BarCampBangalore3: Day 1 in a nutshell

I could not blog many of the events(live),which I attended since my laptop was drained out and later on,I had some problems with my internet connectivity.But again SlideShare came to the rescue and I was able to find few Slides on SlideShare.Two of the sessions are given below:

Web 2.0 Social Blogging Platform

This session was given by Vibhash(8th Semester student) and I had spoken to him during my lunch break.I was impressed with his passion and excitement and I am sure he would go a long way .Below is a session on his blogging platform called bForBlogs

Widgets and Open Standards - Opera

This session was given by Vivek and Navjot from Opera Software,Chandigarh.The session was excellent and the debate was all about widgets with the Opera Browser.There was a debate as to whether the opera widgets would work with Firefox I guess everyone knows the answer

Fortunately Ashwin had blogged about it and you can an excellent coverage here
More updates on Day 1 would soon follow and I would definitely try to cover everything live tomorrow

Unconference for Geeks on the way: BarCampBangalore3

So,finally I managed to get up early at around 6:30AM(damn,6:30 AM is too early for me ) and reached Indian Institute of Management(IIMB) at around 8:15 AM.Yup,I was very early at the BCB3 and this time I had good company of my fellow blogger Ashwin.

Finally, I managed to get a place where I could have the adaptor connected to the laptop so,blogging live would be great fun

Check out session list in a small diagram below

Till than let me read something and get me in the mood

Microsoft really loves Bloggers !!!

Just started reading "Blog Marketing Book" by Jeremy Wright and there is one section which mentions the strong relation Microsoft has with the blogger community.None of the companies can try to ignore the reviews given by bloggers on their products and the tech-giant Microsoft is also no different.There is a small passage in the book titled, "MICROSOFT LISTENS" which explains what bloggers can do even to the tech giants like Microsoft so, keep on reading:

Microsoft regularly flies customers and industry experts to its campus in Washington to listen to the feedback given by those people.The company invites dozens of key customers and partners to the event,where they spend brainstorming as a group.But as of late,Microsoft has changed it's strategy and the company is making extensive use of blogs to get direct customer feedback.

Within a year,more than 1000 Microsoft employee blogs featured developers and product managers talking directly to customers every day , instead of once a year.Microsoft employees read dozens of blogs every day to see how customers react to Microsoft products and services.In fact,Microsoft employees have taken a bigger leap and even contribute to other's blogs in the expanding space of Blogosphere.

So now it is clear that to Microsoft is really serious about reviews from Bloggers which would help them improve it products.

As we know every blogger has ethics but Microsoft has even taken a step forward to bribe bloggers.Check out what Joel has to say in his post on "Bribing Bloggers"

So,what does Bribing mean in this sense?Just check the image which explains what Bribing means to Bloggers.Enjoy Joel's article(just like I did ).
May be after this post,Microsoft may notice my blog as well

Youtube first annual video awards announced

Just few months back,video broadcasting giant YouTube had announced to share some part of its revenue with the site users and now it has come up with another good marketing strategy : YouTube has decided to award some of the best videos uploaded by the users on the site.And I had happened to catch a small glimpse of the YouTube awards on CNN-IBN

But before the announcement of the awards(3 days back) , there was a statement made by the geek blogger Robert Scoble in this blog post saying:

YouTube is late in honoring the best videos of 2006 and Vloggies is ahead of YouTube by six months with their announcement of the best videos of 2006

Anyways,sit back and enjoy the best videos of 2006 on YouTube(by clicking on the image below)

Let us wait and see what is the reaction of the YouTube awards in the Blogosphere

Q&A session with PicSquare's Manish Agarwal

My first meeting with Manish Agarwal,co-founder of Bangalore based Picsquare happened at Proto.in in 2006.I got the opportunity to ask Manish few questions on Picsquare,Entrepreneurship and his journey as an Entrepreneur.

You can read the complete Q&A session between myself and Manish at Picsquare on Startups.in
There would be more contributions from my side to the startups community , so keep a close watch on startups

Do let me know whether you liked the format of the questions,its usefulness and also what improvements you want to make it more informative .

