UDM: How Data Under One Roof Can Help Marketers See The Future

User data is constantly sprouting in every corner of the web and mobile universe, with every passing second. We see ad tech companies, brands, ad networks and exchanges and every middleman scampering about in an attempt to collect that knowledge from each of its sources. But in this hunt for extracting valuable information from oceans of data every day, there lies a big gap between connecting nameless/faceless digits provided by Data Management Platforms (DMPs) to the more tangible, yet minuscule number of known IDs that come in through Customer Data Platforms (CDPs).

That’s the challenge that we at BPRISE have worked to solve.

Not Just DMP, But Holistic Data Management

When advertisers buy media across a vast range of different sites and through various middlemen, including DSPs, ad networks and exchanges, DMPs typically tie all that activity and subsequent audience data together in one, centralized location. This is used to help optimize future media buys and improve target practice when a client wants to reach a certain filtered demographic. But what the DMPs provide is only 3rd party information that’s ripe for the taking for you and your competitors going after the same customer(s). They don’t provide you with unique identifiers and definite readings of your prospective buyers. You need to knock on a CDP’s door for that.

Or you could just ring our doorbell instead, to cover both sides of the spectrum. We at BPRISE have devised our own system that marries the expansive reach and global access of DMPs with the precision and pointed knowledge of CDPs. We call it UDMP-Unified Data Management Platform. Since we trace your customers even when they travel outside of your website/app framework onto other 3rd party territories, with our UDMP, we are able to connect this first-hand CDP data with information from 3rd party apps and websites (information that has already been analysed by DMPs). This is a more durable and privacy-led connector between known and unknown ID types. So, everything from transaction data, demographic data, and virtually infinite amounts of behavioural data all churn away under our UDMP warehouse.

Thanks to UDMP behaving as a superset of data from DMPs and CDPs, we are able to provide a consolidated view of your customers’ interests and better predict future behaviours, consumer paths and motivations. Since we bridge the gap between DMPs and CDPs and manage the relationship between the ‘general’ mass of data points and known facts about uniquely identified consumer profiles, we have the power to enrich email lists and retargeting campaigns with anonymous DMP attributes to drive performance in known channels.

UDMP. More Juice, Less Faff.

By building this UDMP we can help our clients to better understand customer information and do it with major operational efficiency. Every data point is enriched and made sense of in a way that ensures minimal waste of key information and full use of the cost that went into acquiring that data.

UDM provides you with a data-set of your actual audience which can be activated across an entire life cycle: acquisition, engagement, conversion, and retention. There aren’t restrictions on the types of data you can collect, the segmentation is real-time, and it is channel agnostic to ensure the seamless flow of data. This flexibility arms brands and advertisers with an ability to really explore more possibilities and methods to engage with their user bases.

Controlling such vast amounts and types of data all under one roof also allows us to come to more accurate conclusions, at a faster rate. This in turn feeds into optimisation campaigns and switching strategies to capitalise on emerging trends. By unifying the DMP and CDP universes, at BPRISE we constantly refine lookalike models and present our clients with not just the 411 about their existing customers, but also point them to the coordinates of their future buyers and patrons as well.

So, we’re saying, instead of employing the services of multiple middlemen entities to gather information about the same target audience, give us a call. With our Unified Data Management Platform, we warehouse all the data pouring in from numerous locations and hand it to you in a way that makes sense. If you believe that Data is the new currency, then know that UDMP functions as a big bank. Start your account with us today!

What Does Sequential Retargeting Mean For Advertisers

At BPRISE, we employ sophisticated programmatic advertising to best achieve positive brand recall and customer engagement for our clients. This doesn’t just mean stocking up on the knowledge and technology required to ensure hyper-personalised marketing on web and mobile. If anybody wants to get Sequential Retargeting right, then the first thing they need to do is have a sense of humour about it!

