Business Plan

Meetings that just happen by default waste precious time, invite poor decisions, add to exhaustion, and fray relationships. Given these risks, I proposed in a previous article that successful meetings are intentionally designed. The basic idea is that to support people and move critical objectives forward, leaders need to ask themselves four questions: Why are you meeting? Who needs to be there? What conversation needs to happen? And how can you create the conditions that will enable that conversation? In my experience, leaders are often able to answer the first three questions with just a little extra effort. But they…

Stocks fell along with US futures Tuesday as investors mulled a possible delay in the planned US fiscal- relief package against a backdrop of concern that some markets are overextended. The dollar advanced. A gauge of Asia-Pacific equities at one point slid the most in about two months, with shares in South Korea and China underperforming. Tencent Holdings’ slump led Hong Kong stocks lower after the internet giant’s market value rose to the cusp of $1 trillion for the first time Monday. The People’s Bank of China unexpectedly withdrew funds from the financial system as an…

January 25, 2021 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. These days, startups live and die by the clicks they get. If your website isn’t optimized for search, customers won’t find you, much less buy from you.  But SEO, much like the internet it runs on, is constantly evolving. Keeping up with all the new rules, strategies and best practices can be a job in itself. If you’re not in a position to hire an SEO expert, follow these expert tips to boost your position in the rankings. 1. Realize that SEO is about more than…

The insurance regulatory and development authority of India (Irdai) has introduced a standard individual immediate annuity product “Saral Pension”, which all life insurers have to start offering to consumers by April 1. The product has to be filed by the insurers with the regulator by the end of February. This has been done to ensure uniformity across insurers, and to make available a product by all life insurers that will broadly meet the needs of an average customer, the regulator said. The product will offer life annuity with 100 per cent…

The Supreme Court Monday said it would first deal with issues related to objection to the e-voting process for winding up Franklin Templeton’s six mutual fund schemes and distribution of money to unitholders. A Bench comprising Justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna posted the matter for hearing on February 1 after one of the lawyers, appearing in the case, referred to a recent media report and sought time to file an application placing on record certain new facts. The Bench permitted the lawyer to file application within three days and said that response…

January 22, 2021 6 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Here’s a piece of advice that could gear up any new brand for a strong start: Market it early.  There’s absolutely no point in waiting for your brand’s day one before getting into marketing. And as my own ecommerce businesses can prove, a good pre-launch strategy is an absolute must-have if you want your brand to attract the right audience and your products to sell well without having to wait for months or years of zero to negative profits.  A pre-launch campaign’s core purpose is to…

Reflecting strong momentum, India witnessed 19 initial public offers worth USD 1.84 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 and market sentiment remains positive in what could be a stellar 2021, according to a report. Leading consultancy EY’s India IPO Trends Report: Q4 2020 showed that there were a total of 10 Initial Public Offers (IPOs) in the main market and 9 in the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) segment during this period. In the latest December quarter, there were 19 IPOs valued at USD 1.836 billion and the largest was…

January 22, 2021 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. It seems that most media attention tends to go toward startups that offer something innovative and exciting. The latest app or “disruptive” brand is what will inevitably get the most attention. The thing is, not every business can deliver that level of flash and pizazz. Some industries and businesses are going to seem boring no matter how you look at it. This doesn’t mean they aren’t necessary. After all, toilet paper is hardly an exciting product, but you’d have been hard-pressed to find it throughout much…