Hello 2015! Let’s shine!

Hello WordPress! I have finally been converted from a Blogspot blogger to a WP blogger. Hey, new year, new beginnings right!

So how was your 2014 & what’s up in 2015? My 2014 sucked. I can’t be happier that it’s over. In the last 10 years, I think 2014 takes #2 spot in the list of horrible years. No, nothing major happened, not like 2011 of course. Sure, there were things I learned and good moments I experienced, but overall it wasn’t a very feel good year. I started that year by quitting my awesome job at Facebook and joining a local hospitality company, went on a super fun vacation to Goa with friends, took a liking to Yoga, underwent an operation, had some shitty work experiences in my new job, decided to take the GMAT, took the GMAT & bombed at it, quit my new job, did not travel for the longest time, became nearly financially broke, had no inkling of a love life…..you get the drift. It was definitely an exciting year in terms of nature of events.

To summarize, 2014 was a year of mistakes, weak health and honesty.

But my gut says 2015 is going to be THE year. I don’t know what’s going to happen this year but I know that whatever it is, it’s going to change/define my future. It can be either good or bad, but it’s definitely going to be pivotal and I can’t wait for it!

Let’s talk about what I’m planning for 2015. I’m not big on new year resolutions so once again, I decided not to make any big resolutions. I did decide on a few themes for the year. These themes are based on my personal failures/low points of 2014 plus habits that affect my reputation (Personal and professional). Themes for 2015:

  • Be more social
  • Build relationships
  • Follow through on my promises

I’m excited about it and I believe I’ve started off well this year w.r.t these. But the key is to continue this momentum for the rest of the year.

Apart from this, I’ve taken up some new year challenges that I came across on the internet. I’ve pinned these on my Pinterest board so it’s easy to follow. These things are fun to do and I certainly think these give me a good direction. One of the challenges I’m super excited about and have already begun is the 52 weeks of photo inspiration challenge (found it on Pinterest). This is week 1 of the challenge and I’ve been posting these photos on Instagram. The challenge has a topic/word associated to each week and you’re supposed to take photos related to it. Sort of like the official Instagram-run #WHP series, just simpler (for a novice like me). Topic for week 1 was ‘Resolution’ and you can view the photos on my Instagram account- @sunayansen.

Finally, I want to talk about my blogs- Thoughts Of The Third Eye (Now on WP. Yay!) and From The Desk Of A Businesswoman. So far I’ve never planned for my blogs. Like, I neither had a calendar nor thought of and prepared for posts in advance. I sort of wrote as and when I felt like it. It’s worked well so far; no complaints there. But I think it’s time I upped my game. So this time I’ve made a list of topics I want to write about, days of the week I want to post (to maintain consistency), and made a calendar with the schedule for these posts. So here are some things you can expect from Thoughts and FDB:

Thoughts of the Third Eye (Trulysu)
  • Posts every Monday & Thursday @ 1 PM
  • Since these posts are just random honest musings, you will see even more intimate posts addressing topics like how I built a relationship with my parents and my take on religion around me
  • To maintain consistency, I will post a weekly collage of photos I take during that week
From the Desk of a Businesswoman (FDB)
  • Posts every Tuesday & Saturday @ 1 PM
  • More kinds of guest posts (hint: Audio Q&As!) and international guests (Tomador de Riesgos 2.0)
  • Giveaways! (Who doesn’t love giveaways?!)

Please do comment on this post telling me what you’re expecting from 2015, any challenges that you’re following and post ideas you’d like me to consider. I’m sometimes lost about topics to blog about and I’d love for you to help me out.

I’m excited about 2015! I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about a new year! Lots to do, lots to learn, lots to experience and lots to share with you. I have a good feeling about this year and hope you do too. Best of luck for 2015!

♠ Happy New Year ♠

Tomador de Riesgos – ‘Susanta Misra’

As we end 2014 and step into 2015, we also end this guest series called ‘Tomador de Riesgos’ which is Spanish for ‘risk taker’. So far we’re read about different perspectives from different entrepreneurs and most of the featured entrepreneurs are fairly young and new to the game. Today I present to you a completely different perspective on entrepreneurship. As a curator and knowledge seeker, I believe it’s important to view something as a whole- a 360 degree view. In this last post FDB is featuring an inspiring entrepreneur who has a very rich library of knowledge to share. He is also a very important person in my life. He’s my mentor, uncle, friend, sounding board, and teacher all rolled into one.

