It’s Time to plunge my Blogging with the self-hosted website ‘thestartupsformula.com’

Finally, blogging with  https://startupsformula.wordpress.com has come to an end!

This means,  my blog – The Startups Formula is now with my self-hosted website – http://thestartupsformula.com

My previous blog is on the name “Startups Formula” blog with wordpress.com . Now, my blog name is “The Startups Formula” blog with wordpress.org

Having an own website with a custom domain name is my absolute dream and it has come true today. And I’m ready to launch my serious goals, mission, vision of my blog for the next year 2017.

Indeed, maintaining and handling a self-hosted website gives me tons of excitement , but, at the same time, there lies a massive responsibility to raise the bar of my blogging brand to completely new level.

However, this takes lots of time,energy, patience and effort to establish my blog as an exclusive brand and engage right audience.

For example, there are these tasks –

1. Targeting right audience
2. Retaining loyal readers
3. Maintaining qualitative and informative content
4. Handling SEO issues
5. Finding right opportunities to engage clients
6. Meet and maintain relations with co-bloggers
7. Work from home challenges
8. Beating the content and blogging competition

What do the -The Startups Formula Blog serves ?

• Content Engineering  – My exclusive guide on ‘Why Blog is your next big thing if you want to pursue your business  seriously’ , ‘How to Blog like a CEO’ and ‘How to Blog effectively before plunging into Content Marketing’
• Reveal ‘Top Blogging strategies’ to help small businesses, nascent startups,Online business owners, Newbie bloggers with the effective tools, tips, tactics and growth hacks ideal for content marketing launch
• Generate reviews on the Products, Apps, Tools,Digital marketing websites and other resources essential for aspiring Blogpreneurs

Why I have to go with my own website?

The Content management system with wordpress.com is fantastic, while offering an incredible experience on how to blog effectively and use appropriate tools.

I intentionally took 6 months of time to get hands-on experience on the kind of blogging and dive into some serious blogging  goals.

When I say serious blogging journey, there are thousands of things that I kept missing without a self-hosted website. That means, there’s no specific identity for my blog because there’s always ‘wordpress.com’ attached to the blog name (https://startupsformula.wordpress.com/) . This, indeed, did not produce an accurate unique identity for my blog.

Yes, this is the significant aspect I considered keenly and took an appropriate decision to buy and own a domain of my choice.

However, there are tons of options one can get out of owning a (custom name) blog or website – having advanced plugins, brand visibility, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) ranking, reach targeted clients and produce qualitative Blog-graphics and Infographics.

How did I do?

I purchased my domain name and hosting from Bluehost and designed my own website  while following an ebook ‘The Ultimate wordpress guide’ by Pro Blogger – Harsh Agarwal @Shoutmeloud.

Next, coming to my web design I designed my website theme purchasing a premium theme – Genesis Framework theme and a child theme –  Pretty Creative Theme

Rest all, I mean technical stuff and other aspects have been DIY process and followed a search on Google for more guided instructions.

So far, building a website is as equivalent to constructing a building and I can say it’s not easy (I took exactly two months in intervals) but it’s not an impossible task to just leave your hope to try a web design for yourself.

I think I covered all the major things that made me to own a website, but I’ll cover the important wordpress plugins, I’m using for my website in ‘The Startups Formula‘ website.

Logo for  ‘The Startups Formula’ Blog:

I chose a simple logo that reflects my blog’s brand image with words itself.

You can see in the image I chose only words that is same as my blog name , which is clear and concise and will easily register in a reader’s mind and create an agile relationship with the blog and the reader.

How about old Content?

All my old posts or content are now available in the new site http://thestartupsformula.com. Please click the link and share your thoughts and continue the same journey with my blogging.

A big Thanks –

Thanking all my dear loyal readers does not satisfy me, but I’ve to express my gratitude towards all your encouragement to read my articles and feel motivated at the end of the day.

So, I took my responsibility to new heights owning a website and produce more qualitative content and conduct loyal relationship with all dear readers.

Thanks so much again!

Hope you like the new blogging site ‘The Startups Formula’ and shower your support with relentless reading and sharing.

Namaste!!

Kheer 

@The Startups Formula – Learn, Share and Grow

Here’s the thing that tell you can’t miss TiE Global Summit 2016

Today, I’m very overwhelmed to write this post with my insights cascaded on the one of the largest Entrepreneurship Conferences- TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Global Summit 2016 happening in New Delhi.

You’re reading this article because, you are in the journey of pursuing a Startup or working on an outstanding project idea right from your college campus or you’ve already pioneered an unprecedented venture with a group of passionate partners like you or you’re someone who wants to plunge soon in the world of being an Entrepreneur soon.

Okay, if you think you belong to any of those above personalities ,then there’s one thing in common that you’re an Entrepreneur by nature, regardless to your stage of Entrepreneurship journey.

There are massive things (Inspired from reading remarkable journeys of Great people; or Spearhead a project to resolve the common man’s pain points; or Share unique ideas with likeminded people; and sometimes, it happens through a sheer passion)  that a common man changes his/ her career track as a Leader or a key person to a Global company or an Entrepreneur.

However, it is seldom that you get an opportunity to share an idea or venture and if you’re lucky you will experience an extraordinary opportunity knocking your door to grow a network of a similar tribe. In fact, you can coin the term as ‘Networking’, that explodes your connections to powerful leaders and get influenced by the influencers in the relative industry.

