there is a ton of competition out there you better want yourself to be ahead of others. And You can find such important information for SMEs, sales, and market-related strategies and a lot of such blogs which will help you to be ahead of others with us on Insellers

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INTRODUCTION

Some of the most influential people like Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, Jamie Dimon are the most respected, looked upon, and powerful people. They are the ones who create a strategy, a vision and communicate it effectively. They are the ones who build a team and make sure the company executes the plan and has enough capital.

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Benevo: Providing Essential Life Skills

Benevo: Providing Essential Life Skills

Today, we got to speak with Ms. Soumya Jitendra Baniwal. She is the founder of Benevo Management, providing a comprehensive suite of training and advisory services.

How they managed it, what issues and challenges they faced and where they are headed in the future were some queries that we had and Ms. Soumya Jitendra Baniwal enthusiastically shares about her work with us.

With a rigour in her voice, she says “Being a woman entrepreneur, people don’t take you seriously. This is the first issue I face whenever I go and speak to the clients.”

Read ahead to know more about her journey as a woman entrepreneur.

Anu Jain:

Who all were the founding members, and who all were there in the founding team of Benevo?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

Two! There were only two members—the founder and co-founder. Soumya Baniwal, that’s me, and the other is Ashish Baniwal.

Anu Jain:

What was your idea behind getting into this business?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

I wanted people across the nation to understand the laws. A lot of people in the country do not know about their rights, which we believe are very much required for every individual. For example, we see that many laws which have been made for the common man, like the consumer protection rights, rights and welfare of senior citizens, rights and welfare of people with disabilities (PWDs), women protection rights, crime against women, child protection rights, POCSO, POSH but people aren’t aware about them. I am into paralegal training programmes and individual counselling and felt a strong need to develop a platform to cater to this need. The basic idea behind starting this company is hidden in the name itself, Benevo, derived from ‘Benevolence’ meaning ‘a humanistic and kind approach towards people.’

Anu Jain:

How do you target your customers, and how do you segment them?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

Our major client is the government of India. We are already working in three states, Delhi, Uttrakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. We don’t have to do much for our branding as we are renowned already in these places. We give weekly and monthly trainings, have a team of tele-callers, write letters, talk to corporates and the government. Post which we schedule a meeting and crack the deals. Sometimes it takes five days, sometimes three and sometimes the same day itself. There is no fix timeline to conversion

Anu Jain:

What is your go-to-market strategy? And is there any difference in your approach and the approach of other organisations that provide similar services?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

Well, yes! We have a USP. I have seen that people who train think that they have knowledge, so they can train, but there is a model for training that you must follow. LSRW i.e., Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing for their language. Additionally, we involve our participants in our training and design games for each and every training that we conduct. These are a mix of classroom games, classroom activities, and sometimes outdoor activities.

Anu Jain:

For sales, do you approach your customers offline, online, or both?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

We utilize both the channels as using just one is not enough in today’s scenario.

Anu Jain:

Did you face any major challenges in doing sales? It has been just three years since Benevo’s inception. In the initial phases, start-ups usually face challenges. So, are there any challenges that you faced?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

Yes, we do face! Firstly being a woman entrepreneur, people don’t take you seriously. This is the first issue I face whenever I go and speak to the clients. Initially I started the company alone and was the only one working for it. I was designing the content, delivering the training, doing marketing, sales, and everything. Now, I have an office and a team. But initially, nothing was there. So, people don’t take women seriously. This is point one.

And another is travelling. Travelling independently, alone, PAN India is again an issue. Apart from this, there are many other issues. People don’t take these trainings seriously. People feel that trainings are a non-productive segment of the corporates or any organisation. So, pushing them to release funds for trainings and employee development, instead of spending it all on AC and fancy furniture is actually very difficult. Honestly!

Anu Jain:

Could you tell us something about your revenue streams and what portion of it do you spend on sales and marketing?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

I would not be able to tell you the exact figure as usually the CA takes care of these things. But what best I can tell you, in terms of accounts, is that we do not come under tax audit right now. Maybe we will start coming in for an audit from this year, so we are hoping to touch that 1 Crore mark.

