Doing the Big B the small way - an insight to starting your own business

"What will do when you grow up?" aunties and uncles would ask me when I was a kid, And pat I'd reply - "I want to be a Business woman"

I just love the idea of starting something on my own. Different ideas that can be creatively converted into revenue generating models. Churning ideas keeps me upbeat and motivated!

So many of us are driven by the idea of starting something on our own, working for ourselves. To do something interesting other than the usual stuff.

Whether you are a student, a house wife, an aspiring entrepreneur or simply adventurous and creative and driven.

Or

You perhaps just love the idea of being an entrepreneur.

You have a set of unexplored talents that you can use to generate an alternative way to use your energies and also make some extra bucks!!

You perhaps don't fit in the 9 - 5 "office goer" category

You like challenges and creating opportunities

The list just goes on ....

Recently I encouraged my 15 -year-old cousin Khushi to start a cupcake business, and it’s so exciting to watch her get started. As I talked to her about starting her vegan cupcake business, she was beaming with excitement but had some worries:

She didn’t know how.
She didn’t know what kind of business to create.
She was worried she’d fail.

Do any of those ring a bell and sound familiar??

Those were my worries too, when I had a day job and was thinking of giving it up to build something of my own.

Worrying about not knowing what to do, how to do it, and whether you’ll fail … stops so many of us from starting in the first place.

I’ve helped a lot of my friends,  family members, acquaintances and clients to launch and start numerous ventures, from home based businesses to tiffin services to a staffing company, marketing consultancy,  communication workshops, yoga classes,  etc.

I intend to penning down the experiences of these young entrepreneurs and the thoughts behind their business ideas in a book and can barely wait to compile it for everyone to see and read!  However that thought is a little farfetched and will take some time.

In the meanwhile, I’d like to share the lessons I’ve learnt about starting a business, in hopes of encouraging more of you to get started with making (doing) something you love! :)

Here you go....

-- Look for opportunities.

Keep your eyes open for opportunities — what pain points do people have, what problems need to be solved, how can you make people’s lives better?
If you can’t wait to get started, you’re onto something.

Every time I’ve gotten my best ideas, I get excited. I tell people about it. I might even stay up at night thinking about it. I can’t sit down for long from the excitement.

-- Start small.

People try to build their new business into a massive launch, but this is a mistake or I'd rather say not required initially.

Start as small as possible, giving a minimum viable product to a few friends, and let them test it out. Then let a few more people try it... so on and so forth.

When you try to do something massive at launch, you make it less likely that you’ll actually start (in time), and you’ll take forever to launch, and you’ll build yourself up for failure, and secondly, you’re building something massive without any idea of whether it works or if people will like it.

Launch is just one moment in the lifespan of a business, and it’s not even one of the most important moments.

Not starting is the biggest mistake!!

I told Khushi that in the worst-case scenario — if the business fails — is not even bad. If she starts the vegan cupcake business and fails, at least she got to make and eat some delicious cupcakes, and share them with friends, and learn some valuable lessons along the way. She can always start something new after that.

In fact, this scenario of learning something and having fun along the way, even in “failure”, is demonstrably better than if she’d not started at all.
(Think about it!)

-- Start a blog / fanpage

The best way to market a business is by giving away free information. Show that you’re valuable, help people for free, and they’ll want more from you.

-- You need not really do SEO or social media or viral marketing.

These don’t add any value for your customers. Instead, be super valuable. Build something great, and word of mouth is all the marketing you need (including people passing on your best blog / fanpage posts).

-- Overdeliver.

They’ll love you, and you won’t need the SEO techniques. (Saves you a lot of money too!!)

-- Start lean.

I started mine and urged others to start their businesses with zero or minimum money, and just found free or cheap services to start with.

Only after I started making some revenue did I pay for anything, or hire anyone.

Make money as soon as possible by selling something valuable.

-- Advertising is not a very good business model.

When you make money from ads, what are you selling? Your audience’s attention. This isn't that great, and your audience/customers won’t really love you for it.

Instead, do everything possible to delight your audience/customers, and give them incredible value, and they’ll gladly pay for it.

-- Forget about numbers.

