We live in a system that is purely skill based. freelancing skills are needed if you want to survive in the start-up world. Many of us might actually think about the skills that are formally taught in schools or any institute. But what about the ones that aren’t taught? In recent times, there has been a rise in freelancing and workers are becoming more independent. But this freedom comes with a harsh reality that everyone is responsible for their own growth and success. Skills are like the building block of the career. If a person is skilled enough in accordance with the current industry demands, he/she will be accepted else they don’t need someone who isn’t skilled. It’s never too late to start brushing up your freelancing skills. So, here are some of the important soft skills needed as a freelancer.

1.      Learn to Manage Time Effectively

Whether you’re an experienced freelancer looking to expand your business or currently working on a traditional 9-5 job, if you want to branch out into the exciting world of moonlighting, you’ll need to know how to manage your time properly.

2.      Communication

One of the most important freelancing skill is communication, it is like the root of the relations that we make in the corporate world. If we are able to convey our message clearly to a person, then only we’ll be considered at some level. However, the ability to communicate should not be mistaken with the talent of talkativeness. We should be able to correctly interpret the statements of our partner and thus react accordingly. This way you win trust, which is especially important in regard to co-operation via long distances.

3.      Problem Solving

There are certain things that freelancers need to figure out by simply doing them. This often requires activating one’s critical thinking skills. Because we can’t always anticipate what’s to come, the best way to improve upon problem-solving skills is to think through “what if” scenarios, always keeping in mind the end goals and the desired outcomes.

4.      Stress Management Skills

Despite its perks, remote work is stressful. There will be times when we’ll have to deal with a difficult client who expects too much. But remember, it’s a job with responsibilities like any other form or work. If you take your work seriously and develop the crucial freelancing skills for success, you’ll be prepared to freelance from home. So, try to learn the art of managing stress at work.

It’s no secret that Instagram has a magnificent reach and it’s enabling users to grow enormously just every single day. It has proven itself and there is no doubt that Instagram is the best social media app of 2019. It is just not a social media app but, a platform for commercialization too. However, not every business has jumped on the Instagram marketing bandwagon.
At first glance, the app seems like it’s really only beneficial for those in e-commerce. However, it has become a platform for commercialization.
Most businesses on Insta report that it’s their most engaging social media platform.

Exploring the Instagram Analytics Tools

Instagram has free analytics. Now as we know how to build an account and create ads, one needs a way to track their efforts. By uploading Instagram stories, sharing updates with the followers one may know that, it does not have analytics. These analytics help you keep track of your audience.
If you’re not tracking your Instagram analytics on a regular basis, then you are making a big mistake, because by evaluating you could:
1) Targeting the right audience.
2) Get to know if you are posting too frequently (or not frequently enough).
3) Driving relevant visitors to your website or not.
4) Driving calls from an ad type that you only used once or not.
5) Ignoring mentions that could be leading to future partnerships or not.
6) Posting during optimal hours of the day or days of the week or not.
7) Missing opportunities for brand engagement in your comments and stories or not.
The basic pillar has to be strong, to incorporate cleared objective. It has to be cleared by following a target audience.

Personal tips work really well, especially when indirectly collaborate with the business in some way, behind-the-scenes, structured the day,

How you come up with ideas, the work-space, all these give people a look into life/business.

Also read How to use social media to land a job

By – Bushra Sabir

If you want to be successful you have to follow a schedule which can help you increase productivity. The one thing that all the highly successful people follow up to stay organized and focused is that the strictly obey a work routine. When you have a lot of tasks on your to-do list, you may feel overwhelmed, and find it difficult to get started. But having a routine provides structure to a day and allows you to get more work done in less time. More than half of the time at the workplace is spent unproductively thinking on how to organize and start up with different things. However, following up with a routine and putting up a few strategies in place would help a lot in becoming productive. So, let us look at the production planner to organize things properly and turn out to increase productivity.