Anu Jain:

Who all do you consider your major competitors? Any other companies which provide similar services?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

Yes! Mentora, apart from them nobody as of now.

Anu Jain:

Do you feel that there are any other substitutes for your services which customers can cater to?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

Yes! Nowadays, people also do freelance training, and at times, customers prefer to hire them. Thus, freelance trainers are a big challenge for us. We have multimedia content and games for our training. In a male dominant society, at times, I am asked to explain to a male crowd, topics like ‘Sexual Harassment of women at workplaces must be stopped’. That becomes difficult for me as well. Still, I do my work, and I design games for that purpose.

Freelancers offer to do the work for lesser pay, say, Rs. 5,000, and the companies do it only to fulfil the mandatory requirement set by the Supreme Court. They calculate that if the guidelines can be met by spending just Rs. 5,000, then not to spend, say, Rs. 10,000 or Rs. 15,000 for the same. And they end up compromising on the quality and thus the target of employee awareness is lost. The problem is that people don’t want to create awareness about such issues. We live in a society where we wear helmets just to avoid the fines rather than being bothered about our safety. But the end target for us at Benevo is public awareness and therefore we welcome the freelancers working in this sector in our company. We work together in panels and design platforms aiming to provide actual trainings to the customers instead of just doing it for formality. Actual trainings must be conducted at the workplace.

Anu Jain:

What are your future business plans? Do you have any growth plans? And where do you think the industry is headed in the near future?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

As post-COVID, everything is in digital form only, so we are doing the same programs online as well. These are paid programs. For example, I conduct online trainings for Delhi Development Authority, SPIU Uttrakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. All of these are conducted online. But yes, being honest with my profile; I am in this profile for the past 10-11 years; I can say that the offline trainings for teaching cannot be replaced by technology. We are just running our business right now. However, our business is still not back on track due to COVID-19.

Anu Jain:

Do you have any plans to outsource any verticals like sales, marketing, or finance anytime in the future?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

We are already doing that.

Anu Jain:

So, do you think that outsourcing was fruitful for Benevo?

Soumya Jitendra Baniwal:

It’s a bit difficult to answer it right now as we are yet to check and measure the output.

Insellers

’ View on Benevo

Benevo serves a niche segment of customers who want to get trainings through professional organisations. It does not have many competitors per se. However, the freelancers act as substitutes for the training and advisory services provided by Benevo. Moreover, customers seem to be less aware and concerned about the need for such training and mostly do it just to meet the government’s mandatory requirements. Even the companies who take the trainings for their employees are sceptical about spending a large sum of cash on them.

Right now the challenge for Benevo is two-fold. Increasing awareness about the importance of trainings among the companies along with increasing their brand’s awareness and the second challenge is from the freelancers that provide the trainings at lower costs even if it is sometimes not up to the mark.

The first problem can be addressed by – Benevo could increase the awareness about its trainings through market research. They could conduct researches for the companies, highlighting the percentage of employees who think that they are aware about the laws and who think that these trainings are important for them. They could then use this data to increase the awareness among the stakeholders and persuade the HR department to conduct such trainings for their employees. This way, they could get the relevant data as well as a foot in the door in their target companies’ offices. Also, they could provide free demo trainings initially to those companies that might provide large business in the future.

The second problem can be addressed by – Benevo could also initiate different trainings at different price points catering to specific customer segments, to match or even beat the prices set by freelancers. Customised trainings for each of the segments may be done. As Benevo has already started with online training, it may leverage it to increase its reach and cater to a much larger customer base.

We wish Soumya Jitendra Baniwal and Ashish Baniwal luck for their future and hope that they accomplish all their endeavours.

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For more about startup and Growth

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Sell me this pen, can you?

For more info about SMEs https://insellers.com/blogs/business/sell-me-this-pen-can-you/

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Today, we have with us Drishti Gupta from Now&Me. She, along with Bani Singh, started Now&Me, providing a free platform to encourage catharsis and break the associated taboos.

For more info about Now and me Feeling software visit 

https://insellers.com/nowme-a-platform-to-share-your-feelings/

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Is remote working blessing or burden for companies?