It's raining investments in Web 2.0

With the Web 2.0 market growing beyond social networking,VCs are also raking money into the Web 2.0 market.Read an article on TheChilli and was amazed to see the booming market of Web 2.0.As reported by TheChilli, there has been investments worth $850 million during the last year(2006) in Web 2.0.

The most interesting piece of information was analysis of the number of Web 2.0 deals, that have been carried out in the recent past in 2006(based on the geographic locations):

1. United States: 126 deals with an investment of US$682.7 million(83 percent increase in deals from 2005)
2. Europe: 20 deals in 2006 with an investment of US$100.5 million(more than 200 percent increase from 2005)
3. China: 21 deals in 2006 with a decline in the investment by 26 percent to US$61.3 million(same number of deals occurred in 2005 )
4. Israel: 2 deals in 2006 with an investment of US$22 million(increase by one deal since 2005)

The most active investors in Web 2.0 on a worldwide basis include:

1. Benchmark Capital
2. Draper Fisher Jurvetson
3. Sequoia Capital
4. Omidyar Network

Read the complete article here

Marketing strategies for startups

Marketing has become one of the important aspects to the success of any product and the same applies to the success of companies as well.Marketing would typically help startups to build a brand name for itself.While reading "Make the Move", I came across some of the promotional/marketing methods which could be employed by startups , depending on the product that they are trying to market.One basic point is : "Employ the marketing strategy keeping your end customer in mind".

1. Print Media:
Most expensive means of marketing.It won't be so affordable to use this media at a startup stage.The main intention of the print marketing is to develop your product/company as a brand.

2. Poster/Pamphlets:
This can be mainly used , if your target customer is an individual.This could be one of the most effective methods to create an awareness about your product(keeping your end customer in mind).It is one of the low cost methods followed mostly by startups.

3. Radio:
This is the best way(after Print Media) to reach the common man It should be consistent as well as innovative.

4. Television:
This is one of the most expensive means of promotion and one with the widest reach.It is good for businesses with very huge funds and is mainly used to "Brand Management"

5. Sponsorships:
Sponsoring events that are relevant to your domain is a very good way to promote your company

6. Promotional Seminars:
This is one of the best way's to create awareness about your product.If you are able to out some intellect into the seminars,you may even organize them for free or charge for them.

7. Sales Force:
A dedicated sales force directly going to the customers is one of the common ways to promote your product.You may need to train your sales force and set up effective channels for analyzing their performance.

8. Internet Marketing:
One of the most effective and fastest ways to market your product.These include email campaigns,website SEO,reverse linking websites with relevant websites,submission to various search engines and directories on the internet , Google Adwords campaign,Yahoo Search Marketing and resellers on the internet

9. Surface mail Campaign:
This requires sending surface mailers to your existing database regarding your product/service.

10. Distributors/Franchisees:
Very important for scaling your business and playing a volume game.It is also a tricky process and also requires expertise.

11. Unconference Marketing (My addition):
Unconferences like BarCamp, Mobile Monday, Proto are one of the best places to market your product and get feedback from a crowd of geeks I still remember Inactiv in BarCamp Bangalore2 and WWGIO(a product from Motvik) in MoMo and trust me , it is the easiest way to get feedback about your product.

nPost : Resource for Entrepreneurs & Job Seekers

All of us know that startups.in and Webyantra(and many other blogs) are some of the sites which keep a close track on the Entrepreneurial community and the upcoming startups in India.To know more about the global scenario,I prefer listening to podcasts available on BusinessWeek.Well,recently I just came across nPost,a site which is an excellent resource for Entrepreneurs as well as job seekers.Keep on reading to know more about nPost

What is nPost all about?
nPost is a new job board specifically targeting small- to medium-sized startups. There are currently over 300 jobs featured on the site from over 50 different companies. In addition to the job board, nPost has conducted over 160 interviews with CEOs and entrepreneurs at startups.

Motive behind nPost:
The sole motive of nPost is to promote entrepreneurship since "Entrepreneurs not only create jobs but also drive the economy"

Unique feature on nPost:
Apart from startups, jobs and interviews by entrepreneurs, there is an interesting section - upcoming events which gives an opportunity for Entrepreneurs to network with the other Entrepreneurs.

