2015: Winding Down my Office Setup & Learnings #Startup

On January 26, 2016 · 1 Comment · In Entrepreneurship, Mix

A long time since I penned down a post on this blog.

I have many insights into work, entrepreneurship and marketing but I find it difficult to post it, somehow.

I take year end reviews seriously, so I am pushing myself to write this post,

The Year 2014-2015 was a thrill ride when I look back at it. And a very hard one at that. In Jan 2014 I setup an office for DigiWhirl, my digital marketing company. Managed an offline team for the first time.

Offline Team Management: is different from virtual one. In virtual work setups – deliverables are central and socializing takes a back seat. I did socialize and set up some HR engagement aspects when I had a virtual team but honestly it is all a lot lighter than when you are offline. In the office all the time there is some level of socializing going on and every personal hit to any team member affects everyone as the setup is small. So as usual had a whole bunch of mad experiences with my team.

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Working Tips: When it is time to Speak Up at your Job

On March 21, 2015 · 1 Comment · In Entrepreneurship

Lately I have been spending a lot of time in office, which happens to be a co-working space. So I have gotten some insight and experience into the woes of an employee. One insight that has lately been growing on me is that – people end up spoiling relations or quitting because they fail to speak up and have a simple conversation.

Here are some situations where I feel, the situation would be much better handled if the employee speaks up….

1) Non-core activities are sucking the life out of the Job

Most employees are hired for one core purpose. Apart from that core work they are also given many non-core responsibilities. In a startup often the non-core responsibilities can be many! Firstly, identify your core job – discuss with boss if needed. Any tasks which are non-core, if they are really obstructing your peace – just raise the issue and get it out of the way. Make it clear that you will do your core job to the best of your ability – and ensure that it is getting done well. So once you are doing your main work, the company will be more than happy to sort the other stuff for you.

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The Non-Compete Clause – Social Media Agency

On February 6, 2015 · Leave a Comment · In Entrepreneurship, social media

I have been thinking about the Non-Compete clause of the social media agency. This is the clause which mentions that the agency may not take up work of another competing business, until the term the contract is valid and a year hence.

I spoke to many PR, design, web and other companies about taking up the project of a brand and its competitor at the same time. Most of them claimed that they did not really worry too much about that. They had some way of justifying taking up a competitors work too.

However, in social media, it is more that just marketing. One has to get into the sphere, the industry, connect with influencers and just be like a spokesperson of the brand on social media. Because of the deeper involvement that the community manager has with the client brand – it would be very difficult to do the same marketing for a competing brand.

I am sure any community manager would have a conflict of interest in managing two competing brands. And, especially because DigiWhirl is a small company, there would inevitably be an overlap in the team that is working on the two projects.

So clearly for us currently, managing two competitors at the same time would be a No-No. Morally, ethically and generally for loyalty and heart. Maybe when the company is big enough that the people working on the project are completely different and both teams can maintain some confidentiality internally, only then maybe, it would make sense.

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Brief Overview 2014 & #GoRegional :)

On January 22, 2015 · Leave a Comment · In Entrepreneurship, social media

I find writing year end overview posts really relaxing. It allows me to take my time and think about various stuffs that happened over the year. So even though its already end of Jan, 2015 I am still into writing the year overview. So two big things in my entrepreneurial life in 2014,

1) Office, Office

Oh yea, DigiWhirl is not a virtual setup anymore. I don’t take my laptop and travel for months across South India. I now have an office and that too at some distance from my house – so commuting is a daily part of life. It has been an enriching experience to go to office, setup a team, having a team around to work with, consider all the various things that come with having a more stable life. It’s also interesting to be stationary.

Some traveling happened in 2014. Since its less and so hard won, I tend to make the most of it. 🙂

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When Social Media Bridges Borders – India & Pakistan

On December 18, 2014 · 3 Comments · In Mix, social media

Every Indian when you say ‘Pakistan’ .. something will flair in his or her heart. Anger, Passion, Sorrow, Hurt, Victory, Hope, Dream, Desire – whether positive or negative but something will flair in his/her heart. The passion and craze that surrounds any sporting activity between the two countries is testimony to this.

I am just an Indian like this. Today the turn of events on Twitter have touched my heart.

I want to document this here, for people who may miss it and just because it needs to be said,

A couple of days back, Pakistan had a tragedy. Over 100 school kids were slaughtered by Taliban terrorists in Peshawar. The world was shocked and everyone condemned this attack. Naturally what the Peshawari people must be going through is difficult to imagine.

People in India also rallied and most of us buried any ill feelings and just wanted to pray and support Pakistan in this tragedy. The ensuing hashtag #IndiawithPakistan was trending on Twitter for a day or so. (don’t know exact stats there)

The trending hashtag implies the large number of people who subscribed to that sentiment. Hence, it is important that a large mass of India was behind it and they truly in their hearts were with Pakistan in this tragedy.

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Hiring: 3 Life Skills Educational Institutions Must Teach their Students

On December 2, 2014 · 4 Comments · In Entrepreneurship, social media

Educational institutions need to work on imparting meaningful life skills in students. Not just rote learning and some academic knowledge. If the student chooses a field of academics – teaching or PhD, then the academics help. For most of us who have gone into a different field of work after studies have found that, the work has pretty much nothing to do with all the stats, facts and theories we learnt in school. Now, for the last few months, I have been actively interviewing many candidates and hiring for @DigiWhirl and I find bizarre interactions happening. I have identified three very fundamental life skills that a large number of candidates especially freshers just don’t have. And I am now trying to figure our a ‘good’ way of imparting them on the job, but only the smarter ones will pick them up…

1) Make a to-do

I see the basic to-do list as the fundamental block towards organized working. Take it a few notches further and actual professions like ‘project manager’ or ‘co-ordinator’ and so on develop.

The problem is not that some freshers don’t make a list of tasks that need to be – the problem is the sheer strangeness to it. It is palpable that never has there been a culture of ‘organized working’ built into them. Some have an inate flair for it, so they come for work and pick it up. Rest however, they hopelessly flounder because just the simple task of writing down what all needs to be done and then do it one after the other is not there.

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Entrepreneur Spotlight: Rohit of @GoGujarati

On September 27, 2014 · 4 Comments · In Entrepreneur Spotlight, Entrepreneurship

Recently I have been working with Rohit on his new mobile application designed to connect Gujaratis across the world – GoGujarati! App download links: Android ; iOS

Decided to interview him for our entrepreneur series,

Why GoGujarati?
I started GoGujarati because there was no application which targeted a specific community as a whole. I am based in Mumbai and have grown up in a Gujarati community – I know this community is spread around the world with many unique cultural aspects. I feel this community is currently divided across distances and not united. They need to be connected so they can work together and grow together. I hope this application will help all Gujaratis across the world to connect. This will get them closer to each other and help improve the community. It is an unique concept – we don’t think there is such an application as yet.

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