okay, I’m here after 2 months to blog, so what’s really happening ?

Started a new venture named ” Spark16 Design Factory” , which will take care of branding, print & advertising activities. It’s an exclusive hub for brand consulting too. We now have few senior creative directors in the team which at time makes me nervous. The launch of Spark16 design factory went to well and we got excellent feedbacks and few good leads. Inbetween, I was invited to share my Entreprenurship journey in few colleges and I missed out one due to my bad health.

Doctor had strictly advised me to keep an eye on my diet and the timings. I’m struggling hard to maintain it. We are now planning to start our next exciting venture on Coming Aug 15th which will really be the biggest deadline based project that we have ever started. Thats all abt business…Personally, I am sad for my friend Kathir, who is struggling with his mom affected by diabetes.

Wish, His mom is back to normal soon. Have booked a new bike , attended a fashion show for the first time in my life, had a happy trip to kodaikanal, completed the script of my next short film…few shopping…started a facebook page and a group for S16 which is now having 180+ members and 130+ fans, I am amazed on the response we got., thanks to all of them.

24hrs a day isn’t working out

I always feel that I have plenty of time left for all my tasks and in the end I will be forced to sacrifice few . I hate following rules in books so if anyone have a neat and easy idea on ‘how to manage time effectively without dreaming’ , please help .

Will try to write more soon…eagerly waiting for Aug 2010, few more dreams gonna get into reality…

Right from my childhood, my father used to advice me to pusrue my dream, believe in subconscious and most importantly “passion and profession” should be the same if anyone want to succeed in life. Unfortunately, most of the time when he said, I didnt have passion for anything nor a profession. Till today, he keeps a check on my activities by asking : “Vijay, is your passion now your profession ? , are you happy? are you enjoying the job you do, if so no problem, if not, lemme know … ”

wow, wat an awesome character he is….today I can confidently say, Yes !, This is what I like..and most importantly, I do business in the domain I like…but the question here is, what to do If I have more than 1 passion ? or can there be more than 1 passion ? I want to be in the creative field , but even before that I wanted to be in films, scripts, direction etc ! Today, one of my passion is fulfilled but not complete…there is one more. How to puruse that when you are already enjoying the other? should I sacrifice one…? no way, I can’t. Then ? ????????????????? …..

 I will be getting my new laptop this month. S16’s first ever promo video is ready. S16’s theme song is just as good as I wished. My team is really doing a wonderful job. Overflowing orders is breaking my mind . Our new brouchure for this season has satisfied many in the first look and feel. Few more portals is yet to be launched which is under production. I could see a happy energy slowly occupying my labs and as a team we are all fighting to retain this spirit.

As I write this post my inner mind takes me back to 2005 and I could see a very energetic ME passing out from the college with an incomplete degree and dreams to enter into the media. I could see Chennai, Mylapore where I stayed in my aunt’s house.  I was there to search a job. Then many pleasant and unpleasant things happened which taught me several lessons in both business and personal life. There were days when I had felt that its “ALL OVER”, there were days when my eyes opposed to close in the fear of doing business but inspite of all these twists, I followed my instincts. Not all instincts were successful but those which were good made the real difference.

In 2008, S16 was written off. We suffered a huge loss due to several reasons. But today, things are different, everyone around us know this. So, whats really happening ? I asked few of them and here are their replies.

Parents: “According to your horoscope, 2010 to 13 will be a good time for you “

Friends: ” The more you stay in business, the more you win, its all about persistence”

Relatives: ” Still wondering why didnt you get a good job ? “

Well-Wishers: “It’s because of your hard work and creativity”

Different answers from different people but my mind says that ” you are here since you love to be here” and I support that. What do you think ?  its not because of horoscope, maybe because of persistence, doubt whether I work hard and true that I didnt try for a good job , but one thing for sure is that, I like to be in business. I like freedom. I am like that…and thats y I am here.

The particular reason to write this post is …I have got one more new instinct today on which I will be working very soon and If S16 ever goes to the next stage in another 6 months or so…that will be because if this instinct which flashed just few minutes back.

Ciao.

So, yet another Interesting year arrives just to remind us all that we have very limited time to live , achieve and to have fun. So, Ijust want to make some early predictions on my agenda this year. So I am gonna make 5 interesting predictions on two aspects of my life. Business and Personal. Let me see how it shapes up.

2010 Business Predictions

By the end of 2010,

1. S16 will introduce  some mind boggling courses in its Web and Graphic Designing School

2. S16 will laucnch the most exciting portal of Coimbatore in the Educational Sector

3.  S16 will be one of the Top 5 Creative Studios in Coimbatore

4. S16 well be a Debt free company

5. Launch of my research project

2010 Personal Predictions

1. I will have a new two wheeler

2. I Will do an MBA

3. Will Direct a short film

4. Will surprise all my family members with my business growth

5. Should sleep more than 5 hours a day

Chalo..lets c how it goes

Tomorrow is Monday…oh…Appointments, project works, client meets…got bit sick of it and now I am just relaxing in my home , trying to visualise my future , as an advt film maker…as a film director..as an actor..oh ..wow..feels so good. But, where am I now ? Being an entrepreneur for the past 4 years has defntly given me lot of confidence and courage to take my dreams higher. Yes, I dream everyday, I visualise…and for the past 1 month I am getting a new sense of feel that the time has come to move on to my next stage. People around me have started looking me in a different perespective. My secret workouts are paying  off…My Company is roaring with new projects and I have atlast got a grip of a decent creative team who can also work in my absence. So..My next move…. ??????????????????????????????????????? will update shortly.

There has been several discussions, arguments in every web designing firm between the design team and the development especially if a project win accolades. Who is the best ? web designers or the web developers? I have been trying to figure this out for a long time but unfortunately If I reveal what I think, there will be more issues but still I wanna have a hot argument. Let me split my mind into two and lets have a mind outflow.

