Vinil Ramdev, Founder of MagnaLeapEnterprise & StartUpGrowthExpert.com
Vinil Ramdev’s BIO
Vinil Ramdev is the founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com. He is an entrepreneur, author and speaker.
He has been involved in starting several businesses.
His mission is to help businesses and individuals make more money, achieve their goals, create everlasting wealth and life long happiness.
My Story by Vinil Ramdev:
I was born in Bangalore, India and lived in Bangalore most of my life. In 2001, I went to the United States and got a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida in 2004.
In 2004, I started an internet related business with very little to no money. This was a business that I exited within a year.
In 2006, I started a retail business in India, built the business and sold the business in early 2009.
Thereafter, in April of 2009 I started a consulting business where our services included preparing business plans, sales training, setting up turn key businesses, helping in financing, writing content and sales copy mostly copy writing and a few other related services. We did experiment with many of these services to find our core.
While doing consulting I realized lot of entrepreneurs required training along with the consulting part. Because life and entrepreneurship is about constantly growing, so I launched StartUpGrowthExpert.com to help entrepreneurs and want-to-be entrepreneurs start and grow their business. I truly believe when your business isn’t growing beyond a certain stage then it’s probably because the entrepreneur isn’t growing as well. It’s very critical that the entrepreneur is learning something new everyday and growing if he wants his business to grow.
Feel free to join me on facebook at http://facebook.com/committosuccess or follow me on twitter @vinilramdev
Look forward to connecting with you.
http://magnaleap.com/
http://www.StartUpGrowthExpert.com/
IN THE SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW
1. Please share with us what prompted you to launch MagnaLeapEnterprise & StartUpGrowthExpert.com?
Vinil: Let me first tell you how I started off in business.
Back in 2002, when I was still in college, I didn’t have any dreams. I was broke and wanted to do something with my life. So I decided I would start a business. Then, in 2004, while I was doing some internet marketing courses, I learned from a friend how to set-up a website, sell products, or services and make money out of that. So I set-up an ecommerce website. However, that did not last too long, we did this for less than a year. My friend and I moved on with our lives.
Then, in 2005-06, I started a retail business. I built that business for about 3 years, sold it in 2009. After that, I wanted to figure out something to do again so I started consulting for start-ups and small businesses.
That’s when I started StartUpGrowthExpert.com. It was mostly to express my opinions and impart knowledge to start-ups and small business owners. At this time, I also realized that a lot of businesses needed marketing and promotion services. Online marketing was not evolved at the time. Most companies did not understand online marketing very well. I always considered myself to be a marketer, so I decided to sell marketing, advertising, and promotion services through Magnaleap Enterprises. I’m always very excited about marketing and advertising, My efforts are always to look for the marketing angle in business because that’s one of the key factors in building successful businesses.
I still remember what someone told me once: “Business is marketing, marketing is business.” So, marketing and business really excite me. Business is a lot like solving a puzzle, sometimes you seem so close, yet so far.
2. There is no typical day in the life of an entrepreneur. Please share with us a sample of your day, start to finish.
Vinil: Well, there is no typical day. But my day starts by logging into my project management software, assigning work to people, answering emails, making phone calls, and going for some client meetings. Nowadays, I try to spend more time in business development activities because I feel we need to acquire a lot more clients than we did in the past.
3. What are your ‘can’t live without’ Smartphone or desktop applications?
Vinil: I’m not that much of an app junkie really. There is no app that I can’t live without.
4. What are your tricks for time management?
Vinil: I’m not sure about “tricks.” but what works for me is to prepare a “To do” list, and tear the hell out of it. “To do” lists have always worked for me.
5. What was the best advice you received when you started your career?
Vinil: I’m sure I’ve gotten a lot of good advice over the years. But one advice that stands out is “Do things your way; build your own philosophy; what works for someone else may not necessarily work for you.”
I also liked what Seth Godin said in one of his books or seminars, “Don’t follow a proven system.” These things have resonated with me, because in today’s digital world, things are changing very quickly; what worked in the past may not work in the future.
At the same time, I do not try to reinvent the wheel. I use past research but I also try and analyze the situation and create my own customized strategy to do things.
6. Given the current economic climate, what has been your strategy for building awareness of Both of your businesses? ( what you do for short term and long term growth)?
Vinil: Irrespective of the economic climate, it’s very important to promote your business at all times. It’s important to understand your business very well, having a keen awareness about your business. What makes it tick, what are the crucial areas you need to focus on, and where it is heading.These are really important. For example, the magazine business relies on 3 factors – subscriptions, great content, and advertising revenue. If the content in your magazine is bad, your subscriptions won’t grow and, without subscriptions, advertisers won’t find you delicious enough to throw money at you. So, in the magazine business, you need to focus on building great content and focus a great deal of your marketing activities in building subscriptions so that advertisers will find you irresistable.
In my business, marketing, I personally attend networking events, and we’ve also identified a couple of sources that are giving us good leads. We would also like to improve our online marketing efforts so that we can generate more leads.
7. What is your proudest achievement as an accomplished entrepreneur?
Vinil: This is a hard question to answer, because I still have a long way to go. But what I am proud of is the fact that I always tried and chased my dreams. If I believed in something, I just went for it irrespective of the result. I believe in having big dreams, it’s not about whether you will accomplish your dreams or not, it’s about the journey, the person it is going to make you into. A dream is not a destination, it’s a journey.
8. How do you achieve balance in your life?
Vinil: Although running a business might seem like your life, it is not. It’s also important to enjoy other things in life. I try to shut my work after a specific time of the day, watch some TV, meet some friends, go out partying, watch a movie, or do something for fun.
9. Your top 3 book recommendations?
Vinil: I’ll give you 1 recommendation – just read Jack Welch’s book “Winning”, it’s one of the best business books that I have read.
10. What are your most rewarding charitable involvements?
Vinil: I have done a little bit for charity here and there, but nothing that is noteworthy yet. I pay taxes, that seems like charity in my country, hahaha.. Eventually, I want to build schools, and hospitals in small towns that don’t have too many schools and hospitals. I want these schools to teach kids values such as love and compassion, and help them earn a livelihood rather than a degree. True freedom comes from earning your own living. Improving the earning ability of a child is the biggest gift you can give that child.
11. Who has influenced your career the most?
Vinil: I’d say real life experiences have influenced my life the most. I used to read a lot of self-help books, but nothing beats real life experiences.
12. What is your advice for someone interested in entrepreneurship?
Vinil: The most important part of entrepreneurship or anything in life is to understand why you want to do something. Figure that out. You may not have the answers to your questions right away, but just make a start, and figure things out as you go. Don’t become so arrogant that you can’t see your own flaws, and surround yourself with the best talent you can find at the time. Keep learning, keep growing, and be open to new ideas. More importantly – treat people well, build positive relationships, and make this world a better place to live.
Beyond Success Online 