From the HBR article ‘How successful people network each other’ by Dorie Clark , she cites that the world is competing for the attention of successful people for which she recommends the best strategy to grow your business community, first, is to make them to meet you and allow them to connect with your expertise, and finally, grow a mutual network of influencers.

So, from the above citation by Dorie Clark, the primary step to grow your expertise (subject of interest or your brand)  is to show yourself in the events where Big people meet at the conferences or events.

So if you feel you want to pitch in a solid network of connections ,then it’s not a complete year for an Entrepreneur without attending the largest Entrepreneurship conference – TiE Global Summit 2016, held on December 16-17  at Taj Palace, New Delhi, which is in partnership with the leading agencies of the Government of India, 20+ TiE chapters from India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and Dubai, and global venture capital funds will be the largest such conference for entrepreneurs anywhere in the world

TiEcon is annual flagship conference ranked equally among top 10 world conferences Demo, TED and World Economic Forum for ideas and Entrepreneurship by Worth Magazine , engage  4,800+ attendees from 22+ countries.

Summit Highlights:

1. Let’s Speed network: Allows you to address networking pain points clearly and get an appropriate solution in a matter of 120 seconds
2. Workshop:  A series of workshops or sessions covering critical aspects in areas – Fund raising , Personal branding, Attracting talent, Building partnerships and so on.
3. Excellence awards: TiE’s celebrates the success of innovative, extraordinary and sustainable startups in it’s 7th year.
4. Young achiever award: TiE recognises and awards three young achievers under 30 in the field of sports, art and culture, who inspired young generation to face the challenges, overcome obstacles and succeed beyond limitations.
5. Koffee with Keynotes: This schedule gives an astounding opportunity to take your own time with Keynotes
6. Meet and Greet Charter members: Here’s your chance to get candid with TiE charter members over tea or coffee at pre-specified  lounges and propel your scope of experiences to only 10X greater with such one meet.
7. Spirit of Manufacturing awards: These awards encourage and applaud the Startups in manufacturing domain that brought implementable business solutions .

 

Eminent Speakers you get to meet –

Rana Kapoor ( Managing Director and CEO, YES Bank), Amitabh Kant ( CEO, Niti Aayog, Govt of India), Travis Kalanick (Co-founder Uber), Ramesh Abhishek (Secretary Dept. of Industrial Policy & Promotion), Sanjay Mehrotra (Co-founder & Former President & CEO SanDisk) and the list is endless with remarkable achievers meeting at one platform.

Words are not countable to the kind of experience one can gain from a mammoth conference like TiE Global Summit 2016.

Click Here – To Get your registrations from Goeventz portal and claim your seat to escape your life with outstanding leaders and members 

Registrations are basically offered to – 1. TiE Delhi NCR members 2. Other Chapter members 3. Non-members and Students

Chapters in India to offer a 50% discount on Associate/Regular Membership fee if a non-member pass has been purchased by delegate. This offer is valid till 17th Dec 2016

Goeventz- A one-stop platform revealing the events happening around your world every second – conferences, rock concerts, festivals, fundraisers, exhibitions, trade fairs and other events. You’ll never be the same if you’re a participant because there is a lot happening on your interests Goeventz 

Let me know your views from attending the event and also share your insights if at all attended an Entrepreneurship or Leadership conferences like this before.

Let the article Shared by you, after all ,’Sharing is Caring‘

@Startups Formula – Learn, Share and Grow

November Favourites

Can’t believe that November completed and entered into the last month of the Year 2016 filled with black-friday deals, friends, treats, celebrations and wait for the big lunches and dinners on the eve of Christmas. So, as a part of Startups Formula blog culture, it’s time to reveal my favourites for the November month – Apps, Entrepreneur’s formula, Strategies, influential video, Business formula and favourite article.

Now, before heading to what kind of stuff interested me in the November month, you can check my October favourites and grab your insights related to Entrepreneurship, Influencing video, Business  and Productivity apps .

Without further wait, I’ve got my November favourites jotted down with the list here:

• Must-have App – Google sheets
• Entrepreneur Formula -Ashish Hemrajani
• Business Formula – GMR Group
• Stanford Business Education Formula- Building and Managing  Professional sales organisations
• Favourite Blog Post – Age of content , which type fits your content by Marketsocket Blog

Favourite App -Google Sheets:

I never thought that there will be a tool or an application that replaces mammoth MS-Excel application until I came across Google Sheets. 

It was when my Windows operated laptop broke out with some issue ,and incidentally, I’ve to switch my work to my husband’s  Mac book. For some reason, I always love to work on Windows OS  with office applications being handy for my Blogging, projects, internships, reports, client works, personal financial planning and job related work. I was so stuck with my work  when I didn’t a find a similar application as MS-excel or MS-word and fetch my significant data for my work. But, world will always give you when you need something you want for a meaningful purpose. I think Google heard the pain and got us with a beautiful application – Google sheets and that changed my work pace in a new dimension, which means I can carry my data in my pocket and open  and work on my data anywhere in this world through their app on any of your smartphones.

The results are instantaneous when you even work on your mobile that was not possible few years back. Using this very app, I formulated my personal financial planning, blogging research data and numbers for my budgets.