More specifically, forget about compulsorily hitting certain "targets".... A million pageviews, ten thousand subscribers, half a million in revenues. Those are meaningless and arbitrary.

Instead, worry about --
How muchyou’re helping your customers.
How much value are you giving them?
How can you make them smile?

Try putting some numbers on those things.

-- The joy doesn’t come later. IT IS NOW

Lot of times people kill themselves trying to reach a goal, or hit an amazing launch. They hope that achieving this goal will change their lives. Then they get there, and their lives aren’t any different. Then they move on to the next goal. And the cycle continues...

The joy doesn’t come when you hit the goal, or have an amazing launch. The joy comes right now.

"This" is the moment of greatness, of satisfaction with yourself and what you’re doing. Not later.

-- Forget perfection.

Too many people get caught up in trying to make a product, website, blog post, launch, etc. perfect. It’ll never be perfect.

Perfection is stopping you from shipping. Instead, do what you can, get it out there, get feedback, improve it, repeat.

-- Screw the business plan. (Oops excuse the language)

Planning, like perfection, is useless and stands in your way. Sure, you want to think things through, but planning is based on faulty information (we can’t know the future). Instead, experiment. Get started. Do. Then see what happens, and adjust. Flexibility is much more important than a good plan.

-- Start from home, and start with friends or a family member

You don’t need to have an office for most businesses … even a cupcake business doesn’t need a shop — at least not at first. Start with no extra money, in your spare time if you have to. Let your first customers be your friends, and ask them to be brutally honest. Then let them spread the word to their friends. That’s what my friends will call a " saasta and tikau" ( cheap and sustainable ) launch

-- Focus on important things.

Too often people get caught up in statistics, social media, lots of little tasks that don’t matter. Instead, get moving on what matters most — producing something that will add value to your customers.

-- Surround yourself with interesting people.

Having friends who are doing fascinating things is inspiring, and they will give you great advice and feedback. The people around you, and their positive and inspiring attitudes, matter.

-- Learn to be OK with not knowing.

You won’t know what will happen with the business. The world is changing. Your business will change. You will change. You don’t know anything, really, and that’s OK. Read more.

Get started, my friends!

You’ll love it.

Shazy D signing off

More soon .... Stay tuned! 

BEAUTY AND ITS BEASTS - SALONS AND SPAS SURROGATE GRANDMAS?

Mondays to Saturdays gruelling office hours and maddening sales targets to reach. The weekend after a flabergasting week seems like a fabulous retreat. An oasis in the desert.

 "Beta wake up, its Sunday morning, come sit on the terrace balcony with me and soak up the morning sun" said my granma "I have prepared the castor oil and egg mixture, I'll massage it into your scalp. Its very good for hair conditioning you know" "Daadiii! I don't like castor oil and eggs in my head. Its my hair and not a french salad bowl for Christs sake! "I don't like the smell either, and moreover I have an appointment at the parlour today for a deep root hair conditioning spa. That should take care of my mane" and I kissed her on the cheek and bear hugged her while she made a face that clearly said - God give these children some brains! 

But I dint wait too long to decipher and decode her facial expressions and cuddled my pillows back to catch a few moments of precious sleep. I had to reach Bandra by 11:00 am. It was only 8:45 which meant I could stretch my sleep time by about another half an hour atleast. 

As I was about to enter my beauty sleep my cellphone vibrated uncontrollably with several *beep* *beep* tones. With one eye open I saw the popped up whats app window. It read "wake up its 9 and I'll kill you if you are late!" "Meet me at the junction and pick me up from there" It might rain heavily and mind you I hate getting wet so dont be late" ....Yeah! That is a typical KJ message. My sweet, yet stern and endowed with supreme values friend - KJ. Salutations is just not her thing. She uses technology for 2 purposes. One. Important communications like I just received. And Two. Very very important communications like GOSSIP. 

But I loved my indulgent Sundays with her. Parlor trips. Shopping at malls. Lunches. Movies or pulling her leg while doing all of the above. I am usually the mischievous devil and she's forever busy taming me down (success rate being horribly low :p) 

I quickly showered and reached the spot I was to pick KJ from and drove straight to Bandra - just in time for the appointment. Okay about a ten minutes late. But that's because these Bandra lanes don't have enough parking spaces! Otherwise I'm bang on time. Every time. *wink wink* 

"Yes mam. We have your appointment booked with us, wait here while our staff takes you inside for your individual treatments" said Mary. KJ had booked herself and me for a herbal foot massage and pedicure, a fruit facial and a deep conditioning hair spa. A total pamper retreat after a crazy week at work. A bumper to our pockets but then relaxing and destressing doesn't come for cheap they say! 