1. Monthly To-do List

to increase productivity keep a running monthly to-do list. Enlist everything that needs to be done in that month. Whatever comes to your mind, just note it down on the list. You can also use Google calendar, reminders to remind you time on the schedule.

2. Monthly Intentions List

Make a healthy routine for a month and then list the tasks from the master monthly one to divide them on weekly basis. This would turn out to be a strategical way of doing things and also would help you organize things in a better way.

3. Weekly List

Look at the monthly schedule you made and organize the tasks on a weekly basis this will help you form a weekly goal and help you increase your productivity.

4. Remember Your Larger Goals

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day emergencies, but it’s important to remember your larger goals. One of the best ways to do this is by focusing on completing three important tasks every day. Write these goals at the top of your list and schedule your day accordingly. This helps me to avoid working on smaller tasks and to focus on more needle-moving work.

5. Do Not Jump from Task to Task

If you’re jumping from task to task, it can feel like you’re busy. But the truth is you aren’t getting much done. The way to be the most productive is to take one of your big tasks and schedule out a chunk of your day to focus on it.

Steve Jobs, an American inventor, designer, and entrepreneur and the co-founder of the leading firm always the first to step up in the path of innovation, APPLE. Apple’s revolutionary products are now seen dictating in the technology world.
Some facts about the person who delivered innovation and introduced us to the technology are :

He was an adopted child

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco and was an adopted child. His biological parents gave their child to his adopted parents Paul and Clara.

He was bullied in school

Bullying at school made him give an ultimatum to his parents to move out of San Francisco. So, they moved to Los Altos in California.

Steve was a college drop out

He was a college dropout and attended Reeds College for just 18 months. He continued his education by informally auditing classes. In Reeds, the course that attracted him the most was calligraphy.

He became Buddhist Monk

He almost became a Buddhist monk. As an adolescent, Jobs’ dream was to become a Buddhist monk. In 1974, a trip to India sparked in him a lifelong interest in Buddhism that stayed with him forever.

He had interest in technology

From his very early age, he was into technology. He used to attend various after-school lectures at Hewlett Packard and later became summer intern there.

Apple fired him

Apple fired him. In 1974 he joined Atari, a video game maker and attended meetings of home computer club with Steve Wozniak with whom he later founded Apple. In 1976, they both together founded Apple computer. He asked John Sculley to quit Pepsico and become his Apple’s CEO. He was successful in convincing him to join Apple. Both their visions for the company greatly differed. Also, the product the Jobs was heading, Macintosh was a failure. In May 1985, Sculley decided to reorganize Apple.  He set up a meeting with the board of directors and decided to fire Steve Jobs from the group.

Jobs made Forbes List

He was one of the youngest people to make the Forbes list. With an investment of 7 million dollars, he founded another computer. He promoted his product across scientific organizations, educational institutions, government bodies etc. The sales were limited because the product was expensive. Soon after he returned back to his company.

By – Nayni Jain

Somya Mridul is one of the coolest and the best graphics designer SI has. She’s a diligent intern who possesses the ability to illustrate ideas that visually stand out. Playing with colours and dyeing everything with them is what she loves the most. Catering to each and every client needs she creates unique and visionary designs that play a tremendous role in communicating a company’s idea.

She’s an asset to our organization. We’re happy to see her advancing in her domain even more every day.

Web development is an emerging field, in today’s era, e-commerce businesses have become so competitive that they are struggling at every point. Their survival to some extent depends on how remarkable their website. A website is a tool that provides companies with a podium for their necessary web presence and allows them to get in touch with millions of web surfers all over the world, widening the range of their potential customers. With a rise in the e-commerce industry, the demand for Web development courses has also increased.
Web development plays an important role in the marketing of any business, you need your own website for the audience to visit you and know about you and your business. So, if you want your business to flourish, web development is crucial. Developing a well-designed, professional looking website will get your foot in the door of the online market. So here is the list of various online Web Development courses available for beginners.