Funny Side Up

Sequential Re-targeting is a lot like delivering a joke. There is “The Set-Up”, where you familiarise your viewers with the basics and fundamentals of your products and services. This is what sets the tone for what’s to follow and gives the target audience an idea of whether they want to know more or not. “The Set-Up” is the proverbial stage of the early rounds of communication that get served to people online.

Next of course, comes “The Punchline”. This is the clinching moment in the user journey where a customer is convinced enough about the brand’s story and its offerings to finally crack a smile and make a purchase. Pow!

But this stand-up routine in digital advertising need not be a linear process. There may be people joining in on the fun while you’re in the middle of your ad campaign or product launch, or there are even those who leave right at the start without giving you a patient ear. How do you then make sure that everybody gets your marketing messages loud and clear? From the beginning, through the middle and all the way till the end? The answer is Sequential Re-targeting.

The “sequence” here doesn’t mean holding different group tours for people who visit you in batches and hear the same old sales speech. Regardless of what stage your product launch is in, the sequential re-targeting campaign starts, adjusts and evolves for every user at their time and place of engagement with your brand.

Automated Bucketing

“The Set-Up” takes time and skill. As mentioned above, the delivery and nature of sequential re-targeting typically changes for every distinct, new customer taking a seat amongst the audience. All first timers aren’t subject to the same “generic retargeting” and aren’t slumped into one single broad bucket. At BPRISE, our programmatic engine seamlessly segments the continuous influx of new visitors. This is not just based on demographics and location parameters, but also depends on the source of traffic, dates of user activities and expressed behaviours.

We are able to track users across the web’s many media platforms and segregate the hot leads from the cold ones. Through a funnel for delivery into BPRISE’s Premium Ad Network, Facebook ads on third party apps or websites, SMS and even email, we are able to mix notifications and track the chain of events to your target audience with computerized precision.

Old Wine, New Bottle. Cheers!

So, you’ve delivered the set-up and your audience isn’t anywhere close to hearing that punchline. And if you’re only building a name for your brand then there are other hiccups like being the first in customers’ minds while addressing their concerns about price, doubts, credibility and product quality.

What do you do? Go for what stand-up comedians refer to as a “Callback”. A comedian routinely tells a joke with a specific punchline and then, later in the show, tells a different joke with the same punchline. This gets a bigger laugh the second time around. Similarly, we help rectify the set-up and deliver freshness for the hard-to-impress crowd, till they are better positioned in the sequence to hear the same punchline.

We devised a callback for a car brand that found itself in that very pickle. The retargeting was broken down into small sequences like this:

Addressing Problem Number 1. Campaign ‘A’:

1st March: SMS campaign

3rd March: Email Campaign

5th March: Campaign on Facebook and Ad Networks

Addressing Problem Number 2. Campaign ‘B’:

15th March: Switch to a new campaign on Facebook and stop visibility on Ad Networks (only for customers who have been through Campaign ‘A’)

Addressing Problem Number 1 in a different way. Campaign ‘A2’:

20th March:New SMS campaign and Facebook Activation to users who didn’t convert from the first batch

Addressing Problem Number 3 for customers who are technically ahead in the sequence. Campaign ‘C’:

Look for customer re-engagement.

20th March: New SMS Campaign

20th March: New Email Campaign etc.

Everybody needs to be nudged differently. So, we made sure that the next time the customers logged onto the internet, the car brand was able to pick up from where each of them left off, just like old friends!

Now this can get complicated:

500 car showrooms X An average of 10 footfalls a day = A single day’s batch of data.

But with automated bucketing and tracking that we do at BPRISE, we easily spot and report which segment of which batch of prospects isn’t still laughing along and why. We understand the cycles, which sources offer easier conversions, their bounce rates and re-visiting patterns. This allows us to efficiently figure out where a shift in the marketing strategy needs to be carried out. The system lets us know if the marketing creative needs re-work, or if the retargeting should happen on a different platform or if the rhythm of the campaign frequency needs retouch. Once we spot a conversion though, that needle in the haystack is then promptly pulled out of the funnel to avoid wasting ad spends.