I hope that this guest series has been useful in some way to you guys. If you’d like to see more of these or similar series, comment below or drop me an email. Happy new year!

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Sunayana asked me if I would oblige to write about my journey as an entrepreneur. It was like asking a child, would you mind to have a chocolate or an ice cream ?  At the age of 45, I was a budding entrepreneur and at the age of 50, I am a budding author.  I am happy to write and I am happier to share my writing..

Incidentally, I just finished my first book ‘Ready  To Fly’. It is now available in the market. Will talk more about the book at a later point of time. You can also visit susanta.in to know more about it.
Ready To Flye

‘Ready to Fly’ written by Susanta Misra

Contrary to popular belief, entrepreneurs are very lonely people. Many of them are known for building great organizations and great teams. But they, themselves are very lonely. Dreaming is one of the few things that cannot be done in a team. Dreams are very personal and if you cannot dream, you may not have a great chance in enjoying your entrepreneurial journey. Not all dreamers are entrepreneurs but almost all entrepreneurs are dreamers.
So, what dream did I have or do I have?
Let me first tell you what dream I didn’t have.  I never had a dream of becoming a billionaire or being in the cover page of a popular magazine or having a business empire.  My dream actually started from a nightmare.! I had many sleepless nights wondering where were we going with our jobs and careers. The stress levels were mounting with the uncertainties in jobs, growing imbalances in work-life balance, deterioration in health and financial stability. There came my dream — a dream of a world where everyone enjoys the right to work based on his/her strength and interest. In my dream world, no job is good or bad, it can only be right or wrong for you based on your strength, interest and the context of your life at that point of time. It was an ‘aha’ moment when I coined the word NICEFIT to represent my dream.
That’s how it started. If you wish to be an entrepreneur, you need to have a dream. Again, there is no right or wrong dream — a dream that is very personal to you and you must be honest about it (at least with yourself).
As you must have heard, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. I decided to step out of  a cushy, respectable  and high paying job in  Motorola to take that first step — perhaps the most important step I have taken. Before taking that step I had a 17 yrs long career in Motorola and I shall remain grateful to Motorola for all the learning I had while working in Motorola.
Steps 2-3-4  were easy but exciting nonetheless. We got registered as a private limited company, created a logo, got a website done. Thanks to some wisdom and experience (that comes with age), I didn’t spend any time creating business plans and business spread-sheets. Business spread-sheets are one of the most dangerous addictions an entrepreneur can have. A spread-sheet gives you unlimited freedom to project your revenue, expenses and profit. In my view, it is a total waste of time at the beginning.
To do business, you need to have just two things –a defined product/service and a specific target market. I had neither. It’s easier to follow a road than defining it. NICEFIT as a concept was very new (and even today it is new) and I was repeatedly asked — ‘what service do I provide — training or recruiting?’ The market gets used to existing products/services and often it is reluctant to accept a new one. You would need patience and faith to survive rejections of new ideas — not once but many times.
It was not even clear to me how we will make NICEFIT happen.  I thought, Training can help, Recruitment can also help but both are incomplete as a solution. So, the journey started in search of the solution and is still continuing.
If you are curious about entrepreneurship, please do remember that Entrepreneurship is not always about making money, it’s often about solving a problem or pursuing a dream.
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 Reach Susanta on:

linkedin/susantamisra

Twitter

/NICEFIT_Susanta

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 In case you’re new to this blog and are wondering what this series is about, make sure you read the introductory post and other posts written by Mrinmayee, Sarojini & the Postbox duo.

Tomador de Riesgos – ‘Nikhil & Madhuvanthi’

A Tapas Bar, loud music, and drinks on the table. It was an unwinding Friday night. Amongst conversations revolving around food, architecture and music, it slowly led to us speaking about our mutual love for photography and just, in general, inspiring visuals. Tissue papers were taken out and The Postbox was written. And thus began our exciting, challenging journey.

Being artists in a digital era, the two of us realized the need for an online space that would full-fill two specific pinpoints. One, a space that focuses on ethereal original prints, which are inspired by surreal spaces and popular culture. Two, we wanted this space to promote artists and their work by helping them monetize it. Think about it, there is right now, no single unified platform, which promotes art in all its forms, gives them a space and helps them monetize it. India is a country of a billion people, that in itself is a huge opportunity just staring at us right there. We’ve been doing a lot of research around graphic artists in the country and our single biggest takeaway is that, there is definitely a need for clean platforms that promotes such collectives.