1.      Codeacademy

Codeacademy provides a series of tutorials to learn the basics of web development. Also, the self-contained development environment is created where you can learn the basic structures of front-end code like HTML and CSS, before moving on to back-end languages such as Ruby on Rails and Python.

2.      Khan Academy

It is an extremely useful website providing a variety of self-guided tutorials with audio/video guidance on the topic. Also, it displays the code and outputs the result while narration.

3.      MIT OpenCourseWare

It is a self-guided course from one of the best technical schools in the United States, MIT.   MIT OpenCourseWare program offers plethora topics to learn about, including hundreds of courses relating to programming, development, mathematics, and computer engineering. So, it is among recommended Web Development courses.

4.      Coursera

Coursera offers a plethora of options from various universities across the world for free and verified certifications for a specific amount. Each course varies a bit in format and timeline, but numerous courses are available for programming, development, and computer science to get a taste.

5.      Mozilla Developer Network

Mozilla is one of the well-known community for the development of Firefox web browser has various resources for developers of all skills levels and expertise through the Mozilla Developer Network. The range of topics is from basic web introductions and front-end languages to a common vocabulary and optimization & performance.

By – Nayni Jain

In today’s world, every individual is afraid of getting fired and laid off. This comprehends in becoming one of the crucial reasons for the people getting attracted to the Startup world. Starting your own business can be tough, there are still some people who believe that businesses are not good enough because it’s too risky, you might go into debt and many more. Despite all this, people are still getting into start-ups. Also, innovation is the driving force of the economy at all levels and in all types of organizations which comes through different start-ups. Entrepreneurial talents are very scarce and represent the most precious human resource of every nation, which is why they should be fully supported. If you are thinking of starting your own Business, Startup Idols gives you some business ideas to successfully accomplish it.

1.      Don’t do it Alone

For a successful start-up, the most important tip that needs to be taken care of is that you should not be starting your Business alone. You need a support system when you are entering your entrepreneurial journey. A family member or friend that you can bounce ideas off and who listens sympathetically would be valuable. Or if you can find yourself a mentor, who can give you some good start-up ideas, that would be even better. When you’re starting your own Business, experienced guidance is the best support system of all. Hence try not to start-up all alone.

2.      Absorb Everything

A very wise start-up tip for when you are starting up with something is to be a sponge. Listen to what friends, family, experts say. Try to write things down. Keep notes from all the resources and make a detailed plan. Do not ignore the advice of the experts and the existing business owners. They know better and can even guide you better. Smart entrepreneurs learn from the mistakes other business owners have made. So, always wide open your ears for the feedback and the experience provided by the people around you.

3.      Do the Research

Before you start up with something, you are required to have sound knowledge in your field and about your product. When you’re starting a business, you need to become an expert in your industry, products, and services. Hence, study well and research well before you present your business ideas in front of the investors. Also, building your confidence, this will help you to deal with all the upcoming challenges. A confident person is a much better entrepreneur than a person with 0 confidence level.

4.      Be a Solution

Commencing a business is about solving problems, start thinking about what will solve and to what extent it’ll solve. It’s a lot easier to gain a solid customer base when your business is fixing a problem. Your start-up should fill a hole in a certain market or niche. Hence, be a solution and fulfill the needs of the customers.

By – Nayni Jain

Entrepreneurship is more than just being your own boss. It is definitely not an escape from a 9-5 job. If you are an entrepreneur, you need to work double because you are the owner of your company and responsible to take it to heights. It’s about that crazy obsession to take on the world, the never giving up attitude, & being smart enough to learn from those who have been down the same lane.

An Entrepreneur is way too often stricken by emotions like fear and anxiety and stress, it sometimes becomes hard to stay focused. Hence, here goes the list of some extremely inspirational books by Indian authors to help stay entrepreneurs motivated and also learn from the mistakes of the other businessman.