Speaking of which, I feel that the measurement of success in digital marketing shouldn’t be restricted to a metric like return on ad spend (ROAS) alone. Every sequential strategy should also be judged based on whether the engagement rates on ads improve, whether the returning visitors increase, and if the click through rates reflect precision targeting or not. The goal in sequential re-targeting is to serve smart and relevant ad experiences to guide prospects through their customer journey.

Programmatic advertisers typically chart out a funnel diagram as the trend, but I disagree. “Funneling” of layers of data and user journeys need not taper down to a small percentage of acquisitions. The user journeys under Sequential Re-targeting campaigns tend to look more like tributaries of many big rivers branching out into loops over time. All these users, however, are individually pursued to reach the logical conclusion delta of converted sales. That’s the trick.

If you have questions about sequential retargeting, leave a comment and I’d be happy to help!

 

The 101 on Programmatic Advertising

Here’s a go to guide for knowing all about the “new black” in the ad market. Programmatic ad spends grew from $5bn in 2012 to $39bn in 2016, at an average rate of 71% a year, according to Zenith’s programmatic marketing forecast. How did you not notice?

Let’s Start At The Very Beginning

Programmatic advertising is an automated mechanism that uses computer algorithms to purchase ad inventory. This modern, digitized media buying and selling does away with the traditional agency-network set-up, manual bidding and human optimization. It’s the idea and now, a wide-spread practice, that the processes involved in media marketing and negotiation such as inventory selection, data reporting, budget optimization, the back and forth of paperwork and testing of creative inventory; all of this is handled through an automated system.

This is achieved through a sophisticated and efficient assimilation of data, software and technology. Everything from behavioural and intent-based targeting, to real time bidding (RTB) and exchange-based buying of inventory can be credited to programmatic buying.

In English Please!

All you need to input is a range of creatives, your budget and targeting filters as an advertiser. Programmatic Advertising takes over from there. It makes scientific, data-backed decisions about which ad property to display, on whose website, at what price and when. Microwaved popcorn much?

You have two options:

“Direct Buying” takes place against a fixed payment in advance for a specific ad inventory. The objective here, is simply to exhaust a set budget by providing the requisite number of impressions on the selected ad property of a specific publisher.

“Real Time Bidding”, or RTB is an auction-based price system for buying and selling ad impressions across sites, on a real time basis. It literally takes milliseconds to launch ad campaigns, sitting at a desk, with a front row seat at the bid wars for inventories across multiple publishers’ sites.

We all know what DSP and SSP means by this point. But the truly powerful acronym of the bunch is a DMP, aka Data Management Platform. The information of what’s being sold and bought at what price, is stored here and is presented in a simple manner, displaying how consumers behave across the wider internet. So now, you can predict outcomes, understand audiences and break down media silos at the click of a mouse.

The Good News

With Programmatic Buying, you witness the actual price of ads move before your very eyes, minus mark-ups and agency fees. If you spot that a certain ad creative isn’t working on a segment or site, you have the power to immediately switch strategies then and there, in real time. No more waiting for your agency to respond with a monthly campaign report, while those ad impressions burn away; and no more feeling unsure about your return on investment. Have fun with highly personalised messages and refined funnelling processes. The transparency and quickness of it all helps hit the bull’s eye over and over again, across any device or channel. You save time, money, energy and nerves!

The Bad News

Woah Woah Woah. Don’t fire your media agency just yet though! There are a few downsides to programmatic advertising. Since your ads follow the user’s wild travels across the world wide web, you run the risk of displaying ads on questionable destinations. Behavioural and Contextual targeting can be tricky that way, so rein in visibility by blacklisting or whitelisting sites or categories.