The Postbox was a well thought out and structured plan. We brainstormed for over two months on how we want this platform to exist and what we should be working on. Six different products split into two different sections defined Postbox as an Art & Lifestyle brand.

We had to move fast because we had set the aggressive goal of launching in the second week of September. Even though we ended up launching in the last week of September, our respective roles were very clear. So, while I was working on Product development, Nikhil covered the entire website construction and operations piece.

After testing out the platform and going through product iterations, we finally launched in the last week of September.

Set of coasters inspired by the tranquil Marina Beach

Set of coasters inspired by the tranquil Marina Beach

There were very hard times, and in my case, I had already committed to a Masters program in Fashion Management in Milan, which was to start in October. But Nikhil and I strongly believed that now was the time. Our country is a beautiful place to be in, people are slowly letting go and taking to what they love. We may not realize it, but there’s a silent revolution happening. And we definitely felt The Postbox should contribute to this and not sit back and watch.

It’s been two months now since I’ve moved here. Trust me, it’s most challenging to run a “long distance start up”. Living simultaneously in two different time zones, I have been asked multiple number of times how I manage my deadlines. Very simply put, it’s the belief that keeps us(I speak for Nikhil here as well) going. We have come to understand that beneath every strategy, every goal that you set, it needs to be supported by a strong sense of hope and faith. Everyday is an opportunity, we are constantly learning, our research is always an on-going process. The key is to never settle. We are still very young in this industry. But there is no law that states the pace at which we should engage ourselves in. And that is something that sets us apart from the rest. For instance, a month into launching the online store, we got our first offline space at Chennai’s most celebrated boutique- Chamiers. Our first corporate order rolled in sometime before that. We’ve had people writing to us expressing how they connect with the photographs under the Fine Art section, how the colours have livened up their living space, and how the notebooks makes them want to write again. And most recently, we had an order from Karachi, Pakistan.It is these little moments that matters the most to us. To reach out to people, to connect with them, and touch their life. The idea of Posting is an age-old concept of just this- keeping in touch with your loved ones. At the end of 45 days, when we look back, we smile knowing that stories have been created, people have managed to reconnect in the most wonderful of ways, that they now, will always have a token of memory with them.

Notebooks based on all things symmetrical

Notebooks based on all things symmetrical

The ride from thereon has been a terrific, enjoyable roller coaster one. At the end of each day, it’s just a sense of gratitude that we have for all those who cheered us on right from the beginning and continue to do so.

There were testing periods. At the earliest stage, we’ve tackled situations wherein we got cheated by one of our vendors and at the same time we had to go through two more rounds of proto-typing for our coasters. Our packaging materials gave up in the very beginning. And all this happened in direct proportion to the pace with which we were progressing. At this point, we kept orders waiting but our customers understood us. In all best intentions we delivered to them what we had promised. And our clients came back to us. To let us know that they are thrilled.As goes the line in the movie, Into The Wild, “Happiness is real only when shared”, it stands testimony to every single order we fulfill. We attach a small note in every package to let our customers know that we are there to listen, to make their experience better, to understand what they want. This is also one of the reasons why we started our blog, www.thepostboxin.tumblr.com. Being staunch supporters of Communication, Nikhil writes at regular periods to keep our followers updated on what is happening behind the stage. We put forward all the chaos, the madness that persists only because we believe in transparency. Internally, we have regular meetings scheduled over the week (yes, I have woken up at 4 am here in Milan only to cringe at the sight of the team enjoying filter coffee in Madras) to reflect, discuss and decide how we will implement the lessons learnt. It’s always about moving forward, bouncing back. I have, personally, realized the beauty of mistakes. The harder it hits you down, the higher you rise above. Our advisory team has always spoken to us about Cricket matches. That it’s not just about playing a great T-20 but also giving your best shot at that test match.

Putting some fun on your walls

Place some fun on your walls

Today, The Postbox is not just a collective of designers and artists but people coming together to appreciate and acknowledge the skills of these insanely talented people. Our vision comes to life here.
It’s been a great ride so far, we’ve had close to 7000 hits on our website already and along the way we’ve learnt more than we ever could. I think for us, we’ve realized no matter what happens, you just have to keep at it. Your moment will come and you have to have faith that it will. And along the way, it always helps to have some fun. 😉

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Reach The Postbox, Nikhil & Madhu on:


 In case you’re new to this blog and are wondering what this series is about, make sure you read the introductory post and the last two posts written by Mrinmayee & Sarojini.

