08 Dec 09 3 Pillars of a Successful Business
Have you ever wondered what makes a business successful? You may come up with many answers to this question but when your answers are subjected to scrutiny, every answer will boil down to three things, in precisely this order.
- Investor
- Employee
- Customers
Investor
Investors are a group of people who invest their hard-earned money to get return from your business. They invest in your business because they trust you, and they see hope in your business. Till the time you are fulfilling their expectations, they will keep their money in your business. Hence, you need to keep them apprised of any development in your business. Keep on giving them good news, and your business will be in good shape.
Employee
Your employee is the second pillar of your business. It is your employees only that can make or break your business. Your business solely depends upon their performance to meet the investors’ expectations, and to deliver on the promises made to your customers. It is thus in your best interest that you keep your employee happy. A happy employee will satisfy the needs of many customers, and will present a favorable picture to investors, whereas, a disgruntled employee is a big deal breaker. They will piss everyone off, including you.
Customers
It is the customers for whom you have erected such a giant structure, raised money, and hired so many highly qualified employees. The end goal of your business is to serve this group of people, and all your energy should be channelized to do so. The moment you step away from your path, your business is doomed. Do not let your vision blurred by the shine and sparkles of advertisements and press coverage, you have not achieved anything if you have not served your customer right.
A parting thought
Which one of the three is more important? Well, this is tricky to answer as none of them is more important than rest of the two. You need to make a balance.
Form an equilateral triangle placing each one of them at each corner of the triangle, and you should sit right in the center, equidistant from each one of them.
Tags: Advertisements, Best Interest, Break, Business Serve, Business Trust, Deal Breaker, Disgruntled Employee, Equilateral Triangle, Giant Structure, Good Shape, Hard Earned Money, Invest, Investor Group, Investors Group, Path, Pillar, Pillars, Promises, Scrutiny, Successful Business
26 Jul 09 How to Build a Home Office
In the last article, we talked about why a freelancer need to have a home office, and I guess, I succeeded in building case in favor of a small home office. Hence, in this article, we will see what all we need to have in our no-frills small home office to help us work efficiently. Before we begin with buying stuffs for our home office, let us first unclutter the space where we want to create our imagination-pod.
Get a lonely unused corner
The first step in establishing a functional home office is to leave your bedroom, and search for an unused space, not necessarily corner, to setup your home office. By shifting your works to one designated area, you will free up your personal space and time, and the home office will send a signal to your unconscious mind that as soon as you start moving towards that special area, your body should get prepared for work.
By separating your work place from your bedroom, you can also control the inflow of distracting stimuli to your work space. I would suggest you to keep the decoration of your home office to painting the wall with a darker shade of your favorite color, and having a clock or clocks, depending upon the geographical locations of your clients.
The agenda of this article is not to tell the rich kids about what all fancy stuffs they should keep in their home offices, but the goal of this article is to provide a list of basic things that you must have in your home office.
Must-have Home Office Tools
Well, if you are building your home office to impress your friend, family and relative then go for the latest hi-tech gadgets, but if your intention is to do some real work in there then invest your hard-earned money in buying the tools that you cannot do without. The following list includes the things you should keep in your home office:
- Personal computer, or a laptop
- All-in-one printer, fax, copier and scanner
- At least a landline or a cell phone
- Stapler, pen, pencil, blank sheets, glue, adhesive, tape, sharpener, eraser, scale and other stationary.
- A portable Hard disk for data backup
- A coffee-mug holder to save your desk from coffee spills
- Visiting card holder
- Blank Media
- Bulletin Board to affix to-do list
- Ideation board
- Stickies, and
- Dictionary
Can you come up with more must-have office tools? Well, help me out in making this list exhaustive.
Tags: Adhesive Tape, Blank Sheets, Building Case, Fancy Stuffs, Favorite Color, Friend Family, Geographical Locations, Hard Earned Money, Hi Tech Gadgets, Inflow, Must Have Home Office, Office Tools, Painting The Wall, Pen Pencil, Rich Kids, Scal, Space And Time, Unconscious Mind, Unused Space, Work Space
