business

Making a Difference with Social Entrepreneurship

by Paul Joseph February 10, 2012 Featured

Jumping into entrepreneurship at a young age is an exhilarating experience. You feel as though you can achieve anything you set your mind to. And for many determined young entrepreneurs, that’s precisely the case. However, is building a successful business enough? If you want to make a difference in the world, consider pursuing social entrepreneurship. How is this different from standard business, you might be wondering? And what kind of change can you bring to the world through business innovation? Keep reading to find out how you can take your first steps into social entrepreneurship and effect real-life change in your community. What Is Social Entrepreneurship? Social entrepreneurship shares many characteristics with regular entrepreneurship. After all, it incorporates all of the standard business practices. However, it’s the reasons behind why one enters into business where the real differences can be drawn. It is the practice of applying fundamental business ideas to the task of improving the world around you in some essential way. It’s about social responsibility and community service. Taking Money Out of the Equation Unlike standard entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship does not focus on building monetary gain. Of course, income must be generated, but that money is typically cycled right back into the business to serve the greater good. Personal profit or wealth creation is not a part of this practice. All profit is used to generate social programs and enrichment for people in your local or global community. The World Needs More Social Entrepreneurs Many people around the world are suffering now more than ever. With economic issues come bigger challenges, like poverty, unemployment, lack of access to healthcare and proper education, and more. If there was ever a time to invest in a socially conscious business venture, it would be now. Truly, the world needs social entrepreneurs to fill the gap between federal social safety nets and the experience of the average person down on his luck. Why Should I Invest? As a young entrepreneur, you’re probably wondering how you can make a difference. After all, isn’t it enough that you’ve built a business from the ground up? Do you really have to serve your community, too? Of course you don’t have to do anything. But a part of being a responsible business owner is being a responsible member of your community. And being a responsible member of your community means recognizing when you’re at a unique advantage to lend a hand to those who are less fortunate than you. It also means knowing there is more to life than just making a profit. If you know you can make a difference in the world, why not take that opportunity? Use your business savvy to identify and solve a problem in your community. It could be something as simple as hosting a beach cleanup to as complex as funding a family shelter. Move on an issue that means something to you and that you know could use assistance. Doesn’t knowing you can do something to affect change on people’s lives make you want to act? Matthew Toren is an Award Winning Author, Serial Entrepreneur, and Investor. He Co-Founded YoungEntrepreneur.com along with his brother Adam. Matthew is co-author of the newly released book: Small Business, Big Vision: “Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right” and also co-author of Kidpreneurs .

Tagged as: become an entrepreneur, business, business-ideas, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, social-entrepreneurship, starting a business

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Making Sense of the Application Landscape