FDB is in hibernation mode for the month

Hi folks! It’s been a while since there was a post on this blog and I apologize for that. While I love sharing other’s experiences and wisdom with you, this month I’m in lock-down mode doing nothing but studying and worrying. I will be appearing for my GMAT exam at the end of this month and I’m super stressed about it. I’ve always disliked the concept  of writing exams and getting judged on the basis of those scores. Fun fact- Out of six semesters of my graduation, I owned books only for two. Actually, I bought only one semester’s books and my  sister bought me the other semesters’. And most often, if the exam was scheduled to start at 10 AM, I would wake up at 9 AM. Yup. As you can see, I dislike exams. So imagine the stress I’m feeling about writing a super crucial exam which whether I like it or not I have to write. Especially since it’s been almost 4 yrs since I’ve written an exam. And it’s been almost 10 yrs since I’ve studied mathematics (And I’ve always sucked at maths).

Anyway, sorry again for the absence. But fret not! I’ve been setting up the pipeline for some awesome guests for the Tomador de Riesgos series and equally awesome other topics I’ll be writing about which will start from the first week of December. One of the posts I’ve been working on is ‘GMAT Prep’ and I’ll choose to publish it based on my GMAT score 😛

Wish me luck! (I badly need it)

Tomador de Riesgos – ‘Sarojini Dantapalli’

In the last post on this series we had a lovely young textile designer write about the thought process behind choosing between gathering knowledge of the work under an established designer and starting her own venture. In this new post we see that there’s more to a ‘title’ than just the literal definition. There is a primary skill associated with every job, but then there’s that one thing beyond it that makes you great. Think Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson.

The perspective shown in this post by a young design practitioner Sarojini Dantapalli is a brilliant one. Having co-founded a firm called Design Experiment with designer Abhitej Velore, she shares with us what she believes is the most important lesson the last two years of her journey taught her. We hope that it helps you find the spark that brings you greatness.

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The designer and the story teller

“For a young design practice the only thing more dangerous than lying about what they do, is to not talk about what they do.”

One of the most important aspects of being a designer is to observe people – what they like, what they don’t, how they move, how they use what we give them, and how their surroundings can be improved. As engrossed as I was in studying interactions of human beings with the world around them, it’s the subtleties of human interactions that evaded me – the interactions between people.

As a child I remember being very bogged down by the constant nag of “what will people think?” (Watch how you behave, watch what you say, be careful how you speak, so on and so forth.) Not knowing how to deal with this array of uncertainties, I decided to lock those voices out. I told myself they didn’t matter and shunned them all out.

It wasn’t until I ventured out on my own, trying to sell what I believed was the “genius of great design”, that I began to take interest in people again. I learnt with time that the important question is not “what will people think?” but “what do we want, people to think?”

Let me confess that when I first started out I was just a silent observer of the world spending most of my days solving design problems or making products come into existence. I very naively presumed that when I do good work, the world will be my stage and I’ll have a very enthusiastic audience craving to know what I have for them. Hell! Of course that was far from reality. Well it is true that the world is your stage, however, the audience in question are the ones we need to earn.

This is how I understand the world- we are all creators, with different perspectives and perceptions; we all have our notions of right and wrongs, what should be and shouldn’t. We all have our stories to tell. We all play the audience and the performers at some level or the other.

The few people that stick out in our heads however, are the few performers that excelled at what they did. Not always because of the inventive products they made or the creative work they put out, but many times because of the brilliant stories they said.

I started to notice that most of the popular architects/designers/inventors were more often than not known for something beyond their products. People loved their work but more importantly, people loved them. I loved them. They inspire me because they show me not only their work, but they share with me their stories, their struggles, their beliefs, their aspirations and of course their successes.

I realized it’s important to take out time to speak your mind. People like to know about other PEOPLE. They like knowing about great work, but they LOVE knowing about great people.

This has till now been easier said than done.

Realizing my shortcomings, I started to observe all the designers/inventors who were great presenters and what they did right. Gradually it started to make more sense. The key, I noticed, was that every step of the way they not only thought about how people would use what they make, or the difference their work would make, but also what is the impact they want to make on the world. How do they want people to perceive them and their work?