 From the below screenshot, you can observe many editing and format tools, options, data, add-ons and other tools that support your kind of work. You’ll be no stranger to this application, when you’re an avid user of Microsoft office applications. Because, every aspect to work on Sheets application is so simple and retrievable that you want to do more on this app.

The other common options available are – to save a file or share your sheet is same as Google Docs sharing your work with dedicated users and an option to allow them to edit your data. Next, how about graphs and related stuff then ? Yes, you can get customised graphs from your data too. You’ve unlimited options to get a visual charts or 3D graphs, where this intelligent application suggests you the type of charts or graphs possible with the kind of table selected  based on your data.

You might ask, what if I want additional features available from other applications? Yes, there is this Add-on feature where you can add your favourite and important add-ons from the ocean of plug-ins available. Also, these days, there digital applications that support an option to import your data right from your Google drive or Google sheets or Google docs. It’s this brilliance that we can collaborate our work easily and accessible where ever you’re.

One can’t stop exploring countless options, features and tools available from this app, where you can download it from your App store or you can browse from your desktop and sign in with your gmail account. Voila! you are about to start your journey with this phenomenal application.

MyTake : Contentment with the application is just Amazing!

So here’s your link to create data magic with Sheets 

Business Formula: 

In this series of favourites, GMR group of companies core vision, values and beliefs has made a huge impact on me to put it in my favourites basket for the November month.

“GMR Group will be an institution in perpetuity that will build entrepreneurial organisations making a difference to society through creation of value.”

When I read these lines from the GMR group vision, they absolutely matches the values and beliefs  followed by the GMR Infrastructure Ltd. founder – Mr. Grandhi Mallikarjun Rao, who says “From the beginning itself, whatever I built I wanted it to be world class. I have never wanted to compromise on the quality.” He said these lines firmly that he holds ‘Can-Do Attitude’ without giving up an opportunity to shape the results qualitatively, which happened, when he pioneered his venture to build a best state-of-the-art Rajiv Gandhi International airport in Hyderabad and then to land his group presence in Transportation that has six operational highways covering a total length of 2851 km.

The group didn’t stop there itself , but made their presence in urban infrastructure, to manage businesses of Special Investment Region (SIR), property development and construction. Also, they forayed into Sports by promoting the Indian Premier League (IPL) – Delhi Daredevils to encourage and support the spirit of  young sportspersons.

In fact, GMR group dedicates their support ,under the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation ,to focus on societal needs and enhance the quality of lives – health, education, hygiene, sanitation, empowerment, livelihood, and community development.

My take: Today, GMR group is a conglomerate of such massive projects and companies that initiated with one man’s vision to deliver a world-class outcome as his core formula. Obviously, the very formula determines your commitment to stick on to a plan that generates better results and with quality as it’s primary objective. This is the best lesson that every newbie entrepreneur or an emerging startup wants and should thrive to focus on efficiency that your  brand produces to customers . When you know that you employed quality at every level – recruiting right talent, financial management, process best product output, resources procurement and more, you’ll get an amazing response from your contribution to the society.

This is the reason, why GMR group standards have raised to international level and that remain as a top 3rd infrastructure company in India. Ultimately, when you set your vision as to reach world-class standards ,which certainly drives your company’s growth as a remarkable journey from all grounds.

Entrepreneur Formula: 

For the November month, my attention sought after towards Bookmyshow Founder – Mr. Ashish Hemrajani, who started the journey of being a Startup to nourish the value of Startup mentality even after seeing huge accolades from his venture. In crux, Bookmyshow is India’s top online portal to book tickets for – movies, events, plays and sports.

The story to start build a colossal platform like this in India took unprecedented leaps and bounds to make it as a most user friendly platform to book tickets in English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bhojpuri, Kannada Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindi languages till today. Consequently, they expanded their horizons into the countries like -Bangladesh, Indonesia, New Zealand and UAE.

In his recent interview with YourStory media, he opened up his ideology about what is the real competition to Bookmyshow and how having a startup attitude is a real growth metric. He said having the Bookmyshow to compete with the competitors is a sane process, which is as common phenomena,but there are other bunch of things that are key factors to face the competition in the market – mindset of Indian culture, Government policy and Infrastructure issues. At the end, he underlines that the purpose of a company should rely on growing the market penetration but not to shackle with competitors robustness.

Startup mentality Vs. Entitlement mentality :

He was asked “if Bookmyshow still believes in being as a Startup?” , with his response mirrored on the real metrics of a successful Startup is not about Land grab; or number of employees; or chunk of angel funding; or get the attention of  The Economic Times; or number facts ,but the appropriate Startup mentality is to how difference you’re making to human capital, doing right things to end users and work in the same environment that started from scratch.

Indeed, it’s this Startup mentality of being nimble and extremely frugal that makes your company to propagate the success with changing times and customer needs.

My Take: I’m really impressed with the Entrepreneur Formula for the November month and for which I want to incorporate and pursue this formula in every step of my blogging journey.

Stanford MBA Teaching Methods Simulation: 

Simulation teaching methodology is the key formula to engage Stanford Business school students with practical case studies analysis. If you watch this video on  – How simulations are used as a teaching method in the Stanford MBA program, you’ll see the students giving  60 minutes of time to analyse a sales project and come up with a better forecast analysis.

