Buy from your friends

Yes – thats what I said. BUY from your friends. I say so because I saw a marked difference in the way my business grew when my friends decided to support it.

Dont limit your support to good wishes and motivational talks and FACEBOOK LIKES. Your friend is certainly a motivated person – why else would she decide to be an entrepreneur to begin with. Surely, she has a plan, a strategy , business objective and tons of self – motivation. Help her spread the word out about her work.

Something you may not know is everytime she goes to an investor , they tell her – her first few hundred customers would come from friends and family. And surely, investors are not bluffing it. They have seen the trend and they know this is how it goes. Why should your friend not get the same level of support from you that quite few  entrepreneurs around the globe are getting from their friends.

Generally, its our tendencies to expect discounts and benefits from our friends if they own the business for the products  / services we are interested in.  And its not bad. Ask for discounts from your friends. Ask them for customizations you need. Chances are they are in a better position to serve you in those ways.

Lot of times the situation gets comparable to elections, where lot of good people don’t vote thinking either they cant make a difference or they think someone else is taking care of it for them. Instead of not doing business with your “startup” friends – for any of such reason, do it for the SIMPLE one – You want your friend to succeed and if friends around the globe are making difference in successes or not of startups , then you dont want to be on the other side of the fence wishing you should have done all you could to support her in time.

Word of caution : If you think the product / service is truly something that you dont see much use of – walk upto her and tell her. Help her see your perspective. This is as important for her to know.

Happy Supporting!!

Getting in the Zone.

So – my bags are packed and all done. Am all set for my travel in the morning. I am tired but not sleepy.  This is the first time I am going to Mumbai  with a purpose  – a purpose to find all the support, guidance, help and solutions I need to scale up my PoolWallet.

I have worked hard to get PoolWallet to get some attention and finally today I feel like it was all worth  (thanks to Zone Start ups for their EmpowerZone Me program)– ofcourse if there were investors to lap me up I would feel even better but I think I am moving in the right direction. I think that will happen soon too.

Looked at the mentors list – cant wait to meet each of them and learn from them and tell them how cool PoolWallet is and what all I wish to do with it and if they support me , how far I can go with it. Even the list of start-ups participating – the 14 stars (excluding me) – they seem so cool – I am so eagerly waiting to meet them all.

Incidentally, today I also heard the song – Yeh hai Bombay meri Jaan Just listening to the song made me realize, what respect this city commands…I can’t tell the number of movies I have seen where going to Bombay meant – having a goal in life, being ambitious enough to fight for it and having faith in heart that whatever I want , I will go and get it in Bombay – the city of dreams.

Tonight – I feel that emotion. I feel bold enough to take charge of my future and I want the whole universe to conspire to get me what I so desperately want.

My kids asked me – there will be so many Cine Stars in Mumbai – Are you going to meet any?  Thinking of the place’s reality, that its home to majority of our favourite actors, does make me have butterflies in my stomach too.

Do I want to meet  them all – No. Not all.

If someone influential is reading my blog – while I am in Mumbai – I would love to meet Mr. Ratan Tata (Industrialist)and Mr.Dilip Kumar (actor).  If you can make it happen for me, please help me.

Thanks Empowerzone for seeing something in me that has been hidden until now. Thanks for all the support and kindness you have shown. Thanks for selecting me and giving me this opportunity.  It would be so wrong to not mention a few of my friends who have stood by me always and who have believed in my abilities more than me – Thanks Shikha Suman(Medimojo), Ishita Anand(BitGiving), Sairee Chahal (Seroes), Sandy Carter (IBM) , Kanika Tekriwal (JetsetGo)Geetika Dayal(TiE),  Upasana Sharma (TiE) , Rashmi Jain and Peggy Libbey.

Wanted to say thanks to few special men too – who went out of their ways to shine light on me and make me my best version – a confident one –  Mike Lyles , Keith Klain, Matt Heusser,  Akash Srivastava, James Bach, Aman Jain, Anit Jha, Priyank Sharma, Ravi Gururaj, Pankaj Jain ( My investor in future, Yes Pankaj  – someday it will happen 🙂 )  and Mukund Mohan….many many more.

Please note –   its not a full list, and please dont be upset if you dont see your name in it. These are just on top  of my head.

I will sleep now and stop my rambling – have a morning flight to catch. But before I go , I want to say thanks to my family for bearing with me –special thanks to my husband and kids for understanding all the times I am not there for them because I am working. Thanks to my dad for bringing me up as he did. Want him to know I am grateful to him for all the big and small sacrifices he made to make me who I am today.

I wish I could first visit Haji Ali Dargah and Mahalaxmi temple before I went for the big day at the BSE building. But it wont be possible. However, I still feel the blessings and prayers.

See you soon Bombay!!! Thanks Empowerzone!!