Developer’s mind :  

I perfectly feel that 70% of the credit in an online project goes to  web developers as they are incharge of bringing out the real business functionality. Design plays only in the first impression and even after that, if the website is not going to bring results, whats the use ?  Web developers are incharge of the logics,  think business and there is no point of comparing web developers with web designers. Moreover, web developers are the people who are being put into deadlines, pressure, all those blah blah blah…just compare all the major portals, all the successfull websites, apps, widgets..where does design come here…its all code..code and only code ! so here we are ..the mighty Web Developers !

Web Designer’s mind:

he he he…here we are, the crazy people on earth.  Just think who is ever going to look a website if it is well designed?  We share 90% of a website’s success by making visitors stay on the website and we try hard to win the first impression which is the base of any successful venture. Are we sharing only 30% ? looks weird. We decide the colours, captions, navigation, even we share the burden of developers in designing the forms, aesthetics everything…and the web developers just code at the back-end. Can you ever imagine a online project without web designers ? We are incharge  of advertising, presentations and only if the brand wins, people are gonna look at what the product does…can web developers imagine a monochrome world ? Colours has to be there!  1+2 = 3 is same everywhere and thats it. But here it is not so..we have millions of colours to play with..we have to squeeze our brain..so web developers…you guys are just following our start ..thats it

Oh my GOD…both my minds are having a tough battle but still…who wins your vote and why ? can anyone give a perfect answer …?????????????????????

Today I am excited for a crazy reason that I have decided to sleep by 11.30 PM. Its been soooo long that I slept so early, I sleep only by 2 or 4 early morning and will be at my office by 9. But today, I felt extremely tired and moreover there were some power fluctuation in my office forcing me to stop all work and wind off. When I came to my house, it looked very different and awkward and I had a feeling that I am wasting my precious time. When I looked at the clock it was 11.30 and I am extremely happy today that I will be sleeping more than 7 hours and will be  fresh and relaxed tomorrow morning.  Ciao

What a great month this has been ! Lot of good news, pleasant surprises, good outings, movies and more fun. At the same time, I experienced some night watchman jobs in my labs by working on few tough projects.  I also want to tell an important information that previously I had written that we are planning to launch our web designing school website on July 16th but its very  unfortunate that I couldnt meet the deadline. The reason is obvious. More clients pouring in …but I know this is not the reason for an Entrepreneur. I always have the name that I am thick and fast in client’s project but a snail when it comes to my own brand. Why is that so ? The reason is passion. Passion towards clients and their business. That doesnt mean that I am not passionate on my brand. I beleive that when my client gets good business, I am sure to get it from them.

I have also lost some good projects since my company is not having an online presence and yes..for the past 3 years. 3 years…Oh..my GOD.

I have also faced some embarassing situation when someone asks my company url in a meeting or in a discussion and I have never feared to skip away by saying the “old designer’s foolish statement” - “Our website is under maintenance and we are working on new look and feel” and escape from the scene.

I dont know whether all the designers in the same field experience the same problem. But I can assure that I am the laziest of all as such. So what shall I promise now ? What commitment shall I give or I think it is better If I make a public promise ? A promise beyond imagination ? yes, Thats a good idea.

I promise : To Launch  both S16 tech and S16 school website on S16’s third anniversary which falls on August 18th,2009.

Its a different kinda of feeling when people admire you, people pat on your back, people appreciate you, people ask you doubts with the belief that they will get the solution but, what it takes to get all those appreciation? , accolades, media glaze , claps etc. This question would hit my mind whenever I go to bed and especially when I recollect all the good times I had. But nothing could I found. Some say I was appreciated becoz of my hard work, some would say that I had talent, some would say that I speak well but I would never get convinced with their answers. Time went on and  today, minutes back, something hit my mind again, the very same question.what it takes to get all those appreciation? and without hesitation my mind punched me an answer which I was convinced, yes, again

what it takes to get all those appreciation?
FAILURES

FAILURES have groomed me into a tough business man

FAILURES have kindled my sub-conscious to sweat it out

FAILURES have driven me crazy to prove something…something crazy enough.

FAILURES has given me an opportunity to learn people and their attitude.

FAILURES has given me loneliness.  In which I utilised  time  to experiment myself to know whom I am and what I am capable of….

Finally Failures is going to gimme success.

Why I am writing this ?

Because, In the past 3 or 4 weeks, I had a chance several young entrepreneurs with fire blazing in their eyes, overflowing enthusiasm and great spirits and I would just like to inform them that,

Mates,

Everyone of you will and should undergo the so called “ENTREPRENEUR’S CURSE” in the early stage of business so that you will be fine tuned into a pakka business man. Do not get afraid of failures, do not get demotivated when somebody lets you down, just understand that the world is a very good place where you always have one more chance to prove till you die. Good luck

Friend’s sister’s marriage, family functions , few worthy orders marked the end of May and I am still wondering where I am heading and what did I do for the past 30 days or so ? However hard I recollect, I couldn’t figure out anything  new or productive which I am supposed to do in May. How dumb of me to have left a month just like that infront of my eyes ? But yes, I enjoyed a lot in May when compared to the rest of the months. Is that a compromise or a lame excuse ?

Well, I dont know, but I am much more relaxed now and I can feel a sigh of relief in my sub-conscious after the unwarranted business break I took in May. So whats the plan for June ? Many!  S16 School’s website is almost complete and we are planning to launch it on June 14. S16’s official website should be launched on July 16.  I know that the coming days would be more challenging, more competitive and I just reassured today in my labs that all my plans are on track.  I also had a quick meeting with my offshore team to finalise our plans for June. And by God’s Grace… June should bring us a Boom.