We play together
Help each other
We are best friends forever
We hurt never
Care for each other
We are best friends forever
We will come closer
As we grow older and wiser
We are best friends forever
Author: Madhumita Chakraborty
Are you a great leader?
Do you overcome your fear?
Yes? Is it what I hear?
Great! You are a good leader
Sharing makes you happier?
Yes? Is it what I hear?
Cool! You are a good leader
Are you a team maker?
Yes? Is it what I hear?
Nice! You are a good leader
Honest, energetic if you are,
If you are a good reader,
Sure! You are a great leader
Think before you say
Listen to all,
Think before you say,
As you grow tall,
Day by day.
As wise as an owl,
When you see to perceive,
Not once you fall,
Turn wise and creative.
Blabber gossip chatter,
The less you do,
You learn better,
God blesses you.
Green Marketing – Eco-friendly friend of industries
Marketing of environmentally safe products is considered to be Green Marketing by the American Marketing Association.
Environmentally safe product is not all in Green Marketing, rather we can also take this as a way to develop and promote products and services keeping in mind the rising awareness among people on environmental safety and their choice to opt for eco-friendly products and services which do not cause pollution.
The businesses of all kind and of all scale today should care to consider green marketing important because of growing awareness about environment safety among all.
What are the important facts of Green marketing?
The ecological marketing or green marketing is a child of socially responsible consumers and industries. The environmental marketing as it otherwise called impacts both the society and the businesses in the following ways-
- Reduce Green House effect by lowering the emission of methane and other greenhouse gases and lower the chances of global warming and its effects like drought, flood, and other environmental and health disasters
- The price of such products is generally higher compared to their alternatives. If they provide new environmentally friendly products at affordable price, then businesses win over their competitors
- The buyers should feel responsible and the businesses should be transparent while claiming the eco friendliness of their products
- Market of such products is growing as the behaviour of consumers change with environmental awareness
- Operating cost of businesses decrease as they use recyclable materials, hence revenue increase
- Can attract more customers and increase customer loyalty
- Government awareness programs play crucial role in making firms and consumers choose producing and consuming environmentally friendly products
How the businesses can market their eco-friendly features?
Green marketing can be in various forms as below-
- Reducing, Reusing, Recycling wastes, consumption of energy, using biodegradable products, consumption of water can help better operational sustainability
- Products that are safe, less toxic, made of organic or natural and fresh raw materials, help water and energy conservation are green products
- Green products are packaged green with recyclable biodegradable materials
- Organisations should promote green environmental factors. Non-profit and for-profit organisations do green marketing by donating for environmental causes, planting trees and by advertising for environment causes
- Importantly, green marketing is done by web hosting, recycling of billboards, and using chlorine free recyclable papers and dyes of plant origin are used as marketing materials
Leaving a clean pollution free environment for our future generation is our promise today. The businesses and consumers should be aware to make and use eco friendly products. Green product made from green materials and packaged with eco friendly materials marketed with safe recyclable items bearing in mind and reminding the environmental causes can give us a better tomorrow.
To know more or to send your feedback, don’t forget to email at contactareaderscorner@gmail.com
What are the Government schemes supporting Small Scale Industries (SSI) in India?
The Government of India encourages the growth of Small-Scale Industries (SSI) as this sector positively impacts the revenue and is the second greatest employer in the country after the agricultural sector.
SSIs mostly are in the remote areas and they promote the growth of rural and urban areas. SSIs play a major role in women empowerment, social development and balance, and the traditional skills of the artisans are highly utilized bringing in greater employment opportunities.
The Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act of 2006 primarily divides the SSI sector into manufacturing and service.
If you are an entrepreneur, you might like to know the Government policies that can support your business. The Government plays a crucial role in infrastructure development and making economic policy reforms to practically promote the SSI sector.