But how is this hyper targeting possible in the first place? Programmatic ads rely on cookies to track activities across devices. So, the moment netizens observe computer hygiene and clinically cleanse their system of cookies, all that data is lost and it’s back to square one. Big dogs like Facebook and Google are immune to an extent, because they track movement across devices through login status, but the rest, as they say, is browser history! Isn’t that how the cookie crumbles?

Another devilish hazard is ad fraud. Domain spoofing experts and bots hike up costs and dupe advertisers with cunning flair. This raises obvious questions on the quality of inventory in programmatic buying. There is an entire article dedicated to that problem alone. Read it here to know how you can keep guard.

So Now What?

In advertising, knowing more about your audiences and being able to access and read data that uncovers insights are crucial. There is no doubt that leveraging technology to drive stronger results from highly relevant, targeted campaigns is a boon. Unanimous adoption of programmatic advertising across multi-channels is fast becoming a reality. Legal updates and private partnerships to curb the above challenges are in the pipeline as well.

As an ad-tech entrepreneur, I advise all brand owners and advertisers to hop on board the Programmatic band-wagon right away. The earlier and faster you join the game, the savvier you’ll be at bidding the best price for the right ad. Sold?

Beware Of These 4 Ad-Tech Issues In 2018

As an ad-tech entrepreneur, I have been observing how lately, tricksters in the digital advertising industry are notoriously causing billion-dollar revenue losses, encouraging parallel counterfeit industries and duping end-consumers. I thought I’d put these draconian problems in context, along with some immediate actionable solutions to insulate one’s own company, clients and customers.

 

Fraud Is The Real F-Word

 

We’ve all been sceptical about those “ad impressions” and “clicks” mentioned in performance reports. Do they actually come from a human being? After displaying the exact message, you designed? On the actual publishing platform, you paid for?

There are countless number of cunning websites and apps that monetise purely through advertising revenue. Their line of business? Domain Spoofing. Many ad exchanges misrepresent web traffic as coming from a top portal, by falsely tagging the link parameters with the publisher’s name attached to them. As ad buyers, you get the wrong idea that you’ve bought visibility on the most relevant platforms, while in reality, sneaky bots are doing all the dirty work!

In the case of mobile, fake devices and counterfeit apps, mask legitimate entities to hike up ‘views’ through junk media. So actual publishers lose out on potential ad dollars and your CPMs still go through the roof!

The Solution (well, almost): In order to prevent such malpractice, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab in June of 2017 devised a solution enabling brands to verify that a 3rd party offering ad space anywhere on the internet, is actually authorised by the publisher to do so. It is called “Authorised Digital Sellers” or “ADS.TXT”. This is a text file containing a list of authorised sellers, hosted in the root folder of every publisher’s site domain. It isn’t a bullet proof remedy, but this centralised document makes it easier for publishers and brands to compare their own data against that of agency partners and vendors.

But ads.txt isn’t complete without ads.cert. Almost functioning like a digital signature, ads.cert ensures authentic inventory and prevents modifications or human errors in ads.txt. It uses cryptographically signed bid requests to validate data flowing between buyers and sellers in the digital media supply chain.

So, what’s the catch? One can implement ads.cert only with expensive engineering and updated tech infrastructure, namely OpenRTB 3.0. Released by the IAB, it is specifically designed to handle complex programmatic buying and selling. Its adoption will prove expensive for demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs) and ad exchanges.

If the industry doesn’t widely adopt ads.txt and ads.cert across media campaigns, domain spoofing could easily fur-ball into a bigger monster in 2018. So, do your part and insist on partnering with publishers and agencies that follow at least ads.txt, until further developments.

 

World Wide Web Of Lies

 

Fake News has the power to influence politics, people and business. Mainly because it’s smart, hard to spot and integrated into our newest and most important news source – social media.

Hence, monitoring your media placement will become a tricky affair. There is a very thin line between Fake News and Fake Brands. If your ad accidentally plays next to an inaccurate smear campaign or on a news source that commits major blunders in basic journalism, your brand will immediately become guilty by association.

