Archive for July, 2011

Guest Blogging Journey

Most bloggers are in agreement on one thing…Guest blogging is good for you!  It is a great way to gain leverage for yourself as a blogger and visibility for your blog.  Needless to say, I have traversed the guest blogging path and learnt a lot in the process.  This blog post is devoted to some business blogs that I write for and the great people behind them!

Here is a heads up on some of my guest blog posts that I’d like to share….

• I’ll start with my first hot article for Noobpreneur (I write regularly for this blog and Ivan Widjaya who runs this blog has been a mentor of sorts and a great motivator too).  This article made it big on Bizsugar with 31 Bizsugars and I was really happy with the response I got in the second month of my turning business blogger…

My post 5 Reasons Why Corporate Partnerships Are an Ace in the Social Entrepreneur’s Pack of Cards was just one in a series that I had done for Noobpreneur on social enterprise and entrepreneurship. 

• I came across ideasmakemarket.com, a blog by Abhirup Bhattacharya when I was surfing the net for guest blogging opportunities.  Abhirup, currently pursuing his Masters Degree in Management is doing some great work by collaborating with other bloggers and has recently launched another blog called funnymba.com, a humorous yet informative take on the MBA program…

Ideasmakemarket.com is where I have created one case study on how to push the right buttons in business and spelt out the rules of engagement for the rural market as well as shed light on the use of folk art for marketing. 

The blog also has a star blogs section where my blog was featured for some time!

• Firepolemarketing.com is a blog that Danny Iny runs together with his partner and one fine day I heard from Danny saying that he likes my style and would I be interested in doing a blog post for his blog?  Needless to say I promptly agreed.

Danny and I discussed some topic ideas and finally agreed on the concept of pop-up retail and how it helps businesses to cut costs.  My post on pop-up retail for Firepolemarketing imitated a lot of discussion and drew a number of comments and reactions. 

• When Ivan acquired The Friendly Blogger a couple of months back I felt I should use some of my experience as a business blogger to help other bloggers.  The was to help people learn about “what not to do” rather than what to do.  With this in mind I spelt out 8 Death Knells for a business blog!

In the end I would say ever since I launched TheOneOfAKindPreneur and even before that, I have written a number of guest posts for business blogs that are run by some enthusiastic bloggers.  Writing these posts has given me:

• Exposure as a business blogger
• Opportunities for Link Building
• Boosted SEO for my blog
• Got my blog from PR 0 to PR 3 in just under 4 months
• Opportunities for research and writing
• A platform to reach out to various genres of readers
• The opportunity to network and grow with some exceptional people and business bloggers
• The chance to collaborate and develop ideas for blog posts, products and more business blogs!

If you want to make it as a blogger you should try guest blogging to test the waters.  Who knows it could lead you to taking the plunge in to blogosphere as a full time blogger?  At least that’s how I began my foray in to serious business blogging. 

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2280

Chill out at Ananda

If you are a city stressed soul looking for some rejuvenation then try taking a different break this time.  Head for Ananda – In The Himalayas, a world class wellness retreat has won international acclaim and is the Numero Uno of Ayurvedic spas in India.

How to Get There?   Accessible by road, air and rail Ananda is 260 kilometers north of New Delhi.

The Picturesque Location-  Located in the erstwhile residence of Maharaja of Tehri-Garhwal.

Treatments on Offer-  A range of 79 beauty and body treatments that combine Ayurveda and contemporary Western approaches.  

You can stay at luxurious suites, villas and deluxe rooms and enjoy watching the landscape change before your eyes as you take in a view of Rishikesh, the river Ganges or the Palace.

You Could Also Try- Rapelling and rafting, trekking in the Himalayas or aqua yoga. 

Must Try-The signature “Ananda Touch”, an absolute must do uses “Panchkarma”, a five-way therapy to soothe your neck, shoulders and upper back.

Log on to anandaspa.com/ for details!

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2125

Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work on hand?  Are 24 hours just not enough?  The paucity of time is something most of us regularly experience.  As a small business owner you could face a time crunch and end up feeling like you are losing a grip on things. 

All is not lost though.  Some simple changes in the way you work and how you view time are all you need to master your time.   Here are some tips to help you manage your time more effectively and efficiently…

Prioritize

While this may be the most predictable thing to say a “to do list” is a life saver.  While planning is something all of us do in some measure most of us forget to “prioritize”.  All of us would like to achieve many things but then we have to set out in what order that would be.  For instance running an online business would mean setting up a website first followed by the rest.

Visualize

Visualization is the first step to accomplishing anything.  Visualize what you want for your business clearly.  Writing it down really helps you chart a blue print for action. 

Break down your goals in to simple steps, like day-to-day tasks or things to be done on an hourly basis.  This will put things in perspective and give you a time line within which you have to get things done. 

My former boss always said, “Visualize things, imagine this is what I want, this is how I want it to be.  Go step by step and things will become clearer.”

Hiring Helps

Don’t try to do everything yourself.  At some point of times things will become unmanageable.  Hiring people and in doing so recognizing their ability to perform their tasks better than what you would do is a skill that sets good managers apart.  If you are just starting out and are unsure of how things will work I would suggest hiring someone for just a couple of hours to see how things pan out.

A young mother, former teacher turned entrepreneur was talking about her experiences in running a business and said that she wanted to hire help for her business.  When I asked her why, she said that her design business needed her to travel out to pick up cloth, accessories and embellishments; it also involved going to the tailor and ferrying designs and work-in-progress. 

Considering her daughter is just one year old and she has no help at hand hiring a college student to work just two hours every day would get a lot done.  She is smart enough to realize that hiring someone to do these things for her would reduce her burden considerably. 

Automate and Simplify

I am putting automation and simplification together though many times I feel automation does not simplify things, it only complicates them.  But for a small business owner generally automation and simplification would go hand in hand.  I say this because we live in times when technology has pervaded all aspects of our lives.  Like it or not we are all confronted with technology and people in general vouch for it too.

Consider how net banking simplifies things and online payment facilities save time.  That is precisely why automation helps a small business simplify things like:

• Exposure and reaching out through websites and blogs
• Selling, ordering, supplying and purchasing through online stores
• Billing and payment through PayPal and money transfer facilities together with payment through credit and debit cards
• Free promotional tools like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter to make their presence felt

It’s Alright to Say “No”

In the end I would say the most important thing is to realize that you don’t have to say “Yes” to everyone and everything.  Prioritize and decide what is important for you and stick to that, don’t let other people’s priorities become yours.