Some of the Government schemes in India that help entrepreneurs to grow their business are as under-
- Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) supports the entrepreneurs in rural areas and promotes employment of artisans of traditional industries
- Market Development Assistance Scheme (MDA Scheme) funds the publicity, international fairs, and so on
- Startup India started in 2016, funds the start-ups and provides online training programs
- Make in India encourages the investors to invest and manufacture in India
- National Skill Development Mission, Digital India, Tread Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) assist in upskilling
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana trains entrepreneurs
- Credit Guarantee Scheme supports the MSME sector to avail collateral free credit facilities
The “Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan” or “self-reliant India Mission” is aimed at making the Indian economy stronger but supporting the entrepreneurs.
Under the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) technological upgradation programmes are launched. The SIDO provides consultancy and marketing services, trains, and supports the SSIs to participate in the Government Stores Purchase Program.
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) provides financial support and helps in promotion of entrepreneurial businesses and the MSME sector.
MUDRA scheme, Mahila Udyam Nidhi, are some of the schemes under SIDBI supporting finances in MSME.
The micro credits are helping the unemployed citizens who lack collaterals to earn their livelihood and employ others as well.
Indian economy is now growing with the growth of MSME sector. The SSIs with Government assistance are bringing in economic reforms in India.
Hope the info helps you grow your business. Looking for more details? To know more or to send your feedback, don’t forget to email at contactareaderscorner@gmail.com
Advertising… How to develop and manage Advertising?
With the rise in media today, making people aware of products and services is easy and persuasive to initiate a purchase.
If you are trying to know how important is advertisement to a business or what are the easy ways to develop and manage an advertisement, then this blog would surely give you a good idea about the basics of advertisement.
What is Advertising?
“Advertising” or “Ad” or “Advert” is the form of marketing communication which is used to grab attention of target audience and promote products, services, or ideas through paid non personal presentation.
Objectives of Advertising
Once the target market is decided by carefully researching and analyzing the demographics based on age, gender, geographic location, income and so on, you may like to create demand for your product/ service to increase awareness and make selling easy. This is when you should choose to advertise. The target market, positioning and marketing mix helps to decide the objectives.
The primary goals of advertising are:
- To introduce products, services, or ideas to customers and to build demand
- To make selling easy by informing price changes
- To build interest and engagement
- To inform about products, the new variants, and establish brand image
- To persuade to like and purchase the product
- To remind and reinforce a purchase
Today, data driven decision making process helps to correctly decide the 5 Ms (Mission, Money, Message, Media, Measurement) highly influential in the development and management of Advertisement.
Where can you advertise?
You may preferably like to advertise in any of the following media-
- Websites
- Social media
- Cold calling
- You tube
- Television
- Yellow pages
- Newsletters
- Billboards
- Cars, Buses, Trucks
- Restaurants
- Buildings
- Printed media like Newspaper
Please bear in mind that today online advertising is the most effective form of advertising. A good knowledge of SEO and Analytics increases the chance of more visibility, followed by awareness, acceptance, and sale.
How to develop and efficiently manage an advertising?
While advertising, you need to remember the following steps to design and maintain the advertisement effectively-
- Put the advertisement objective in place
- Decide the Advertisement budget based on the stage of Product Life Cycle and sustainability of the product, competition, frequency of advertisement and market share
- Choose the advertisement message by generating it, evaluate and select, execute and being socially responsible. An Advertisement message to be effective should have well defined heading with subheading, an interesting main body which includes the key features, images in support of the advertisement and very importantly a Call to Action like a phone number or an email id or website url, etc.
- Decide where to advertise
- Analyze or measure the data available
Looking for more details? To know more or to send your feedback, don’t forget to email at contactareaderscorner@gmail.com
A Boss or a leader? Key skills that every manager needs to be a successful leader
Hey … have you ever tried to look into your self and find out how strong are you in managing people and projects at your workplace or how well do you manage to support your near and dear ones? Be it your professional activities or be it your family affairs, every decision you take depends on how you think and what you think. When you communicate, your inner self speaks, and your personality reflects your experience and ideas.
Have you ever felt the importance of being a leader rather than being a Boss?
To be an effective manager at your workplace you need to manage to take right decisions at right time, need to motivate others, manage crisis situations, control emotions, show empathy to your coworkers and finally strive to lead a group of individuals efficiently so that the resources are intelligently utilized in a stress free environment to accomplish organizational skills.