Is remote working blessing or burden for companies?

Almost every aspect of our daily lives has been influenced by COVID-19, including overall productivity. The greatest shift has been the idea of working from home. About half of the country’s population is doing it today. The planet has never seen an exercise of this scale. Will work from home in its present configuration be transient or continue here? Can organisations see that as a feasible choice, especially with people arguing that the barriers between work and life have almost disappeared?  We see shifts in levels of operation, changes in daily routines, how workers remain on top of things outside of the use of work and productivity tools. Many major tech companies have announced plans to allow their workers to continue working for much of 2020 from home. Others are making the move more permanent. Actions are taken by some Companies:

Twitter

announced that jobs would be enabled “forever” to operate remotely. Facebook Inc has said that it will permit its workers to work from home until July next year while Google has prolonged the remote working time for employees who do not need to be in the workplace until June next year.

Negative Findings On Working Remote

In global research conducted by SAP,

Qualtrics

and

Mind Share

Collaborators, researchers surveyed more than 2,000 workers in Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States in March and April of this year. They found that the pandemic had an effect on mental health around the world. About 40% of people indicated that their mental health has deteriorated since the epidemic of COVID-19. (rephrase)

According to a survey of more than 1,000 remote workers by

Twingate

,

remote work leads workers to lose a sense of work/life balance during the pandemic. Their results include the following:

Zoom is the No. 1 video conferencing device used by remote staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

40 per cent of staff experienced emotional fatigue from video calls while working remotely.

59% of workers feel more cyber-safe working in-office than at home.

22 per cent of home-based jobs bought a VPN after the pandemic.

58 per cent of staff reported chatting about classified details on job video calls.

Over 1 in 10 workers got their video calls compromised.

More than half (59%) of employees felt more secure digitally when working from the company office, and more than 1 in 3 (36%) were more cautious about opening up emails at home.

However, remote job systems have one big downside: they frequently prevent companies from developing and solidifying their corporate culture. Business culture is fostered, to a large degree, by workers working together and participating in team bonding events and division-or corporate-wide meetings—so that disjointed departments will make this impossible to achieve. But how relevant is the culture of the company? Will it be prioritised in favour of the ease that telecommunications offer?  Work from home-based policies may have an effect on the growth of business culture in a number of ways. Cultural consequences that unregulated telecommunications could have include:  

1. Colleagues and teams being siloed from each other

As workers work primarily or entirely from home, they are likely to only communicate with their peers via e-mail and occasional calls. This is critical for two reasons—first, engaging with colleagues on a regular basis encourages expectations-setting. When new workers are constantly introduced to the actions of their peers, they are able to appreciate success and communication expectations even more easily than they may have been remote. Second, social activity is positively associated with job participation and happiness.  A survey conducted by

Gallup

of more than 15 million workers revealed that the people with the best “work buddies” are “seven times more likely to work, to be better able to engage clients, to achieve better quality jobs than those without them”  

2.Feeling of isolation

Although working from home at first can make life easier, it can negatively impact the mental health of employees. Humans are social beings, and people will feel cut off from seeing anyone. Remote workers are more likely to fight corporate politics, fear bosses say negative things behind their backs, and campaign against them.

A Study

of 1,100 Employees Found that Remote Workers Feel lack of work buddies and left out.

3.Enthusiasm for developing and growing a company is more difficult to cultivate.

You want workers to be excited about the job they do—inspiring enthusiasm through a scattered team is not difficult, but definitely not easy. When your workers are 100% inspired, it’s hard to generate passion for your service or product without enough social commitment—high spirits are hard to convey digitally.

Positive Findings On Working Remote

For employees:

Companies or employers who encourage their workers to personalise their way of completing work tend to have job satisfaction and lower operational costs. Let us talk more about the advantages that employers will enjoy from empowering workers to work remotely.  A

Glassdoor

survey found that 70% of respondents thought that their company had reacted to workers’ health and safety issues. Another 60 per cent said they can function successfully no matter how long they have to do WFH, and 50 per cent said they’re operating as or more efficient remotely. A study by

Citrix

found that 45% of workers believed employers were “fairly ready” for the transition to working remote, and 38% said the transition was “fairly easy”; however, two positive areas emerged in regard to how companies handled the pandemic shift to remote working:

91 per cent of workers felt the support of their managers during the transition.

