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An advisory board can help you leverage the combined wisdom of a group of specially selected people to enable better business decisions. It can also provide a number of other benefits of having key people closely invested in and associated with your success. Choose a group of people who have both time and expertise to provide valued advice regarding your business. Despite the name, what you're really looking for is counsel, rather than advice. You want people who have more experience or are more knowledgeable than you are in the areas that matter most. Consider perhaps your most valued strategic partners, one or two personal advisers, your PDM and perhaps even a top client or two. Quarterly is a good frequency. Don't skimp on the surroundings and make sure you prepare the session with formal agendas, pre-reading and discussion points.

“If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” -Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon “Every time we launch a feature, people yell at us.” -Angelo Sotira, co-founder of deviantART “Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” -Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and AXS TV chairman (among about a million other things) “If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” – Omar Hamoui, AdMob co-founder “Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” -Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter “We are currently not planning on conquering the world.” -Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google “Stay self-funded as long as possible.” -Garrett Camp, founder of Uber, StumbleUpon and Expa “I like to pride myself on thinking pretty long term, but not that long term.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder “Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.” -Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media founder and CEO “It’s not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.” -Edwin Land, Polaroid co-founder “Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” -Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox. “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn “Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” -Chris Dixon, Andreesen Horowitz investor “Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.” -Michael Arrington, TechCrunch founder and co-editor “In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” -Steve Case, co-founder of AOL “A ‘startup’ is a company that is confused about – 1. What its product is. 2. Who its customers are. 3. How to make money.” – Dave McClure, 500Startups co-founder “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” – Donald Trump, president of The Trump Organization “I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” – Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft “You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.” – Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn “It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.” -Paul Graham, YCombinator co-founder “When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” – Josh James, Omniture CEO and founder of DOMO “Your reputation is more important than your paycheck, and your integrity is worth more than your career.” – Ryan Freitas, About.me co-founder “Data beats emotions.” – Sean Rad, Adly and Tinder founder “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars — I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” -Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO And last but not least…“If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.” -Ray Kroc, founder of McDonal