Observing some of my favourite presenters from different fields, from how they drove their point in, to how they unveiled their ideas. How they explain and imprint the greatest strengths of their theories and stories in our minds, It slowly became apparent to me, that presentation was much like design. It relied heavily on understanding people. While designing they’re your users; while presenting, your audience. You need to understand what they are looking for, what their tastes are, what they would find enticing, and what they would overlook.

Presentation is basically like storytelling or movie making or choreography. You think about how you start, how you build and how you end. You need to know what points would excite the viewer and what would put them at ease. You need to make sure these absolute high energy points are separated by a sense of calm otherwise their impact would not be felt. You need to make sure that you build an expectation, let the audience know something is coming, and then give them the satisfaction of being right. You need to make sure you maintain the emotion you want throughout the presentation. You need to make sure you end with a lasting impact. At every point in choreography, you need to put yourself in the audiences’ shoes and think about how they would feel – just like how you would in design. Good presentation can only come out of a good understanding of people. The only way you can understand people better is to put yourself amongst them and embrace their presence.

I’m not saying presentation is everything. Design, in the end, is ultimately what satisfies or dissatisfies a user. However it is presentation which converts a viewer into a user in the first place. Presentation is what gives you a chance. For emerging designers, chances are vital.

Here is where my struggle from being a passionate designer to an aspiring story teller begins.

Blog - Sarojini - alternate

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Reach Design Experiment & Sarojini on:

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In case you’re new to this blog and are wondering what this series is about, make sure you read the introductory post.

Tomador de Riesgos – ‘Mrinmayee Dhobale’

TUNI- Textiles, yoU aNd I, is an enterprise aiming to focus on bridging the gap between textile and interior design. Mrinmayee Dhobale, an alumnus of NIFT and London College of Fashion, began the conceptualization and planning of TUNI in early September of 2013. Finally, TUNI Interiors Pvt. Ltd. was born on 29th January 2014 and had its successful debut exhibit in March 2014. Nine months into business, here’s a peek into the journal of Mrinmayee….

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I started out with what seems like a basic debate between campus placements and self-employment. Most young entrepreneurs (I would assume) have been through that dilemma. There was some scepticism, some support, lot of perspectives on the business model, advice from the well-wishers and the not so well-wishers. The most common advice I received was “work for 2 years and then start your business”.  At first, I had no idea how that was relevant. My response to that was “Will 2 years of work experience guarantee success at my business?” Being stubborn as I am, I was looking for a yes or no kind of answer to that. In my opinion, today or 2 years from now, the risk was going to be the same. Learning on a jobwould definitely have its own advantages, but it just wasn’t me. I didn’t see myself investing 2 years in a job while I could invest it in TUNI. For me, it all came down to that and the debate finally ended. Half the battle was won when the result was in favour of “start your own venture”. So, a lot of scribbling pads, unsent emails, business proposal drafts and broken pen nibs later, TUNI was born. And here I am today writing for a blog titled ‘From the desk of a Businesswoman’!

It took only a few days to realise that it was just half the battle. There I was, rather proud of myself for taking the leap, when feasibility and logistics entered the scenario.  I had things all planned out from the design to execution to when the first event would be; a rather elaborate party in my head. But then again, the plan in my head was far from reality. As my friend called it, “my bubble had burst”! I started planning this venture in September 2013 in Kolkata. Yes, ‘in Kolkata’ is an important part. Everyone who has been to the city at that time of the year knows the festivities that take on the city. It was not the best time to get work done or even started. And having just moved to the city didn’t help much either. The city looks beautiful that time of the year, and there’s most certainly an awesome vibe through the pujas. But the unstated fact is that work pretty much comes to a stand still. It’s like trying to find a cab in London on Christmas day (no exaggeration)! Except imagine a month long Christmas. There wasn’t much I could do than wait for people to resume work post pujas.

 When people were finally back to work there it was, the switch from “good luck, beta” to “’I don’t know’ is not an answer”. This hit me when, while planning TUNI’s first exhibit cum sale, I told one of the organisers I didn’t know the answer to what he was asking (it was a basic VAT query). That was rather politely tailed by “Then whom can I ask ma’am?” followed by complete silence from my end of the phone call. That’s when I realised I had to learn and I had to learn fast. These many months into TUNI, the primary thing I’ve learnt is that from the tailor to the teller, no one will take ‘I don’t know’ as an answer! Having said that, as much as I have grown in these months, when it’s not the best day at work, crocodile tears are in order and I have no qualms in admitting it! Everyone on the receiving end of this is probably nodding right now.