We came home totally rejuvenated and crispy fresh! My dadi dearest was happy to see us back home and offered us to sit and talk to her along with steaming hot chai and bun maska khari (a typical parsi tea time speciality.) "so lovely ladies tell your old grandma about the latest in the cityville" "how was your parlour trip" I being the bubbly mischief brat thought of taking dadi on a virtual tour of the parlour experience. (Just to show off and prove parlours are so much better than castor oil egg mixture stuff!!) 

So I began telling her... "We reached the parlour just in time and the attendant with a cute pink tee and jeans and a smart apron came walking towards us and first guided us to the pedicure section of the parlour. She filled the tub with warm water and added Epsom salts to it with eucalyptus oil and dipped my feet in them. She scrubed and cleaned them with a pumic stone and applied a vegetable peel mask all over. She then massaged them with olive oil and moisturised them with rose water." 

Dadi was about to say something but then I gushed in with more... "The fruit facial was fantastic" I said.."she mixed strawberries with rosewater milk and cream and massaged it onto my face. I was glowing like a bulb after she washed it off. I could see my grandmother smiling and visibly impressed. While I was almost feeling the sadistic pleasure of proving it to her that parlours are just so kool!

 I continued "and you see my hair daadi? Protein pack! She applied a thick natural protein packed creamy mayonnaise in my hair and massaged it gently and steamed my hair for optimal absorption and then she washed it and blew dry!" Dont they look simply fabulous! And KJ had to add.. and dadi all this pampering for just four thousand five hundred bucks! 

I could actually see my grandmother begin to giggle and chuckle. And I was wondering what was amusing her so much. (Yes I am an entertaining entity when I get talking, but this wasn't the usual amusement. ) There was a hidden hint somewhere in her expressions that said ... "Hahaha Moron!" 

Every woman who manages her family is automatically an excellent finances manager. My grandmother who has brought up her sons and daughters on her own and taken care of her house, husband and inlaws is indeed an extremely practical and a smart one. 

So she says. . "You paid (blew off is what she really meant) a 4.5 thousand for all of THAT ! " "I must say that the service industry is booming indeed."

 "We grandparents offer you the same treatments and even more for free and you girls cant stand em eh. Of course we wear pink cotton sarees and not cute aprons!" She smartly mocked at me. And this time my mom who was over hearing our conversation giggled aloud! "And my darling intelligent granddaughter do you know that the power packed protein mayonnaise pack is actually castor oil and eggs whipped together."

 These two wisecracks were enough to get me and her both crack up and begin laughing on my silly stupidity. I hugged my rockstar grandma promising to book my next "Sunday beauty retreat" with her! - " ahhh haaa.. not until you pay me 5 k young lady"

 -- I remember this incident so fondly now. We often take our age old methods, techniques and recipes for granted. We spend hundreds of bucks at salons to get beautiful skin and shiny hair. But, we forget that our kitchen has all the home beauty remedies for every kind of skin problems and skin types. 

There's a very apt proverb in hindi that my grandma uses often. "Ghar ki murgi daal barabar" which in short means even if you have the best available at your own disposal you don't value it. But if the same thing is wrapped in a more presentable manner or is offered by someone else it automatically grabs our attention! 

Exactly the philosophy on which the beauty spa industry is booming and blooming today. Haldi chandan becomes turmeric exfoliating face pack for extremely oily skin. Strawberries become skin whitening booster with alfa acids .. After all...its just the service that your paying for. Products are in your kitchen! 

;) Jaago Grahak Jaago! 

Here are some of the remedies my grandma suggests which I now do to get salon beauty treatment effects at home and the best thing about this is that it saves me a lot of money ! ;) 

For a salon like glowing skin, make a paste of gram flour, a pinch of turmeric, and 1 tbs. of rose water. Make a semi thick pack of this mixture and apply on your face and keep it for 10 minutes. After it gets dried, gently rub it off from face. This way you remove dead skin as well as small unwanted facial hair. Wash the extra mixture with water.