Revenue model of nPost?
There are three sources of revenue for nPost: companies can post jobs on the site, advertise on the site, and sponsor events.

Want to know more about nPost?
To know more about nPost , you can send an mail to Nathan Kaiser at nathan[at]npost[dot]com

You can subscribe to nPost feeds:
Job Feed : http://feeds.feedburner.com/nPostJobPostings

Interview Feed : http://feeds.feedburner.com/npost/entrepreneurinterviews

Why do employees leave organizations?

Every year, every month or should I say every day,many employees leave their jobs to join some other organization...Some feel pay as the first priority irrespective of the job profile and for some it is vice versa.But as most of us know,employees don't leave companies but they leave bad managers and this is the hottest reason why "Employees leave their (well paying) jobs.Below is what Azim Premji,CEO of Wipro has to tell on the same topic taking an example of one of the instances which happened in Wipro.Interesting one(which I received in an email today) , keep on reading:

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.

Early this year, Mark, a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer.

He had heard a lot about the CEO. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office,and the very best technology,even a canteen that served superb food.

Twice Mark was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined.

Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Mark walked out of the job.

Why did this talented employee leave ?

Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away.

The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding:

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate boss ..Immediate boss is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he 's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge,experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.

" People leave managers not companies ," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Mostly manager drives people away?

HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave,but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job.

When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don 't have your heart and soul in the job."

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious,too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue.

Talented men leave. Dead wood doesn't.

Five ways to avoid Business Plan mistakes

When you start a business,the first thing which comes to mind is raising capital.Every person has ideas but most of the ideas don't get implemented either because they don't get capital to implement the idea or they are not serious about it's implementation.Well,I am sure that I would be facing a similar problem for my own idea especially,when we try to scale up.As far the initial funding is considered,it can come from your family members or your close friends.

Just happened to see WebMarketingPlan where Paul A. Broni of Mercury Partners Inc. points out "The 5 lessons to avoid Business plan mistakes" (the important learnings) which are given below:

a. Submitting the Plan to the Wrong People
Check if the investor or the lender has an interest in your business.This can be done by making a call or just sending an introductory email.If you have a referal from accountant,banker than it gives you a better chance.An unsolicited plan would just lie at the bottom of the pile and would not be shown any interest.

b. Incomplete Executive Summary
Every investor would be interested in your executive summary and this should be present at the last in your Business Plan.Also,it should not exceed more than 2-3 pages.It should be broken into five sections given below:

• The Opportunity
• The Solution
• Management
• Market Size and Share Expectations
• Financing Need and Exit Strategy

c. Weak Management
One of the sections that all investors will read first is the discussion on management. If you do not have direct, significant experience in the industry in which you're trying to start your business, add someone to the management team who makes up for your weakness.Either agree to hire full-time executives or bring skilled directors onto the board.Venture capitalists, on the other hand, are not likely to invest until the management team is complete.

d. Unreasonable Financial Projections
All lenders and investors are accustomed to seeing financial projections that go in only one direction -- up!!!While every business owner and entrepreneur has the best of intentions when preparing a forecast for the next five years, it is seldom realistic to assume that sales will grow by 50-100% YOY.Hence,before exposing your projections be sure that your business projections are reasonable as well as realistic

e. Greed
Nothing will ruin a deal faster than greed. If your business is little more than an idea at this point, it is not feasible to value the company at more than a few million dollars. If your plan is to raise $2 million in exchange for 10% of the business (i.e., a $20 million valuation), you are going to have a tough time attracting the interest of venture capitalists and angel investors.Spend less time getting worried about the valuation today and focus on increasing scaling up your business for the future.

You can read the complete article here

Ten Mantras of successful blogging

Everyone knows that blogging is about networking and there are some basic mantras that bloggers need to get things right and get rewards by getting more traffic to your blog.Below are the 10 mantras mentioned in the Blog Marketing book by Jeremy Wright and these mantras would help bloggers succeed , whatever might be the topic of their blog.

1. Be Real:
Knowing yourself and your audience are extremely important aspects of successful blogging.Identify who are you as a blogger,what you'll be blogging about and who your target audience will be;these are the keys to a successful blog.