Here, noted entrepreneur Mark Leslie and Professor Jim Latttin heads 10 teams analysis and validate their outcomes from bad to good forecast. Students get a chance to work on 3 levels

1. What their sales goal going to be?
2. Set the quota across three different regions
3. Final decision to be the personnel

In the whole process, teams dive into the simulated environment and initiate discussions on : How many reps are you going to deploy these regions to make your quota and more.

From the Professor end,it is the time , he interprets teams decisions on how much they make out of sales process and how much they book , how successful they get using their strategies and make them to conclude the forecast the way we want them to do in 60 minutes of time. During the last ten minutes, students need to read the results, and do additional analysis, modify their budgets and then submit their feasible plan.

At the end, Professor reveals the strategies winners put in and losers deploy and conduct a team meeting to know

• How did a team decide to what decisions team members would make?
• Who would the team hire ?
• Where you would deploy the resources?
• What number would you shoot?
• And how you would make that number?

Finally, all the teams go under a practical scenario and get an appropriate guidance from the mentors to make corrections to get a better forecast analysis.

My Take: I pretty much loved the methodology assigned by Stanford Business Simulation program to students, because it is this real-time environment that any student would want to understand practical situations, real-life issues and conclude with solutions that fit to customers, business, and stakeholders. I, totally, encourage such curriculum to all current educational institutions and impart practical education to students rather than simply teaching theories.

Favourite Article  – Age of content , which type fits your content: 

The article ‘Age of content , which type fits your content’  from Market socket Blog , has turned my attention to know the type of  content you need to your business purpose. Primarily, Christine (content writer), curated types of content – Blog posts, Email, Guest posts, Podcasts, Curated articles, Online magazine articles, Ebooks and Interviews to unleash the appropriate usage of each type of content model and explain other effective channels to gain loyal customers and increase business conversions.

My take: The article is simple enough to understand and categorised the objective of the article neatly that suffice a reader to take immediate action. One line that caught my attention is ‘All writers are readers’ and which made me to focus my posts to Writers-cum-readers and gain their loyalty using my Blog Posts. Also, she included bunch of useful tools that explodes your content marketing results to a new level and which will be a best article in the Content Marketing genre.

So, now that I infused my November favourites essence in this article and it’s your turn to share your favourites of the month or share your thoughts on this post. Don’t wait to share this post someone you feel worth and help them know better with these kind of posts.

@The Startups Formula – Learn, Share and Grow 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How ‘Who’ in your content makes an”Whoooray” Content marketing

Before knowing right ‘Who’ in your content, you will need essentially ‘Why in your content marketing‘(which was my earlier snippet). Then, next step to design an effective content  is to find the right audience and categorise your content proportional to the type of customers or audience. This snippet reveals the possible answers you get from targeting the ‘Who’ in your content.

When you know ‘Who’ is your targeted segment, then this is the critical step to determine type of audience you want to accomplish  your brand’s product visibility. For example, my articles essentially target ‘Newbie Entrepreneurs’  , ‘Newbie Bloggers’ , ‘Newbie writers’, and ‘Newbie online business owners’ . Here, the term ‘Newbie’ is itself a subset of Entrepreneurs or Bloggers or Writers group. When I design my articles I focus primarily on this segment (Newbie) and curate the content relative to the ‘newbie’ needs and provide solutions for their content marketing endeavours.

The above practical example, showcases the significance to segment the primary needs or problems faced by your customers. You can research on the trends or forecast customers needs using Nielsen or Edison Research and come up with a vital content that has a purpose and direction. Post-conducting the research, you’ll get the following possible results developing content that suits your niche audience

1. Solve problems – Project the key aspects that your product has equipped to solve futuristic issues, which indeed, produces an amazing effect to your customers
2. Serve a need: Reflect your brand endeavours that serve the needs trending in your customer’s lives
3. Chance to explore more: Besides to serving needs and solutions to realistic issues, you can give your targeted audience a chance to explore more from your existing product or give an opportunity to explore the richness of a to-be-launched product.

Let me know if you’ve started your content marketing campaign that generated the above or more results and share your experiences from the strategies incorporated so far.

@Startups Formula – Learn, Share and Grow 

Snippet #4: Know ‘Why’ in your content marketing

When you don’t know where to start your content marketing campaign and end up with potential clients or customers or audience. The first point you need to start is with a question ‘Why’. Knowing ‘Why’ in your business is the key aspect to curate an effective content marketing which accomplishes one of 6 business objectives  – Branding, community building, public relations, market research, customer service, and lead/sales generation.

This snippet offers relative benefits knowing ‘Why’ in your content marketing:

Know the essence of being a Leader and a trait that exists in every person

Leadership is a trait that’s there in everyone of us and that takes myriad forms based on the nature of responsibility undertaken by an individual. This is a new insight, I came to know when I read an ebook by ISHA Insight  , where Sadhguru has revealed the essence of Leadership and how it exist in every person. It threw me a massive influence on how to nurture Leadership in several scenarios and then I analysed my Leadership trait when I work on my blog’s workflow and deal with my clients and progress in my journey of being as a- Blogger, Influencer and Content writer. Post-analysation, I realised that somehow through my blog, I’m able to make an impact in this world with a vision to evoke Entrepreneurial spirit in young minds. However,this impact of work made me to correlate the crux of being a Leader by Sadhguru – it is the key skill that everyone possess and for which one only needs to give space and time to incubate the quality of leadership. There’s one such incubation centre – TPMC institute conducting workshop on ‘Leadership presence and Influence’ to bring hands-on experience on Leadership influence in relevant fields and divulge on ‘get-it-done’ attitude presence.