 It would be naïve to believe that the learning curve isn’t steep in a business. I could ramble on for pages about things I’ve learnt at TUNI, but the most important of all has been accepting accountability. I remember when the very first event went well; I was ecstatic! But when another didn’t, I realised I was quickly looking for things to blame (yes, not very professional, I know). I blamed the marketing strategy, the choice of venue, the day of the event, the collection, the choice of city and a lot of other such things, only to realise all those decisions had been mine. That’s when I realised I couldn’t just be popping champagne after successful events; I am equally responsible for the failures. There definitely is a huge difference between knowing it and realising it. Everything said and done, at the end of the day the pride in calling this venture MINE is what drives me. I wish I could share more, but there really is nothing more to why I wake up and look forward to work every single day!

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 Reach TUNI & Mrinmayee on:

1400583286_facebook/TUNIInteriors

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linkedin/mrinmayee-dhobale/5b/414/315

Guest Posts!

With each passing day I see more and more youngsters taking on the #BusinessChallenge and I can’t feel any more proud to have so many of these people in my social circle. It gives me a certain sense of accomplishment that’s totally irrational. It’s no new discovery that knowledge is all around us; we just need to know what to do with it. And I can’t emphasize enough just how much I have learnt from these extraordinary individuals who I dare to one day share the status of being an ‘entrepreneur’ with. Which is why I realized that I am doing an injustice to my readers by not sharing their exciting stories with you.

So from next month onwards I am starting a guest blog series called ‘Tomador de Riesgos’. Yes I know it’s a mouthful but I love Espanol! As a part of this series, we will see blog posts periodically from different individuals who want to share their experience as an entrepreneur. We will try to make these posts as different as possible so that you get a well-rounded idea of entrepreneurship. Most of these guests are my friends but I’d be happy to get in touch with others who you think have wonderful experiences to share. Email me their contact details at sunayana.sen.cloud@gmail.com.

At this point the posts are going to be free-flow. However, I have asked the guests to pick a theme/subject from their experience and write on that. Maybe in the future there could be a structure or Q&A or something more exciting. So keep giving feedback and we can improve!

Thanks!

3 mistakes until 3 AM. Expletives galore.

My clock is at 2:22 AM at the moment. Why am I awake you ask, especially for someone who goes to bed by 9:30 PM? Because I am so stressed that my brain can’t process what to do. And also maybe because I had coffee four hours ago. You see, today was an important day for me as a service provider and I made mistakes. One of my more considerate supervisors told me not to be too hard on myself because I’m just a few months old in this industry and I’m bound to make mistakes. I agree but I’m astounded by the lessons I learn because of these mistakes. As a change to my general monotone, I thought of illustrating these points with memes & stick figure images 🙂

Mistake #1– Customers can never be fully trusted. Harsh but well they see us the same way so it’s a tit-for-tat. Recently I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to a certain customer which everyone else on my team was against, but I believed that they were trustworthy and deserve this benefit. Boy was I wrong. They had the audacity to tell me that they didn’t have the cash to pay right now so they would do it first thing the next morning. After some deliberation I agreed and said that in-lieu of our immense trust that you will pay tomorrow, we will hold on to your credit card. Like a guarantor/guarantee asset you give to a bank. Sounds fair right? Apparently not. They will pay tomorrow but will not leave any sort of guarantee with us. Yeah and we were born yesterday. Asshole.

Mistake #2– Once the above mentioned plan looks like it’s failing for them, I have to quietly listen to the customer bring up baseless issues and try to poke holes in our service just so they can get out of paying. While I’m like this in front of them -> 

, in my mind I’m all like ->

  None of this bullshit that you’re feeding me is correct. I can see the fuck through you man. But since ‘customer is king’ is a mantra that I unfortunately have to stick to, I will silently listen to your pathetic little excuses and appear as if I agree with you and am apologetic about it. Except, you’re an asshole that I have to put up with because by some unknown divine reason I felt I was born to be in this industry. And also because I don’t own this place, I don’t have the freedom to decide if you’re worth being rude to. When I have my own company, the second I smell bullshit, I will burn that BS and use it as natural gas to cook unhealthy food for the rest of the irrational people like you. 