Most of our workplace experiences in life makes us conclude that we prefer to work under managers with whom we can connect ourselves. When a manager guides us and motivates us, we feel that our life is enriched and work more happily to give our best to the organization. It is the manager and not the organization who is responsible to make an employee happy and ensure higher employee retention in the organization.
When we get a chance to lead a group of people if we try to empathize other’s situations, try to motivate others, have a pleasant body language and regularly work towards improvement of soft skills, then we become a successful manager and a good leader and not just a stringent Boss.
Our technical skills will help perform jobs better so that others look up to us and can believe in our abilities.
What an efficient manager effectively manages to do?
If you are an efficient manager and a perfect leader, you should be able to-
- Work effectively towards the accomplishment of organizational goals by proper planning and by assisting in building right strategies
- Help the employees work contentedly by delegating the right assignments suitable for an employee with certain skill sets
- Manage to handle clients efficiently and directing and coordinating at various organizational levels
- Handle personal stress and change your behavior based on situational requirements and manage to handle chaotic situations in the organization
- Respect self-beliefs and values, respect the beliefs of others and value and motivate them to help them connect with you
What are the key skills that can help you become a good manager and a great leader?
Prof Robert Katz has primarily highlighted the following 3 most important managerial skills every manager should have –
- Conceptual skills help managers to understand the cause of a problem analyses and find the solutions.
- Human Relation skills or Interpersonal skills help managers to effectively communicate with people at all organizational levels.
- Technical skills allow managers to work efficiently with use of tools
However, experts also feel that the important soft skills that managers should possess should be as under –
- Listening skills allow managers to understand and implement a concept effectively
- Communication skills help managers to pass on messages through lucid language and perfect body language
- Decision making skills help managers to take right decision at right moment. Their experience and analytical skills play a good role in decision making
- Your problem-solving skills can help you solve problems easily
- Time management skills allow managers to set goals, prioritize and delegate work efficiently so that higher level of productivity can be achieved
- Administrative skills include participating in policy formation, successfully strategizing, controlling, coordinating, and organizing
If you possess the above skills you must be able to motivate people, manage conflicts, strategize, and get work done with optimal use of resources through your leadership abilities.
How do you improve your managerial skills?
Try to analyze your skills, practice positivity in life and work towards being a successful manager… be confident and you will realize that your organization and people around you really need you.
If you possess some of these following positive traits and try to nurture the others, then you can be sure that you lay hold of at least some if not all the above listed key managerial skills.
- Be highly energetic
- Be passionate about work,
- Be self-motivated,
- Be inspired by life experiences,
- Be flexible,
- Be honest,
- Be creative
- Be punctual
- Be passionate about reading and writing
Looking for more ideas or planning to share your thoughts? Your feedback will be appreciated.
Please email at contactareaderscorner@gmail.com
Best wishes…
Women Entrepreneurship – All you need to know to be a successful woman in business
Women take huge responsibilities in their life and are blessed with a wonderful heart to care for all. However, responsibilities and obvious changes in their personal lives sometimes create hindrances to their career growth. This ‘great at heart and strong in mind’ gender with versatile qualities often turn this challenge into an opportunity and establish themselves as a business entrepreneur to materialize their dreams of becoming financially independent, and parallelly opening scope for others.
Women though capable of multitasking and intelligently driving a business, find it hard to get the chance of upskilling themselves, hence lack confidence to boldly make decisions and try out any new venture mostly in developing countries like India.
Women in general are bestowed with the highest human qualities like patience, hard work, tenacity, conceptualization, and innovativeness. The most important elements of intelligence be it being practical, analytical or being creative are all the natural possessions of a woman which she learns through her life experiences.
The socio cultural, economic, and political situations play useful role in deciding whether a lady would choose to take up a business and if chosen what type of business would she prefer to do.
In recent times, due to great shift in the social concepts, hierarchy, orientation and general acceptance and awareness, women have emerged more strongly as entrepreneur and their choice of business transformed from mere minimal earning through kitchen extension to successfully taking up and driving technically advanced businesses that contribute greatly to the economy of the nation.