Leadership – is it a born skill?

Indeed, there are several roles I’ve to undertake to manage my  blog – to research on appropriate resources, compose competitive and qualitative articles, engage with clients, manage social media feeds, negotiate purchases, schedule blog calendar and more. Now, to deal with the bunch of these jobs daily takes me to the next level of understanding on – what more my readers want ;design topics on reader’s interest and awareness; and pursue blog’s mission even under tough scenarios. At any given situation ,the purpose of my blog is to inspire my readers (Entrepreneurs-to-be) in the niche I’m passionate about and impart intelligence on Entrepreneurship, Startups Formula and business growth hacks, productivity tools and anchor them to start a business right from home.

The above context emphasises on the effect of ‘Influence’ made and how it imparts responsibility to guide your followers or colleagues or friends or readers or juniors or students. In this digital world, everyone is occupied with millions of thoughts and tasks that sometimes a person misses an opportunity to mentor his or her own team or group. Although, you might be good at negotiations or better at motivating your work members , but, there will be times you can’t pursue goals to move ahead, this is the time you need some action needed to take a lead and generate the big results.

From my research, I found TPMC offering an appropriate two-day workshop on ‘Leadership presence and Influence’ to the Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Business owners and Senior executives presented by the coach and facilitator Sudhakar I.Prabhu, who pours in his stupendous experience gained from whilst facilitating over 350 leadership workshops. The chief consultant of TPMC has worked with over 5000 leaders and managers at all levels of the organisation.

TPMC as an organisation strives to-

1. Deliver relentless solutions in the genres – Management and Leadership development, Communication skills development, Sales competency development and Customer service development

2. Offer consultancy services – Organisation effectiveness; Leadership effectiveness; Employee engagement; Learning and development.

Key outcomes from the workshop:

Learn: How to use the right mix of influence strategies for an effective influence

Empower: Participants get absolute awareness on leadership communication situations – persuasion, getting buy-in, negotiations, consensus building and collaborations

Impact: Participants gain understanding on -behavioural aspects, leadership principles, experiential learning to make right impact on people

Excel: A framework allows participant to excel on  – Intention, Interaction and Influence to emit leadership presence and spread the influence.

After all, there is only other dimensions of Leadership discovered by you attending the workshop.

Don’t wait, Grab your Seat –

Here’s your chance to grab your seat for a massive transformation in you – Leadership presence and Influence workshop 

Goeventz- A one-stop platform revealing the events happening around your world every second – conferences, rock concerts, festivals, fundraisers, exhibitions, trade fairs and other events. You’ll never be the same if you’re a participant because there is a lot happening on your interests Goeventz 

Let me know your views about any Leadership workshop you attended so far or want to participate in future seminars or events or workshops. Also, share this post to help someone somewhere in this world

@Startups Formula – Learn, Share and Grow

 

Snippet #3 -An effective hack for Contagious Content’ment

Contentment is the qualitative feeling that is only reached when a desire or a need or a expectation of a customer is fulfilled using your product or service. Also, there is the other way to celebrate your customers contentment through the social media channels which seems to be a contagious strategy for reaping more flourishing audience/customers.

Snippet #3 offers an effective hack on ‘How to aim for contagious contentment through your content:

 

Know these FAQ’s before you plunge into withdrawal of denominations Rs.500/- and Rs.1000/-

It’s been 24 hours in India to hit a big news which as massive as U.S  Presidential  elections result. And by now , everyone hover about the impact of the unearthing immense proceeds from all grounds and kind of juggle on ‘n’ number of financial intrepretations, suggestions, transactions, puzzling to transact the bulk amounts, long-term effects, investments, savings and every little stuff that is interlinked to money. Also, every news and media channel pop-up their several interpretations and interviews with intelligent leads to create more buzz and awareness around this topic.

Well, being a Finance and Economic student, I can pretty much analyse the topic and bring more useful content to all of you. But, I’m driving the objective of this post in a more informative path that lands you up in a better decision making and helping others.

Here are the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) compiled by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to help every citizen of India and progress the economy of India unprecendently. Go through them and get yourself equipped with significant points and save them for your future ventures.

1. Why is this scheme introduced?

The incidence of fake Indian currency notes in higher denomination has increased. For ordinary persons, the fake notes look similar to genuine notes, even though no security feature has been copied. The fake notes are used for antinational and illegal activities. High denomination notes have been misused by terrorists and for hoarding black money. India remains a cash based economy hence the circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes continues to be a menace. In order to contain the rising incidence of fake notes and black money, the scheme to withdraw has been introduced.

2. What is this scheme?

The legal tender character of the existing bank notes in denominations of ₹500 and ₹1000 issued by the Reserve bank of India till November 8, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as Specified Bank Notes) stands withdrawn. In consequence thereof these Bank Notes cannot be used for transacting business and/or store of value for future usage. These Bank Notes can be exchanged for value at any of the 19 offices of the Reserve Bank of India or at any of the bank branches or at any Head Post Office or Sub-Post Office.