92% of respondents felt that their companies took all the measures.

Fewer DISTRACTIONS

Sometimes an office environment can also be loud and distracting for some employees. For example, if one employee has a phone call, other employees can also be distracted around the desk. But remote workers are free of such problems. They can focus on their work for a longer time.

Better work-life balance

There is indeed a lot to talk about the quality of life at work, but few companies are effectively offering their employees an attractive workplace culture.No matter how much emotional decompression rooms, games rooms, and other perks are available, it’s a fact that people always miss their “me-time” dedicated to their needs. So, remote workers can start and end their day based on their needs.

Less Stress

Few are fortunate workers who have the ability to take a stroll to the workplace. It’s because of the distance of their jobs to the house. An employee who spends more than two hours a day trapped in a traffic jam, wastes work time and has a terrible quality of life, is expected to experience more health issues and frustration.

Cost reduction

If an organisation prefers to work with remote teams, monetary tools are used in the most possible manner. With fewer employees at work, the business no longer has to afford vast rooms full of offices, computers and telephones. In addition, you can also save on power, water, oil, property taxes and other fixed costs that are burdened by cash that does not directly benefit the corporation.  

FOR COMPANIES:

It is quick to figure out why remote working has become a trend in the workplace. The workers today enjoy the versatility of telecom transmission, which is more efficient and less exhausting at home.  Overhead avoidance is the clearest cost-benefit derived from telecommuting. Companies who do not have to pay for the office and supplies of workers will save a little in one year. In

one report,

an employee could save INR 8,11,784  on an average and save between INR 147597and INR 516589 in a company’s allowance to work just half the time at home.

Health care prices are lower: One research showed homeworkers showing 25% lower levels of stress, making better food choices and enhancing working-life balance. These aspects help workers lead healthy lives, both of which will reduce their health expenditure gradually.

Lower costs of travel: businesses that run will save on lengthy business trips. They will also use them as a tool that reduces employee travel and commuting expenses since they are already using video chat and online contact channels in everyday activities.

Improved client service: As clientele services improve because now people have more time to invest in work.

Employees Want Remote Work, Too

73 per cent note that they are very successful when working from home, according to a

Global Workplace Analytics

survey of employees working remotely during the pandemic, and 86 per cent say they feel ‘fully productive’ working from their home office. And of the 3,000 respondents, on average, 76 per cent want to continue working at least 2.5 days per week from home. It is obvious that people value being able to work from home. And as more and more firms switch to a remote-first or entirely remote model, job seekers are even more likely to find (and land) the ideal job-from-home position.

Blessing or Burden: A final word

The effect of Covid-19 on all aspects of life, in all nations and in all sectors, is seen by the world. The reality is that many activities and roles can be accomplished online, and much better with the help of technology and other interactive tools.  In terms of merits and demerits of remote work, Vanessa Tierney, CEO and co-founder of

Abodoo

, a data-driven matching network, concludes: While the challenge of remote work has now been revealed, the merits outweigh the demerits and push tech conglomerates like Facebook and Twitter to enable their employees to work “forever” from home. The IT industry moved to the WFH model during the lockdown very easily, delivering market stability to consumers without reducing efficiency or productivity, pleasing industry leaders and customers alike.  It has proven that with the right processes in place, businesses will prosper and succeed from anywhere in the world. Two reasons for this seamless transition are the rigid commitment of the IT industry to quality systems and the provision of bandwidth connectivity both from homes in metros and in small towns. Many industrial executives, who led their corporations during the 2008 Great Recession. One of these pioneers is Roger Neel, co-founder and CTO of

Mavenlink

, who summarises the unparalleled difficulties posed by most organisations as a result of the pandemic crisis: “Better or worse, this time of instability and significant transformation is expected to have a lasting effect on the way various businesses communicate and the way organisations work.  

What next???