by Paul Joseph February 8, 2012 Featured

New year, new toys. Consumer electronics, that is. I’m just getting back and reflecting on CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the largest tech geek kickoff of the year. This year I got the chance to see the new consumer electronics and tech industry trends from three lenses: that of a journalist, an entrepreneur, and a marketer working with EachScape, an application creation and management platform. This year’s gadgets and exhibits confirmed the expansion of the tech market as a whole. This results in large opportunities in the application space, which is now trending well beyond smartphones and tablets. The result? The app landscape is becoming increasingly complicated to navigate. What is “App”lification? One of this year’s pre-show trend predictions from Shawn DuBravac, research director for the Consumer Electronics Association, was that we’re moving from “Amplification” to “App”lification. Amplification of a company or brand’s message used to be a top KPI (key performance indicator) in the digital space.  Now, content creators have the ability to use apps on a number of different screens in their audience’s life to create a robust and interactive user experience to share their story. In other words, “app”lification closes the gaps that historically have fallen between content creators and hardware or product manufacturers, resulting in a frictionless experience that seamlessly integrates with everyday life beyond just mobile phones. Emerging App Screens We are seeing the three-screen trifecta of the pre-tablet era disappear with more products being app-enabled than ever before.  This year, CES showcased everything from cars to toys to traditional household consumer electronics like refrigerators sporting screen interfaces with built-in apps.  With more screens becoming part of the daily user experience, there are an increasing number of creative solutions for entrepreneurs to consider for new products or extensions of existing products. So what does this mean for entrepreneurs? Fragmentation. Whether you’re creating an app that is your product and core business or you’re using an app to share content and market your business, you have multiple screens to take into consideration in your mobile and digital planning. You may decide that you need to have an application for every screen or that your target audience is primarily on one or two of the available screens. “Both on the business and technology front, fragmentation and mobile are two sides of the same coin. Fragmentation has many dimensions – the code (iOS, Android, HTML5 etc.), the type of screen (phone, tablet, TV), and the content format (video, photo, etc.).  At EachScape we are trying to help our clients solve the fragmentation problem by allowing them to create and manage across the entire landscape,” explained Ludo Collin, co-founder & CEO of EachScape. To minimize fragmentation, EachScape lets you create, customize and/or manage apps across multiple platforms.  As a marketer and entrepreneur, I found their solution to fragmentation issues to be the gem of their product. EachScape’s platform allows content producers with or without development skills to create highly customized applications that can be configured for the requirements of multiple screens, across iOS, Android, connected TV and HTML5. Browser Preference and HTML5 Apps Another emerging trend in the app space that assists with the fragmentation issue is the use of an HTML5 app, as Google opted to do with their iPhone app. They created an iPhone app that has limited functionality but gives the user access to many of their other products (Calendar, Docs, etc.) in their own HTML5 apps. In Google’s case, their iOS app allows users to have all their products in one place and then click a link out to the appropriate HTML5 app. In addition to iOS and Android users, we also see some users that still prefer using web browsers on blackberries and connected TVs. Apple’s operating system upgrade particularly encourages this type of user behavior by allowing you to save a web browser as a badge to your home screen. The Key Takeaways Expect to see more industry-wide collaboration and focus on the user interface in 2012. “App”lification is reducing barriers between content creators and manufacturers, creating a wealth of opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to get into or expand their presence in the app space. Lauren Perkins is the CEO and Founder at Perks Consulting , a full-service marketing agency specializing in the fusion of lifestyle and technology based in New York City. Read more about Lauren here .

Tagged as: applications, apps, business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, internet, technology

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Your Dream Will Die Without The Startup Essentials

by Paul Joseph February 6, 2012 Featured

I’ve noticed a great tendency among startup founders to ignore the essentials of business accounting in the early stages of their startup. Just because you are not profitable yet, doesn’t mean you can skip the record keeping. In fact, just the opposite is true.  When you anticipate losses for the first year or two, it is more important to properly document all expenses, including tricky ones like business travel, business meals, and your home office. Sloppy documentation and reporting of these expenses is an open invitation to an IRS audit, which is the last thing you need or can afford during the busy startup period. Expense accounting is just one of the key record-keeping requirements for a successful business: Expenses and income. You’ll need a check register, a cash receipt system, and a record of bills. Also you should include tax records, bank statements, cancelled checks, bank reconciliations, notices from and to your bank, deposit slips, and any loan-related documents. Keep good backups of all computer files. Corporate records. Include here articles of incorporation, bylaws, shareholder minutes, board minutes, state filings, stock ledger, copies of stock certificates, options and warrants, and copies of all securities law filings. In all cases, don’t forget permits, licenses, or registration forms required to operate the business under federal, state or local laws. Contracts. All the contracts you have, even expired ones, should be saved indefinitely. These would include equipment leases, joint venture agreements, real estate leases, and work-for-hire agreements.  It is also good to keep correspondence sent and received by mail, faxes, and important e-mail that you might want in hard copy. Employee records. Include here completed employment applications, employee offer letters, employee handbooks or policies, employment agreements, performance appraisals, employee attendance records, employee termination letters, W-2s, and any settlement agreements with terminated employees. Intellectual property records. This is an especially important category. Make sure you file a copy of all trademark applications, copyright filings, patent filings and patents, licenses, and confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements. Of course, these days you need a personal computer or laptop dedicated to your business with some basic software tools. You should investigate the wide variety of software systems that are on the market, and pick one you makes you comfortable, since you will probably be doing the basic data entry yourself.  This not only will save you money, but it will keep you intimately aware of all expenses and the condition of your overall business. In my experience, the most common small business accounting system I see in startups is QuickBooks Pro by Intuit. Even if you have the money to hire an accountant, you should keep a grip on your business financial affairs. You should be able to explain to yourself how much money you owe out to others, how much others owe you, and how much cash you have on hand. Don’t be shy about investigating local classes as adult education, or even a seminar with the SBA on bookkeeping. An accountant may not be necessary, but you still can’t skip the tools. You can’t walk in with a bag full of receipts. The more organized you are, the more organized you will be when presenting this material to an accountant. That translates to reduced bills from the accountant, and a reduced tax bill from the IRS. You will save time and money, and be more confident about your status. Good record-keeping practices are required to comply with tax laws, and to operate your business properly. When you incorporate your business is the right time to establish the records system. Don’t let your dream get killed by ignoring business basics. Martin Zwilling is the founder and chief executive officer of Startup Professionals, a company that provides products and services to startup founders and small business owners. Check out his daily blog at http://blog.startupprofessionals.com Read more about Marty here .

