Kiran Karnik, the interim chairman of the Indian government appointed board of Satyam, said that it is up to Tech Mahindra to decide the way forward for Satyam. And of course, it shouldn’t be any other way. Tech Mahindra now has a wide array of restructuring projects as it tries to merge/rationalize Satyam’s services into its overall IT services portfolio.

There is much to learn for any business, whether it is privately held or a public-listed.

Read the specific analysis here: Lessons From Satyam Investor Issues 

And with such experience (or taste), some people are finally able to make a decision to start working on their own from their home office.

Most home based businesses can outsource 100% of non-key business functions. It’s a definite trend if you see the increase in project volume of sites like Elance.

We are seeing every possible work – from easy digital products to high-end investment banking work — being done from a home based business. Starting your home business is easier today than ever before, but most people don’t realize it, or don’t want to act on it!

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Here’s a thoughtful article written by Lazz Laszlo.

Has the idea of starting a home based business of your own been rolling around in your head for days, weeks, months, or sadly… even years?

You almost started a couple of times, but for some reason something came up that resulted in you deciding to delay the very first step.

The first step is truly the hardest, but there’s no denying that the first step is STARTING.

A man by the name of James Cash Penney who died at the age of 96 in the year of 1971 said something that perhaps will help you to understand that you are not the only one to have been timid about beginning a new business, in particular, your new home based business.

James Cash Penney said, “It is always the start that requires the greatest effort.”

He knew, and I’m sure you know, he’s the man behind the retailer J.C. Penney. You have to just love his middle name as it relates to his last name and capsulizes his life so to speak. He’s got a great story to tell if you take the time to find it and read it. Just to imagine that he lived through two world wars is amazing in itself.

There are lots of excuses used by people as to why they haven’t started their new home based business. Some of them include, but not limited to; just don’t have the time; just not ready yet; not sure which type of home based business to start; no money; looking for a partner; haven’t found the right product; or have to learn more.

If you’re in this zone of not being able to start, investigating the lives of others may just be the catalyst to kick you in the behind, knock you off the fence, and get you started. Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

The money you spend on a new pair of shoes is gone forever once it is spent and after weeks, months, and even perhaps years, those shoes will be discarded. The knowledge you gain from the article you read, the book you buy, the course you take, or the mentor you befriend will be with you for a lifetime.

You are not the first to have the desire to start a business. You certainly won’t be the last, but if you don’t start, you’ll be among the thousands who wished they had. It’s your choice to either get started or just forget it.

Some of my favorite people to read about have been, but certainly not limited to just these people;

Jeno Paulucci, the creator of Chung King Foods brought Chinese food to the kitchen tables of America. One of my favorite parts of his story was when he made a split-second decision and ate a grasshopper rather than… well, you’ll have to read his story.

Walt Disney began his dream, essentially in a garage. There are a lot of companies that begin in a garage, apparently because the kitchen table wasn’t available. Bill Hewlett and David Packard began the company that bares their name in a garage and as a footnote, they wound up burning down the garage. Oops! Apple Computer is another garage beginning business.

William Wrigley Jr., essentially stumbled on his fortune with chewing gum when this item he used as an incentive became more popular than the item he was selling.

Reading one or two of what I like to call, “How’d they do it” stories can shed a lot of light on what it really takes to get a business off the ground. It would be smart to make this an ongoing practice of reading about how others built their businesses, but don’t use the excuse of having to read just one more, and another, and another, and another… delaying your own start indefinitely.

The message here is that you have to focus and disregard what the naysayers think and say, this includes that little naysayer voice in your own head. Do you really want to do what other people want you to do, or do you want to put your efforts, energy, and brain power into doing what you really would like to do?

If you’re embarrassed as to what people will think of you while you are climbing and stumbling on the ladder of success, you might as well quit now. Success is a bumpy road with lots of hazards and stress, which is another couple of reasons why people seek the safety of a job rather than beginning a home based business in their off hours.

