The BSE has cautioned market intermediaries against malicious cyber attacks amid increased usage of mobile phones and tabs in the wake of the lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: Global death toll crosses 100,000; US, Italy worst hit

Many organisations have switched to work-from-home, due to outbreak of the pandemic, with employees using mobile phones, tabs and personal laptops in order to maintain business continuity.

This has resulted in unprecedented increase in dependency on digital means by many folds and resulting in many operations that may possibly be under remote monitoring mode.

April
9, 2020

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

With 97 percent of digital consumers on some form of social media, you can’t afford not to invest in social ads. And with the latest forecasts predicting a 20 percent rise in social ad spending (up to $4.3 billion) in 2020, you also can’t afford to make mistakes on your social ad strategy. Just because everyone is jumping on the opportunity to advertise socially doesn’t mean it should be done hastily. First, acquaint yourself with strategies that will ensure your ad spend is successful. 

One of the best ways to make sure your strategy is sound is to know what not to do. The following are the most common mistakes that companies make with their social ad strategy. Avoid them and you’ll

A crisis brings values to the fore. Though executives were talking urgently about the purpose of business before COVID-19, the topic is even more important now. Organizations across all sectors have a part to play in the shared goal of flattening the disease’s growth curve. At healthcare organizations, of course, employees are aware of their critical role. But the same mentality extends to enterprises of all types. Scholastic is creating new at-home teaching materials. Clorox is expanding production capacity of and consumer access to germ-killing products. And just about every food retailer is staying open, despite the danger, to ensure that basic nutrition is available. Other companies are stepping up in their own brave ways, guaranteeing employee salaries during shutdowns, giving paid leave to factory workers with children who would otherwise be stranded at home, and repurposing production lines to focus on the most needed life and safety products.

This

Equity and credit markets can go back to their recent lows, and probably slip even further if the infections caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic do not peak out by April-end, wrote Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies in GREED & fear, his weekly note to investors.

“In the unlikely case where infection rates do not peak out by the end of April, stock markets and credit markets will re-test recent lows and worse. At that point, there will be growing pressure for people to return to work because at a certain point the negative impact on the economy and people’s general livelihood becomes a bigger negative than the disease itself,” Wood said.

Over the past few weeks, Covid-19 hit, stimulus buoyed markets world over have risen close to a ‘bull phase’, typically defined as a rise

April
8, 2020

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The following excerpt is from Robert W. Bly’s The Content Marketing Handbook. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

Webinars have long been an effective content marketing tactic. Your prospects can hear you talk and see your slides right on their com­puter screens. A typical sales funnel for a content marketing campaign incorporating a free webinar is:

1. Put up a webinar registration page.
2. Drive traffic to the registration page with an email invitation.
3. Hold the webinar.
4. Make a special offer at the close of the webinar.
5. Follow up with emails reminding attendees and registrants of the special offer.

The biggest problem with webinars is that more and more companies are producing them. That means the web is getting cluttered with them, making it more difficult to get attention for your event. Build your

With the coronavirus-related lockdown hitting cash flows, many companies have announced salary cuts and even layoffs. This has had a knock-on effect on systematic investment plans (SIPs) of mutual funds, with many investors looking to pause or stop them.

If you wish to pause your SIP, check with your fund house whether it offers this facility. Only a limited number of fund houses do so at present. Many that don’t have the pause facility at all are scrambling to offer it at the earliest, as it works in their favour if their customers pause, and not stop.

The number of months for which you can pause varies from one fund house to another. “In our case, SIP can be paused for a minimum of one month and a maximum of three months. The SIP pause tenure cannot exceed three months,” says

Horticulturists are incurring huge losses, with the lockdown forcing the closure of several mandis and disrupting transport to functioning markets. According to a research report by Credit Suisse, “With the rabi harvest season now in full swing, market arrivals should have be picking up for crops such as wheat, pulses, and summer fruits like mangoes. However, despite anecdotal evidence of a bumper harvest, market arrivals are down 50-95 per cent compared to year-ago levels.”

Neelkanth Mishra, Research Analyst, Credit Suisse said, “Only a fraction of the nearly 7,000 wholesale markets in India are reportedly functioning. For non-perishable output like wheat and pulses there are options but for perishables like vegetables and fruits, this disruption means lower incomes for farmers (nowhere to sell: some feeding spinach to cows), even as consumers face scarcity.”

The issues at many mandis especially those handling vegetables

April
8, 2020

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Digital marketing agencies are some of the top businesses in the entrepreneurship sphere. It’s estimated that the digital marketing software industry will grow by 15.2 percent by 2025, and it was already estimated at $35.24 billion in 2017. For newcomers to the digital marketing scene, it can be challenging to establish authority right off the bat with so much competition in the space unless there’s something about your product or service that has a clear competitive advantage.

It comes down to finding a particular marketing niche, and this has to be a bit more specific than “startups.” Serve a very specific type of company, and take extra care of your clients to prove your investment in that niche. If you’re looking