3. How much value will I get?

You will get value for the entire volume of notes tendered at the bank branches / RBI offices.

4. Can I get all in cash?

No. You will get up to ₹4000 per person in cash irrespective of the size of tender and anything over and above that will be receivable by way of credit to bank account.

5. Why I cannot get the entire amount in cash when I have surrendered everything in cash?

The Scheme does not provide for it, given its objectives.

6. ₹4000 cash is insufficient for my need. What to do?

You can use balances in bank accounts to pay for other requirements by cheque or through electronic means of payments such as Internet banking, mobile wallets, IMPS, credit/debit cards etc.

7. What if I don’t have any bank account?

You can always open a bank account by approaching a bank branch with necessary documents required for fulfilling the KYC requirements.

8. What if, if I have only JDY account?

A JDY account holder can avail the exchange facility subject to the caps and other laid down limits in accord with norms and procedures.

9. Where can I go to exchange the notes?

The exchange facility is available at all Issue Offices of RBI and branches of commercial banks/RRBS/UCBs/State Co-op banks or at any Head Post Office or Sub-Post Office.

10. Need I go to my bank branch only?

For exchange up to 4000 in cash you may go to any bank branch with valid identity proof.

For exchange over 4000, which will be accorded through credit to Bank account only, you may go to the branch where you have an account or to any other branch of the same bank.

In case you want to go to a branch of any other bank where you are not maintaining an account, you will have to furnish valid identity proof and bank account details required for electronic fund transfer to your account.

11. Can I go to any branch of my bank?

Yes you can go to any branch of your bank.

12. Can I go to any branch of any other bank?

Yes, you can go to any branch of any other bank. In that case you have to furnish valid identity proof for exchange in cash; both valid identity proof and bank account details will be required for electronic fund transfer in case the amount to be exchanged exceeds ₹4000.

13. I have no account but my relative / friend has an account, can I get my notes exchanged into that account?

Yes, you can do that if the account holder relative/friend etc. gives you permission in writing. While exchanging, you should provide to the bank, evidence of permission given by the account holder and your valid identity proof.

14. Should I go to bank personally or can I send the notes through my representative?

Personal visit to the branch is preferable. In case it is not possible for you to visit the branch you may send your representative with an express mandate i.e. a written authorisation. The representative should produce authority letter and his / her valid identity proof while tendering the notes.

15. Can I withdraw from ATM?

It may take a while for the banks to recalibrate their ATMs. Once the ATMs are functional, you can withdraw from ATMs upto a maximum of ₹2,000/- per card per day upto 18th November, 2016. The limit will be raised to ₹4000/- per day per card from 19th November 2016 onwards.

16. Can I withdraw cash against cheque?

Yes, you can withdraw cash against withdrawal slip or cheque subject to ceiling of ₹10,000/- in a day within an overall limit of ₹20,000/- in a week (including withdrawals from ATMs) upto 24th November 2016, after which these limits shall be reviewed.

17. Can I deposit Specified Bank Notes through ATMs, Cash Deposit Machine or cash Recycler?

Yes, Specified Bank Notes can be deposited in Cash Deposits machines / Cash Recyclers.

18. Can I make use of electronic (NEFT/RTGS /IMPS/ Internet Banking / Mobile banking etc.) mode?

You can use NEFT/RTGS/IMPS/Internet Banking/Mobile Banking or any other electronic/ non-cash mode of payment.

19. How much time do I have to exchange the notes?

The scheme closes on 30th December 2016. The Specified banknotes can be exchanged at branches of commercial banks, Regional Rural Banks, Urban Cooperative banks, State Cooperative Banks and RBI till 30th December 2016.

For those who are unable to exchange their Specified Bank Notes on or before December 30, 2016, an opportunity will be given to them to do so at specified offices of the RBI, along with necessary documentation as may be specified by the Reserve Bank of India.

20. I am right now not in India, what should I do?

If you have Specified banknotes in India, you may authorise in writing enabling another person in India to deposit the notes into your bank account. The person so authorised has to come to the bank branch with the Specified banknotes, the authority letter given by you and a valid identity proof (Valid Identity proof is any of the following: Aadhaar Card, Driving License, Voter ID Card, Pass Port, NREGA Card, PAN Card, Identity Card Issued by Government Department, Public Sector Unit to its Staff)

21. I am an NRI and hold NRO account, can the exchange value be deposited in my account?

Yes, you can deposit the Specified banknotes to your NRO account.

22. I am a foreign tourist, I have these notes. What should I do?

You can purchase foreign exchange equivalent to ₹5000 using these Specified Bank Notes at airport exchange counters within 72 hours after the notification, provided you present proof of purchasing the Specified Bank Notes.

23. I have emergency needs of cash (hospitalisation, travel, life saving medicines) then what I should do?

You can use the Specified Bank Notes for paying for your hospitalisation charges at government hospitals, for purchasing bus tickets at government bus stands for travel by state government or state PSU buses, train tickets at railway stations, and air tickets at airports, within 72 hours after the notification.

24. What is proof of identity?

Valid Identity proof is any of the following: Aadhaar Card, Driving License, Voter ID Card, Pass Port, NREGA Card, PAN Card, Identity Card Issued by Government Department, Public Sector Unit to its Staff.