If you are suffering from dandruff problems, mix one teaspoon of fresh lemon juice in two to three tbs. of warm coconut oil. Apply this on your scalp and massage lightly. Keep this in your head for 40 to 60 minutes and rinse with a good shampoo and conditioner.

To remove sun tan from skin, mix grated cucumber and curd in equal proportions. You can also add 1 teaspoon of lemon if you want. Apply this mixture on the face, neck and other sun burn affected areas and wash off in 15 minutes. If you don’t have cucumber, try using fresh tomato pulp which will give you same results. 

For those who are suffering from dry skin problems, mix equal amounts of glycerin and rose water with few drops of lemon. Apply this with the sterilized cotton bud all over the face and wash off after few minutes. This works as a natural toner for your dry skin. 

We all wish for smooth and silky hair but by over exposure to the sun, hair tends to get dry and dull. To take care of hair, use warm coconut oil to massage your scalp and take a hot towel and wrap it on your head for 20 minutes. Make sure that the towel is not too hot as it will damage the hair. The steam of towel will allow the oil to seep deep into roots of hair. Shampoo and condition your hair after this and you will immediately feel the difference in hair texture. Follow this routine once a week to get smooth and shiny hair. 

To get rid of uneven skin tone, take a raw potato slice and rub it on wet face. Make sure you rub in a circular motion for 5 minutes. This will increase the blood on the skin and even out the skin color of face. 

With our hectic life, numbers of skin and hair problems have increased. Instead of wasting money on expensive cosmetic products and salon treatments, its best to try some effective home remedies to get simple solutions to any kind of beauty problems! Says my grandma.

 Shazy D signing off.

 Happpppyy Skin Care! :D

Navroze Mubarak! - the bawa talks

The Festival of Navroze, the New Year celebrated on 21st March marks the change in season ushered by the Spring Equinox.

Its origins lie in the seasonal festivals of Central Asia and it acquired a religious significance for the Zoroastrians, followers of Prophet Zarathushtra, who preached his philosophy in ancient Iran around 1600 BC.

A small little miniscule community of "happy go lucky" people as it is fondly identified with, we are almost all over the place.

You surely cant miss a BAWA!

"Bawaji" "chal ni dikra" "su karech" "jamva chalo ji" these are phrases you must have surely heard once. One cant seem to miss these in movies, theatres, plays with parsi characters!

If you don't know a bawa for real (makes us sound like dinosaurs) you'd sure know one "on screen"

A lot of us know parsis, bawajis, iranis .. but most of us don't know anything about the festivals or rituals or celebrations of the community.

Navroze is one of the bank holidays parsis contribute to your annual holiday list and you ought to know why we celebrate it and its significance atleast!

But before I write about Navroze (my real intention to write this blog) a little introduction to the community ...who are parsis?!

We are a small religious community, which exists mostly in Mumbai and Pune and in smaller numbers in other cities of India.

The religion of Zoroastrianism was established by Zarathustra in 6th or 7th century BC.

The followers of this religion exiled from Iran in the 7th century AD because of the religious persecutions by the Muslims.

They arrived in India at the Gujarat region and were warmly welcomed by the people of Sanjan. Since then we came to be known as "Parsis" (since we had arrived from the land of Persia)

Parsis believe in the existence of one invisible God. We believe that there is a continuous war between the good forces (forces of light) and the evil forces (forces of darkness).

The community practices the philosophy of Good thoughts. Good words. Good deeds.

We preachfire. The symbol of light which signifies purity. And hence our temples are called the fire temples.

The holy language of the Parsis is an ancient language spoken in Iran, Avesta. However most parsis in India have adopted gujarati as their mother tongue.

The Parsis are less then 0.02% of India's population but their contribution to India is much more than their proportion in India's population.

The rich Parsi families contributed enormously to establish institutions of all kinds in India. Even today some of the bigger finance houses in India belong to followers of this religion.

Aahhh... a lot said about us ... Coming back to where I began...

Navroze is the beginning of the New Year for the Parsis of India and is also celebrated as a Spring Festival by the Kashmiri Community of India.