What would you advise budding entrepreneurs or the students who want to become an entrepreneur? Mr. Karma Bhutia: There are just so many variables at play that it is impossible to create a winning formula right out of the gate. There are definite things that you need to do: you need to know your product, how you want to sell your product, marketing ideas, etc. But it is really up to you on what you feel are the best ways to approach it, how you build, how you plan and how you execute to scale. You also need to listen to feedback and be open to changes – always. What it takes to become an entrepreneur is having a solid idea, determination, and ability to solve problems. There are so many resources available online that what you lack intuitively you can make up for by researching. The right attitude to have is to keep a curious mind. You will probably have a bad week, month, or even quarter when starting. If you are only focused on the negative things you are probably going to sabotage your own success. I think it helps to create some type of time line or plan to help your progress. You also need to have realistic goals and expectations. Keeping all that in mind you should coach yourself to Never Give Up. Mr. Karma Bhutia, CEO and Founder of iShippo.com Ms. Emmanuel: firstly it’s important to find your passion because starting a business can be hard and it’s your inner drive and motivation that fuels the journey. Second is step out of your nutshell get out and explore be the jack of all trades and master what you love most. It is also important to find out everything from the horse’s mouth and obtain as much knowledge from those who are already running a similar business. Now that you found your passion and collected adequate information about the business you want to start, the next step is to have clarity on the profitability of your business because at the end of the day a successful business has to show returns. My father always told me never to attempt a business which does not give you a 100% profit this guideline helps me set my financials in place. Believe in yourself, evaluate your journey, and be open and flexible to new ideas!! Ms. Ivy Emmanuel, CEO of clockwork Dr. Iyengar: I think, it’s a brilliant thing. I took few years of my life to be an entrepreneur. I used to be a very studious person; I studied at a medical college. I think, entrepreneurship is one of the best things that can happen to anybody. It is fulfilling, at the same time, so demanding. It asks you to look at so much about yourself and learn so much about the world. If anybody has the smallest desire to become an entrepreneur, they should go ahead and nurture it. It is absolutely a mazzedar thing. It comes with its own ups and downs but the fulfillment that one gets from making a difference, creating something. You cannot get that kind of fulfillment from anything else in the world. It’s not about the money, if you are doing a good work, money comes. Money is a by-product. It might take a while to earn it but I really believe that money comes all by itself and it is a byproduct of good work. But the fun you get in doing good work, beating challenges, become a person who is not bowed down by challenges is absolutely different. Once you become an entrepreneur, even people who don’t know about you, start looking at you differently because of your attitude towards life. Dr. Shweta Iyengar, Founder/Director of Skinsense Dr. Arunaagiri: Entrepreneurship is a great journey. It gives you a tremendous amount of freedom, both financially and in terms of the time frame. As an entrepreneur, you are your own boss, so you can carry out tasks at your own pace. And at the same time you can create globalization, jobs for others, products which bring a difference in the society. So, my advice to budding entrepreneurs would be that in such an era of rigorous competition and innovation, entrepreneurship is a very safe profession to take up. When you are working for someone else, although you might be self-employed but you have limitations in terms of income. But when you are your own master, as an entrepreneur, sky is the limit in terms of advancement, progress and the learning potential. I would recommend youngsters, who are willing to go for entrepreneurship, go ahead and lead your life fully. Dr. Arunaagiri, CEO of Empower, Enable, Educate India Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Neeraj: It is important to be really passionate about things and find ways to monetize their ideas. In the earlier times, there was a very limited and restricted access to the Internet and the social media. But now, in this modern age, the Internet and social media has democratized the ability to reach people. So it is so much easier to follow a passion and monetize it. Be really good at it. One of the key things is that you are getting paidto serve others. The better you serve and the larger number you serve, you are proportionatelycompensated at a higher level. So if you are able to find ways to be able to achieve and deploy your passion and proficiency, into ways in which you can serve your target market better, then that really creates a solid business model. Then you will always be excited about doing that work and no one would have to force you to do anything. Even if you’ll have to stay up late at night and it’s fulfilling. It creates an enormous amount of energy, you’ll be willing to get up and give it all that it needs. And also if you are able to leverage technology to run your business, you’ll be able to provide value to your customers. Mr. Neeraj Shah, Founder of Titan Masterminds