After post-Covid-19, you can need to re-engine the company to minimise costs, among other items. Future work would be achieved by a mix of in-house services, home work, outsourcing, crowdsourcing, and local towns. The trick is to get the most optimal model based on many criteria, such as type of function, protection requirements, consumer constraints, etc. For scattered teams, problems like loss of coordination, security issues, preparation and on-board difficulties and burnout are more pronounced. If remote work becomes more of a modern standard, we can see these issues climb to the priority ladder for organisations that are seeking to evolve and move ahead with this new model. The way businesses handle these problems today will be very revealing about their future tomorrow.

The market is full of people trying to make it big in the game. And since there is a ton of competition out there you better want yourself to be ahead of others. And You can find such important information for SMEs, sales, and market-related strategies and a lot of such blogs which will help you to be ahead of others with us on Insellers

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How to get clients to pay the real value for your work

Get clients to pay the real value

The competition is fierce these days and most enterprises are vying for the attention of potential customers. The higher the competition the higher the chances are of your customer switching over to a competitor. One of the many challenges in this field is getting your customer to pay for your work. Your clients may delay payment for a variety of reasons, for example, they may feel that your work does not meet their expectations, or they may be trying to bargain with you and bring down the amount they have to pay. Dealing with delayed payments can be exhausting and if you go about it with no strategy in place, chances are that you will end up ruining your relationship with the client.

Insellers present some pointers to get that client to pay the real value for your work. Assuming that the product or service you provide is competent and meets the expectations of your client, there are some tried and true strategies to help you on this journey. Let’s dive in.

Convince your Customer

No, I’m not talking about convincing your customer to pay, I’m talking about convincing your customer as to the benefits of your product or service. Look at it this way, when surrounded by the range of products that are being marketed today, don’t you feel confused? Similarly, most customers experience doubts when they go through the purchase cycle. They compare the different products available and try to decide which option would give them the maximum value for the money they are spending. That is the reason why you have to convince your customers, do your research and know what products you are competing against and make a case for your product. Stress upon your USP and personalise your responses according to your client. Tell them how your product can benefit them. Show them concrete results, positive reviews from past clients or media attention. If the customer feels like your words are true and that your product has indeed made good of these promises, they’ll be more than willing to pay you.

Customer Service

Almost 86% of customers are ready to pay more for a better customer experience. Keeping your customers happy can have a wide range of benefits. The client’s relationship with the company can also impact his willingness to pay. A satisfied customer who wishes to remain a regular customer would not hold back payments deliberately. Go that extra mile for your clients, pay attention to the little things. They should not feel that they are just a source of revenue, each client should feel that you care about them, and special treatment and personalised customer service can go a long way in nurturing client relationships. Regularly check-in on your clients even if they are not buying anything at present, and they’ll stay loyal to you and hence pay promptly for your services.

Upfront Payments

Not many customers keep a log of all the payments that are due at a specific time. Some customers may welcome the option of paying upfront as it saves them time, and they don’t have to plan ahead. One thing to be kept in mind here is that not all customers may prefer this method due to financial constraints or because they don’t trust your company yet, so make sure you have other options available for them to choose from. For example, you can ask for a partial payment to be done at the onset and then ask the client to pay the rest when the work is delivered.

Reminders

This is one of the more obvious ways of getting your client to pay. Set a reasonable rate for your service at the very beginning of the agreement and let the client know when you expect to complete your work and when you need the payment. Send updates about your work progress so that the client is also involved in the process and along with work updates send reminders of the payment. Keeping the client involved can help boost client relationships and the timely reminders would prevent the client from forgetting about the payment. Sending reminders must be done in moderation as you are at risk of irritating the client if you overdo it. If the client misses the payment even after these reminders, contact them on the due date. Not all customers miss a payment deliberately. If they did not notice your reminders or if they simply forgot the date for payment, calling them up and reminding them can help.

Payment Plans and Incentives

There may be clients who want to pay you but are not able to at present due to financial constraints. Identify these customers and suggest payment plans for them, whereby they could pay the bill in instalments. It is advisable to use this method only with regular clients who are otherwise prompt in their payments. You can also consider adding incentives for quick payments. This can effectively encourage some clients to make early payments. The incentives could be a discount or a special service or a free product. Such offerings can enhance customer loyalty and provide your customers with a sense of satisfaction.

