Q1: Tell our readers about yourself and about your journey so far?

My name is Balaji Pattabhiraman and I am a Chartered Marketer refer www.cim.co.uk

and a Biz Growth Specialist refer www.davidabingdon.com

with over 27 years of Corporate and Consulting experience. I have been into Biz Coaching last 6 years and also a Visiting faculty. Have been helping SMEs scale up in terms of their Topline and bottom line growth in record time.

 

Q2: Please share some insight on the difference between Business coach & Business Mentor?

 

Fundamental definition by dictionary goes this way

Coaching:

Extending traditional training methods to include focus on (1) an individual’s needs and accomplishments, (2) close observation, and (3) impartial and non-judgmental feedback on performance

Mentoring

Mentoring Employee training system under which a senior or more experienced individual (the mentor) is assigned to act as an advisor, counselor, or guide to a junior or trainee. The mentor is responsible for providing support to, and feedback on, the individual in his or her charge

A Business Mentor is someone who shares their business experiences, earnt knowledge and learnings with a mentee. By dipping into their skills and experiences, a Business Mentor guides his/her  mentee in the right direction. Just as their mentee they would have also faced the same challenges in their life   and a Mentor can help them avoid mistakes or find opportunities.

A Business Coach is skilled in coaching, and with specific functional  knowledge in the area the client aims to improve. A Business Coach focuses on specific development goals in a structured manner.

Q3 : In your Opinion why early business owners or startup should have a Business coach or mentor.?

Statistics says that 9 out of 10 Startup or Small  businesses fail in the first 2 years of their launch. Mentors can help founders stay focused on their goals and hold them accountable to their vision for their company. Also they can help the business owners  avoid critical pitfalls, such as wrong recruitments of a not- so- aligned- Founder or even an Investor especially if they have gone through the same challenges themselves and overcame them. A good mentor can help a growing entrepreneur thinkthru  strategies, crunch numbers, and help them create a business or marketing plan. A Coach or Mentor can help you bring objectiveness to your business and find weaknesses in your business model and help the owner to understand the perceptions and strategies necessary for a startup to succeed.

 

Q4: How do you define need of growth plan in most easiest way for our readers?

Basically a business growth plan is an outline for where a company sees itself in the next one to two years. Though in structured companies its formatted to follow along with each quarter. It helps them to review their performance as to what goals has been met and what goals it missed during that period. It’s a navigation plan as to where you are and where you want to be in a specific period of time say in one year period.

Though in general it is spoken as Sales turnover enhancement and profit maximisation etc it usually covers

1. Marketshare and penetration
2. Early losses
3. Risk mitigation
4. Revenues models

But in simple terms growth means includes  Marketshare and Walletshare.

1. Customers buying from you repeatedly—Customer Life Time value -How long he stays with you and makes those purchases
2. Customer buying frequency—instead of one time in a year if he or she buys from you 4 times in a year
3. Customer buying more products from you direct or indirect (cross selling and upselling)
4. Customer referrals and testimonials
5. Customer identifies himself with your brand—becomes a cult (this is the ultimate goal of any brand— building a cult status (ex Harley Davidson)

 

 

Q5: Please tell us what are the key mistakes people often do while formulating a marketing plan ?

1. Not spending enough dollars for marketing: Many startup and small business owners bootstrap their business or have virtually no start-up capital. They may just have just allocated enough to  print some business cards, maybe get a website started and little else.   Their general defense is to say “I’ll spend more on marketing when I’ve got some money” but put quite bluntly if you don’t spend money on marketing, you won’t get in business and you won’t have “more money”.  One needs start-up money not just for your Business Cards, Brochure or Website or setting up your office. You need to be prepared to spend some money on marketing. Marketing should be the first expense of a business.
2. Not having a Plan be it Business Plan or Marketing Plan

Problem starts when the business owner doesn’t look at his business strategically and by not investing time in a Business Plan or a Marketing Plan.  Either money is blown on unproductive and unnecessary areas , or you are all over the place and don’t put a great strategy in place.   Just like goal setting, you need to have a plan, and it should be a written plan.   We have all heard that old golden nugget “Businesses don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan”.  A mixed and balanced marketing plan will work better and more effectively and be more sustainable.

1. Don’t be everything to everyone: Identify your niche:

Though this has to be done at the start while researching your product offerings this is one of the classic mistakes by all business owners in terms of pleasing their customers by being “everything to everyone”. If your target market is “everyone,” you’ll never hit it. A company must specifically to segment the market and  target the right audiences for its products and services. Precisely know  who your customers and prospects are, and  what solutions they need from you.

1. Not having a USP?(Why me)

A unique selling proposition is what your business stands for. It’s what differentiates you from the other crowd   because of what you stand for. You constantly convey the core message of the USP in your communication, preferably also in the slogan of your company. This way, your selling proposition is always highlighted and clear to your customer.

1. Sell Benefits and not features.

Claims like “ Latest Technology, Best Quality” communicates nothing to a  customer. Instead of focussing on “How they could solve the customers problem and make their life easier” they spend time on  pushing their credentials and unnecessary claims. Highlight them in all your communication. Focus is on the “Customer”  not on your company.

1. Not testing: One of the most ignored aspects of doing business is the “Testing” hypothesis. Right from “Which ads will be more effective ? or At what price should I enter the market ? etc have to be questioned and tested.  The only way to know for certain is to test. Put ads in front of your audience and ask for their reaction or rotate the two best ideas in media placement and see which pulls in more response. Try two different price points and see which sells more (it may not always the cheapest). And remember, marketing decisions should always be based on what customers respond to, never on what pleases the boss or satisfies a management committee.