2. Be Passionate:
If you are not enjoying what you are blogging about,its difficult to be passionate,so blog about what you truly enjoy.The passion that comes from writing a blog and connecting with number of people out there is contagious

3. Write Often:
Writing often is not just good for the blog,it is an absolute requirement for success.Anything less than once a day is abandoning the potential of your blog.Updating your blog is often rooted in two major facets of blogging:search engine "juice" and the fact the readers love new and fresh content.Its very important that search engines searches your blogs ... So know your SEO fundas well.

4. Link Lots:
Links are called as "Currency of the blogosphere".Most bloggers link for one of the two reasons: a. Either they are interested in the subject matter or
b. They respect the blogger to whom they are linking.
Links carry an inherent value,so providing links shows your readers and users what interests you-and higher the quality of bloggers to whom you link,the more respect readers and other bloggers will have for you and your blog.

5. Leave comments on other blogs:
Creating a community of like minded bloggers is very important for the success of your blog.Your community of interest is the community in which you are interested as well as the community that is interested in you.By commenting on blogs in your community of interest , you are letting existing bloggers and their readers know that their blog might be of interest to them.This is one of the successful tools to get more traffic to your blog.

6. Have Fun:
Blogging is meant to have fun.Its a serious business that will change the way your business is presented online so,try new things and link to fun and interesting sites.

7.Push the envelope:
One of the challenges with blogging is that it's new.Try something unusual , and if you do the "Wrong" thing , it will get you some attention(good or bad). Entirely new types of cutting edge communication such as podcasting and video blogging,were created when someone asked "Why does blogging have to be just text".So ask your own "Why" questions

8. Ping:
Pinging is something your blog software does to tell several services that you've posted something new on your blog.This helps the Blogosphere to get connected to your blog.You can either have an auto-ping on Technorati or use the service of Ping-O-Matic , which pings all of the most important services for you,instead of you having to do it.

9. Create meaningful titles:
Titles are very important to blogging successfully-good titles means search engines find you and get you more traffic.Plus,good titles help you get readers glued to your blog Every blog post title should give the readers a reason to read the entire post.

10. Use Feeds:
Whether you choose to provide full text feeds or provide some of the text,make sure you are providing feeds.Feeds make it easy for people to read your content on their own schedules-be it traveling on the airplane or driving home etc. Feeds are all about lowering the barriers to getting at quality information,so do whatever you can to make sure you aren't putting up any artificial barriers

These tips have helped me and my blog and I hope these basics of blogging(which we seem to forget sometimes ) helps you and your blog as well !!!

Why aren't blogs hot among big corporates?

In this age of Information sharing,Blogs have gained lot of popularity.Some say that the mainstream media faces a very stiff competition from blogs but the intention of blogging is not competition,but sole intention is Information sharing.Remember how much blogs helped during the time of disasters(like Tsunami, Mumbai bomb-blasts etc) and now we have technology blogs like TechCrunch, Digital Inspiration that provide us with all the technology oriented news.Well,these are just some of the popular blogs that I have mentioned keeping aside some of the so called silly blogs that just speak about some crap and hence in the process may not be getting more readership.

Just happened to see this article on BusinessWeek which covers "The importance of blogs in your business".Definitely,Blogs are an effective marketing tool for small and medium sized organizations but with times changing,the question is "Do big corporates also require blogs?" Some of the corporate blogs that I noticed are:

• Motorola Blog (where CTO Padmashree Warrior blogs)
• Honeywell career blog
• Infosys Blog

So,why aren't there more corporates coming up with blogs,which would help their employees the freedom to express themselves in public.Also, Blog would a very helpful tool for employment since,candidates can read blogs and see what employees are feeling about the company.On one hand,companies like Google that focus on innovation encourage blogging(where daily ,every employee has to devote some time for blogging) and on the other hand,instances like these that have recently happened where "An employee was fired just for blogging(though he had not blogged against the employer) could be one of the reasons why corporates don't prefer having blogs.Or should I say "It is high time,big corporates become aware about the potential of Blogs in this fast growing competitive business world"

Question to my readers:Are Blogs really needed for corporates and if so why?