Conclusion

According to the latest BCM, late payments from customers are a greater challenge than a year ago for one in five businesses (20%). Six out of nine sectors (Property, Business Services, Manufacturing & Engineering, Construction, Retail & Wholesale, and Banking, Finance & Insurance) are experiencing this as a growing issue, while nearly a quarter (24%) of SMEs are also reporting this. The rising concern about the issue has prompted various enterprises to adopt traditional as well as innovative solutions. For example, many companies are adopting automation to send automated reminders to their clients through text messages, as most customers prefer text messages to emails.

For more info about startup You can visit https://insellers.com/how-to-get-clients-to-pay-the-real-value-for-your-work/

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Role of SMEs in making India Atmanirbhar

Role of SMEs in making India Atmanirbhar

“Atmanirbhar” is a Hindi term which means self-reliant or self-sufficient. Atmanirbhar Bharat is a policy introduced by our honourable Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, in May 2020. When the COVID-19 was engulfing the nations world-wide, and crumbling the economies like playing cards, “Atmanirbhar Bharat” was launched as a ray of hope. This policy provides a platform for the budding and existing Small Medium Enterprises or SMEs to grow and flourish. According to the MSME Act 2006, an enterprise with an investment limit between 25 lakhs to 5 crores is recognized as a Small Enterprise and that having an investment limit between 5 crores to 10 crores is recognized as a Medium Enterprise.

Contributing to more than 17% of the GDP, SMEs are propelling Indian economy with vigour and gusto. Last decade has witnessed a spectacular increase in the number of SMEs, which have grown up to approximately around 48 million. With SMEs providing employment to around 40% of India’s working class, the public sector acting as the only source of employment has become a thing of the past now. SMEs are capable of minimizing unemployment without much engagement from the government, which makes them operationally more reliable. SMEs contribute around 45% of domestic industrial output and 40% of total exports, thereby helping to increase the manufactured and export products. With appropriate support systems, SMEs can match the potential to serve as the manufacturing units for large scale industries, enabling the large scale industries to reduce their dependence on foreign manufacturers.

Setting up large scale industries demands a humongous amount of raw materials and well-established infrastructure, which restricts them to particular regions of geography. SMEs are not bound by geographies and generally need minimal raw materials and average to below-average expertise to set up, which makes SMEs’ establishment a comparatively convenient affair. Atmanirbhar Bharat policy provides various financial support for the SMEs, that helps SMEs to avail capital investment without much difficulty. This further encourages SMEs to set up their footing even in remote locations within a very less time. With more and more SMEs springing up in rural locations, the opportunities for employment in remote places are also beginning to shoot up.  This can help to reduce the poverty rate and curb migration. SMEs such as solar energy generators are environment-friendly ventures. With proper guidance and instructions, SMEs can help in reducing environmental pollution to a large extent. Especially in these times of pandemic, SMEs can become effective elixirs for multiple woes of Indian economy.

The Government of India has launched various policies and schemes that provide SMEs with the platform to initiate and expand. A government venture named “Indian Opportunities Venture” in partnership with SIDBI has been set up allocating around 50 billion INR to the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The Government of India is following a “cluster-based approach” to enhance the capability, productivity and competency of the SMEs. Around 20 items have been reserved solely for the SMEs to manufacture, providing them room to proliferate. SMEs are further encouraged by various accelerators, incubators and investors. They are wholeheartedly coming forward to hold their hands and become the guiding lighthouse of the SMEs, to help the SMEs through the initial course of growth.

The percolating mobile and internet network is further enabling the SMEs to spread their business both in rural and international markets. Currently, around 43% of SMEs are resorting to digital marketing, for promotion and trading purposes. Various social media apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc., are assisting the SMEs to reach out to their customers even in the remotest corners directly, eliminating the woes of middlemen dependency as well as geographical barriers. It is estimated that by 2022, the number of smartphone users in India will reach up to 700 million. This will undoubtedly open a wider market and create bigger opportunities for the SMEs to grow. Even the government is helping to equip SMEs with digital portals like Government E-Marketplace, which were earlier available to only big businesses. SMEs can avail big government projects by listing their products and services on these portals. With an ever-growing market and appropriate support available for their growth and development, SMEs have the potential to become a major stakeholder of the Indian economy. SMEs growth can definitely increase people’s purchasing power, decrease urban-rural income gap, encourage regional development and improve the overall quality of life in general. Thus, SMEs are competent enough to support the five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat which are economy, infrastructure, technology-driven systems, vibrant demography and demand, thereby making India Atmanirbhar.