Tagged as: become an entrepreneur, business, business planning, entrepreneur, small-business, startup, success

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Bullets for your valentine (Fired from the internet)

by Paul Joseph February 6, 2012 Featured

Bullet Points that might help you decide what to gift on Valentine’s Day We’d all want every day to be a Valentine’s day but reality always has an interesting take on things. This makes it mandatory for us to earmark a day for love. So, Valentine’s Day will always remain a day when hearts pound hard and so do the ring of the cash register (now replaced by data packets over the internet).  With only a week to go before V-Day, one must have a fair idea about what he/she would be turning up on the big day. Lovers will gift flowers and chocolates till the times we run out of cocoa or something goes terribly wrong with pollination but with the advent of the internet, there are a gazillion other things to spruce up your love life. Here are some of the options followed by the ever  green   red options. Players like Chumbak or a lesser known but equally interesting Shopo.in come with a unique offering for Valentine’s Day wherein they add a lot more meaning to a gift. Shopo has an interesting serivce wherein LoveGuru Aisha would be online in the evenings to suggest gifts.” We’re celebrating the season of love which started from January 20 and we’re seeing amazing response which was very much expected. Usually it’s a wee bit difficult for girls to find something for their men but we have a special offering this time around exclusively for men as well”, says Krithika Nelson, founder at Shopo. Deal sites like Vouchersmate also have an interesting offer. “Our Valentine catalog for 2012 is exclusive greeting cards collection with selected flower bouquets and range of gift vouchers from top brands, a complete gift box for everyone you love and care” informs Amit, Founder Vouchersmate. And if you for some reason you don’t believe in gifts, you can do something special like go for a desert making workshop! This, if you happen to be in Bangalore, can be done at Chaipatty. And if your hormones within have started whispering about how experimenting can ruin it sometimes, here’s a more conservative list. Flowers The world’s flower trade is pegged at $100 billion which makes it very easy to believe that the first thing that would crop up in one’s mind when one picture Valentine ’s Day is a red rose (and a heart). You can always get a red rose on any other day but if you’ve woken up too late, you would be lucky to find a rose stem which could signify the purity of your love. Be prepared and get your flowers before hand from the likes of FernsNPetals. A TOI report says the highest price that a rose could fetch was Rs 36 last year. But the quality of these roses which have been stored and treated for the special day (to fetch rosy prices) is contentious. In this age where every Romeo, Laila and Majnu knows about the buzzword- innovation, flowers don’t fit in the bill. it always works as an accompaniment,  but you need a plan A. Perfumes The market for perfume in India is huge now where a luxury mall can expect to do a sale of Rs 50000 on a normal day. And a well informed decision about a fragrance can definitely earn oneself some brownie points wherein the polished connoisseur part of you is to be showcased. There are a number of e-commerce companies like Perfume2order catering to this need where you can find perfumes from a Chanel to a Nina Ricci. Perfumes might burn a few holes in the pockets but it definitely mends the heart. Chocolates The chocolate market in India is Rs 2000 crore as of 2011 in which Cadbury has 70% and Nestle has 25% of the market share! But the dark horses (or the chocolates) in these race are the ‘home made chocolates’ which are no longer only made in homes but have a very high gift value. Many ventures including startups like Chocofthetown have special packages for Valentine’s Day which see huge business.   Lingerie A bold option but for a fast moving India, certainly a hot topic with e-commerce players like Zivame and         MyLace doing really well. The discounts for the Valentine’s season are as high as up to 85% which would surely be enticing. And the other plus here is that both the parties involved so this might be the option worth trying wherein both the parties would benefit. Zivame founder Kapil Karekar says, “We started the campaign in the third week of January and the response has been overwhelming!” Here is a compilation of the websites mentioned in the article (the list is solely an indicator to the possible service providers in the various segments): FernsNPetals  (MD, Vikas Gutgutia’s romatic story about finding FNP),  Perfume2Order ,  ChocOftheTown ,  MyLace ,  Zivame ,  Shopo ,  Vouchersmate  and  Chaipatty .  Hope you find the match for your match! – Jubin Mehta