The Government of India and many corporates are supporting women through training programs and economic assistance to empower them and to promote an inclusive growth.
Women entrepreneurs currently contribute a huge portion into the Indian and world economy. Businesses run by women are growing at fast pace with more efficient women willing to take greater operational risks.
What is exactly meant by Women Entrepreneurship?
Women who come up with innovative ideas, plan, make preparations and step to initiate a business or adopt an existing business to earn for self and provide employment to others while running the business independently are the women entrepreneurs and the process involved is known as women entrepreneurship.
According to the Government of India, women enterprise is the enterprise which is managed by one or group of women entrepreneurs in proprietary interests where they should have a minimum of 51% share capital.
The common problems faced by women entrepreneurs
- Short of fund to run a business.
- General financial trouble.
- Hitch due to family complications and responsibilities.
- Dependence on middlemen for marketing and raw material supplies. The cost for hiring a middleman is sometimes too high and the overall earning diminishes.
- Lack of technological knowhow and inaccessibility to technical trainings.
- Dearth of family support and self-confidence.
- Gender bias in the society.
- High competition.
- Safety issues.
How the Government of India is empowering women?
The Government of India understands the importance of women entrepreneurship and strongly believes that a family or a nation may see an improvement in social and financial status when women participate actively in every sphere and moves forward with determination.
The Government runs training program to upskill women, raise their awareness and make them self-confident and independent through such initiatives.
Mahila Vikas and Mahila Udyam Nidhi are some of the programs to provide financial support to women.
Government schemes supporting women
If you are a woman who is self-motivated , high in ideas to start a business and looking for some ways that can help you make your dream come true, then follow the list below that will guide you with the existing helpful Government schemes.
- Stree Shakti Package is a scheme started by SBI to support women entrepreneurs who participated in the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP).
- Mudra Yojana Scheme provides loan to women entrepreneurs for small business and are available under Shishu, Kishore and Tarun plans based on the vastness and stage of the business.
The other schemes in tandem with the list above that might be helpful in supporting your venture are Assistance to Rural Women in Non-farm Development (ARWIND), Tread Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD), Women Development Corporation (WDC), etc.
SIDBI supports the EDP initiatives by the state agencies.
The industries in general dominated by women
- Beauty parlour and beauty products
- Kitchen
- Pickles and papads
- Handicrafts
- Garments
Presently, women are found grabbing higher education, technically capable to take more risks and more aware and confident to run businesses that require high skills and strongly create a niche for themselves in all types of industries.
The successful women entrepreneurs
Women being flexible, energetic, goal oriented and tolerant are finding more space for themselves and contributing more in the present socio-economic scenario. The successful women entrepreneurs in different industries are the role models whose achievements inspire many in their life (irrespective of originating either of push or of pull factors) and have already concretized dreams of many others.
The untapped potentials of women are unleashing with a boom and the economy of India like many other countries is highly dependant on the women entrepreneurial businesses.
Some of the outstandingly great women who are highly successful and have highly impacted Indian economy and who should be considered as exemplar are Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (the founder of Biocon Ltd), Vandana Luthra (the founder of VLCC), Indra Nooyi (former CEO of Pepsi Co, currently board member of Amazon), Aditi Gupta (Author, Co-founder of Menstrupaedia) to name a few. Their success originated from outstandingly acquired skills, confidence and hard work shows that “nothing is impossible to achieve and can be accomplished if the heart is keen to reach”.
Some great business ideas to try at low investment
Do you like to dream high?
Our dream comes true when we put all our efforts to realize it.
If you ever thought of being an entrepreneur and work flexibly, try out your creativity and be independent then here are some small business ideas for you to endeavour-
- Be a wedding planner or an event planner and you can be sure to earn huge revenue and open opportunities for others
- Handmade goods sell, dress designing are some other areas where your creativity can help you earn and employ other women
- You may try photography
- Digital marketing service is an increasingly growing business area and can help you earn high and provide opportunity for others.