[digitalarpit]

How Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the startup industry

How Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the startup industry

Throughout history, the world has witnessed 3 industrial revolutions:

There was the first industrial revolution which began in the 18th century which was centralized on the usage of steam/water as power. Then there was the second industrial revolution which began in the 19th century through the discovery of electricity. The third industrial revolution came in the 1970s with the era of partial automation and computers began.

Currently, we are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution which is driven by artificial intelligence.

What is significant about artificial intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence gives machines the power to think, learn, and act as a human could, which means they can understand the world around them, learn, and make decisions, and then take the appropriate action. To do all of this AI needs data and lots of it for that matter. And the reason AI is part of the Fourth industrial revolution is that we have data, due to digitalization we have data more than ever before.

AI was invented in the 1960s and it is evolving ever since, now AI can take real-world financial decisions, chat with people, play games against humans, and work hand in hand with them. You would find an AI-driven system behind all the real-world applications. AI works in a sense-think-act cycle with the environment. Artificial Intelligence senses/takes in the data provided to it, makes a decision based on the experience, and finally performs an action affecting the environment.

It takes the data in the form of images, videos, sound, text, etc., analyses this data using AI algorithms, and delivers AI-powered solutions. The figure shows the sense-think-and-act cycle for an AI.

Start-Ups and Artificial Intelligence

The technological advancement in artificial intelligence has increased machine interaction, business models, and the living standard of humans.

The adoption of AI is resulting in a world that is smarter and innovative. Screening technologies for cancer at Freenome, self-driving cars detecting traffic, face recognition on pictures for friend’s tag suggestions at Facebook, sorting in our email, and the recommendation for online shopping are some examples of AI technological innovations present in our lives. Artificial intelligence is spreading through the market, it is necessary for the companies to perform R&D with their product and service. This new necessity is impelling businesses, entrepreneurs, and investigators to use AI to uplift their business, new strategies, new business models, and new sources for business value.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the worldwide spending on cognitive and Artificial Intelligence systems will increase prominently from ₹8 Thousand Crores in 2017 to approx. ₹43 Thousand Crores in 2021. With this increased funding amount, AI is likely to be involved in more sectors. Thus, it becomes necessary for R&D to research the functioning of an AI in different sectors in modern businesses.  AI adoption by the companies will lead to the shaping of the business contexts. Prior awareness about the possibilities of AI would help society in adopting the AI-driven system.

AI and other businesses

Technology is reshaping all businesses. AI is pacing up, your business is going to have to get smarter. Every business is going to have to get smarter – from small start-ups, MSMEs to global corporations, and even traditional businesses. In the Indian market, businesses of different shapes and sizes will be impacted by this revolution.

Such a traditional sector like agriculture is undergoing some huge changes, in which AI is being used to intelligently plan what crops to plant, when, and where, to maximize harvests, which exponentially increases the efficiency of the farm, aeroponics is an artificial driven system with which crops or plants grow without soil or aggregate medium also referred as hydroponics or landless farming. AI can help farmers keep track of soil and weather conditions, and the health of crops. Data is even being gathered from farming equipment, to improve the efficiency of machine maintenance. Innovations of such intelligent machines are developed that can help in identifying and delicately sort cucumbers, picking up ripe soft fruits, and pinpoint pests and diseases.

This is the impact of Artificial Intelligence. All industries are evolving rapidly. Innovation and change are the new norms. Those who are unable to adapt to AI to improve their business – whatever the business – will struggle to compete.