Tagged as: accounting, business, education, internet, learning, marketing, online marketing, social-media, unsexy-startups

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Did Online Marketing and Social Media Change 4 P’s of Marketing?

by Paul Joseph February 6, 2012 Featured

All MBA students, marketers, advertisers are taught the 4 (important) P’s of marketing. Invented in 1960s, these P’s have formed integral part of marketing education since then. All elaborate marketing plans for brands and businesses are (or were?) based on Price, Promotion,  Place and Product. But, with the growing influence of social media and online marketing, have these 4, well at least 3, P’s of marketing changed? Let’s look at each of those in this light: Price: This P of marketing says that you should price your products or services competitively across distribution channels. But do you really think you can do that when there are so many deal sites and comparison sites? Today, price is one of the major factors because of which consumers join social media sites – especially in case of travel. Aren’t companies forced to let the market decide the price? Additionally, with Internet, mobiles, social media, it has become very easy for consumers to identify inconsistency in pricing if you have introduced any. This can be very dangerous for the brand image because consumers will immediately find that out and even worse, talk about that more openly and to a wider audience. So Price can rarely be of marketing advantage. Promotion: With rising costs of traditional advertising and lack of ways for measuring effectiveness, many companies are turning away from costly advertising media like TV commercials or billboards. In past as well, many brands have succeeded without costly advertising and marketing. For example: With its umbrella marketing strategy, Amul spends only around 1% of turnover for marketing. When around 3.5% of revenue is being spent on advertising by fashion retailers, the popular Zara brand spends just 0.3%! Ferrari, the Italian sports car manufacturer does not spend a single penny on advertising space. They rely completely on special exclusive events, word of mouth and of course social media as their marketing weapons. Google started advertising only recently and Facebook also did not reach the valuation to the tune of $100B with advertising. But, with Internet and social media, word of mouth and forming a close connection with customers and users seem to be the key to promotion. Conventional promotion mechanisms are no more being banked on when the world has become such a smaller and well connected place with Internet. Place: Does place really matter in the Internet age? With so many online shopping sites, eCommerce sites, reviews and social shopping sites, aren’t consumers going on web for shopping? Most of the large stores like Shoppers Stop also have special offers for online buyers. I think, therefore, the ‘place’ parameter has seized to have significant place in the strategic marketing planning. Product: So we are left with last P –Product. ‘Product’ definitely has not have changed. No matter what you use for promotion, what price you keep and where you sell it – you got to have a great product. Yes, but one thing has changed. In this age of social communication and connection, you have to not only make products that meet the needs of consumers but also make them newsworthy. Today the verdict about product on social media reaches the consumer before the company’s advertisement. So make sure your product delivers the value beyond the expectations of the consumer. Users did not want an iPad until it was built but now they wonder how they lived without it for so many years. The key here is building great products, newsworthy products and enjoyable user experiences. I think Kotler’s conclusion “ The best way to hold customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more for less. ” holds very true – even today! : – )

Tagged as: business, culture, facebook, india, internet, learning, marketing, online marketing, social-media, technology, unsexy-startups

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Have You Made a Movie Out of Your Facebook Timeline Yet? Facebook Presents timelinemoviemaker.com

by Paul Joseph February 4, 2012 Featured

For those of you who are still getting used to the ‘timeline’ feature on Facebook, here is a way to visualize the feature in a movie format. Timeline makes it easy for you and your friends to browse through your updates and activity. Facebook along with marketing agency Definition 6 has launched timelinemoviemaker.com which enables you to watch your previous status updates, images and activity in a movie format with background music. Take a walk down Facebook memory lane by flying across your timeline: http://www.timelinemoviemaker.com/  and do not miss the updates you get when it renders and loads your movie!

