7 Tips and Confessions of CoE E-Commerce

CoE E-Commerce, our CoE event focused on the E-Commerce sector, concluded yesterday after a second day jam-packed with "Wamdat" talks and panels addressing the biggest issues facing e-commerce today. 

At your e-commerce startups, you might now want to: 

1) Negotiate for lower payment gateway fees.

In the first panel, "Show me the Money, Part 1: Is Online Payment a Solved Issue?" panelists addressed the region's struggles with payment gateways.

The GCC is a $5 billion industry for online transactions, said Stephen Leeds of Visa. According to a survey by Souq, 90% of customers in the UAE according to survey feel comfortable buying online, said Ronaldo, CEO of Souq.com. But most of them prefer cash on delivery to credit cards or prepaid credit card solutions like those that CashU offers. 

2) Target the Jordanian market.

Before announcing Iyad Kamal handed out some great statistics on e-commerce that build upon data:

TOP 10 INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FOR ENTREPRENEURS

TOP 10 INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FOR ENTREPRENEURS   

A good way to motivate
yourself is to read
and learn from successful entrepreneurs
and business people.

#1: Steve Jobs, Apple

"Believe that things will work somehow out... follow your intuition and curiosity... trust your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path... You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future... The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it... Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else

is secondary."

#2: Oprah Winfrey, Harpo

"What I know for sure is that if you want to have success, you

can't make success your goal. The key is not to worry about being

successful, but to instead work toward being significant - and the

success will naturally follow... If you do work that you love, and

work that fulfills you, the rest will come. And, I truly believe,

that the reason I've been able to be so financially successful is

because my focus has never, ever for one minute been money. Would

you do your job and not be paid for it? I would do this job, and

take on a second job just to make ends meet if nobody paid me.

That's how you know you are doing the right thing."

Team Work

Team Work And Team Building

Man is a social being thus he needs to interact with people. Almost every individual has experienced, in one way or another, how it is to work in a group - from his childhood games to wherever he is now earning his living. Unfortunately, not every group succeeds in its objectives or goals. Failure is a possible consequence whenever we get into a challenge. However, we can always avoid this much dreaded "failure" if every member of a group would not fail to use or exercise TEAMWORK. Yes, every group of people must not only work as a GROUP

 T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K 

T is for Talent

By talent, I mean a person's knowledge or capabilities. It is of course quite necessary for a member of a team to be knowledgeable about the work that his team is going to do. Where can these knowledge be gained? Knowledge can explicitly be learned from some useful handbooks on whatever you are working on. However, implicit knowledge - that which is acquired through experience and practice, is found to be much more useful.

E is for Enthusiasm

But as we will later realize, talent alone is not enough. A knowledgeable team member must also be enthusiastic. He must seek responsibility, he must find ways to make the talents he has useful. He must always have the energy and the drive to work. Eventually, this enthusiasm will naturally come out of him and he will realize that his example becomes so inspiring and motivating enough for his other teammates to work - without him asking them any demands.

Start up for an entrepreneur

Great Businesses Don't Start With a Plan

Stop Making Plans;
Start Making Decisions

What are your steps to start your business !! Okay

Number one , start with the business model canvas , 

Number two , make the business plan and you ....

NO NO NO !!

Number one , start with the business model canvas , 

Number two , make the business plan

Okay !

So don't worry too much about a business plan. But to guide your thinking, improve a pitch to prospective investors, or better align your teams, consider these design points:

1. Identify and clearly articulate your Heart and purpose. 

Whether you want to call it vision, Heart, purpose or calling, be very clear on the why of a business — the bigger goal at hand.

2. The team is more important than any idea or plan. 

The top three priorities should be people, followed by people, and then people.

3. Think big, start small, then scale or fail fast. 

Per Lederhausen's advice, set the right first "start small" milestone; it will usually involve seeing people's willingness to buy or at least try your product.

4. Focus on a well-defined market sub-segment or niche. 

At least to start, think of where you can potentially be the best. This strategy is almost always more successful than being just another player in a massive market.

5. Understand your business model.

 How you will make money is more important than pages of Excel showing financials that are simply too hard to predict at this early stage anyway. Understand instead the basic way you will make money - is it through transactions, advertising, subscriptions, etc?