It is the dream of every startupreneur to be featured in media, and the dream gets ten times bigger when the first call he gets is from Print Media!!
Our dream just got realized today when The Indian Express (My personal favorite) called me up to run a feature on us.
Things got more interesting when we got to know the reason why she wants to feature us….A few months back, June 2013 to be precise, we had run a small campaign for budding startups here on The Rodinhoods.
Here’s a link of the same https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/online-marketing-pay-as-you-feel-ishtyle
The Journalist, Ms. Garima Mishra from IExp -Pune wanted to run an in-depth on this feature. From the Idea and how it came in to what clients feel for it.
The Story features me as well as another amazing person from our very own Rodinhoods Community, Aman Jha!
Today, I am really gratified for the story and thankful to this Awesome Forum called The Rodinhoods for this is the place where it all started!!
Thank You Alok ‘Rodinhood’ Kejriwal Sir, Asha Ma’m, Darshan Sir and all of you amazing people!!
Like thousands of people, the concept ‘Pay as you feel it was worth’, which was adopted by a few restaurants across the country some years ago, had taken city-based Kunal Shah by surprise. Later he learnt that the concept was tweaked and adopted in several other businesses as well. In June, his company BrinkPoint Creative Solutions introduced the concept to boost the new start-ups.
“Initially, when people launch their websites or portals, they are not aware about the right ways of online promotion on social media space and what is the right amount to pay. Hence, I decided to follow ‘Pay as you feel it was worth’ concept, but only to selected clients,” says Shah, owner, BrinkPoint Creative Solutions.
Shah’s services included providing consultation and execution plans for the firm’s social media and online marketing strategy, providing content for the website/blog/SEO Requirements or any other requirement, and giving inputs/suggestions and feedback on online reputation management and online promotion strategies the client’s firm.
“We came up with this mainly as we wanted to increase awareness about online marketing for startups and new business owners. The concept has seen overwhelmingly successful and we have managed to not only get amazing paying clients but also built really good relationships with them. However, we are selective about the firms we work for,” says Shah.
The concept, says Shah, has twin effects. There have been times when the client chose to not pay him at all and there have also been cases when the client was so happy with the service of Shah’s company that he gave him additional paid projects. “If the client is happy, it results into a long-term contact with the company,” he says.
Taking a similar initiative is Nilesh Bhojani, co-founder of the firm Markitty, who conducts a two-hour free counselling session for the start-ups on every Thursdays. In this session, he gives one-on-one advice to the people who have queries such as what channels to use for marketing, how to reach international market, how to improve their website, using social media and so on. “It also helps in networking,” says Bhojani.
Aman Jha, who has been an entrepreneur for over seven years, is the founder of S4Startups. He follows a different mantra to boost new startups. While his consultation comes free of cost, he also works as service aggregator, which means that if the client needs a service for which cost needs to be incurred, like deploying a person, it is at actuals and is incurred by the client; Jha does not charge anything as a fee.
“I tell them in advance that if you are able to make profit then pay me else they don’t need to pay me,” he says. Like Shah, even Jha has restricted this only to a selected few. “This is only for startups not for those who have a big clientele and are dealing in big figures,” he explains.
Apurva Chaturvedi, founder of www.litizen.com is one of the budding entrepreneurs who has received a boost from such initiatives. In his case it was the pay-as-you-feel concept.
“Unlike well-established companies, the requirements of the start-ups are different. With limited money to invest, it becomes important to collaborate with the right people and choose the right strategies when you want to expand. With pay-as-you-feel concept, I am getting to test the skills of the other party without paying a stipulated amount, which can be heavy if you go the conventional way,” he says.