Tagged as: accounting, angels-india, business, education, facebook, guest-columns, learning, lose-something, popular-on-cloudstory-in, unsexy-startups

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BombayMerch: India’s largest online retailer of Officially Licensed Posters & Prints

by Paul Joseph February 4, 2012 Featured

BombayMerch is India’s largest online retailer of Posters & Prints that includes genres such as Music, Movies, TV Series, Cartoons, Comics, Sports, Humour, College, Iconic, Spiritual, Inspirational, Art and Photography. All BombayMerch products are 100% officially licensed products. The money you spend while shopping does make its way back to the Artist or the Brand Owner. BM is now dealing with 4 of the largest licensing/publishing companies in the world that have given them access to over 700 titles to offer across 5 Print Categories. They also have merchandise such as wallets, purses, key rings, tin signs, fridge magnets and playing cards. Akshay Butani “I always wanted to do something myself, something different. I guess it’s in the blood! My father is a business man who started his own business when he graduated and over the years I have seen him grow. There are people who know that they’d want to become a journalist, a lawyer, or may be an actor.. .I knew I wanted to start my own company but I never knew what it was going to be about! So, I just went with the flow..” says Akshay Butani, Founder of BombayMerch. We at YourStory find out more about his entrepreneurial journey. So how did the business blood manifest? “While in my final year of IT, a few friends and I got together and started an IT company which basically involved us grabbing a lot web application development jobs from the US. And this really took off well! I always favoured ideation & business development and that was my job. I knew I needed experience and thus got campus recruited by DirectI in their sales department. At the same time moonlighting with the IT company that my friends and I had started. A year of no sleep! After bidding goodbye to DirectI, I went back full time to working with the other company, but, things had changed and I felt I wasn’t working with the right people. At the end of the day a united approach is what leads to a company’s success, and this wasn’t happening. A year after graduation I had learnt a lot in terms of working and growing in both an Organized set up and a start up. But, at this point in time, there was nothing else to do, no job or business. But, I still knew I wanted to start something, which was really important to move on”. How do you go from IT to posters? I didn’t decide I wanted to start Bombay Merch, or something even close to it. I am a complete music buff and I used to collect posters. And the thought just crossed my mind that there must be a whole lot like me who would want all of this cool stuff and this is where it all started. Here’s when the search started for companies abroad to deal with to bring in Official Movies, Music and Sports merchandise into India! When I found a company, it took a lot of persistence as they didn’t want to deal with a 22 year old from India with just about $1500 to spare and didn’t even have a company name! Yes, my first email to them went out from my personal gMail ID! Haha! But, it all fell into place and I had around Rs. 60,000 left in my account and so I emptied it! As soon as the order arrived at my house, I started knocking retailers whom I thought would be interested in selling the products I had imported at their store. And I guess, I identified the right stores and all of my stock was sold out within 2 weeks from the date of import, which was fantastic! Yes, for 3 months, I was using my home as a warehouse, until my mother threw me and all my stock out And this is when I realized this is now serious business. So, I started with 1 company and 60 products and now I deal with 5 Licensing companies and currently stock over 2000 products! How has the growth been so far? It’s been great so far! We started as a distributor and launched our End Customer Focused portal in December 2011. We currently distribute our products to select stores in Bombay and Pune which include the likes of Crossword, Rhythm House, Granth, Danaii. We are setting up a stronger Distribution Network to support organized large retail formats with all of our products. Turn-over and Funding plans? Our second year turn-over crossed 25 lacs. We are currently looking for investors to take Bombay Merch to the next level. The last two years have been spent on learning the distribution business and a good amount of time was spent on launching our end customer portal as well. The ground work has been done, distribution rights acquired. We are looking at exponential growth by going Pan India both online and offline. We currently offer 2000+ products and we are looking at doubling this number by the end of this year. The team I’ve been able to build has contributed a lot to our little glory! We have the right products & the right team to keep our customers happy. The feedback we receive on our eBay store justifies that! Going ahead, how do you see you see your venture growing? I started with Rs 60,000 as mentioned earlier. This initial amount is responsible for much of our growth. Just as any start up, there comes a time when the unthinkable happens. What I mean is you realize you don’t have money to buy a “vada pau”! Haha! It was in these times, that my parents have been my angel investors. 6-8 months into the business, I faced a cash flow problem as retailers enjoyed a credit period against merchandise that was initially purchased outright, and whatever money came in was invested right back in. The money I received from my parents helped me keep the company afloat and also invest in new product lines for the Indian market. The goal is to be a company to be reckoned with when it comes to Pop Culture Merchandise in both, the retailer and distribution format. Along with this, I’ve planned our own set of product lines which will be launched later this year. BM recently won exclusive distribution rights from a company based out of New York for the Indian Sub-Continent. The company is called DynoMighty which designs and manufactures wallets that are 100% recyclable, paper thin, weigh just 17 gms, expand to your own personal needs, non-tearable, water resistant! I am really excited about this one These are the sort of products we want to introduce in India. We are looking at launching this product line by the end of this month.   Please tell us more about BombayMerch Foundation. I personally believe knowledge is supreme. In the future we’d like to commit a set percent of our profit in providing free education or vocational education to kids/teenagers from families that can’t afford it. We do what we can now, there’s a Girl’s orphanage next to my house in Juhu where a little from the Bombay Merch kitty goes in to educating girls. And a handicapped school in Bombay Central that provides surgical support to kids from families that can’t afford any form of correction surgery or support instruments. At the end, the real pleasure is in giving. Bombay Merch was an accidental thought that crossed my mind. And it is just the beginning Click here to check out BombayMerch posters and merchandise.