25. Where can I get more information on this scheme?

Further information is available on our website (www.rbi.org.in) and the website of the Government of India (www.finmin.nic.in)

26. If I have a problem, whom should I approach?

You may approach the control room of RBI by email or on Telephone Nos 022 22602201/022 22602944

Source: https://www.rbi.org.in

October Favourites

It’s time to reveal a new phase of my experiences while expediting in the genre -Entrepreneurship, Startups, Content marketing and writing ,Business growth hacks and Productivity tips through my monthly Favourites. These favourites essentially unveils my insights, learnings, practise, changes, lifestyle, perception, blog’s enrichment and more.

Usually, I keep memorising the most influential articles or videos or stories or interviews or books or magazines every now and then, that motivates my goals towards Startups Formula blog’s vision. Recently,with the launch of content marketing or writing snippets, my blog’s readership is seeing healthy  growth and that’s encouraging me to share more insights on my favourite list during October month  Entrepreneur’s interview, productivity apps, amazing articles, business ideas and more related stuff under ‘My Monthly Favourites’ genre.

How’s this October 2016!

October has been a month of  learning curve regarding – my blog’s productivity tools, an article that improved my focus on success , a video on tell a business idea in a snap and more. Now, it’s time to unleash the things that made an impact on my daily life, my thinking approach and blogging efficacy through these favourites.

Google Docs – Have you ever wondered that while you documented a report that saves your content manually and lost some significant changes when you forgot to save it intentionally? I think this might happened, pretty many times, to everyone of us, when there’s a serious project undertaken. Right! I had a bitter experience when I had to submit my internship report to the manager of a Leading bank in India, where I took efforts to submit a better documentation with necessary changes suggested by my mentor and the manager. But, unfortunately, all the changes I saved were lost when I submitted the report to my seniors. You can imagine the result I faced when they were expecting good changes in the project

Now, it made me a better person  with many of experiences till today, to see my data is correctly saved and reflect those same changes on all the devices anywhere in the world. This is because of Google Docs app that made my life easier  -from documenting my articles, saving important excerpts from distinctive people, writing a book , composing business reports, describing my experiences to customising my profile content on all social media platforms and more.  

It is the most easier practical and your go-to docs app that keeps all your files available in two modes -1. Online 2. Offline. It’s not only that you can edit the document, but, there is a wide flexibility that anyone can edit your content with your permission and giving an edge towards privacy plus team work. And, chat and comment option is one that will keep you more writing enthusiast to complete the work done promptly with suggestions offered through chats and comments. 

There are seriously jaw-dropping options – intelligent editing, styling tools, contemporary templates (genres – resume, science report, case report, lab report and more) and share with anyone-  that you’ll find while you work on the app. My experience with this tool has helped my blogging content so secured and feasible that enabled to discuss my work with my clients and partners stunningly.

Screenshot credit -Google Docs

Now, don’t wait to experience the flawless productivity tool for your business and personal projects with this smart phone friendly app (available in Android). Join here to sign in with your Gmail account – Google Docs

Trello App: 

It is common that our elders suggest us to make a To-do list on a paper and organise our tasks and achieve the results. This simple tip is an incredible one that changes the results exponentially even there were no phones nor smart phones. In fact, till today, I do write my To-do list things  on a paper and conduct the tasks and feel accomplished on any day. But, when it comes to Blogging it is significant to put things more smartly and execute in well scheduled process. What I mean is to design my Blog calendar and compose articles that are listed in the Editorial calendar. Although I write sometimes in my diary and other times update few concepts in Google docs, but, importantly I update my Blog planner on Trello App used on my smart phone.

Trello is a simple go-to Project management tool that helps your productivity individually and as a team. It allows you to schedule your tasks in three modules and add more (depending on your project) with customised names – 1. To-Do 2. Doing  3. Done (My Blog’s Calendar process names)

Initially, I name and prepare a task with a project name I’ve to do in a day or a month. Later I decide the tasks or to-do things associated to project and put them  under ‘To-do’ module. Once I progress the tasks , I move the tasks from ‘To-do’ module to ‘Doing’ module. During this period, I ensure that all my tasks under ‘Doing’ module are progressing further and go to ‘Done’ module.

Don’t you think it is so visible that you’re achieving the goals by simply performing with this project management tool? Yes, it’s so perfect that you going to see that your work  that is scheduled and see it is going under the project’s objective. This means you’re implicitly disciplined to work on the goals individually without a boss keeping an eye on project progression. Also, as a team, Trello is a stupendous tool that pools in capabilities of more members and enhances their efficiencies to reach their tasks going under ‘Completed/ Done’ module. This way, the flow of project raises inherent healthy competition among members and incorporate quality discussions within a team and pursue goals in right timeframe.

Screenshot courtesy – Trello.com

My Blog’s efficiency has simply going smooth and great with Trello , which easily drifts its shape – as a project management tool if you’re a team and as a best productivity tool if you’re a student or a business owner or entrepreneur or mom and blogger like me.

Deepak Chopra’s 7 Tips for Business success: 

There are 7 astounding  tips from Deepak Chopra, who opened up the core understanding on what it is to be a Business success , published by Entrepreneur magazine, which drew my eyes on his unbelievable interpretation about success.