1.      “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish” by Rashmi Bansal

This book is by 25 MBAs from IIMA who left lucrative jobs to follow the road of Entrepreneurship. It’s about their dreams, struggles & the journey that they have undergone. Anyone is the entrepreneurial journey should read this.

2.      “The Habit of Winning” by Prakash Iyer

Read this book to blossom the seeds sown in your minds to fine oaks. It has a cluster of success stories, struggle, inspiration for the reader and many more. Altogether it is a self-improvement book for startups, written in simple words.

3.      “You Can Win” by Shiv Khera

This book can boost the confidence of young entrepreneurs, with its self-explanatory tagline – “Winners don’t do different things they do things differently”. The book is an easy read. It has a very common and practical approach that would make any individual think contemporarily.

4.      “Dream with Your Eyes Open” by Ronnie Screwala

He is a man who changed the face of the Indian television with the launch of UTV. From starting up with producing toothbrushes to creating India’s first daily soap, he made quite a number of entries and exits. His journey is a must read for every Entrepreneur.

By – Nayni Jain

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” We often aim to achieve perfection with each piece. It would seem that striving for perfection would be the best way to improve. In our society, making mistakes is like stepping into a hole or going out of bounds etc. Stepping outside the boundaries, where mistakes usually happen is the most crucial part of the journey. You might not be aware of the situations you are going to face you might find a new route, a new way of doing things and many new experiences.

The only time you make a mistake is when you know that it won’t work. You are unnecessarily doing it and stepping into that grey area. That’s when you are making a mistake. But if you are aware of the fact that by changing your tactics slightly.

You try it a little and then you fail, that will not be a mistake then. You were looking for a solution and you went into the unknown, returning back from that step and starting all over again is when you learn how to learn from your mistakes and improve them.

The fear of making mistakes suppresses the creativity and innovation. Some mistakes are tuition well paid assuming you learn from it and apply that lesson to move forward. Making a mistake is part of human nature and you learn about life when you learn from your mistakes. When you see your mistakes as lessons, you’ll lose the fear of making mistakes in the first place. Many life lessons are bittersweet, but they also bring you relief even when you learn it the hard way.

So, never think that making mistakes was a big mistake. It was not you are simply in your learning phase and it will definitely lead to something big. Just keep on working and never think of stepping back.

Most Entrepreneurs are into reading because they are the ones who are aware of the happenings in the world. Majorly they are the ones responsible for bringing new ideas and innovations in the society. Hence to differentiate themselves, they need to constantly have a check as to whether something similar to their idea exists or not. Reading is the part of their journey. Also, being an Entrepreneur and reading about other person’s journey is quite a resource in moving ahead in terms of business. It helps to recover the mistakes which were committed by them.

An Entrepreneur is way too often stricken by emotions like fear and anxiety and stress, that it sometimes becomes hard to stay focused. Hence, here goes the list of some extremely inspirational books to help stay motivated and also learn from the mistakes of the other businessman.

1.      “The Power of Broke” by Daymond John

This book is for anyone looking to crush those excuses for whatever is holding him or her back from success. After reading this books one can bootstrap the way to success can find a reasonable way to grow the empire. The book also explores how other everyday people took a similar approach. For instance, an entrepreneur started a million-dollar cupcake business with the $33 balance in her checking account.

2.      “All In” by Bill Green

Bill Green describes his 40 years of business experience by sharing insights that helped him to build the largest industrial distributions company in the world. It is a must-read.

3.      “Unshakable” by Tony Robbins

It is a compilation of the best of the best.  It pulls knowledge from the top financial minds in the world to create a playbook for financial freedom.

4.      “The Psychology of Selling” by Brian Tracy

Every entrepreneur very well knows that the key to a good business is good sales technique. Not only we sell the product, but also an idea. This book by Brian Tracy gives us the valuable information and strategies about on how to make more selling by focusing on one thing – the person.

By – Nayni Jain