How to network: for the fresh grad

At some point of your life, you will be invited to a business event where everyone is in suits, poised with tall glasses in one hand and chatting in small groups. Welcome to the business world, where such events are inevitable and the skills of networking are invaluable.

A great approach to networking is to rethink how you make friends when you were young. Now you are in a new classroom and you have to get to know all your classmates again. As a rule of thumb, be genuinely interested in the person you meet and chat. There would be some that you can get along with, some which you can't find any common topics, and some that hit off with you immediately - just like what happens in your class. 

Remember the necessities for networking, as explained from my previous post on checklist for networking.

Also, for those people where you can't find anything in common but find yourself stuck with them for some unforeseen circumstances, there is always a list of general things to talk about to fall back on.

Then there comes a situation where you are forced to network because you need to seek help in something. There is no other way but to find someone with the expertise to advise you or introduce to you some useful contacts. I think the 2 most common problems about networking that a young person would have is
1) he is afraid to ask for favors
2) he dislikes the notion of knowing a person just to benefit from it

In my own version of Networking, i think it is about doing favors. I think people understand you might not have anything to offer back now, but when the time comes, you would duly do so, or do so for others in return. It is actually a gentleman's agreement from this perspective.

In a nutshell, networking is similar to other activities in life. You will be hesitant and nervous in your first attempt, but after some practice you will get the hang of it. You will get the help of mentors and when you get better, you will share your knowledge and advise the young. Remember to always pay it forward. Happy Networking!

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How to build a successful presentation team

Presentations are still the most common method to convey ideas and messages in business. Analysts present their findings to higher management through presentations. Entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to potential investors through presentations. When it comes to presentation, there is usually a time limit, but there is usually no rules to say that you have to present on your own. In fact, the more successful presentations revolve around a team rather than a single member.

Here's are 3 tips on how to build a successful presentation team

1. Present By Expertise

People would present better if they know the content. Thus, let your team present according to their expertise - For example, the CTO should handle the technology, the CEO handle the commercialization plan, the COO handle the operations section.

2. Order by presentation style

Recognize that everyone has their own presentation style. You would want an enthusiastic speaker to start to get your panel's attention in the beginning. However, it is impossible to get full attention throughout the whole presentation. Order the less exciting presenters in the middle where the content is less important, and finish with an enthusiastic speaker to wrap the presentation.

3. Have a fair mix

A successful presentation team need not have a team of Barack Obamas. In fact, a good mix of exceptional and OK presenters can do a better job. The exceptional presenters can leave a better impression and what they presented will be etched in the panel's mind. Also, a team of mixed gender also seem to prove useful in improving the presentation.

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How to make your business scalable and some examples

The key thing to look in the potential if the business is it's scalability. It may be losing money, it may be stagnant currently, but if it is able to grow it's capacity while  decreasing the incremental cost securing and supporting a new client, it's scalable. And being a scalable model adds value to your business.

How to make your business scalable (PPPC)

Product

try to standardize your production and keep to a standard product. Think apple. They have only one product the iPhone, and you can observe similar parts used across their Span of products. This gives them the advantage to be able to produce morevolume for less amount.

People

 if the business depends on a star player and cannot survive without him,  naturally it is harder to scale. To expand operations, we need to break away from exclusive skills held by few to pervasive knowledge such that more people can run the show, increasing the capacity to grow. To achieve this, some sort of training program or knowledge- sharing sessions should be in place.

Processes

Operations and processes should be kept as simple as possible. They should also be standardized as far as possible. In that way, expanding the company would be mostly repetition of the same thing and can tap on existing infrastructure for support. Identify suitable areas of the business which can be outsourced, transforming your fixed cost into variable cost.

Customers

Leverage on your customers to reduce resources on certain tasks. Some process need not human intervention and can be passively accomplished. For example, instead of getting a staff to take their orders, use a computer/ self-service kiosk for the customers to input their orders.

What are some examples of scalable business?

- a grocery store. Below the maximum capacity,  You can restock and extend your operating hours to increase sales. This does not require a large additional capital investment.

- selling your licensed software is scalable. You can sell as many copies of your software once developed and the cost to support the customer should not be more than the cost of goods. Successful SaaS(software as a service) models is able to easily scale their operations and expand their client base to all over the world.

- remember the overnight sensation drawing app "draw something"? That is also an example of a scalable business as they built something that was efficient, fast and easy to scale. They had the capacity to accommodate 50 million downloads - the processes were kept up and running throughout.

Thus, the potential of being able to garner millions of customers is very attractive to investors. To fully maximize the value of your business, refine your model such that it is easier to scale up.

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