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Showing posts from 2013

Inspiration from Nature- Basic Building Blocks for Scaling a Business.

What is the basic building block for your Business? Well before you answer that question lets take a look at nature. You will notice that there is a spiral pattern getting repeated. This pattern is drawn more precisely like this. Notice how the spiral can go on till infinity. The ratio of the sides of the rectangle is 1.618 and is known as the Golden Number. It is called so because this pattern is found so often in nature. It is almost like a basic building block of nature. Nature builds one tiny "fractal" with the Golden Number / Golden Ratio and replicates it for scale. The same principle can be used for scaling a business. Get the Golden Number for your business and then it scales. For Starbucks, it is the combination of good quality coffee, the ambiance, etc. Once you get the right mix the business is ready to scale. For Google, it is searching and being a repository of all information. For LinkedIn it is connections. For Facebook it is f

Why no Gold colour in Golden Square Logo?

Some friends ask me why there is no Gold Color in Golden Square logo. Well, there are two reasons, one to do with the meaning and the other more practical to do with printing. "Golden" in this case is referring to the Adjective:- " Marked by prosperity, creativity, etc. " as in, 'the Renaissance was a Golden Era.' "Square" stands for a meeting place, similar to a Market Square , where transactions and business happens. The first logo of Golden Square did have a little bit of Gold color. However, we ran into practical difficulties in printing signage and visiting cards. Gold is not an easy color to print. So we decided to have only Blue and Black. Why Blue? Well, that is another story altogether. Golden Square :- The place for business prosperity. www.goldensquare.in

Unfixed Costs- Costs should be in line with Revenue

A pile of Lego blocks, of assorted colors and sizes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "We invested in anticipation, but it all went down the drain." A friend was recently recounting his experience. They were on the verge of getting a big software development project from a large company. In anticipation, they invested in another office dedicated to this project. However, the customer wanted them to do the project on-site. All the investment in the new office was a waste. "Golden Square's flexible office space options makes so much sense," my friend declared, "Wish I had thought of this earlier." In Golden Square, we understand the fluid nature of business. That is the reason why we do not have lock-ins. Typically office space is contracted for more than a year. In Golden Square, all we need is a Months notice to reduce space and a moments notice to increase space in our Dedicated Office plans. One can start with say 3

How to select the right office for a start-up?

"Cash is King" for a Start-up. Yet often one of the first things entrepreneurs do is spend precious money on setting up their office. Not only does a new office require capital, which is scarce for a start-up, but there is also a monthly fixed overhead which can be a drain in the early stages. Precious Cash needs to be focused on customer acquisition, product development, and team. Open Meeting Tables at Golden Square Koramangala So what is the smart option for an office? Well simple, work from home, or a garage, or get a friend to offer you an office space. Figure out all possible ways to reduce costs. Nowadays it is quite easy to work from home, do meetings online and collaborate with team members. However, there are things for which you do need professional office space, like client meetings, team meetings and so on. For these, you could use meetings rooms in Business Centres. Golden Square , for instance, provides meeting tables, meeting rooms and conference

Rules for a Productive Meeting

Time is precious. A properly managed meeting can lead to a significant saving of time. But the latest studies show that most of the meetings are a huge drain to the company time. On average, 31 hours of unproductive time is wasted on meetings every month. We, at Golden Square, host several meetings per month for our clients. From our experience, here are some tips, which you might as well consider rules, for a productive meeting. 1.    Schedule the meeting at an OFF PEAK hour: Most of the meetings take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays. These days are prone to heavy work and deadlines, and a minute spent on a meeting is a minute you do not spend on execution. Some suggested time slots are Monday and Tuesday afternoons around 3PM . 2.    Abolish Monday Meetings: A meeting at the beginning of a Monday is all too common in most companies. Calling a meeting just because “it is a Monday” generally leads to, what is now popularly known as, “posting meeting”. Th

Advantages of Virtual and Shared Office

Whether you are a new business or a large business looking to set up operations in a new location, it is imperative to have a physical space to call an “office”. However, constructing a new office and setting up the new infrastructure is a long and time-consuming process. Not to mention, it might not be the most cost-effective option if you have just a handful of people working. Even if you do manage to get a physical location and the basic amenities such as internet and telephone, it will still lack meeting rooms, receptionists, projectors, etc. In order to address these challenges for businesses, a new concept of shared office and virtual office has emerged. In this offering, a business can rent out a fully furnished office complete with reception services, communication services, meeting rooms, cubicles etc. by the day or even months depending on their requirements. Some of the other benefits of the shared/virtual office (apart from the cost and above me

Virtual Office is a Boon for Businesses

Owning a Prime Business Address is a matter of Pride. Gone are the days when professionals were required to work only from a physical office from 9 AM to 6 PM daily. Today, the shape of the way the businesses are done has changed. With advanced technology and smarter ideas of working, it has provided companies with the option of working virtually from almost anywhere in the world. This way of working has a lot of benefits to companies. There are numerous advantages of virtual office but before that one should understand its features. It depends on companies and their requirement to opt for a suitable choice. As the information age started in the 1990s with globalization, innovative solutions were required to aid company expansions and multi-location presence. This was the time when Virtual Office Services came into being and helped such companies with smarter ways to conduct business. Replacing the traditional brick and mortar offices with the help of business centers,

Genesis

This is the first blog so it makes sense to start right at the beginning. Why did we start Golden Square? The plan was hatched in 1994. I had decided to become an Entrepreneur and looking for good ideas. Someone suggested why not a Business Centre? The idea appealed to me. India was just opening up, after 1991 the wind of liberalization started blowing in the country. Just a few years back IBM had come back to India, there was a lot of new business activity likely to happen. However, starting a new company in India was still not so easy. Just getting a new telephone connection used to take 6 months and that was considered fast. So the idea that we could make it easy for companies to get started in Bangalore appealed to me. There was a definite need. The 1st Unit of Golden Square at Vittal Mallya Rd. Bangalore. We were not the Pioneers in the Market. DBS was an established player. There were several others like Pan Asia Business Centre and Executive Chambers in the Market.