- Practice your hands out and be a writer. Authorpreneurs have the scope to earn utilizing their passion. Blogging or publishing ebooks are the additional scopes open for modern writers
Most importantly, if you give your full potential, if you remain motivated and upskill yourself in congruence with nurturing confidence and patience within self then you are sure to be a successful entrepreneur of tomorrow.
For more details and feedback please contact us at email: contactareaderscorner@gmail.com
Crocodile’s tears
He once again requested, “Please Mr. Shopkeeper, give me that yellow toffee.”
The angry thrifty shopkeeper howled, “Go away. I told you several times that it costs a rupee. I cannot give you any if you do not give me money. I don’t do charity.”
As usual, he felt bad and slowly went back to the swamp at the back of the shop, where he stays alone. It is the only shop in that small village next to the swamp. Croco wanted to taste a toffee since he saw some village kids eating them almost a year ago while playing on the dry land near his house, the swamp.
Croco is a brown colored modest sized crocodile. He has a broad snout, a big tail and enlarged scutes around the neck. Unlike other crocodiles he is a vegetarian… yes, a true vegetarian. He eats only the weeds growing in the swamp. Croco has two other unique features- he likes to hear the music that the shopkeeper plays in the music system and always longs to taste whatever he finds the kids in the area eat while playing around. He has tasted two different types of biscuits and an ice cream in the last year. These he got from the previous shopkeeper who was very kind and who sold out the shop and has shifted to the city.
Several days passed after this almost in a similar routine. One fine morning as the shopkeeper shouted a little more than the other days, Croco felt very upset and instantly started crying loudly in front of the shop. He kept on beating the soil with his heavy tail as he cried.
The shopkeeper and the two customers present then were stupefied. One of the customers exclaimed, “I have never seen such a crybaby crocodile!” The shopkeeper said, “Hmmm… he is really very sad. I had been very harsh to him for such a long time, which I was not supposed to be. I should give him a toffee today. Come Croco …come, come…I will give you the yellow toffee!” The other customer cautioned, “Dear shopkeeper never believe a crocodile’s tears.”
However, Croco came forward and started dancing and singing as soon as he tasted the lemon-flavored yellow toffee. “Oh, it is yummy…Thank you Dear shopkeeper. I want to eat more toffees. Would you mind if I request you to give me one every day?”
The shopkeeper was so delighted to see the crocodile’s dance that he promised to give a toffee every day to Croco. The customers alerted him not to entertain the crocodile every day, but the shopkeeper did not pay heed to what they said and regularly gave a toffee to Croco. Croco enjoyed the yellow toffee and stayed happily.
As days passed Croco started to crave for and demand several other colorfully wrapped food items like the ice creams, biscuits, and the other chocolates to name a few. Initially the shopkeeper used to give him as requested, but later as he found Croco’s increasing demand knows no bound he refused to give him anymore. He said, “Croco, you are demanding too much nowadays. You should not be so greedy. How will I gain profit if I keep on giving you so many food items everyday free of cost? Again, the kids in this area are complaining as they do not get proper supply of their likings. I can only give you the yellow toffees daily as promised if you be sober.”
Croco said, “Okay…” and taking the toffee said, “Sorry, I won’t disturb again. I will be happy if you give me the yellow toffees alone.”
This went on peacefully the following two days. However, Croco could not control his greed. The next day in the morning Croco once again started demanding and this time he harshly asked for the new stock of biscuits. The shopkeeper got angry and rebuked him for his greed. However to the shopkeeper’s utter surprise, Croco replied rudely, “Remember shopkeeper, I am a strong crocodile and I will attack you and badly injure you with my sword like sharp and healthy teeth if you don’t follow what I say or if you stop me in anyway.” Saying so Croco without any prior signal marched straight into the shop and promptly clasped a jar of brown biscuits. The shopkeeper when attempted to snatch the jar, Croco became violent and threatened to bite the shopkeeper. The customers present there, and the passersby started shouting and throwing stones at Croco. Leaving the jar Croco then targeted to attack the shopkeeper and as he opened his mouth and attempted to bite the shopkeeper and tear his legs, someone from the accumulated crowd shouted, “Shopkeeper, you press his big eyes.”