The entrepreneurial edge is a term that isn't easy for many to understand, much less to define within the frame of words. But, the basic concept of having an edge, or the slightest of advantages, over your competitors through a select few practices that only you live by, or workplace values only implemented at your company, is one that resonates with almost every thriving entrepreneur. Therefore, here are a few observations about practices that have been responsible for catapulting many a successful businessperson to prosperity for educational purposes targeted at budding entrepreneurs. Possessing an edge is almost always achieved with clarity of vision by an entrepreneur's side, and it's the daily performance of tasks such as prioritisation of one's workload that can often alleviate much of the angst associated with growing a personal venture. But prioritisation of one activity over another can only be seen through if an entrepreneur has sufficient information about both, and the consequences lying in wait if one is delayed in favour of the other. Thus, an entrepreneur must always stay atop the flow of information circulating through their venture, and satisfactorily recognise the advantages or disadvantages each option on their to-do list entails before proceeding forward with any of the myriad of tasks necessary for their business' growth. This prioritisation in question must be balanced on two, very distinct levels - daily and long-term, for the concerns relative to both can often be diametrically opposed to one another, and its the job of a successful entrepreneur to make sure none of their decisions contradict each other and thus create a problem for either of the timelines. Equally important as prioritisation is the sufficient communication of the same to one's subordinate employees, if any, for such an approach not only greatly reduces the workload in the particular department the entrepreneur deems in need of their attention, but brings, both, employer and employee on the same page and gear for the achievement of the company's objectives together. Moreover, the consistent communication by the entrepreneur of their priorities aids employees in dedicating an added amount of effort toward the facets their superior desires results and recognisable yields in, while, at some point, they can thus be capable of identifying for themselves what their firm requires at any given period in time. Vision and clarity, in context to their personal career and the venture they're currently dedicating themselves toward, can also aid entrepreneurs in the adoption of strategies for their ventures. As retrospective successes of fabled entrepreneurs entail, businesses can require a re-incarnation of sorts, through the changing of their business plans and strategies, during almost every large shake-up that might affect the financial sector they thrive within. The reverberations of a period of either considerable gain or loss within the greater regional market reach all businesses, and handling these effectively and without losing much of the value their venture has managed to garner requires entrepreneurs to drop even the practices that have worked for their business in the past and adapt to their current environment. An example would be a particular company shifting its primary objective as a business from achieving profits to growing at a rapid rate in a market that is perhaps favourable to their product and offers them an opportunity for capturing a greater share within it. The identification of times like these when their venture requires a makeover can only ever be done by an entrepreneur who possess significant knowledge about the sector surrounding them and the competitors they constantly are at loggerheads with. Though many businesses can often be catapulted to success despite their owners only being educated upon the value of their own product, long-term success can only be built upon an entrepreneur who has an edge over the others with their extensive knowledge, and it's therefore essential that any businessperson first and foremost dedicate themselves to gaining all available education about the field they're about to dive into. The so-called edge also can be found with those willing to constantly learn about even those facets in which they've achieved prosperity in, and an open-minded approach is thus invaluable. Those capable of keeping their entrepreneurial pride at side and receive all the information coming toward their way simply through working toward their own success are better suited to handling tough times as a businessperson and have the resources necessary to emerge over them unscathed. Mentors can be found in abundance today, with some of the most noted entrepreneurs too lapping in the advice of those belonging to the previous generations of their trade, and its the understanding that taking lessons of knowledge from those with more experience when finding oneself at a dead-end that aids many a professional find solutions even when most options seem exhausted. The traditional litmus tests of an entrepreneur's fibre, their dedication toward their craft and the hours they're willing to put into it for the sake of its growth, remain effective in identifying those capable of gaining success from the rest, but the entrepreneurs indulging in some of the above stated aspects and possessing an eternal thirst for growth through learning can almost always be guaranteed of standing head and shoulders above the rest and therefore be seen as those wielding the "entrepreneurial edge".

Scaling almost always involves bringing on new talent, but proceed with caution. Hiring a mediocre employee is worse than hiring no employees at all, so take your time and consider the following tips to be sure your new hires come with rockstar-level skills: “The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world.” – Marc Benioff, Salesforce, CEO “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” – Bill Gates “Make your team feel respected, empowered and genuinely excited about the company’s mission.” – Tim Westergen, Founder, Pandora “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” – Stephen R. Covey, Author “If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” – Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon “There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” – Jason Fried, Founder, 37signals

In the beginning, John Paul DeJoria ran his business from his car. According to a recent Entrepreneur article, “DeJoria was born in Los Angeles, a first-generation American. He started out his business life selling Christmas cards and newspapers before he even turned 10. He also spent time in a gang. The path ahead looked like a disastrous one for DeJoria. But, instead, he created John Paul Mitchell Systems using a $700 loan. He lived out of his car and sold shampoo door to door.” Motivational Sales Story Lesson: We could all use some of Paul Dejoria’s determination and positivity. This is such a motivational sales story, because Dejoria didn’t make any excuses. He easily could have used his homelessness as a reason not to start a business, but he didn’t let anything stop him—and you shouldn’t either. While your case may not be as extreme as his, we all suffer through times where we feel like everything is against us. This story gives me the faith that if you continue to push yourself through hard times (or a rough quarter or two) you will reap the rewards.