Dean Martin, the entertainer said, “Successful people make mistakes.” Some people make more mistakes than others, but I have never met anyone who has only made one mistake in their life. I was taught that there is a lesson in every mistake, but more to the point, you can learn from the mistakes made by others. Read a biography or two of people behind some of the greatest achievements in history and you’ll see that it wasn’t always smooth sailing.

If you are not just a little bit daring and willing to spit in the face of pessimism, than you’re not living.

Malcolm Forbes said, “Venture nothing, and life is less than it should be.”

It’s time to start your journey into business. You don’t have to go at break-neck speed, but you do have to begin. It’s been said that the best part of the trip is not the destination, but the journey itself. Begin your journey today.

Yes, it sometimes hurts to be entrepreneurial and a visionary. It is full of embarrassment and behind-your-back ridicule, neither of which is lethal. Try something and if it doesn’t work, try something else. The adversities in your life will fertilize the genius within you. I’ll leave you with this Welsh proverb; adversity and loss make a man wise.

About the Author: Lazz Laszlo is a former Investment Executive and Radio & Television Financial Reporter with many entrepreneurial endeavors to his credit. He spends his time as an emcee, public speaker, enjoying life and writing about business, travel, retirement, strategy, and pleasure. To learn more, please visit Lazz’s website; http://www.925-wage-slave-alternatives.com

(1) How to buy a domain name?
(2) How to choose a web host? What web host do you use and what do you suggest for me?

So here’s a post that everyone can benefit from.

You can buy domain name from either of these two market leaders: www.NameCheap.com  or www.GoDaddy.com

Now, let’s cover web hosting. It’s important to make the right choice here because there are dozens of options for different needs. But we have two clear recommendations.

First, a bit of background: at MyOrbit, we have over 50+ websites, blogs, and directories – that’s sizable online presence by any standards. Top quality web hosting is absolutely vital for our business. We found there are some good web hosting companies (who won’t fail you), many average (just running a business), and some bad (they are not responsive, and very expensive!).

Having used over a dozen web hosting providers over the last 4 years, we can confidently recommend the top 2. Because of their high quality, we have moved almost 90% of our websites to them. The remaining 10% continue to be other good webhosts only for historical reasons because we also bought the domains from them.

Top Recommendation #1: Apthost – This team is works 24×7 (don’t know how they do it, but they do it really well!). They are very good and quality of support is A+. 50% of our sites are running on AptHost. And they’re also the best web host on the Internet (as far as we know) on price/performance with best webhosting packages from just $2.95 per month! This is for shared web hosting, where multiple websites are hosted on the same server. Unlike many webhosts, Apthost does not oversell their server space, and ensures very good site performance. They also have very good larger hosting packages if you need them.

Their servers are in New Jersey with suitable back-ups, and they regularly add new features to their hosting. They also have higher-end hosting for a large e-business. In all, they are everything you need in a great webhost, and they stay on top of industry trends to give you the latest features. We are happy to recommend. You will also find our testimonial on their website. Learn more here: www.AptHost.com

Top Recommendation #2: JaguarPC - They promise high-end performance and they deliver it. They have great packages for semi-dedicated and dedicated servers, which become necessary when you have thousands or millions of visitors to your websites everyday, and lots of videos/files being run or downloaded. This website is running on JaguarPC – need we say more? Their support team is very responsive, and they won’t hit with you sales messages every week like some other web hosts. We really appreciate them.

Recommended for bigger hosting needs. Learn more here: www.JaguarPC.com

If you have multiple sites, then it is prudent to use at least two hosts and divide the sites between them. The above two are the best web hosts from our experience, and between them, you can cover every possible web hosting need — from lowest price to best performance. Hope it helped.

Often, there is so much rework at the last stages of proposal development just because some team members involved in the proposal were not aware of the full picture and customer business needs. If you are the manager, you have probably been giving your tips to the team every time you have a proposal.


In fact most companies, and that includes some very large companies, don’t have a clear business proposal checklist. It’s very much left for the sales manager to train his team — again and again. If you have been there, you will know exactly how it is like.

So make a note of this page and use it the next time you are submitting any business proposal. And more importantly — share it with all your team members who are involved in making your business proposal.