Funding AI

Momentum began to shift in 2011 when AI venture capital investments saw a significant jump in the sector from ₹200 crores in 2011 to ₹1000 crores in 2016 and it was 1 lakh crores last year, signifying maturing capabilities and growing investor confidence in that domain. An Increase of investments into artificial intelligence continued in 2020 with funds growing by ₹ 1000 crores from January to July, despite the slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the Indian AI market is valued to be more than ₹1000 crores in August 2020 and this is the midst of the COVID pandemic, AI has much more to offer. Also, SMEs and AI start-ups are now pacing and scaling up with new technological solutions. Hence, we can say that all the industrial sectors are witnessing an accelerated adoption of AI technologies to ensure business growth and development.

AI and India

Advancement in AI is the highest priority, many R&D departments are working on them. AI has far more potential than we have right now, especially in the medical field. Healthcare start-ups are an important factor to our medical services and can provide significant help in the post-covid-crisis also some medical start-ups have received funding in 2019, such as Babylon Health, Tempus, and Freenome, which provide remote health check and diagnosis, cancer treatment with a simple blood test, and delivery of therapeutics.

The Government of India is now taking a keen interest in developing the sector and to create a robust public AI infrastructure for all. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has been working on a proposal for the National Mission of Artificial Intelligence. This project boosts the use of AI in India and was estimated to cost around ₹2000 crore. AI-based solutions like water management, pest control, and crop insurance are being developed. ICRISAT has developed an AI-powered sowing app, which utilizes weather models and data on local crop yield and rainfall. This led to a 10 to 30% increase in their harvest. The central board of secondary education has introduced AI into the school curriculum, starting out Python programming language and some prior knowledge of algorithms to ensure that students passing out have the basic knowledge of data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

The market for artificial intelligence in India is growing continuously. This can also be determined from the fact that the number of people looking for jobs in this field is witnessing a stark rise. Job search in the AI market has risen to 106% from June 2019 to June 2020.

Customer communication made easy

Customer interaction is the most basic form of communication between a company and its customers. Every single interaction between both of them is a new opportunity for the company to understand and satisfy customers and retain them. In the conventional process, customers used to interact with the employees of the company, holding the position of retail shop executive, salespersons, cashiers, customer relationship managers, etc. for all their needs, products, and services. The integration of AI to fill up the communication gap between the customers and the companies. This evolved customer interaction from human-to-human to human-to-machine. Intelligent Chatbots and virtual assistants are some intelligent ways adopted by companies to make communication an easier experience. These new ways are very user friendly, are efficient in solving delays, human errors, and gives out almost immediate personalized responses to the customers. Following are some of the examples of companies with their AI-driven chat boxes

Google duplex: For making real-world calls

1-800-Flowers: Order flowers

North face: Product selection

Spotify: Discover weekly playlist

KFC: Facial recognition for order prediction

Currently, the most advanced conversational agents can automate simple, repetitive, low-level tasks and queries. However, developers are on their progressive path to make them capable of performing complex tasks, understand language emotions and more importantly the problems, and thus deliver an efficient and satisfactory/contented experience to the customers. Several global market intelligence firms have conducted various surveys and performed research activities to analyze the present and future of AI-based customer interaction.

Following are some examples of Indian Artificial Intelligence –

·       Niramai Health Analytix

NIRAMAI is developing a novel software to detect breast cancer at a much earlier stage than traditional methods or self-examination.

·       CropIn

CropIn is an intuitive, intelligent, self-evolving system that delivers future-ready farming solutions to the entire agricultural sector.

·       Niki.ai

Niki is bringing the household consumption of Bharat online by building the digital localized agent for 500 million new internet users.

The market is full of people trying to make it big in the game. And since there is a ton of competition out there you better want yourself to be ahead of others. That is why research and read as much as you can.  We at insellers, have been doing a lot of research and carrying out the implementation with our clients. We tell you the not so often talked about inspiring reverie to real stories of SMEs and startups, to inspire the Entrepreneur in you. Check out our website for more amazing blogs like this.

The market is brimming with individuals attempting to become famous in the game. Furthermore, since there is a huge load of rivalry out there you better need yourself to be in front of others. That is the reason exploration and perused as much as possible. Be that as it may, we at insellers have just done all the examination and going around for you.