Adore or detest his politics, it doesn’t really matter for the point of this story. Ross Perot’s biography includes an incredibly inspiring sales story. According to Sam Wyle, Perot quickly became a top employee at IBM. In fact, one year he fulfilled his annual sales quota in a mere two weeks. Yet, when he tried to pitch his ideas to supervisors he was largely ignored. This led him to leave IBM in 1962 to found Electronic Data Systems (EDS). To get the business going, he attempted to sell the products to large corporations for his data processing services. “Perot was refused seventy-seven times before he was given his first contract.” Motivational Sales Lesson: Never give up! You may have been turned down by ten prospects in one day, but that eleventh phone call could be the one that helps you score your biggest deal of the quarter. In Sales, the ability to develop tough skin and pick yourself up after losses or disappointments is critical.

Ryanair is Europe's most profitable airline ( about $400 million in profit so far this year). In the past 12 months Ryanair has flown 35 million passengers at an average ticket price of of just over $50. And, get this, 25% of its flights are free. Seriously. Billing itself as " The Wal-Mart of Flying". Ryanair's goal is to one day (soon) make Flying absolutely free. So how does it make money? By charging for other services. Advertising revenue comes from commercials on the back seats. Checked luggage costs $3.50 per piece. Food is always extra. By reinventing the business model for winning in their industry, Ryanair is doing just that. And showing us what innovation and imagination is all about in the change-crazy economy we find ourselves operating within IDEATION WITHOUT EXECUTION IS DELUSION. Source : Book - Stunning Sucess - Robin Sharma

Suitmedia is a company engaged in the field of integrated digital technology and marketing consultant . Suitmedia business activities include digital strategy ( digital strategy ), the design and development of websites ( web design & development ), development ofapplication cellular ( mobile application development ), marketing social media ( social media marketing ), as well as advertising digital (digital advertising ). Suitmedia is headquartered in Jakarta and has branches in Bandung , and has more than 50 creative workers including designers, web developers and mobile developers. Suitmedia also actively conducts research and development , and has produced several new Internet companies in the field of electronic commerce ( e-commerce ), namely BukaLapak.com and HijUp.com. How does the model work? They have 4 pillars DIGITAL STRATEGY business consulting marketing strategy online advertising performance marketing DESIGN & CONTENT creative concept UX & UI DESIGN content marketing video & multimedia TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION web development mobile app development e-commerce & crm new product / startup SOCIAL MEDIA social media campaign content & engagement influencer marketing online media monitoring What makes it so special? As a Creative Digital Lab, they have their own way to create amazing things for the customers. With four unique formulae: Insight-Driven, User Experience, 360-Degree View, and ROI-Oriented, they help in boosting the customer’s power to succeed. Action oriented insights Web design and app development is a promising sector for a new generation of college graduates in Indonesia. But because the local market is upping its competitive game, businesses like Suitmedia are now facing challenges. The barrier to entry in this industry is quite low, so fresh graduates or new small companies can offer a few similar services with a very low price. In this case, their advantage is that they have an experienced team that has handled many projects from SMEs to big corporations.” Two biggest challenges in Jakarta are an increasingly crowded market and what is referred to as “talent wars.” With the rise of digital startups ,it is quite challenging to find great talent. The demand of digital talent increasingly exceeds the supply. Also Suitmedia is not the only business in Jakarta feeling the digital talent bottleneck.

The key questions you need to answer to develop a successful customer segmentation strategy for your business 1. Who do we want to talk to? Customers Lapsed customers Potential customers 2. What do we know about these groups? Name Address Phone number, email address Purchase history Profitability Contact history 3. Where do we hold this information? 4. How up to date is it? 5. Does it comply with data protection rules? 6. Have we checked the Telephone Preference Service? 7. Are email addresses opt-in? The same Regulations say you can only email individuals who have specifically consented to receive marketing messages from you - although there's an exception made for your own previous customers. 8. What is the buying history of customers? Are they: big spenders; specialist buyers; occasional shoppers; old customers. 9. Have we grouped customers into different types? 10. Have we developed profiles of each type of customer? 11. Is our marketing communication targeted? 12. Are there some easy wins? 13. In cold contact, what is our response rate? 14. What is our conversion rate?