Recession Proof Businesses
There has been so much talk over the last few months referring the market meltdown. To us, my company and team it was like a replay of the dot com bust that happened in 2001. We had just started out and there was the downturn staring us in our face. Getting external funding was out of question. In the last few months i have been asked what our strategy was, now that i look back there was no single strategy but a mix of several tactics. We used our existing resources to create new revenue streams, my design team at one point was creating e greetings for companies, we right sized. I made sure we kept operating from the office, so that the team morale was high! By 2004 channel partnerships began… with websites and later mobile operators. Today Astroyogi is the largest provider of astro vas content to 90% telecom operators in India.
Well more than anything, the decision to go forward and stay focused given that we had no funding was a huge challenge, as the market pundits were saying something very different, and we took a decision to defy logic and stay in the race. We have grown organically till now, and going forward we intend to gain visibility and market share in new markets through global partnerships, and extend ourselves to new technical platforms such as iptv and dth, where we are already doing some work with partners.
We have over 75 partners both internationally and domestically, many of these our major channel partnerships with global players, the remaining are those who have joined our affiliate program. On the VAS side we are tied up with all major telecoms in the country today. The NRI audience forms a large pool of our audience and paid user base, and now with the launches in Southeast Asia, we will have a considerable presence in this part of the world.
Some turn around and say that the business of Astrology is Recession Free! Although we have had a 20-25% jump in requests for career reports since January this year with a large part of that coming from non-resident Indians. It is not just the nature of a business that makes it recession proof or not, it is innovation that that entrepreneurs and the hard work of winning teams that sustain businesses in the dynamic market of today.
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Tags: astrology, free astrology, Meena Kapoor, Mobile VAS, recession, recession india, recession proof business, strategies for success, sustaining a downturn
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