Tagged as: accounting, business, education, guest-columns, india, innovators, learning, lose-something, non-tech entrepreneurs, password, robin-sharma, unsexy-startups

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Dell Social Innovation Challenge for Young Social Innovators

by Paul Joseph February 4, 2012 Featured

The Dell Social Innovation Challenge identifies and supports promising young social innovators. They provide university students with teaching and training, as well as with startup capital and access to a network of mentors and advisors. The 2012 challenge will present 27 awards, more than $140,000 in cash prizes and more than $500,000 worth of in-kind prizes. Five Finalists will be flown to Austin, Texas, in June for a Finalists Weekend full of networking and mentoring with social innovation leaders. They’ll pitch live in front of the judges for these Grand Prize Awards:  $50,000 Grand Prize  $20,000 Second Prize  $10,000 Third Prize Two Expertise Award winners (selected by judges) will also attend Finalists Weekend: $15,000 Best Innovation in Environmental Sustainability presented by Tomberg Family Philanthropies $10,000 Best Innovation Leveraging Technology presented by Dell 200+ Semi-Finalists (selected by judges) will receive: 1:1 Mentoring from DSIC-Certified Mentor to refine their project page and required Finals  materials (video pitch and project roadmap) People’s Choice Awards 17 People’s Choice Award Winners will be selected via online voting. $1,000 Each 11 Focus Awards 6 Regional Awards February 13 is the deadline to enter grand prize awards of the Dell Social Innovation Challenge . Teams are encouraged, but not required, to create and enter projects in the Competition. Students 16 years of age or older, who are actively enrolled as a student at an accredited educational institution that grants college/university (or equivalent) degrees at any time between January 1, 2012 and May 31, 2012, or have graduated with a degree from an accredited educational institution in the fall semester of 2011 are eligible to take part.