MegaBucks: International Business and Entrepreneurship Festival

IIT Kanpur is organizing Megabucks,an International Business and Entrepreneurship festival from 6th April to 8th April 2007.Below are some of the details of Megabucks:

What is Megabucks?
Megabucks is the Annual Entrepreneurship Competition of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. 'Megabucks', the event that provides a nurturing ground for the ventures emanating from business plans of students and professionals. It aims at serving as the right platform for budding entrepreneurs to act on their ideas and talents to develop them into reality and nurture them to form exceptional enterprises. Transversal E Networks, Kalzoom Technologies and GEO-X are examples of companies that have already bloomed into the corporate world through megabucks. With the passage of time, Megabucks has gained great recognition among the academia and corporate world.

Why should you attend Megabucks?
The event religiously receives participation not only from Indian institutes like IIMs, XLRI, SP Jain , IITs, but also from international universities like Stanford, Purdue and National University of Singapore.

Prominent names that would attend the festival:
Mr. Vinod Khosla,Mr. Amit Gupta(IIM A), Honorable Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Mr. K.V.Kamath, Mr. Muhammad Yunus, Mrs. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Ambanis and Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal and many more

Competitions at Megabucks in a Nutshell:

• iDeas The Business Plan Competition
• Cliffhanger The Corporate Quiz
• BattleField The Case Study Competition
• AdMad The Advertising Contest
• MarkStrat The Marketing Strategy Game
• Finsense The Stock Market Game
• Paper Presentation The Paper Presentation Competition

How do you register for Megabucks:
You can follow the link to register for Megabucks

Registration for the various events have already started from 10th of March,2007
More details of the event can be found on their official website

Techtribe Blogging Challenge

After winning "Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki" in the startups.in contest,this is the other blogging challenge which would be worth giving a try.

Indian Business networking site TechTribe has organized a "Nationwide Blogging Challenge" where TechTribe is looking out for the best Independent bloggers to submit their thoughts.The details of the contest are given below:

How do you participate:
1. Create a blog on TechTribe entitled: Blogging Challenge - "Your Name"
2. Write between 300-500 words on one of the three topics(listed below)

Categories for the challenge:
The submitted articles should fall in one of the following categories:

• How has networking helped your career?
• What makes you unique / How does your personal brand differ?
• What innovation do you believe will help India?

Prizes for the contest:
Top 4 Blogs from each category would be adjudged winners receiving prizes given below:

• First prize : Apple Ipod or Xbox 360
• Second.Third and Forth prize: Each of the winners would receive an autographed copy of "How Innovators connect" by TechTribe CEO,Rohit Agarwal

Last date of entering the contest is Friday,6th April 2007

Udantak : Write, Share , Earn and Collaborate

The entire blogger community realizes the importance of Networking.The only way to get more visitors on your blog is by commenting on other's blogs and this in turn would help you in building your network.Blogging is definitely a tool to share information.So,you might be thinking why am I trying to give my readers a lecture on Basics of blogging

Well, some of the early stage bloggers write pretty good content but they don't get a platform for marketing their blog.Mitesh Vaha has a very good analysis of "The state of the Indian Blogosphere" and with number of Indian Blogs increasing day after day,a marketing platform for blogs was very much required.Udantak is the solution to all these problems.Udantak(see it's pronouncation here) is a platform for bloggers to write, share , collaborate and earn as well.

What does Udantak mean?
Udantak is a Sanskrit word which means news, tiding, intelligence, satisfaction or satiety. And yes, that’s what; Udantak's motto is, spreading the latest news, information, knowledge to the readers’ satisfaction.

What is the motto of Udantak and how would it help the Indian Blogosphere?
This is what Udantak has to say about itself

What are the finer benefits of joining Udantak?
Here are some points, to give you a brief idea of why exactly, it will benefit you and will benefit Udantak's goals :

1. Will give you more visibility.
2. Will help you in connecting with fellow bloggers of same niche.
3. Will give you better Pagerank, Technorati and Alexa ranks.
4. Will find a place where you'll be able to discuss and share knowledge with other experienced bloggers, with ease.
5. Will allow you to earn money through the network (Udantak's advertising model will include, sharing of income with member blogs).