I feel PR and crisis management will become truly crucial in 2018 in this regard: On one hand, the smaller a brand you are, the more vulnerable you would be to fall prey to lies and deceit on the internet; and on the other hand, the bigger a name you are, the more you stand to lose by way of goodwill.

So, vet your display sites, quality control your filtering process and try not to listen to people when they say, “Fake it till you make it.”.

 

Hands Up! It’s GDPR.

 

The Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new regulation, created by the European Union (EU), intended to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the EU. This means that the ad-tech industry will have to comply with stricter cybersecurity and privacy rules going forward. Aimed at curtailing abusive surveillance, the GDPR will come into effect from May 2018 as a new legal framework.

This is going to globally impact the way organisations collect, share and use customer information. Vague disclaimers about cookies won’t be enough. Users will be required to give clear cut permissions via ‘affirmative actions’ and explicit consent regarding ’sensitive’ information, like race or age. This evidence, then, will have to be logged and stored for the record by publishers and networks.

If you engage in digital advertising or content distribution of any kind, Big Brother is watching you! Regardless of whether your company operates on EU soil or not, if you take personally identifiable information (PII) of a EU user, GDPR applies. Fines can run up to 20 Million Euros or 4% of global annual revenue, whichever is higher.

Complying with GDPR warrants advanced security solutions technology, data protection compliance, user permissions and of course, additional budgets. So, make sure you prepare for these steps, with your senior management and partners, well before May 2018. Failing which, heavy penalty fees, legal implications and hindrance to business-as-usual will surely be part of this year’s horoscope as consequences.

Our communications team at BPRISE will run a series of GDPR related articles this month detailing the risks of GDPR and how brands should step up efforts to become compliant with the new regulations.

 

Who Cares About Your Data?

 

After striking off all of the above to-do items (as you should), what a shame it would be to fall prey to data breach and theft yourself! Laptops getting stolen is not the only way one can lose confidential and professional records. I am very particular about security against hackers, malware and phishing sites on the prowl for prey on the net. At BPRISE, I have implemented some iron clad practices that afford me a sound sleep every night. Here they are, if you want to wisely follow suit…

End user security awareness: Train your team and employees. Nobody will notice odd behaviour by malicious creepy crawlers online, if they haven’t even been told what the problem looks like.

Secure all systems:  Empower IT to build highly secure computers in your office, with Antivirus, Drive Encryptions, password complexity policies and local and remote data backup services. Also ensure that you buy only genuine software.

Patch ‘em up: There’s only so much a regular password sign-in feature and Microsoft update can accomplish. What about comprehensive patching on apps that aren’t a Bill Gates product, like Adobe? And what about other operating systems like Linux and MAC? Get to work right away, chop-chop!

Deploy intrusion detection prevention systems: All mission-critical systems, ones that are accessible via the Internet (web servers, e-mail clients, servers that hold customer or employee data, active directory servers) and just about the entire office should be covered.

Stop drive-by downloads: All it takes to catch a virus is an innocent intern browsing a seemingly harmless site. Use powerful firewalls to block phishing sites and websites that hack into computers through malicious spyware and pesky pop-ups.

Run more vulnerability assessments than fire drills: On a weekly basis. Against every system in your network, internal and external.

Monitor Inside-Out:  A system monitoring program where HR or a compliance officer can replay the behaviour of an insider will come in handy. Also, employing data loss prevention (DLP) technology will allow you to block content that you don’t want to leave the company.

Keep the pipes secure: Communication to and fro between the servers you deploy globally, and your development environment should take place in an encrypted channel. You don’t want your customers’ details leaking out to hackers because you shipped them via the post office.

Once you cover all these bases, dare I say, 2018 could potentially be your oyster. That is, until another occupational hazard veers its head in the ad-tech market.

Have a happy and secure new year!

12 Lessons From A Year As A Start-Up Entrepreneur

My first full year at BPRISE, the company I co-founded in mid-2016, has been very much like the opening lines of A Tale Of Two Cities. However eventful the journey so far, there has been a learning curve at every juncture. I thought I’d share some of those prickly lessons and pearls of wisdom with you, as we introspect on the year gone by and toast to the one to come…

1. Is The Market For Your Product, Desperate Enough?

Start-ups have been fashionably sprouting all over the global spectrum for years now. But only a few survive. Does your start-up satiate a thirst and hunger for a service or item? That should be the first logical question you ask yourself. Look for signs like customer acquisition costs going down, exponential demand and revenue growth (on a weekly basis) and the virality of word of mouth. If you don’t find a convincing enough justification, then you quite simply, have no business! Start off on the right foot, so that the journey ahead is on solid ground with real potential.

2. Do you have a problem?

I’ve always believed that solving a big problem is a bigger deal and leads to a huge business opportunity. Do your buyers have urgent needs that need to be addressed as soon as possible? Great! That means they are more likely to adopt your solution AND pay a premium for it. Put every idea you get through the test, of whether it solves a big conundrum or not. You can’t build a billion-dollar company without solving a billion-dollar problem or one that a hundred million people are willing to pay for. If Facebook today is almost a $500 billion company, it’s because it addresses one of the humans’ most urgent needs: The need to be Social, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

3. Start With Part-Time. Grow into Full-Time

Start-up initiation is mostly about having a smart, self-starter attitude. Most Hall-Of-Famers start out as garage bands. Every entrepreneur may not be able to work full time at a start-up from the get-go. Even a part-time commitment can be a decent beginning. Ideating, meeting with a bunch of potential users, building a testing version of the product, seeking user input – all of this can be done on the weekends or for a few hours every other day. Baby steps, till you’re able to walk with a full team and a structured venture is better than doing nothing. Have a clear target plan of what it will take to quit your current job to run the start-up full time. 10 paying customers or 200 active users? About $2000 in monthly revenue? Or A $10,000 investment? Work toward whatever the goals may be, so that even on a part-time basis, you can eventually turn the side-gig into your owned and operated outfit.

4. Put the Pro in Prototype

A prototype is a functional or visual example of what you envision building in the future. Potential customers, Investors and/or Team Members are who you would typically build one for. When potential buyers see how a product might look (visual prototype) or work (functional prototype), it becomes easier for them to believe in its value. A prototype could make ideating and brainstorm with your team much easier and possibly, even get you funded.

Personally, I didn’t need to spend money producing many units of the actual product, just to sell my idea. I gave presentations to a couple of big banks and heads of large agencies armed with just a laptop and something that looked like a full-size motherboard sprouting wires from every end. Not a pretty sight, but it helped me confidently prove my point and notice what exactly the customer appreciated it.

5. You And What Army?

Just because you’ve started up with a gem of an idea, frame-worthy vision and unshakable passion to build the next big thing, doesn’t mean that it’s a sure slam dunk just yet. Human Capital is what drives every success story. Investors and accelerators always judge a founder by the company he or she keeps, quite literally. So, while it may seem obvious to hire key talent who are aptly qualified for various positions, they should share your parental passion for the start-up and express vows for the long haul. Make it a priority to be very selective about your hires, so that partners, potential VCs, and clients recognize this value and seek to join the club.

6. Hi, I’m Jack. Of All Trades.

Sure, founding team members each have unique designations and departments on their business cards. But the reality is that all their cups runneth over. Sometimes, a business development or marketing professional might be M.I.A, so the founding members need to step in and multi-task. Teething issues and responsibilities like programming, recruiting, customer service, cheerleading, and designing need to be shouldered by the founders, over and over again. Now granted, you might not necessarily be a trained programmer yourself, but that doesn’t absolve you of your duties. Having a basic understanding of new technologies and knowing a little bit of everything will only help you propose viable solutions, evaluate teamwork and hire the best. This can be painful since you might not be spending much time perfecting the craft you love. But along the way, you will pick up complementary skills that will only boost your core talent. Once your start-up grows to a position where it can afford to build a bigger team with leaner KRAs, then you can go back to be the Master of One. Just like your card says!