The shopkeeper without a moment’s delay, pressed the eyes of the crocodile. Croco struggled to free his eyes but could not. He found the pressure on his eyes painful and everything turned dark in front of him. He found himself vigourless. The agile and crazy crowd actively came forward and tied the crocodile with a rope. Some continued throwing stones at the crocodile. The crocodile growled and cried out of pain. Realizing his mistake and repenting over the erratic behavior of his own, Croco sputtered, “I am sorry. Please leave me. I understood my mistakes. I was greedy and the result of greed is always unpleasant. Please forgive me.” The shopkeeper then freed Croco’s eyes and requested others to stop hurting Croco. “Then promise to leave the swamp.” Said the shopkeeper. Unwilling Croco had to pay for his greed and left the swamp forever.
How Body language matters in business communication? Tips to improve body language
Have you ever felt that ‘what’ and ‘how’ you say matters? Did you ever realize that our body speaks a lot about us?
Body language is the way to communicate with others nonverbally and with correct postures, gestures, and eye movement you may send out a message with more positivity.
Both your personal and professional life get highly impacted with how you communicate with others.
There are several instances that a business communication happens better when a verbal and visual communication takes place clubbed with a set of nonverbal actions. The level of understanding and retention increases.
When you communicate with your stakeholders, co-workers, target audiences, or consumers a positive body language ensures your dominance.
What is Body language? How is it important?
Speaking face to face in person or in video conferences is a stronger and more effective way to communicate with others even in this age of emails, chats, and text messages. It helps to create better rapport and engage with others more productively. But why so?
The leaders all over the world focus more on face to face interactions as this gives them a chance to send out and receive messages through nonverbal cues properly known as body language. The level of engagement can be understood through postures, vocal tone, facial expressions, eye contacts and so on.
The movement of hands, smile, eye contacts, and other elements of body language can speak a lot about you and be the prime factors for establishing ‘trustworthiness’, ‘friendliness’, ‘agreeableness’ or ‘power’.
If the words you speak does not match with your body language, then you may be wrongly perceived by others.
Your body language can
- Provide information about the real thoughts and perceptions
- Can express emotions
- Can either contradict or support a verbal message
- Can replace the oral communication at times
- Influence others
- Regulates the flow of message
A positive body language can create a positive impression in almost no time. Try and see how the practice of positive attitude can better your body language and hence help you carry a better personality; help grow leadership abilities, promote better coordination and discipline and impress others easily.
According to some business leaders, we may overcome the barriers to communication through a positive body language.
How do you improve your body language?
You, being a small or a giant business owner, an entrepreneur or a professional, should practice to better your communication skills through improvement of your body language. A business meeting or a presentation to a set of audience, or communication with boss or subordinates or co-workers may turn out effective or successful only if you follow the following tips:
- A calm face with a smile can help elevate your personality and create a positive ambiance. Your customer, or client or co-worker feels relaxed and engaged and this would help to discuss more productively. If you smile more frequently, you get more confidence and promote assertive communication.
- A stress-free approachable appearance can be attained and help avoid misunderstanding if there is no frown on face.
- A frequent eye contact can help establish trustworthiness and interest.
- Cross hands and legs can show lack of interest and confidence. Speaking with open arms can help establish openness and engage others better.
- A good handshake or a warm ‘Namaste’ can spread friendliness and warmth and encourage collaboration.
However, some gestures and postures may originate due to socio cultural and religious influence and should be understood and should be handled intelligently.
A good body language can show status, confidence, warmth, and strong leadership abilities.
Your body language is a mirror of your personality.
Once you practice decoding the nonverbal messages, you can enrich yourself and start sending messages of your choice about yourself. The brand of your business and of you as a person can be built and established with right practice of good body language.
Good luck with body language practice …wish you happy communications.
Looking for more details?
To know more or to send your feedback, don’t forget to email at contactareaderscorner@gmail.com
A Reader's Corner 