The brains behind Udantak:
Udantak is co-founded by 3 members and as you might have guessed,the founders of Udantak are Avid bloggers themselves
1. Mayank Gupta of ReviewSaurus
2. Mahesh Bhat of Kalaalog
3. Sourjya Sankar Sen of Chaos Laboratory

So,go ahead and collaborate using the Udantak network.You can check more about Udantak on it's official Blog

BarCamp days are back and now it is BCB3 !!!

The days of unconferences are back.Yes,Bar Camp,Bangalore is back and this time it is being tagged as "Bar Camp Bangalore3".Even though the Logo of the unconference not yet finalized , there are already 90+ participants who have already registered for the event.

Do not miss the opportunity to Network,Learn and Share knowledge so, quickly register for the event here before it's too late.

You can check out some of the BarCamp Bangalore 3 logos designed by Vijay Kiran here .Good work Vijay

Join the Thoughtsprevail BlogLog...

Finally,Thoughtsprevail managed to reach 5 figures rank on Technorati and now Thoughtsprevail stands high and handsome at 97,013.Rankings are not important but it gives the indication that there are readers who have liked this blog.MyBlogLog is another attempt to spread the word of startups and Entrepreneruship to my readers

Yes , finally I added MyBlogLog in my blog and if you find this blog informative and useful, you can add Thoughtsprevail to your BlogBlog by clicking here

Let's collectively improve the state of Indian Blogosphere and Entrepreneurship!!!

Email Newsletters:Cost effective way of marketing...

Daily we subscribe to newsletters from many sites but newsletters from some sites are so awful, that you won't even feel like reading them.Just happened to see a post on StartupPrincess which stresses on "How Email Newsletters are a Cost-Effective Marketing Solution for Entrepreneurs"

StartupPrincess has stressed on the quality of newsletters and some of the points which impressed me are given below:

1. You Must Have Compelling Info and Content to Share
2. Keep the theme of the newsletter simple and easy to Scan
3. Consider Design:
Make the design of the newsletter simple,attractive and more effective so that it looks more readable and presentable.
4. Stay on Schedule:
If you are sending the newsletter weekly/monthly , stick to the schedule.You never know how much people read it until you miss an issue.The quality of the newsletter should be as if you are sending a personal newsletter to the intended recipient.
5. Links are key:
If you want the newsletter to bring you sales, then be sure to include various links in the website that point readers back to YOUR site, articles, info, video, products, services, opportunities, calendars, etc.
6. Find an email program that can help you send your newsletter out professionally
7. Always edit and spell-check:
Which reader wants that there are spelling mistakes in the newsletter that you send,so better do a proper spell check as well as punctuation check before you send out the newsletter

You can read the complete article here

What before taking the Entrepreneurial plunge?

Before starting this post,I would like to confess that three years back,I was not aware about what is Entrepreneurship and now I blog on it and have started working on my own idea as well So what does it take to think big and take a path which others don't think about?

Entrepreneurship is not a simple subject and being one is the most difficult as well as the exciting thing which one would experience in life.So,what transforms an ordinary person to think big and once he starts thinking big,what does he need to do?

I read that somewhere that in US,to get a company registered takes a few minutes whereas in India,it still takes months to do the same But times are changing in India as well and this post would give an insight as to what an Entrepreneur should do before taking the final plunge.

1. Have an idea:
This is the very first step towards thinking big.So,once you have an idea,discuss it with your close friends(or colleagues) and get their feedback.Try to test if your friend would be interested in funding your idea and if he/she says yes,than you have hit the bulls-eye because "If you can't sell an idea to a known person,how would you sell it to the unknown guys out there" This makes me remember what Guy Kawasaki told "Always discuss your business ideas with women since male have a genetic problem of destruction and they want to kill everything right from plants to companies Well,nothing to be offended here.

2. Build Contacts:
My first foray outside Bangalore was in BlogCamp,Chennai in September 2006 where I understood the power of Blogging.I met new people,some software consultants,some entrepreneurs,some engineers and the list goes on and on.So what was the change.I made lot of contacts and my network kept on growing.Remember,building contacts is not only exchanging business cards at conferences and than dumping them somewhere,you need to multiply your contacts through that one contact and on and on.You would require contacts before you start your company,when you are expanding your company or when you want to market your product etc.