 

1. Focussing on new and neglecting existing customers: It takes 7 times the money to acquire new customers. The biggest asset to your company is its existing customer base. Rather than constantly chasing new customers, take advantage of the relationships you’ve already acquired. Continue to communicate and market to them by offering additional products or new services and cultivate their loyalty. Successful businesses would focus on “Customer Life time Value” and no additional cost of acquisition and retention.

·         Not making Make it easy for someone to buy from you. 

It is amazing how often people make it hard to buy from you.   Everything from not answering their phone or emails, right through to making you do their job for them.  When its becoming increasingly competitive all our processes should help the customer to navigate customer touch points be it your Website or a Phone call or  a Whatsapp Chat etc care should be taken to not  scare them and make them run away from us. It should be easier and fun to do business with us not the other way around.

Q6:   With your experience what are the key skills a person should learn to be a business coach or mentor?

Key skills of a coach or mentor

Experience:

A person who has mastered a specific area be it Marketing/Branding/Technical  etc and should have walked the walk. Some one who has truly paid their dues and can speak from their real life experiences. A person who has had his share of failures and succeesses which might help the business owners to avoid making such costly mistakes that too early in their businesses.

Attitude: Having a great attitude is a key skill and that comes with time and experience. He or she would have been through it all and come out on the other side and who is able to  the big picture. A person who is patient but at the same time persistent and determined.

Willing to share: A person who is empathetic and willing to share his experiences with you both the good and the bad. You will learn from some one who is willing to be transparent and not being judgemental for your mistakes. A good mentor would love to help other people and they are passionate teachers.

Holds you accountable: A good business coach always has the larger picture in mind and would be asking you uncomfortable questions about where you are upto, why you are not where you wanted to be, and how do you plan to get there etc. He or she pushes you to your limits and help you expand your capabilities.

Q7: Share your 5 essential point for scalability and growth?

First things first lets understand the difference between these 2 terms scale and growth

Growing a business just means adding resources at about the same rate you create revenue. Scaling, however, means adding resources at an incremental rate while creating revenue at an exponential rate.

Example: Lets assume a Freelance Software Coder charges $25/hour for his service. If he wants to bill more, he has to work more. For every $25 he earns, he has to add more resources (his time). It becomes very hard or almost  impossible  for him to scale his business.

But if it’s a company—Lets assume that A software-as-a-service company charges $10/month for access to their tool. Once the tool is operational, it costs them little-to-nothing to activate new users.

Scaling up rapidly after this point  becomes easier  because they don’t have to add resources in order to collect more revenue At no additional cost they can now scale rapidly and indefinitely.

 

5 essential points for scalability and growth

Scaling

1.       Identify Your “Core”

Who you are to the business and to your customers is the key to scaling up your business. You need to know your core products, customers, and marketing channels before you try to take your business to the next level. Not convinced? Data shows that more than 74% of 3200 startups failed because they tried to scale up too quickly.  2011 study by The Startup Genome

2. Systematization: The first step to scaling your business is systematize your daily operational processes. One could do that identifying bottlenecks, friction points, or labor-intensive and repetitive tasks. Successful companies that scale learn to systematize their complex tasks by creating repeatable processes and workflows. Once you are free from routine mundane works (its  very much necessary for your daily survival ) you could focus on Strategy and innovation.  Systemazation also makes your business more valuable if you ever try to sell it. Any New Buyer would love to takeover or buy a business which has all its workflow process up and running with very minimal intervention.
3. Automate:

Once you’ve turned your tasks into clear, repeatable systems, the next step is to automate as much of it as you can by leveraging the latest technologies to perform more work and serve more customers. Automation  software helps you  sophisticated analytics  that can measure your business’ performance. Automation also lets you better use your human capital. Yes, one  could reduce their  staff by automating some of their work, but businesses find the most value in automation by redirecting their team to tasks that require a human mind with  more engaging responsibilities that require creativity, intelligence, and critical thinking that any software can’t replicate.

4. People

Successful and scalable businesses depend on people, but not necessarily more people. Instead, you need the right people- high-performing people who care about their work and the company; people who invest themselves in their job. Best is to hire people with entrepreneurial mindsets because they help our business grow, but there are some potential risks with it like their appetite for risk-taking and being able to keep them around long enough. It’s not easy  to find people with the right skills, dedication, and work ethic to help you scale. And when you find them, hang on to them. Pay them well and treat them properly.  Invest in their development and growth so they continue to push your business.

 

5. Never compromise on quality or consistency

Quality or Cosistency? Both are important as they enable growth. You cannot have one without another.  There’s no point growing your business if your products or customer service deteriorates, because customers will go elsewhere. Having the right processes, culture and staff is key to maintaining quality throughout. You’ll still make some mistakes when scaling, but understand why they happen, learn from them, get better and don’t repeat them.

 

Q8: Any message you would like to share to young reader and business owners?

Being a Startup or Small Business owner is no joke. Not only it asks  for focus and passion, but it requires a certain kind of resilience, despite all the setbacks and failures along the way. Kudos to that

But would also like to share few things

You don’t have to struggle alone. One could always ask for help ! Don’t feel ashamed to ask others for advice, help or their opinion on something. You might have been the original owner or Idea generator and you may know better than other,  but still   someone looking from the outside in might be able to see something critical that you’re missing. A Business owner should be willing to adapt and make necessary course correction if something isn’t working.

Would like to end it with a quote from Steve jobs (who else is better qualified as an entrepreneur)

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs