MIEMAGAZINE

MIEMAGAZINEcelebrating entrepreneurship worldwideIssue 01 | June 2012

startup

Startup EntrepreneurshipTen common mistakes

Be preparedEuropean startup competitions you should apply to

Tips on how your business can benefit from social media marketing

Microsoft’s Azure for Cloud services

BabelVerse:

How to build process for a startup

Brand EmbassySpotting dissatisfied

customers across the social web

Real-time elimination of language barrier

10your

TaxiPal: A taxi booking app from Estonia

ways to fund

Magazine Section

2 MIEMAGAZINE June 01, 2012

Everyone involved in the startup ecosystem loves to stay updated on news about acquisitions, buyouts, fund-

ing, upcoming events, new products, business development tips or even rants by angry people who are bent on proving a point or just taking it out after a failed meeting.

We are used to get these kinds of news from various sources but in Miemagazine we feel that we can have a unique and different approach comparing to other maga-zine publications on the same topics or the ecosystem in general.

What we want to achieve is rel-evance with respect to geography and quality of contents in our publi-cations. Also, as a startup ourselves, we expect to get feedback and sup-port from you in order to provide an experience, a great one we hope.

In this issue we will bring in infor-mation on startup events in Europe which you should consider if they are relevant for you and your com-pany; we will also look into a VC’s

perspective on funding compa-nies: what they fund and why they fund.

We have taken a brief dive into startups like Taxipal and Brand Embassy. A lot can be accomplished by discovering the right process, whether it is hiring employees, writ-ing press releases or making codes. A significance of a repeatable pro-cess has been considered in a simpli-fied tone.

We are also open for columnists and guest writers and, of course, offer advertisement opportunities as these are all different ways to promote your product, company or personal brand. Just hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

Let’s get started towards a new experience.

Best Regards,

Aniekan [email protected]

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03 Editor’s Note by Aniekan Okono

Welcome to a newmagazine Let’s get started towards a new experience

04 First Steps by Matti Kivimaa

Ten ways to fundyour startup Sources of funding which should be known by all entrepreneurs.

08 Competitional News by Martha Bernt

European startupcompetitionsFind some of the different startup competitions in Europe which you absolutely have to attend

12 Reviews by Mark Thompson

Windows AzureMicrosoft’s Service Provider for Cloud Services

16 Tutorial by Villi Urpilainen

How to build a processImportance of a process for a startup

18 Startup by Johanna Berg

Startup Entrepreneurship Ten Commnon Mistakes

24 Tips & Tricks by Benedicta Ideho

EntrepreneurshipfundamentalsThe following tips should help you reflect on your entrepreneurship skills.

Issue 01 - June 2012Publisher John Doe

Editor in Chief Aniekan Okono

Editorial Anja Zinchenko , Benedicta Ideho

Proofing Anja Zinchenko

Art Director Catalin Ciolca

Senior Designer Corina Imbarus

Contributors Vili Urillainen

Editor’s Note

www.miemagazine.com 3

Welcome a new magazine

to fundTen ways of

by Matti Kivimaa

As the IT industry is soaring to new and unknown heights (with Cloud Computing at present), more and more innovative ideas are being developed and successfully realized in Europe. The general rule of thumb is that if a startup exists in the industry for two years, then the chances of the business succeeding are high. However, the development rate of the original idea depends upon the founders and their strategic skills.

All startup entrepreneurs should know about the following sources of funding:

your startup

Private investors may allow you to raise capital quicker.

However, unless you have a sure shot proposal, private investors will loan you funds on high interest and collateral security.

It differs from angel and VC funding in a way that the investment starts from the earliest stage of idea development.

It gives proportioned funds according to busi-ness plan, often when the company is still just an idea.

A seed funding is something like getting a co-founder to your idea.

It depends upon your good credit record of yours and the bank being convinced that your idea is profitable.

Like in the previous option, collateral security is required and the rates of interest are high.

This kind of investment does not come in the form of cash but in the form of effort.

For instance, employees work for low salaries or “zero salaries” in return acquiring a share of the company.

You ask for micro-investments through internet sites like crowd funding.org.uk or rock-ethub.com. There, inter-ested people invest in micro-units within a fixed period of time. If within that time the full amount is collected, you can use it for your startup.

Contributors get proj-ect-related products such as T-shirts, stickers and even equity in micro-units.

Grants are financial aid from the government and other autonomous third parties. They are meant for research and academic work mostly, but in some cases you can also get a grant for a startup busi-ness.

Getting a grant is a long process and success or failure cannot be pre-dicted. Grants are usually small amounts of money but there is no obligation for you to return it back.

If you already have a well-entrenched compa-ny, you can sell shares to raise funds for a startup of a new company.

You issue an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and investors purchase shares of your company.

This funding platform is share based.

VC’s are more prone to finance ventures that are ready to move to the next level rather than startups. They always want share control over the company.

GRANT CAPITAL MARKET FUNDING

VENTURE CAPITALISTS (VC)

PRIVATE INVESTORS

SEED FUNDING

BUSINESS LOAN FROM A BANK

SWEAT EQUITY

CROWD FUNDING

It implies funding your startup with your own resources and those of your friends and relatives.

In case of acquiring funds from family mem-bers, only those will invest who believe in your idea. Make it clear to everyone what they are investing in. Expect investments to be small.

BOOTSTRAPING

1

Angels are a small group of wealthy people or community that also requires shares.

They are more consid-erate then VC in the sense that they do not discrimi-nate startup growth lev-els.

Angel investing is more like a gamble for the investor than a way of subsidy.

ANGEL FUNDING

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6First Steps

4 MIEMAGAZINE June 01, 2012 www.miemagazine.com 5

7

Business LanguageBusiness Language

Babelverse:

situation at any moment over the mobile phone for the price of the phone call.

As of today the service was tested at events and conferences providing the interpretation for those who attended the event as well as for those who watched it remotely.

Users can already order an interpreta-tion of existing content like videos from YouTube or synchronized interpretation of events streamed live.

All you have to do is to request interpre-tation over any device to be connected to the available interpreter.

All the interpreters are divided accord-ing to the level of their skills: trainees,

by Anja Zinchenko

Real-time elimination of language barriers

Our life was eased with the emergence of online language translation services that can translate a text or a web-page for us. But what about the situations when there is no written text and “on-the-spot” interpretation is needed?

Once British Josef Dunne and French Mayel de Borniol set their aim at “doing to language barriers what the aeroplane

did to geographical barriers”, they have launched public beta of Babelverse plat-form in the end of April 2012. So what exactly is this service all about?

Babelverse is a cloud service where you can request a synchronized and consecu-tive interpretation in any language from interpreters with different level of knowl-edge and skills. So far, it is available only via the Internet but soon

Babelverse founders plan to make it pos-sible to have real-time interpretation of any

www.miemagazine.com 7 MIEMAGAZINE June 01, 2012

BABELVERSE Location

Babelverse is available for testing its beta version at babelverse.com.

experienced and professionals. Trainees offer their services at no cost first and have to prove their skills by interpreting casual situations.

Consequently, they have a chance to transfer into the group of experienced interpreters and start to earn income.

So, if you speak more than just your native language you can freely join the service and interpret at time convenient for you.

A special group of professional inter-preters whose service is paid according to a higher rate is for those who need the first-class interpretation. Interpreters receive 70% from the rate set by Babelverse based

on several parameters. As for the startup growth, the co-

founders spent 8 months in Latin America taking part in Start-Up Chile programme and have already taken the 3rd place in LeWeb’s startup competition and the 2nd place in PulsoStartup10 in Latin America.

Moreover, Babelverse is the winner of the B2B and Public Choice Award TNW 2012.

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Magazine Section Magazine Section


Competitional News Competitional News

Be preparedEuropean startup COMPETITIONS you should apply to

By Martha Bernt

Let’s say that you are an aspiring ‘entrepreneur” with an idea for a startup or, maybe, you already have the funding, the business plan, the coding and whatever else which you have made ready for your oncoming product launch. In this case do not leave this page until you have read this article. Some of the European startup competitions, which you absolutely have to attend, are listed out here.Attending and taking part in these contests will make it easier for you to actually achieve what you have dreamed about. You will get the chance to network with people who have similar interests and who have a startup planned at various

stages of development from the 10th to the 90th percentile.

With one or two more instead of others, these are the most popular European Startup Contests in 2012 and a must visit occasion for the startup entrepreneur.

8

In three-dimensional printing, the com-puter is given access to 3D readings from the object and a 3D image can be struc-tured by layering one print over the last in line and so on. Tech for trade, a charity set up in early 2001, in collaboration with Econalyst UK and Makerbot, is promot-ing this challenge. The contest is for the most innovative idea and startup in 3D printing, having the potential to reduce global poverty. The contest winner gets $100,000 apart from networking sources and contacts.

3D/4D Printing Startup Competition in London, UK

Some of these startup compe-titions are listed as follows:

Betapitch is organized by Betahaus annually. It’s a co-working space provider and it hosts organizations which are well established and have the need to work with their vendors and programmers. Startup founders from all over the world apply. For those who make it Betahaus provides accommodation and co-working space for 5-6 months. The betapitch jury then separate out the best teams from the pitches, demonstrations etc. to arrive at a figure of 10 teams which are selected for the final presentations; and one is the winner.

Betapitch Berlin & Cologne

The HTW web challenge contests are conducted out by the How to Web team, the cofounders of which are based in Romania. The aim behind the company is to draw attention to the innovative potential of Eastern Europe. How to Web conducts contests in various places during the year. The modus operandi is simple. You have to apply within a period mentioned and if selected you have to send your pitch for your product. Based upon this, participants are selected whose work is adjudged to be the best among the rest. These ten teams are given a chance to present their product or service to 750 web professionals in Bucharest. They get a free ticket and a 50% discount ticket.

How to Web Challenge 2012 in Bucharest

Promoted by SWIFT, the contest is also known as the Innostart Startup Challenge 2012. It aims to bring innovative entrepreneurial ideas in the Financial Services Field. Teams from all over the globe can apply and there are no application fees.

The European Challenge Showcase Belfast, Ireland

The all-year round contest is for developers who can innovate using an API. You should submit your idea at api-mashup.com. The most original and useful coding skills win the contest.

The API Mash up contest 2012 in UK

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10 MIEMAGAZINE June 01, 2012 11

Overview

Index Ventures (IV), set up in 1996, is a London based partnership company. The company carries out investing money for setting up, development and capacity

enhancement of business. Those businesses are chosen when the

ideas behind the business are original and innovative but the entrepreneurs lack the necessary funds.

Apart from London, IV also has offices in Switzerland and the US. IV specializes in the fields of IT and Life Science industries. In terms of types of companies that Index. Ventures funds, it is more comfortable with those companies that already have a market position and want to accelerate a company growth.

Approaching for funding

It is very important to have a refer-ence when approaching Index Ventures for funding. The company gives more weight to the proposal of a promoter

team if they have a reference on a good credit history or from a partner of the company or

on impeccable record from a former client.The first meeting with Index may not be

crammed with figures, graphs and plans but it may just be in the form of a verbal discussion. This is due to a fact that for any funding plan to be successful, Index will gauge the follow-ing qualities that are vital for success of any business venture:1. Simplicity of the main idea for effective communication. The idea should be eas-ily explained within two or three sentences maximum.2. Commitment of the Promoters. They should have done their homework thoroughly and should know where exactly they are now and where they want to be within the next twelve months.3. The passion of the entrepreneur team. The entrepreneurs should be enthusiastic and passionate about their proposal because it is their “baby”.

Another Considerations

It will be helpful for the entrepreneur to better understand the critical points which are important in the context of funding by a venture capital company if

they have a look at partners as the representa-tives of the shareholders of the company.

Thinking from this perspective, the first point is the main business idea.

What research has been done to conclude

that the service or product to be offered meets a need?

Has a need analysis been done? Who are the target customers?

Why is it assumed that the target customers will choose the product or service over the competitive ones?

On what basis will the pricing be done? When will the company reach break even

point and start making profits?What possible changes in the business mar-

ket environment can bring unforeseen losses to the company?

For example, a five year tax holiday is granted initially but then rolled back. The promoters should think in this perceptive to be ready for approaching Index Ventures.

Portfolio

Although Index Ventures is more comfortable with established com-panies, it should not be considered that they do not help startups.

Index has funded startups and has provid-ed seeding finance for many organizations. Naturally, in such cases, the process of fund-ing qualification is tough.

Some companies sponsored by Index Ventures and which are now well-known: Sound cloud, OZON.ru, Skype, Ofoto (Kodak), Dropbox, Factual, FilesX (IBM), and Zuora.

Index Ventures is a fully professional venture capital company which strictly abides by the investment dictum of Venture Capitalism, i.e. the shareholder’s interest is of paramount importance.

What, Why and Who they fund

Companies

Index Ventures:

10 www.miemagazine.com

Companies

By Martha Bernt

Reviews Reviews

United Kingdom


Windows Azure:

13

Reviews


United Kingdom

Service Provider

Microsoft’sfrom

Cloud Service

Reviews

BASICS

As now became popular, Azure’s home page has a simple nerd-friendly design but it is packed with product information in an easy and informative manner.

From one page the subscriber has access to the entire Microsoft Archives on Azure, serving three platforms common to cloud computing hosting, devel-opment and delivery management of content.

It has to be mentioned that with its existing infra-structure Microsoft Azure (which offers both SaaS (Service as an Infrastructure) and PaaS (Platform as an Service) is now emerging as a serious player in the Cloud. Some experts like to define this compatibility as IaaS.

TIE-UPS

In 2010 some tie-ups of Microsoft with prominent IT giants globally like E-Bay, Fujitsu, and Dell were announced. You have to use Azure to access E-bay’s cloud portal and it is quite a bold move.

USER-FRIENDLY

For a brief idea of what information the Azure site contains, you can have a look at win-dowsazure.com. As you can see, Microsoft Azure is very user-friendly as any Microsoft

product and can be tackled by non-geeks. Microsoft has even placed case studies of what

famous companies have done with their services at the customer’s disposal. I only had a glimpse of Boeing case but the study said that Boeing has utilized the services so that you have a virtual experience of the aircraft itself. Are you skeptical? So am I. With infor-mation like this available in the cloud, there won’t be any need of competitor study soon.

SECURITY

Security is a cause of concern in the cloud specially for companies whose bottom-line depends upon it. AWS (Amazon Web Services) has helped all service providers out by allowing

pharmaceutical giant Eli Lily to walk away rather than saying “yes” to a complicated security understanding.

These are early days still but for individuals and small companies security concerns should not be criti-cal.

As far as language compatibility is under concern it can work with any language. This will be found to be a boon for web developers. The software and program-ming tools which come with Azure will particularly excite them.

Azure is a flexible platform that can easily integrate with your existing systems. Then you have the usual Microsoft Blogs, Downloads, User’s forum and all the other normal and useful stuff. Microsoft’s experience in developing operating systems will help it here to gain an upper hand over its nearest rivals like AWS.

Finally, given the recent development of cloud com-puting, I will be more comfortable utilizing the services from Microsoft as my cloud provider than from some-one else. It is due to a fact that with Microsoft I have an idea of standards of which I am unaware with a new company.

Despite the presence of small but focused companies like Nebula, Cloud Stack or Search Cloud, the giants of IT such as Amazon Web Services and IBM’s cloud presence are still in the UK top 10 cloud computing service providers. The fifth position in the top 10 is occupied by Microsoft Windows Azure. Unlike its ventures earlier, Microsoft wants to be a service provider for the cloud, too.

Clou

d Se

rvic

es

By Mark Thompson

Improving Features Improving Features


A s we all know the first step in producing a compelling product or service is to determine what con-sumer really needs. Then we design

our product to meet the consumers’ needs and place it to the market.

Now, how do we get consumers feedback and improve communication online? Is it possible to know what customers really think about our product?

Certainly, big brands have their own cus-tomer services in different countries but, after all, not all of dissatisfied customers address their complaints to the customer services. Sometimes they will just complain in their posts and conversations on the social websites. So, how can we be more efficient in finding and helping dissatis-fied customers?

Brand Embassy, a startup that launched its service in 2011, offers a cloud-based tool that helps companies to reach out for more dissatis-fied customers. They moni-tor 50,000,000 social web-sites daily including the most

popular ones like Facebook or Twitter and sort conversations where the company or its prod-uct is mentioned.

Conversations are sorted by their urgency and influence and are displayed to the com-pany’s representative – brand ambassador. Moreover, in April 2012 Brand Embassy launched a new product Engager.

It helps the brand ambassador not only see the post of dissatisfied customer but also be engaged into the conversation on the website where the company or product was mentioned.

So, the efficiency of helping a dissatisfied customer is claimed to be increased by 40%. Brand Embassy mentions that its product

is being used by such brands as Telefonica, Johnson and Johnson and Otto.

It does not take a big brand to find Brand Embassy useful. If you’re a startup with ambitious plans for growth and you care about your customers this tool may come in use.

Improving the features of your product by listening to your customer’s feedback is the right way towards success.

EMBA

SSY

Bra

nd

1514

Improving Features

www.miemagazine.com

You can sign up for free 14 days trial at brandembassy.com and check what your customers think about your product.

spott ingB

rand EMBASSY

dissatisfied customers across the social web

By Anja Zinchenko


By Villi UrpilainenInnovator,

Twitter: vonelone PROCESSES

How to build

STARTUP for a

all the

The problem with general is that it is actually pretty much general. General is easy. General is as the word describes all that is generally known. So why would not you navigate beyond the general? Of course, if you are just starting or getting into the “startup” mindset you have to know the

basics. You can’t play football right away. First, you have to learn how to walk, run and, preferably, change directions while doing so. Also, you will need a certain skill set with the ball and, lastly, you will have to play by the rules. You don’t have to know the rules but it will help to follow the advice of more experienced tutors.

Process is the series of actions which you undertake to obtain a certain result. So, we should develop great processes. And here comes the best part. These things apply to every company that exists. Although a lot of people make big differences between various companies and business models the bitter truth is that the differences are pretty slim. Process wise.

Everything is simple. If something isn’t simple you are not good at it and you should improve. The same principle applies to all the processes in a company. Whenever you do something and you feel that you succeed, write down the things that led you or your team to the result. It can be something big or small or totally unrelated. Then, throw this paper away. You should just get on

by doing things. But as we all know there will always be need for different processes whether for sales or for employee recruitment. So we must have them. This is the way you will remember things that you need. If your mind lets it slip away then it wasn’t that important after all. Also, this is the way your archives will stay clean and your dropbox folder won’t clog with never-to-be-read documents of “how to do stuff”. Admit it. You never read them anyway.

If you want to read only general stuff about startups you have a problem.

So, if this article isn’t about general startup stuff then what is it about you may ask. It is about process!

So keep this also in mind when founding and working with processes.

My advice is simple.The way to success is easy: do, learn and repeat if necessary.

Reviews


Startup

Very few successful businesses are single founder type. To think of an idea, give it utility, monetize it, and to turn it into a profitable business requires multi-perspective vision. A lone promoter also rein-forces a “No-Confidence” image.

Trying to do it alone 1

A detailed business plan is necessary for entrepre-neurial success since it is the road which guides you. It tells you where you should allocate resources and/or time for optimal effect. In case your assumptions are not correct, it might show where you went wrong. Otherwise, chances of you moving around in circles are high.

Omitting a business plan

3

Market research is a must activity. [An appropriate analogy will be Analytics to SEO activity]. It is worth hiring a specialist to do your market research but choose well. Remember, each research is a new ball game and track results count for nothing. The specialist’s report should show the results in details as well as the basis of the research. Research should be of your target clients.

Getting the market research wrong

4

It makes good business sense to have a secondary funding plan ready, which you can utilize to accu-mulate another 50% of your initially planned budget. Generally, programming costs cannot be acutely forecasted. Unknowns like programming can play chaos with your funds. So, be ready for extra costs!

Lowering the estimated budget

6

Attend startup meetings and network with similar people as the D-day gets closer. It would be also a good idea to do that for another 30-90 days after the launch. Tell people of the problems you face and ask questions. You will gain knowledge and publicity.

Not taking startup meetings seriously

8

So after a year your business is a winner, generating strong revenues and interest. Should you relax now? No, that is a fatal mistake. Improve. Think. Innovate. All the time. IBM’s Office Software was excellent but they relaxed and look what happened.

Relaxing after crossing the finish line

10

Your idea may be unique and completely original, but controversy may make it look like you follow in somebody’s footsteps. “IP misappropriation” and “unfair trade practice’ are some terms which will be bandied about. A competent lawyer will solve your problems but time is lost. Employ the lawyer beforehand, and with his help examine all possible loopholes and plug them one by one.

2 Passing over Intellectual Property (IP) legalities

Resources should be available to you when you need them not before or afterwards. Apart from Venture Capital and Angel investors, explore all sources of funding which may be relevant. However, whatever funding you agree on, keep your foot on the accelera-tor at all times.

5 Not finalizing your funding plan

Excessive delays create doubts in your mind as well as in your investor’s minds, also agitating your staff and all the people who are involved. Do not make any declaration of the exact date of launch but try your best to launch as you had planned. Thinking too much about failure will result in failure.

7 Delaying the launch

There will be times when new and new problems will keep on cropping up when it will be easy to lose heart and get bogged down. Maintain the momentum and do not break it. If the vehicle rattles, let it be.

9 Losing the momentum

Startup Entrepreneurship:

Ten Common

As with any process, a startup business is fragile in the period immediately after its birth. However, the number of goof-ups made during this sensitive period tends to outscore the mistakes made later, in both quantity and intensity. Some of those are the following:

MistakesBy Jo

hann

a Be

rg

Magazine Section

www.miemagazine.com 21

EstoniaMagazine Section

TaxiPal:

By Anja Zinchenko

a taxi

from Estonia

bookingAPP

All you need to do is to have an app TaxiPal on your mobile phone. It will organize your ride to anywhere through its taxi

booking service. TaxiPal debuted in February 2010 as a

project from R&D and technology solu-tion provider “T+1 Solutions”.

For the past two years it has already won a few rewards and was listed in the Top 2011 Red Herring Europe reward which names the most promising private technol-ogy ventures every year.

Users have already appreciated its true value and nowadays the service already covers 31 countries including European countries, US and Canada with 2500 cities in total.

TaxiPal is quite easy to use. It auto-matically determines your location and gives you information on taxi companies available in your area. All you need to do is to push a couple of buttons to open an order form. The filled form is sent to taxi companies from the data base in the app.

Taxi companies answer your request by sending their offers with fares.

Moreover, Taxi Pal calculates the opti-mal distance to your destination. So, you

just choose the most suitable offer. Also, you don’t have to know the local language to order a taxi. TaxiPal is a multi-lingual service so foreign language cannot be a barrier for you. It even converts the local taxi fares to a currency of your choice so taxi ordering could never be easier for you.

In addition to taxi companies’ database, TaxiPal includes an extensive database of local businesses and touristic places of interest. You can choose a destination from this database and TaxiPal takes care of your ride there.

The place can be found by its name, its type or its location. TaxiPal also offer benefits for taxi companies.

First of all, TaxiPal is a good market-ing tool that can allow a taxi company to have its name on every smartphone in the world.

So, the name does not necessarily have

to be known since it is in the database.It makes a company more reachable

and allows getting more clients. Also, the dispatcher doesn’t have to know foreign language which sometimes can cause a loss of a potential client.

Another benefit is that TaxiPal provides reports to taxi company about the ratings and feedback the clients give.

As for orders, they are done as elec-tronic requests so mistakes in data entry are minimized.

For travelers TaxiPal is a very good offer: the problem of language is solved; there is no need to search for taxi phone numbers and compare their prices. TaxiPal allow you to use only your mobile phone.

You can download Taxi Pal from taxi-pal.com for free as the fare for using the app is withdrawn only from the taxi companies. Nowadays it is available for Android, iPhone, and Symbian phones.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation when you are in a foreign city in need for a taxi but there is none around? Now there is a solution to this problem thanks to an Estonian know-how.

TaxiPal Location

TaxiPal is available for testing at taxipal.com.

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Magazine Section


TIPS

Have you ever felt that the social media has become crowded and noisy lately? I have felt that way at some point, especially when a marketer is trying to pitch to me. Social media is here to stay and it’s not going anywhere.

MARKETING

People tend to find increasing marketing pretty annoying and obtrusive in the social media space such as Facebook. So how do you get your voice held as an entrepreneur?Reflect on this: Do you have a product people will want to talk about? If you have taken a few minutes to reflect on it and your answer is positive, then you are on your way to leverage some social media goodness. Getting yourself heard above the buzz involves incorporating the brick and mortar experiences in your social media space.

social media

on how your business

can benefit from

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www.miemagazine.com

Set your positioning

Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter and why are you better? What makes your product pop?

The ‘why’ is an important aspect of your business because people do not necessarily buy what you do, they buy ‘why’ you do it.

The ‘why’ should resonate with them and this makes your customers loyal fans.

No Pitching

You should avoid trying to control or steer any ongoing conversa-tion in your social media space. This invariable leads to pitching,

supporters do not like this. Instead focus on providing valuable consumer experi-ences. Help them achieve their goals. Fulfill their desires and needs. You can, of course, provide rules of engagement but try not to ‘pitch’ instead of solving a consumer’s problem.

Handling negative comments

Having a negative comment on your Facebook fan page, for example, is a grand way of showing just how much you

care about your consumer experiences and how human you are. You may be tempted to delete such remarks that will put a dent on your credibility and trust. Instead,

apologize and seek to redress the issue. Handle with care.

Do not forget other consumers are eval-uating your response. If handled correctly, you will not only gain one more happy customer but a raving loyal one that will gladly spread your services amongst circles.

Using Gamification

Engaging your fans or consumers by creating online game events such as sweepstakes, giving a reward if they perform a certain

action on your social media space helps to create a sense of community. This, in turn, improves your ROI, credibility and referrals.

Optimizing Search Engines

A Facebook fanpage cannot sub-stitute for your website because it is not controlled ultimately by you. Therefore, creating inbound

links to your websites is very important.You can do this by being a source of

information for your fans on your fanpage and directing them to your website for further information.

Other websites with valuable content will willingly connect with you sharing their information as well on your website. It can increase your ranking in the search engines.

These tips can also be implemented on twitter or any other social media platform. Providing valuable information that genuinely seeks to solve problems helps to put you and your business above the digital buzz. Do not forget that word of mouth is still the most valuable means of generating leads for your business.

By Benedicta Ideho

Magazine Section


ManagementDo you inspire your employees?It is always a mistake to expect your

employees to be like you.Entrepreneurs tend to absorb a lot of

information but do not share it with their employees.

Organizing periodic trainings helps to provide valuable information for your employees so they become more produc-tive and efficient.

FinanceWhat are your numbers? Are you win-

ning or losing money? Money to an entrepreneur is like a

score board for a basketball player.It reflects where you are at the moment

and where you want to be. Holding quarterly or annual reviews helps to stay focused.

SalesDevelop a strategic sales plan and teach

your employees. It helps to replicate the process as the business grows.

Accountability and responsibility

This is a feature the giant Apple is good at.

Make every employee responsible and accountable for a task.

It creates specialty and reduces inef-ficiency and resource loss.

It is often easy to get carried away with managing a startup and, then, certain fundamentals tend to be forgotten over time.

EntrepreneurshipFUNDAMENTALS

By Benedicta Ideho

The following tips should help you to reflect on your entrepreneurship skills and optimize your processes. I will try to keep them short and sweet.

Most importantly, you want your employees to feel they have a stake in your business. They should feel like it is their own. This helps to increase efficiency and productivity.

MIEMAGAZINE

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