Contributing to the world

In whatever form you can contribute, you should give back to the world. Its not only good Karma but it also gives instant gratification with no side effects. Most other things, like sugar or drugs that give you a high, also come with massive downsides, but giving always makes you feel good instantly without any kind of side effects.

You can contribute with money and it does help a lot especially if you are giving to a charity with a clearly defined ration of overhead expenses and usage of the money for causes. You can also contribute in kind as in food products, clothes or whatever else depending on the charity. You can also contribute with your time. If you carry an abundance mindset, then whatever way you contribute, the universe will return it with a much larger positive return.

One of the reasons I write this blog post is that it helps me feel good that I have shared some of my knowledge with people. If you find anything that you like please take it and prosper from it. I am a massive work in progress, so even my thoughts are evolving as I grow, but one thing that has remained constant is the idea of giving back to society in whatever way I can. If you can profit from something that I have written here, I will be extremely happy to know about it.

And trust me, each time I am feeling really low, by donating something, I come out of my negative thought process immediately. It’s pure human nature to help, to contribute to improve other people’s lives. Was a society inspite of all the negatives we have and see everyday, we have survived because, inherently most of us are good people and want to do good.

Till next time then…..keep contributing

Carpe Diem!!!

The actual nuance of a identifying a Single Target Market

Marketing, segmentation, single target market

I keep writing a lot about the SIngle Target Market. Its a term I learned from Dean Jackson. I have known about segmenting and niching but breaking down a market by usage was something which appealed to me.

Now why is it important to drill down to a Single Target Market . Once you have been able to figure that part out, you can then work on the different media you can use to engage this person and then work on what is the message you will send through the different media.

To show a practical example. We were targeting companies for selling our services. Now you can choose partners in different ways. We first did a segmentation by OEMs. If they were selling a specific OEM’s product, then we thought we could make them a partner to sell add on services from us – but these partners could be in different states, they could be of different sizes – single person companies, large companies and everything in-between. They could be owned by men, women, public listed or private. So we decided to put the limit on minimum number of employees and maximum number of employees to segment further.

As we kept on going deeper we found even more characteristics that we had not even noticed when we did the general rule partners of OEMs.

So one rule of thumb that I have figured out , to identify a single target market , is to figure what other attribute exists that could make this data set smaller till it can’t be made any smaller. Then figure out how you can combine based on the usage and expand from there once you see success with one usage area.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Riding the elephant – knowing when to jump off

arrogance, relationships

I am big on relationships. Therefore one of my key tenets of growing a business is “Riding the Elephant” . Where you provide a symbiotic relationship to the OEM so that you grow your business while you help them grow theirs.

But times do come when it doesn’t make sense to continue to ride the elephant. Most business relationships work on trust and mutual benefit. if one of these starts faltering then the relationship starts to fail. Then it takes a lot of mature leadership and massive energy to put things back in place.

Sometimes the elephant starts getting arrogant or gets the feeling that they are doing an obligation by carrying you on their back and don’t value your ability to help it get the food. That’s when the elephant starts shaking trying to make you fall off. At that stage you either show your worth where if you don’t help, the elephant is not able to get food- as an example, then may be the elephant will stop trying to throw you off. On the other hand if it is able to find food on its own then it will flex its muscles to throw you off.

In these kind of situations its always a good idea to get of the elephant and find another elephant to ride. Sitting on the elephant for old times sake will only hurt you.

While its good to have long term relationships, the relationships should not end up being annoying and lame.When that starts to happen, it’s time to move forward.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

What does success mean for you

Lifestyle, success

Have you clearly identified what are the parameters based on which you will be able to say that I am successful.

For some it could be a house, for some it could be travel to foreign land. For some it could be aspirational – as in – not having to go about life against a clock – its for me – though I haven’t been able to achieve it yet.

I used to have and still have this problem, that my line for defining success keeps changing on a lot of parameters. Which is where my problems start. Due to this I feel inadequate sometimes with respect to people who have more material things than me and keeping up with the Joneses becomes a problem.

On a lot of things, I think I have achieved success when I look back. Where I have come from, there’s a reason to smile. But when I keep looking at the ever moving horizon as I move forward, it does get me a little introspective and low. That’s when I follow Dan Sullivan’s advice – always look back at where you started from and how much you have covered, rather than thinking about what you have not covered. Then make a plan and take action for the next steps.

But defining what success means for you can actually help you in prioritising your life better. I had these visions of taking my family to certain countries on a vacation. Due to that I took a lot of decisions, where I had to hold back on spending on some items which were not aligned with this criteria.

Dean Jackson has actually designed his whole life around this principle. I am still a long way. But I would think you should also start defining what success would mean for you so that you know when you achieve it. Otherwise you will be running after the wrong things. Let me know what you think in the comments section below, would love to hear from you.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!