Navroze is a part of the Zoroastrian respect for the environment. This festival of the agricultural season became dedicated to Ahura Mazda(Lord of Wisdom) and the Amesha Spenta (Holy Immortals) as part of the Gahambar(celebrations of the seasons) 

Navroze or the New Year is the largest and most holy celebration, dedicated to Spring, Fire and Righteousness.  Navroze has links with the dawn of Zoroastrian history and the legend of King Jamshed of Iran. This is why among the Zoroastrians it is also called Jamshedi Navroze. 

Celebrated on 21st March, the Spring Equinox, it is the time of cleansing the house and spiritually rejuvenating the self. It is characterized by a sense of new life, the ploughing of the fields for spring planting, the wearing of new clothes and the sprouting of fresh greenery, which is placed on the specially decorated "Navroze table".

In honour of this feast, there are a series of customs marked by the number seven. This number represents the seven Amesha Spenta (the special Angels of Zoroastrianism) and particular food items are prepared in homes to be set on this table. 

There are special dishes for breakfast - one is 'Ravo' prepared with suji, milk and sugar and the other is 'Sev' fried vermicelli cooked in sugar preparation and decorated with dry fruits.

After breakfast, Parsis and Iranis visit the Fire Temple or Agiary for a special thanks-giving prayer called, 'Jashan'. They also offer sandalwood to the Holy Fire.

There is also a custom to keep a copy of the Gathas(holy books) , a lit lamp, an Afarigan (live holy fire), a bowl of water containing live fish, a shallow earthenware plate with sprouted wheat or beans for prosperity, flowers for colour, a silver coin for wealth, painted eggs for productivity, and sweets and rosewater in bowls for sweetness and happiness on a table.

Apart from these, the table also has seven foods beginning with 'sh' and 'sa'. These are meant to symbolise creation.
Food forms an essential part of Navroz celebrations.
‘Faluda’ i.e. milk flavoured with rose essence, is the traditional drink prepared on this day.

Pulao, rich with saffron, is a must for the lunch on Navroz.

’Ravo’, a popular Parsi dish is also made on this day.

The Navroz table has seven food items beginning with ‘sh’ (in Persian):
1. sharab (wine)
2. shakar (sugar)
3. shir (milk)
4. shirin berenjor (sweet meat)
5. shahad (honey)
6. shirin (sweet) and
7. shira (syrup)

The table also lays down seven eatables beginning with‘s’:
1. sirka (vinegar)
2.sumac (spice)
3.sumanu (pudding made from wheat germ)
4. sib (apple)
5. sabzi (green vegetables)
6. senjed (sorb tree berry) and
7. seer (garlic).

Each of these food items signifies creation.

Along with these, fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, and various seeds are also placed on the table.

The lady of the house takes the visitors to the table, traditional rituals are performed and then everyone sits down to share and eat these food items and celebrate.

I wish all parsis and iranis a vajtu gajtu haastu raamtu Navroze Mubarak and a humble invitation to all my friends and relatives to visit us on the 21st March 2013 or on anyone of the 13 days thereafter to celebrate the onset of happiness and prosperity.

Excuse the length and detailed description of the blog. But I simply can't cut it short sometimes! (Most times)
:p

Love
Shaz

THE ROSE WITHIN

A man once decided to have a small rose garden of his own. He religiously bought the seeds and sowed them in a flower bed in front of his little house.

He would water the flower bed faithfully every day in anticipation of having beautiful roses bloom in his garden.

One day whilst he was watering the rose plants he decided to examine them closely.He fixed his eye on the bud that looked like it would blossom soon. He noticed that there were thorns upon the stem of the bud. Looking at the bud he thought to himself, "How can any "beautiful" flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp "thorns"?

Saddened by this thought, he lost the motivation to water the plants. He neglected to water the rose bed then on, and dint bother much. The roses due to lack of attention and water...dried and withered.

Just before the roses were ready to bloom into beautiful flowers... they died!

If you notice, its the same story with most of us and so it is with people around us.

Within each one of us there is a ROSE. Beautiful and ready to bloom.

The God-like good qualities planted within us at birth, grow amidst the thorns of our faults and mistakes.