 

7. Don’t Be A Big Fish In A Puddle

The modern-day Confucius – Jack Ma advises to ‘hire people with superior technical skills than yours”. He couldn’t be righter. You can win a running race by outsmarting peers who are not as good as you. But, if you train with the best of the best, even if you are placed last in the race, you’ll have timed better. High levels of competence in a company only help soar efficiency rates and speeds progress by default. So, hire smart people and then listen to them.

8. Are They Positive?

It’s not enough to stay hungry and foolish. You’ve got to stay positive too! I had a major falling out with an employee, only because of their negative attitude. I’ve come to realize that you can always train people to carry out certain tasks and handle certain machines, but professionalism and positivity are character traits that come inbuilt for the most part. Your quarterback may “Show You The Money”, but if he is a big sourpuss, then his vibe might bring the rest of the team down and cost you that Super Bowl. Headhunt people with enthusiasm and a sporting spirit.

9. All Aboard?

Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, like many other entrepreneurs, had to deal with quite the Catch 22. At the start of the journey, no travelers would come to the Airbnb website without accommodation listings and no homeowners would list their space without legitimate travelers on the site. Chesky said that he had to build the business, literally one home at a time, block by block, street by street and city by city. We too, at BPRISE, find it tricky with publishers and advertisers being our proverbial chicken and egg. This period of setting up meetings with clients and time flying by as we wait for early deals to culminate is stressful, to say the least. The ship can only start to sail once you have those initial clients and partners on board. Our unwavering faith, zen-like patience, and persistence are what will see us through the painfully quiet work days.

10. Plans Change. So Should You.

Most start-ups end up charting a course that’s different from the one that was initially sketched. This is normal and typically has little to do with having industry knowledge or experience in the line of work. There are many factors that could spoil your ideas and carefully planned projections. Don’t be too precious about them. Everything happens for a reason and change should be embraced as chances for better ideas and directions to present themselves.

Remember that the battle plan is the first casualty of the war. As soon as the first bullet is fired, the plan goes right out the window.

11. Draw A Budget & Pinch Pennies

In the business world, especially for start-up entrepreneurs, financial prudence plays a crucial role in the sustainability and transition from a small-scale boutique business to medium or large-scale organization. The initial euphoria of a newly established venture distracts entrepreneurs from keeping an eye on the cash flow statement. Many start-ups fail because of overspending. So, restrict withdrawals to adhere to a strict budget and regularly review it with discipline.

Don’t be ashamed to hunt for bargain deals online and at nearby stores. Strict financial discipline is a habit. Unnecessary spending leads to business failure.

12. Sales. Duh!

No matter what kind of company you run, the mission statement is one and the same across the board: ‘Decrease Overheads, Increase Revenue’. It’s very easy to lose yourself in the day to day affairs of operating a company, creating systems, corresponding to emails and updating social media pages. But do you have your eye on the prize? Are you acquiring new customers and improving sales? Isn’t that what you work for? Make sure you are staying productive and profitable with everything you and your team do. Segregate tasks into billable and non-billable jobs, evaluate the time spent on different accounts and make every action and person accountable for the bottom line objective. Because without customers and sales, what you have is not a business, but an expensive hobby!

To sum it up…

 

The start-up race is started by tens of thousands, but only half of them take the first steps. A mere hundred emerge from failures and even fewer make it to their first ‘ka-ching’! The ones who survive are living proof of perseverance and competitiveness. That’s what sets apart the dreamers and thinkers from the doers. It’s the survival of the fittest out there, so strap on your best-armoured suit and don’t forget to take notes while you battle on.