Mouthshut.com is India’s first website where customers can freely post reviews for companies. Founded in 2000, till then it has expanded well. I’ve used this site years back to expose bad service of a web hosting company.

Few days back, I had received an email from CEO of Mouthshut.com, Faisal Farooqui (Here’s the full newsletter). That email stated a latest testimonial of a very satisfied client and left a great impression on me. It’s a nice technique for any business to follow.

Here’s the most impressive part:

First, a story from a MouthShut.com member that shows we are making a positive difference: Pradeep Chopra is an IIT Delhi Graduate who co-founded OmLogic. I am also privileged to count him as a friend. Pradeep shared the following in an email (certain portions underlined for emphasis):

“Recently, I had a terrible experience with Apple MacBook and Apple India. I posted a review at your community and only then Apple listened and actually gave me a new laptop. Thanks to your community and its power…Fortunately, the review is being read by around 6000 people and people have been writing to me whether they should be Apple MacBook.”

This was the testimonial included in email. First of all, this testimonial was enough for me to visit their site once again and start using it. It clearly states how successful they are in solving the problems they are meant to – which really impress me, personally.

Secondly, when you have already impressed your customers, you can also announce your new service or special offers. Just like they did!! It has given me an important tip to run my business.

Always keep in touch with all old clients.

- Abhimanyu Grover

Normally, I blog about technical stuff, but as I am currently investing lot of time in making Giga Promoters strong, not only technically but capital wise as well. I also had a single request from a friend to blog about the tips. Here are a few things which I think are crucial for business success:

1. 80/20 Analysis – Do regular analysis, about which clients are most performing, which core processes help you the most. Pareto’s 80-20 principle defines most of things. If you get it correctly, then you can achieve more with much less input.
2. Learn Cash Management – When you’re running a small business, you’re working so hard that learning to manage cash would be your last priority. Business owners worry about paying bills on time, sometimes they pay it twice, sometimes they don’t even have cash to pay bills. Learning cash management and a little bit of finance can help you in performing well, and eliminating such worries from business life.
3. Learn power of Assets – When you are in business, you can’t be in your own business’s production cycle. You got to own the thing – not run it yourself. You don’t have to work for earning money but building assets which in long term is going to pay you.
4. Think Win/Win – In my experience, I’ve seen that most of the people see all situations as Lose/Win or Win/Lose which means when dealing with others, either they are going to lose or the person they are dealing with. But you can do much better by learning Win/Win. Think about the ways which will make you and your clients win. If you can not come up with a way, simply don’t deal.
5. Master time management – On daily basis, there are some urgent tasks then there are some not-so-urgent tasks. Of course you got to focus on urgent tasks for obvious reasons, and they will keep you busy in a circle each day. Try breaking this cycle, and invest time in the things which are not so urgent but are important as any other thing. Eg- learning from books, reading articles, exploring new technologies, automating tasks.
6. Innovate – The only way for you to succeed is through innovating, launching a product or service which is unique to others is only way to success. Its because anything which you think is there in market, with tons of companies competing over it. Your mission statement should be ‘change-the-world’, not ‘re-launch-old-boring-product’. Have you idea book, and keep recording your ideas, and keep sharpen the saw until you get ready for a new big thing.
7. Giving it back – Simple. Teach others. Helping others makes a great day. Infact this article is for the same reason.

I learned many things from the following books, and highly recommend to any business owner:

Thanks for reading.

- Abhimanyu Grover