Many of us look at ourselves or others and see only the thorns, the defects, the faults. (our negatives)

We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come out from us owing to the negativity.

We neglect to water the good (positive goodness) within us, and eventually the good within " withers and dies".

We fail to realize our own potential!

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them.

One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the "rose" within them.

THIS is one of the characteristics of LOVE.. to look at a person, know their true faults and to accept that person into your life... all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul.

P.S. Help others to realize that they can overcome their faults.

Show them the "rose" within themselves & they will conquer their thorns.

Only then we will all blossom many times over...

Love SHAZ

THANKS MAA

Effervescent bubbling kids, colourful costumes and anxious and excited parents all over a playpark themed studio set.

I wrote this blog just after I was watching a reality show meant for drawing talent out of the little kids between the age of 3 - 12 I'm guessing!
And while I saw.. I just cudnt help smiling and gigging away to glory looking at each little bundle of energetic nerves perform!

Took me back to my kiddy days when I was a little pampered kid myself. Was?!  ... I still am ... just not "little" any more! :p

Like every daughter... I was an "out and out" daddy's girl (photographic evidence attached herewith). I saw a "superhero" in my father and couldn't get my eyes off him. My day began with running into his arms, seeking attention, getting pampered, bragging about him in school to my friends, waiting for him to come home so that I could hop into his car and go out for fun.

He indeed was my rescue man. He was my knight in shining armour who would save me from all the disciplinary protocols my mother had set for me. Things like "school" "homeworks" "getting up early" "having milk" ... urrghh!! Disgusting rules I'd say to myself !! (See my face in the picture with her?? Proof enough!)

I almost thought and was reasonably convinced that my mom hated me with the kind of rule book she had for me. Of all the things she would plan for me to do throughout the day,not a single activity in the entire agenda would even remotely mean "funnnn" for me!

I even proposed to my dad once (in supreme overconfidence) about getting another"nicer mom" in exchange of the one I had! Of course my super hero dad smiled and humbly explained to me that she was indeed a veryyyy nice mom and it's just that I need to understand her better.

Never understood what he really meant! :p. ... But I was just glad he never mentioned my grand idea to mom then.....else I'm sure I wudnt be alive today to write and share it here... ;)

Those were the days.. pampering dad and beating to pulp mom .. what a combination I say! Tee he hehe

One little incident in this reality show caught my attention. There was a little girl who superbly enacted a solo performance on a dialogue between a mom and daughter. The judges applauded her talent and asked if her mom was around. The smiling girls face suddenly turned pale and tears brimmed her eyes. She tried her best to keep them from rolling onto her cheeks but failed. Her 5 year old self was perhaps not experienced enough to hide the strong emotions that filled her up on her mom's mention.

The judges nudged her and asked the crew to call her father. That's when her father who accompanied her told the audience that she had just recently lost her mother. In no time I and I'm sure most people in the audience had goose bumps all over. I was awed at the kind of strength and will the little girl had in her to hide or atleast pretend to hide such a huge void in her life.

Throughout her performance she was commendable and nothing about her reflected her vulnerable side.

We sometimes so easily take things for granted.

Life takes us through different phases. Some good. Some difficult. We make mistakes. People come. People go. Some love you. Some hate you. But... that One force. One voice. One strength. That constantly continues to say I love you...is your MOTHER.

At 3, 13, 30 or 60 we still feel like little children in front of our mothers. I DO.

Though these words were written by Ms. Celine Dion to express her love to man who loved her the most.

I find them aptly fitting my love for my mom. This one is for you maa!

"You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see You saw the best there was in me Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
You gave me faith 'coz you believed
I'm everything I am Because you loved me

You gave me wings and made me fly
You touched my hand I could touch the sky
I lost my faith, you gave it back to me You said no star was out of reach
You stood by me and I stood tall
I had your love I had it all
I'm grateful for each day you gave me Maybe I don't know that much
But I know this much is true
I was blessed because I was loved by you

My world is a better place because of you maa !

I'm everything I am Because you loved me ...

P.s.. Love your moms! However monstrous they seem to you sometime or the other in life. They are the amazing powerhouses of love strength and care God gifted us with. Im so glad dad dint take my "exchange proposal" seriously!

Love you maa!