Mistake #3- Stressing about these glitches all the damn time. Right now I’m awake at this godawful hour because I’m stressed out about the first two aforementioned mistakes.

 

This makes me wonder how my parents did this for 25+ years. At least all I have to stress about is work, but my parents had to stress about work, kids, elderly parents, investments and what not. Yet they sleep. In fact my father sleeps such a deep sleep that I can hear his snoring from his room to mine. Oh how jealous I am right now. I wonder what I should do to get to that point where these issues are only momentary and it’s locked away in some non-intrusive corner of my mind forever. I really wish I wouldn’t stress about these fleeting issues and had the power to do what I wanted but no I don’t. At least not yet.

I wish was like this ->

 

But finally I’m like this ->

End of my rant. And I’m still unable to sleep.

Good Morning peeps!

Types of customers & my reaction to them…Part 1

“Customer is King” 

Throughout my college days I have read this statement over and over again. I have read about how earlier it was “Business is king” and how it became “Customer is King”. Those days I used think that this new evolution was absolutely correct. Businesses should not be given any power and all the power should reside with the customer. Today I find myself contradicting this. We have given way too much power to the wrong customers.

Being in the front line of the company- Sales -I have seen different people with different kinds of behaviours. And of course, with different people, you have to behave differently. One day I lost my cool because of a certain customer and as a stress buster, classified these customers I’ve come across into 10 buckets. Let’s start with the most annoying buckets:

 1). I-have-a-disease-of-asking-for-discounts-even-if-it-costs-only-a-few-pennies

Profile: This person will typically be well-dressed, runs in the upper-middle class social circles, has polished communication skills, is a major extrovert, and most importantly, is financially well-to-do.

Behaviour: An item may cost a measly Rs.10 but they will still negotiate for a discount. I believe that the underlying thought here is that at some level this is related to their false sense of excellent negotiation skills. If they are able to get an unbelievable bargain, they feel proud of their ability to ‘negotiate’. 

My feelings towards them: Sweetheart, that’s nothing to be proud of. You have basically stripped the seller off his honest earnings and led him into a loss. Sure, not all businesses are honest but more businesses are genuine. As it is, due to the competition in the market businesses operate on narrow profit margins. These people view negotiation as a Game of Thrones battle between seller & buyer. These are the people who I absolutely detest and never want to associate with as a businesswoman.They are narcissists and think only about themselves. They don’t even consider what the market conditions are. I mean come on! Everybody deserves to make an honest living!

2). I-want-everything-but-don’t-want-to-pay-for-it

Profile: These people can be your everyday Joe. They are mostly your not-so-humble people. You can find them across middle-middle class to lower-high class. These people are extroverts and have a decent sized social circle with one or two ‘VIPs’. Oh and they also have this false sense of societal position. And these people are the ones who constantly cry about how ineffective the government is. And don’t pay taxes.

Behaviour: These folks do most things to show off to their social counterparts. They want the sun and moon but don’t want to get burnt in the process. They want to look rich but want their bill to look like a small roadside purchase. 

My feelings towards them: The first thought that pops up in my mind is to make them run my business for one week. They don’t realize what the business has to endure to give them all this. Just last week a customer told me he wouldn’t pay for the additional valet service he insisted on. Like WTF?! Because valet drivers don’t need to earn a meal?! Why don’t these people understand that the economy flourishes only when you pump in money? 

 3). Even-if-I-can-afford-this-I-will-use-my-connections-to-get-a-discount

Profile: These are generally your upper-middle to higher class folks who have made widespread connections over the years. They have a more than healthy bank account, eat in gourmet restaurants, go on international vacations, etc. 

Behaviour: BUT when it comes to paying for something, if they know someone who knows someone else who owns/runs the business they are paying for, they WILL use it. They will casually throw in the statement to the salesperson, “Is Mr.Owner-whose-first-name-I-happen-to-know in office today?”. They will first negotiate with the salesperson and when the salesperson reduces his quote and gives the final number, this person will say, “Okay, I’ll talk to Mr.Owner-who-I-don’t-know-personally-but-will-somehow-get-it-reduced.” Eventually even if the owner-given discount is a measly 2-3% they’re content.

My feelings towards them: Do you have any idea how small a person you look in front of the salespeople and the business owner when you do this? Anybody who pulls this nonsense in front of me gains my disrespect. You’re negatively proportional to your bank balance dude. 

To be continued……

Sunayana Sen