The Incredible India@60 event is currently running in New York City (Sep 23-26). It was inaugurated at the Lincoln Center, New York City amidst a large of the Indian Americans and American businessmen and diplomats. Incredible India@60 is organized by Confederation of India Industry (CII) and the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India showcases the vibrant, participative democracy that is India; presenting the face of a changing nation to an international galaxy of top political, business and media leaders who have congregated in New York for the UN General Assembly.

The CII and its business leaders, including Nandan Nilekani and Sunil Mittal, have done a great job of using their collective business experience and applying that to create a super-professional India package.

This video was selected by WeShow

My reading of the situation: it’s not bad at all compared to the difficult times we have seen before over the last 2 decades; so let’s not get jittery for every pothole on the road. And as far as I know, businesses that are using online channels today to reach customers worldwide are really growing at an attractive pace. So if you are deriving over 90% of your revenues from offline methods – BDMs, Sales Staff, Channel Partners, etc- you are at risk. I have absolutely no doubt in that because your cost structures are just too high compared to your competition which may be using online methods to get up to 50% of their revenues. I can say this because we recently helped a business in increasing the online sales component while reducing the sales force effort. It’s possible and it’s happening.

Stay Tuned!
Shankar AVSB, CEO, MyOrbit.tv

This video is about software solution sales and marketing, but equally applicable to other technology sales. There is a great pressure to achieve results fast by trying to qualify a buyer and trying to move ahead. And to make things more difficult, a Booz Allan Hamilton study found that 85% of a company’s brand value is projected through the interaction between the buyer and seller (so all the previous branding can fall flat easily)- that makes it very challenging to differentiate yourself when you have just about 20% of the buyer’s time.

So one of the biggest challenges facing today’s software sales forces is their ability to have “perfect conversations” with executive buyers. Too many conversations are centered around value propositions that are not aligned and not tailored to an executive buyer’s key business issues and personal motivations.

Chris Deren, CEO of SellMasters, was a keynote speaker at the SLAM (Sales, Licensing, Alliances & Marketing for Software Companies) 2006. He defines “the perfect conversation” and its essential ingredients — and how software companies can align and optimize their sales, marketing and product teams for them. In this video, Deren discusses how to:

• See the world through the eyes of executive buyers – Avoid being delegated to—and filtered out by—procurement. 90% of all IT vendors are considered non-strategic by buyers. So how do you move into the elite 10% club? Become executive centric to understanding their motivations and their cherished initiatives. Its difficult but that’s the differentiator
• Turn complex product portfolios into simple value-driven stories
• Create “last mile” marketing content that salespeople crave
• Achieve and maintain “trusted advisor” status critical to success

About the Presenter: Chris Deren is the CEO of SellMasters, which offers sales performance optimization (SPO) services. He is a high-tech industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in building entrepreneurial teams, leading world-class sales organizations, and identifying and executing against winning go-to-market strategies for companies such as IBM, Xerox and Dun & Bradstreet.

In the following video, Ron Edmonds, the Global Accounting Director of The Dow Chemical Company, provides rare insight into how a Fortune 500 company with 30,000 internal controls tests, 19 finance systems and 4,500 self assessments manages its Sarbanes-Oxley and compliance programs. Topics discussed include organizational structure, team roles and responsibilities, communication, procedures, documentation and the use of technology.

And the following video features Sean Ballington, Regional Systems & Process Assurance Leader with PricewaterhouseCoopers discussing how companies can reduce compliance costs by working ahead of the auditor, correctly identifying key controls, and successfully employing these techniques to increase operational efficiency.

If you are into any forms of customer interaction or sales, you will benefit from this interesting sales training video by Dan Lappin of Caskey Training, where he shares “why sales deals stall”. It’s just 6 minutes long and worth watching full. You’ll learn three sales strategies that can improve your ability to control the sales process, improve your credibility, and will have your customers pursuing you. This video has been popular with audience at Myorbit from the time we started last year in 2006. So thanks very much to Dan Lappin.