Well, before moving on to which particular lines by Mr.Chopra that has impacted my notion about being success, I want to put forward who is Deepak Chopra and his contributions and his latest roles with organisations.

Deepak Chopra is a personality with two dimensions sparkling as a Leader to renowned organisations and the Leader from inside who explores his true being and relish the essence of being a happy soul.

Screenshot credit- LinkedIn

He is Chairman of the board, Founder and Director of The Chopra Foundation and Co-founder of The Chopra centre for Well being . An author to more than 80 books and to mention few – Ageless Body, Timeless mind(1993)  and the seven spiritual laws of success(1995)  fame on The Books of The century Best sellers list. Besides to these multi-dimensional roles, he extends his roles as co-founder of Jiyo and as an adjunct professor to reputed universities – Kellogg School of Management, Columbia University and more.

This article has built on 7 key ingredients that builds a clear path on ‘What it means to do a Business or to be as an Entrepreneur”

1. Ask yourself, ‘Why do I want to be in Business?
2. Define your vision for success
3. Think about who you want to work with and what you want to accomplish together
4. Detach yourself from the outcome
5. Create goals and establish timeline for achieving them
6. Know what it means to be disruptive and disrupt
7. See problems as opportunities

The entire context throws light on a process to create a sustainable business while asking the valid and reliable questions (pertaining to the objective of a business pursuit). I loved reading and relish the awesomeness packed within each word explained by him. But, there is this 4th tip – Detach yourself from the outcome , which made me to broaden my horizons on outcomes (especially success result). It is a judgement between two scenarios – Outcome oriented Vs. Process oriented. Everyone knows and practise more of an Outcome oriented approach,but,the latter is  more complex and practical approach to taste the real success in the race. When I read the entire understanding on this tip, I tried to implement it on my Blog’s views and statistics, to my surprise, it kept changing my emotional intelligence and put me in a track that I want to focus on quality of work posted by me and dedicate my expertise in the niche I’m able to do now (Startups and Businesses growth hacks, Productivity tools, Content writing and marketing).

Before reading these tips, I somehow focussed on the numbers besides striving hard to bring a best work to my readers, which made me to feel down and made me to think alternative methods to spread my blog’s scope and gain good audience. However, this struggle made me to work hard enough to knock more doors using social media. Today, I hardly see the Stats Page of my blog ( number of views or visitors or likes to my post) and continue to compose the content qualitatively and only pursue excellence as a key mission of my blog.

Yes, it takes a great commitment to seek excellence in a journey you own. Never worry, it’s the time that decides to enlighten the right knowledge that we want.

Here the article that you can have a read too –Deepak Chopra’s 7 Tips for Business success

The Vault – Explain your business in 10 seconds: 

Can you Explain your business in 10 seconds? Ahhh, Yes or No ? May be, Yes, ahh, may be, No!! There are several questions and answers kept challenging me to get a one-word answer (Yes or No). This happened when I saw this video – The Vault -Entrepreneurs speak.

Recommended Read – To know more about The Vault reality Show and my expectations

Photo credit – The Vault show

It’s the quick thing that you want to put your business plan in short which is proportional to time. Now, doing that is no easy task as to discuss your venture at a favourite cafeteria, but, doing that in a few seconds shows your confidence to address your business’s vision in crux and in a more comprehensible context. So, this particular video stirred up me my potential to explain my Blog’s purpose in a shortest time available. Don’t you think ,it’s so intriguing to know and measure your clarity over your business objective and understand where you stand to make others believe in your idea.

Of course, this is helping me to grow my clarity over my blog’s upcoming projects and where I want to reach after few years. Although this kind of thinking process might take hours in my mind, but, when it comes to a place where I want to put in my Blog’s vision, I’ll be in a position to put my words with more precision.

Here’s the video you can check – The Vault -Entrepreneurs speak.

Entrepreneur’s Formula – Shradha Sharma

Shradha Sharma is a Founder of YourStory media, a leading Entrepreneur portal in India, sharing thousands of stories on Indian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. I’m an ardent follower of this YourStory webpage that makes my spirit high, every time, I read a story from this treasure. So, in my expedition to know more about Womenpreneur – Shradha Sharma, I found and watched a video – What’s Her Story?

Photo credit – LinkedIn 

Well, she was able to narrate her story which made her to what she is today and certainly believes in that every one has own story to share. From the bunch of  significant things she delivered, there is one point that struck me and making me to practise the very thing she suggested at the end of the watch. It is to ‘Give Give Give’ and world knows how to ‘Give back’ and this is the formula that she believes in and brings contentment. This is how she started ‘YourStory’ media venture in 2008 ,which is to only give back to the society through the stories from achievers.

Yourstory Web page

It is this Entrepreneur’s Formula that made me to pull my socks up to share my experiences and insights through my Blog.These days, whenever I repeat these words in my mind I get complacency and feel amazing about my work. Also, I got much response than I expected about my blog where I started with sincere passion and follow my belief – Learn, Share and Grow.

Here’s the video you can watch – What’s Her Story?  and grasp your take from her invaluable experience.

That’s all about my October Favourites and do share with your friends that you know because it will let someone be helpful in this world. Also, do let me know the other tools, stories and more from your favourites that made an impact in your life.

@Startups Formula – Learn,Share and Grow