Learning No. 12: Website

In layman’s language, here are a few basic things that I think one should keep in mind while building a website:

• Make a platform which is scalable/sustainable
• Make the platform integrable with third parties. The efforts of mass will always be more than 10 people in your company
• Apply extra effort on interaction design
• Keep the offerings simple and focused on the core values that you provideMake the website available on various devices online, offline, phone etc and for each device provide a different set of chosen features which gel with its use

Learning No. 11 : Building a brand

Suppose your company is going through a tough time. Think of an environment when everything is going great. Think of all the good things happening. Now use that vision to build your brand, to make the changes that will take you from your current place to the strong one. Create a perception of a strong brand and a stronger brand will also come following. E.g.: Infosys in order to revamp its image among employees in 2003-04 recruited foreign interns. This created a belief that people even from abroad wanted to be at Infosys!!

Renting a House

So you are planning to shift to a new place!! Here are some of the tips that you might want to keep in mind while deciding how and which place to choose!!

Finding and letting agents know what you want

• Go to 99acres and magicbricks and search for houses online. Call these agents
• Typically agents divide their areas of operation. And they have a very closed group. So just let a couple of them know in an area and everyone else shall get informed
• If your budget is X then quote 0.75 * X to the dealer. He will invariably take it higher
• Be clear on what you want in the house (Furnished/unfurnished, power backup/inverter etc) and convey this to the dealer

Choosing a house

• Once an agent calls you to tell that he has found a house, ask him if he has seen it himself
• If no then tell him to do so once and ensure that he has the keys to the house before spending your time in visiting the place. Ask him if the landlord is willing to give the house to bachelors
• Take a girl along to look at the house. They can spot the small missing things easily. For e.g. missing curtain rods, hangars in the bathroom etc
• If possible take a house where someone has lived before. This ensures that all things are in working order

Finalizing a house (so you like a house and have bid for it)

• Talk to the previous tenants about the house. Also go and talk to the neighbors once. They are the most reliable source of information
• Make your demands clear in front on the landlord and don’t move in unless they have been met. Don’t get swayed by the lines ke 'ho jayega'
  

Finally, to make things easier, take useful phone numbers from previous tenants/neighbors. Also keep the watchman happy, he is your link to the plumber, electrician, your couriers and everything!!

Happy hunting!!

First Salary

Things have come a complete circle. Two years and 3 months after I received my first salary, CoCubes paid out salary to our first employee, Rakesh. Way to go.. .

Learning No. 10

Evaluate your idea on this framework. I believe it is better than the popular MBA ones. This at an overall level answers the question: what is the pain you are solving and is the pain big enough to push users to use what you are offering?

• How did they do it earlier?
• How will they do it now?
• How much would they have to change?
• How much would it cost?

Learning No. 9

This one is a ‘big learning’. Why? Because this is a compilation of learning’s, those which have already cost me a lot of time and energy. I hope I can learn, improve and implement these aspects as I go forward.

An identification of a leader is to get the best out of people. And I recently failed here. I think the problem lies in not analyzing why you need people, which translates into not making people aware of their roles before joining and finally into no clear responsibilities for them. And this leads to not getting the best out of them. So, assign clear responsibilities and decision powers.

Secondly, be sure that the work you are assigning to people under you is relevant and that will ensure that their efforts do not go waste. Wasted efforts breed negativity in a team and show lack of value for someone else time.

Finally, here is something that I already knew and still faltered on. Trust people, but also spare the time to follow up that trust.

Learning No. 8

There are so many things that build up your life like browsing through websites, playing, meeting friends, clicking photographs, opening a bank account and others such small things.

So you have a job!!
When you are employed with someone, you do all of these on your employers time. Even if you spend a day browsing or playing, you are being paid for it at the end of the month.

What happens when you are working for yourself?
Half of the useless things go out of the window and you optimize on the rest. Now this may mean not going to a concert, playing less and working more. Yes, you gain the independence you always craved for, but it comes with a responsibility, towards your idea, towards people who trust you and towards your bank account.