Ganesh Balakrishnan

Using the impact-effort matrix has helped me prioritize tasks and avoid procrastinating the important stuff. Here's a quick summary of how it works: https://www.bitesizelearning.co.uk/resources/impact-vs-effort-matrix-explanation-template The high impact-high effort tasks are the key ones to focus on. Finding the right problem to solve, building an MVP as a side-hustle, finding the right co-founder - are all critical actions you must take if you are serious about starting up. The high impact-low effort tasks are no-brainers. In the context of starting up, things like booking a relevant domain, creating an action tracker with timelines etc. can be done quickly. Avoid the last 2 types of tasks for now!

While your skills and experience will give you an edge in entrepreneurship, I'd say an earlier step is to figure out if you have the right mindset for starting up. Some key attitudes you need to possess: 1) Being positive - You need to be irrationally optimistic to build your dream in the midst of lots of naysayers. 2) The "get things done" mindset - If you encounter problems, which you will always do in a startup, will you roll up your sleeves and get stuff done? 3) The art of selling - Every entrepreneur is a salesman. You need to develop the thick skin to talk to customers relentlessly and evangelize your proposition. 4) Family support - Your biggest supporters are always your family, you better have them in your camp as cheerleaders!

We like to pose for the camera, and for social media followers. But what I've learnt from growing my own personal brand on social media is this: 1) Talk about your own experience. People want to hear your story. And the more real it is, the more it resonates with your audience. 2) Be vulnerable. Nobody is Superman. And when you bring out the realities and failures in your journey, people will appreciate it. Not many people talk about it, so it is quite refreshing. 3) Celebrate the little successes. It's important to acknowledge the victories along your journey, and the audience will celebrate with you. You're the pilot of your personal brand. You owe it to your followers to give them a taste of the real, bumpy ride you are on!

Loyalty programs are effective if you are in an industry that has one or more of these characteristics: 1) The fixed cost of business is high, and the marginal cost of serving another customer is low. eg. Airlines, movie theatres 2) The chance of switching to a competitor is very high and you have to try hard to retain your customers eg. eCommerce marketplaces, online travel aggregators 3) Lifetime value of a customer is very high, and that's the only way to sustainable economics eg. OTT, D2C brands If your industry isn't in any of these spaces, then don't waste your time on loyalty programs.

If you are exploring a new area and want to get deeper into the customer's mindset and behaviours, then open-ended questions are best suited for your market research. They encourage the responder to open up and talk more about their specific context, which will allow you to dig deeper with further follow-up questions. If you are looking to validate a hypothesis or get specific feedback, then you need quantitative feedback, and close-ended questions are the best approach. They give much more measurable data for you to analyze and taken decisions with.

While everyone tries paid influencer campaigns, have you tried doing one for absolutely free? Read up about crowdspeaking, popularized by platforms like Thunderclap. Here's how we did it at Flatheads: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ganeshbalakrishnan_flatheads-growth-hacks-running-a-crowdspeaking-activity-6770530895293231104-BvFe/