3. Read about Entrepreneurship:
This is one of the basic steps that every person willing to be an Entrepreneur should do.There is no harm in thinking big and you should not try to repeat mistakes what other Entrepreneurs have made during their Entrepreneurial career.Every month,I always make a point to take one good book on Management or Entrepreneurship, so that I learn more about it and take precautions ,what successful entrepreneurs have recommended.I do agree that bookish knowledge is different from real experience but learning is the key and believe me , this has helped me a lot.What I do is carry a book to my office , so that it keeps me more motivated and also I can read it in my spare time.

4. Value your time:
Only people who are really passionate can do something big in life.Time is money and it is rightly said so.We do lot of things in our free time like watching TV, speak over the phone for hours or just sleep etc but one thing which we forget is we are spending Quality time fruitlessly Only people who value time can dedicate more effort for their idea and this is one thing which Entrepreneur would never forget since for him "Time wasted is a loss for him"

5. Do an industry analysis and and try to blog it:
You know what idea is in your mind but what about your competitors(if there are any).Learn more about the industry that your startup would fall into.Blog about your thoughts so that it is more visible to others.Learn about the Financial aspects of th business and this would be the toughest of them(if you come from a technology background).Get the industry information and have it on your own personal blog so that you can make more and more people aware about your interest.Remember,the more you blog,the more you read which means more the information that you have...So understand the power of Blogging.
This reminds me of what Wirkle founders have on their site..."We are a company of Bloggers"

6. Learn to Convince People:

When I was reading my latest read "Make the Move" , I just wondered that this is very much true.In the book,the authors Ishan Gupta and Rajat Khare have mentioned "During the Entrepreneurial days,the founders will have to play multiple roles from Founder-->CEO-->CTO-->CFO-->Officeboy and so on".This means that you should be able to play multiple roles and this will apply before taking the plunge.As I mentioned before "A good businessman is a person who can convince people and before you start,you need to see whether you can sell idea at least to few people since you would have to play multiple roles , at least for the first few initial years of your startup."

7. Join as many Networking sites as possible:
I have already spoken about "Building Contacts in point 2" , so what is special about Business Networking.Well,sites like LinkedIn and TechTribe helps you to be in touch with people you might never have met but the guidance you get from these sites is enormous.I had an article on TechTribe here , which is really informative.Who knows a someone from these site's might be your partner.

These are purely my thoughts..I would love to hear from the readers , if there are some points , which I might have missed and you can add those in the comments section

Don't have a startup idea? Think again...

Ever thought,why Google and Hotmail were created? The simple reason was that Google founders Brin and Page could not find information easily on the internet and this problem gave birth to Google(and now Google has become an integral part of our day to day life).I cannot imagine even a single day without Google Same was the case with Hotmail,founders Bhatia and Smith who were frustrated since their personal America online accounts were not accessible from the office network and there was no email service available which could be accessed anonymously over the web

Similar to this,there are lots of examples,where "Problems encountered are transformed into meaningful solutions" and some of those very interesting instances can be found here

In fact,my own idea also started with a problem and now I am working to find a universal solution to that problem.So lets see how can someone find an idea to start his/her own venture.I encountered this when reading "Make the Move" and thought it to be very realistic and meaningful.

Hate and create something:
Sometimes,the idea to start something just may not strike.So,what can be done is you can create a "I HATE IT WHEN...." list This means that you write down all the points that you don't like in this world.It can range from small to medium to complex.For example:During the cold winters,you may not like waiting for hot water since cold water is flowing out of your tap during the first couple of minutes.Also,you may not like your shoes loosing its shine,before you reach for an interview etc.
Whenever you find something that you don't like,make a note of it and when you have certain no of issues on the list,write methods in which you may be able to solve them.If there is an interesting idea,start working on it.It may turn out to be the biggest invention ever .Finally,it would help remove something which you don't like and will make life simple for you and for others.

Love and create something:
Another method to find an idea is to look at yourself and find your hobbies.If your chosen profession can be from your hobbies,it would yield great level of satisfaction for you .For example: If you love music,you may want to create a software for the easy creation of music.If you love sports,you could do something for the love of sports(with the help of software).
The key lies in identifying the potential of the idea,implementing the idea at the right time and with the right set of people