The Business Bot

If you are reading this post, I believe you are standing on the crossroads of your future. The roads are marked: one way, the one laden with thorns, leads to success, another, a lush path of grass, to pain and the final, a freshly tarred road, towards dissatisfaction. How will you choose which path to take? Let me show you how you can select the right path and secure your future. Planning Backwards – What’s your Ambition? 10 years down the line, what do you see yourself as? A doctor? An entrepreneur? A DJ? Remember, you must focus on always doing something you love doing. For example, I love computer science and entrepreneurship, and see myself as the owner of a large tech tycoon. So, now that I have an idea of what I want to become, I will begin planning the journey towards that goal. This phase is called planning backwards. Here’s how to do it: NOTE: It is recommended that you proceed only if you have yourself an ambition. Only then will you able to ideally implement the following st...

 Being an entrepreneur in this changing world isn’t simple, it requires hard-work and determination. Not everyone has entrepreneur skills, but they can definitely learn it. In this article you will find the skills entrepreneurs poses, and the ways in which acquiring these skills will benefit you! Entrepreneurship is the skill that is extremely valuable to students in this changing world of education and competition.  How do they benefit YOU? Entrepreneurs possess a wide range of skills that help them overcome hurdles in life.  They employ the best strategies to curb the threats, if any. These are the Most Important Entrepreneur Skills: Communication skills Risk-taking ability Leadership skills Hardworking and committed Believer of their vision of the future Innovative/creativity skills How does each of the above skill benefit you as a student? Communication Skills It is very important for a person to be able to communicate their thoughts in a way that another person can u...

Hey there! I'm Hari, and I'm back with another useful post for you. In this post, we will be focusing on how you can push your sales and advertise to keep your business operational. I would love to think that you were following this blog until here and were able to start your business. (If not, start here .) So, What's the Deal with Advertising? Like I said on multiple occasions, advertising is the key to spreading awareness of your business and products to people. Good advertising will improve your sales, whereas poor advertising would spoil your brand. Therefore you need to strike balance between the two extremes: not too good, not too bad.  Timing also plays a very crucial role in successful advertising. If you advertise your product infrequently, people could forget your product even exists because you are not a very big business. Yet. So daily or weekly advertising would do you good because people are constantly reminded that you still exist. There are upsides and down...

Hello there! I'm Hari, a business student in grade 11 (I agree that I am running out of creative introductions... help !) If you have followed the blog till this post, you are ready to officially open your business. Yay! Confetti! If you haven't, begin here . But - there's always the big ' but ' - here are some things you need to remember before and when you are opening your business. This short post will discuss the same with you. Plan for the Big Day As you might have noticed, the entire process of starting a business relies on rigorous planning. So, needless to say, you need a plan for the opening day of your business too . Now, unlike conventional planning, this one requires a different approach, a different focus. Your primary aim is to maximise initial sales by attracting a large number of people. Now, there isn't a "most effective way" to do this, but I will surely list out the different approaches you can take. Build Hype If you aren't awar...

Hi! I am back with yet another useful post for you to start your very own business. I am Hari, a business student in grade 11. Today's post will be a short one and will cover how you can use word of mouth to spread awareness of your brand or product. If this is the first post you are reading, I would really suggest you start your journey at this post . However, if you have been following the blog so far, I will take you through the different ways you can achieve word of mouth. Without any further ado, let's get right into it, shall we? Well, What is Word of Mouth? Word of mouth, as the name suggests, is a way of orally communicating something to people. It is effective because of the following reasons: First-hand information can be passed on. Responses and reactions can be observed. You communicate with your network, and they in turn communicate with their networks. More people can be reached using this means. Word of mouth is used for promoting your brand or product. It will w...

Welcome back! I am Hari, a business student in Grade 11. You're reading the fourth post in a series of 9 posts. If you have no clue as to what we are discussing here, you can begin with this post . In today's post, I will be covering the importance of marketing and promoting your products to push off sales.  The Marketing Mix (4 P's) Think of it as a cake. Each element in the marketing mix can relate to an ingredient in this analogy. Here's a picture to better represent this analogy: Product You must focus on how to create a widely accepted product. For this, you must understand the tastes and preferences of the customers. For help, check out this post . Not only does the product have to be satisfactory; it should attract the attention of the customers. One way to do that is through the packaging. The first appearance of the product must strike the customer with a positive impression of it. However, a lot of factors have to be considered for packaging: Is it logical for...

Hello there, I am Hari, a business student in Grade 11. If you have read my previous posts, this one will take you shopping for the necessary equipment and supplies for your first business.   If you're new here and know nothing about how to start your first business, I would highly recommend you start at this post . I will assume that you (like me) are on a tight budget, and can't afford expensive equipment and supplies. I will show you how you can make an ideal purchase that doesn't dig deep into your pockets. The tips I am going to share with you can be used whenever you want to make a smart purchase. Introduction  Like I mentioned in my previous post , a business exists to satisfy the needs and wants of people. They combine resources known as the Factors of Production  to come up with either a physical product (also called goods) or an intangible service . To convert raw material into finished goods, a product undergoes what is called production. To ensure a constant s...

Hello,  I'm Hari, a student in Grade 11.  In my previous post , I explained how you can write a successful business plan, and why it is necessary. In today's post, I will be explaining how to conduct market research for your first business. If you are a beginner, don't worry. I'm assuming that you have no prior knowledge of what I'm about to explain. As I clearly mentioned in my title, I will be focusing this post on the Questionnaire strategy. However, I will explain the other strategies too, just for some context as to why I chose Questionnaires. What is Market Research? You may already know that a business's primary goal is to satisfy a customer's needs and wants. So, to release a new product into a market, a business needs to conduct some prior research to understand the tastes and preferences of the customers. This process of obtaining information to assess the tastes of the consumers is known as Market Research. This can be conducted in the following w...

Hi, I'm Hari, a student in Grade 11.  This post is the first in a series of 9 posts.  If you have taken the time to click on this post, I take it that you are here to learn how to write a business plan for your first business. I am not going to disappoint you! I'll assume that you are a complete beginner with no knowledge about how to write such documents. Just so you know, a  business plan is written to help entrepreneurs plan for the future of their business.  Together, we will go through how to write a successful business plan, and I will also show you the one I made for my business, The iKeme Store . What is a Business Plan? A business plan is a formal document that points out the financial objectives and operations of a business.  Mind you, I used the word  formal , not  legal . It is perfectly legal to run a business without a business plan. However, running a business without a plan is like driving without deciding an end destination.  You ...