Tagged as: accounting, business, facebook, guest-columns, learning, robin-sharma, social & green news, startup, technology

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[Weekly Recap] Must-Read Stories this Weekend

by Paul Joseph February 4, 2012 Featured

Last week has been choc-a-block with activity on YourStory.in and CloudStory.in We spoke to some superstar entrepreneurs, superstar VCs, and learned quite a few startup lessons. In case you missed out on any of the action, here is a quick recap of the week gone by. Cloud Conversations: Cloud Specialist Janakiram MSV with Jishnu Bhattacharjee of Nexus Venture Partners Varun Singh, ScaleArc: “In the database infrastructure software space, scalability is everything.” 6 Startup Leadership Lessons From a Gym “My Startup Failed, But it’s Ok” Amazon launches Junglee in India: Doesn’t sell products directly 51% Facebook users are concerned about Facebook Timeline; reveals Sophos’ Survey [YourStory.in TV] Investments in E-commerce by Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India CloudStory.in Monthly Sum-up for January

Tagged as: angels-india, business, education, guest-columns, investment, password, startup, weekly-recap

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Five Mistakes to Avoid in Global Marketing

by Paul Joseph February 3, 2012 Featured

Taking the leap and marketing your business overseas could be the best decision you make this year. The economic outlook might be gloomy in the United States and Europe, but that’s far from true in the rest of the world. And for small to medium business owners, the internet is a relatively cheap way to tap into growing markets. That’s not to say it’s foolproof. As with any marketing strategy, it  pays to do your homework. We’re sure that Ford wishes it did a little more research before launching its Caliente car in Mexico. The name is slang for “streetwalker” – perhaps not the image most car buyers aim for! From picking an offensive product name to falling foul of internet censorship in China, there are plenty of pitfalls waiting to trip up would-be global entrepreneurs. But the good news is, the payoffs can be huge if you get it right. While the number of foreign language internet users is growing rapidly, most content is still in English. This means it’s much easier to rise to the top of the search engine rankings in other languages, simply due to less competition. And with growing opportunities in emerging markets, such as the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) it can represent a much higher ROI. 1. Don’t let your website get lost in translation We’ve all heard amusing translation errors, or product names that simply don’t work  in other languages. Anyone wondering why Clairol’s hair-curling iron, the Mist Stick, sold poorly in Germany should know “Mist” means “human waste”. And most users are turned off by poorly-written websites that are difficult to understand. There’s no doubt Google Translate and similar tools have their uses. But when  it comes to translating your website or marketing materials, it’s worth hiring native-speaking translators to ensure its word-perfect. Internet marketing or localization specialists can advise on countries to target and any potential issues with brand names or slogans. Don’t follow the example of Pepsi’s Chinese advertising campaign, which claimed the drink could (literally) bring ancestors back from the dead! 2. Don’t ignore local or cultural differences It might seem cheaper to set up a single website to cover France and Quebec, or assume your European Spanish site will do for Latin America. But there are significant differences in language and culture. For example a “coche” means a car in Spain, but a “baby stroller” in much of Latin America. It doesn’t take a huge amount of effort to localize each website for a specific market. This also allows you to choose products and advertising aimed specifically at each country. Plus, adding local references helps build trust and inspire confidence in your company. 3. Keep it simple. For small companies, setting up a foreign website is far cheaper than establishing an on-the-ground presence in a new country. But many fall flat by failing to have an easy system to deal with enquiries or take payments. If you can’t afford international sales staff, then restrict communication to email or online forms. Cut costs by using free translation tools to understand emails, then hire freelance translators to ensure the replies are accurate. And make sure you have an easy payment system – whether that’s credit cards, checks or Paypal. 4. SEO doesn’t always translate well There’s no point having a beautifully designed, easy to use website if no one can find it. Many companies think they just need to translate their keywords into different languages, but this isn’t always the case. Taking time to research popular keywords and commonly-used search engines in each country will pay off in generating extra traffic – and sales. For instance, did you know many Italian users often search for English words and phrases? Tools such as Google Global Market Finder are a good place to start. But remember, Google isn’t king everywhere – the Chinese prefer Baidu, while Yahoo still leads the way in Japan. 5. Don’t forget non-English speakers closer to home Around 34 million people speak Spanish at home in the United States. But if your website’s only in English, they probably won’t read it! There’s no doubt people prefer to browse the internet in their native tongue. A European Commission report found 82 per cent of online shoppers were reluctant to make a purchase if there was no information in their own language. This applies just as much to non-English speakers at home as abroad. Christian Arno is the founder of professional translation services provider Lingo24 . Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 160 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including MTV and World Bank.

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