Few Business Lessons From A Stay-At-Home Life

Last few months have been challenging for the world at large. While on one hand a looming threat and uncertainty around how the virus impacts life at a personal and economic level has been uppermost for most of us, an almost enforced cooping up at one’s home has also had effects on myriad levels. Work from home has, and likely will, be the norm for months on end now. Challenging while it has been to juggle household chores and work life seamlessly from an almost overnight basis, it has also given a much-needed family face time to many individuals. Those who erstwhile had a travel-intensive job, like consulting, sales, and such, have felt this more conspicuously.

I had the fortune of being closely in touch with my parents over last few months. At work place, new ideas are oft times facilitated over informal chats, tea time talks, as also the formalized business discussions. That aspect is one area that folks might sorely miss in their work from home stints (video discussions to me can’t replace the personal warmth of an in-person chat!). My mom does a lot of private tuition at home. She teaches English language and literature, starting junior classes to Masters. She taught earlier with a few renowned schools at Kolkata, headed her Department in a couple of stints, and now has relegated her work to at-home tuitions. I happened to observe a few aspects from her coaching, that to me, apply so very well to a larger corporation. Hence, I dedicate today’s article to all the proud moms, wherever they are, because multi-tasking as a concept could not have had a better exemplification than what they do on a regular basis – so very efficiently at that.

A few aspects of her private tuition job, the way she conducts it, and stark similarities to bigger and global brands that we find all around us, could not escape my eyes. Here they are –

1. Nothing works better than a good product – My mom is technology and social media unsavvy, to the extent that I many a time had to google out things on her smartphone when she needed any information. I have, of course in utter vain, tried to convince her to have some social media presence in FB, and promote her classes. Her students have consistently aced English language results in Board exams (X, XII), and all I wanted was to communicate that out to others. Her consistent reply has been, if students come, they will come by knowing from others - why publicize on internet. Well, my best consulting skills have failed this time, I must admit, to convince her on this.

Its surprising that even without any such effort, her student base has consistently YoY increased. If we switch gears now to Marketing, we have a case here where there is neither Outbound marketing (no pamphlets, no local newspaper ads, no handouts to students coming out of schools, and the likes), as also no Inbound (no blogs featuring the importance of English as a language with a tacit aim to entice students, etc.). Yet, a steady rise in customer (student) base.

One consistent feedback from her students has been, her teaching style, materials she distributes, periodic examinations, and a wealth of teaching experience leading to pointed suggestions before exams have helped them a lot. Nothing – simply nothing – sells better than a good product (or service).

2. Power of Advocacy – Without any social media presence, push advertisements, or any such thing, the only way mom has increased her student base is through word-of-mouth. It was fascinating to me when I found out, that almost 90% of her students every year have come from a referral of any earlier student (some of whom are by now successful in their own professions.)

Well now, if we switch gears to Marketing, the classic Sales funnel talks about steps in the sales process like Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Purchase, Post-purchase, Advocacy. While often times an undue stress is laid on the first few steps (and rightfully so), a brand should never discount the power of Advocacy. Repeat customers after all have a much lower cost implication to the firm over new acquisitions.

3. An eye to CLV – Customer Lifetime Value is of paramount importance to any firm. I learnt that most of mom’s students would start around Class 5 or 6, and a chunk of them would end no earlier than a Bachelor’s (in some cases a Master’s). Her unwitting application of CLV for each student has been rewarding. Now, ‘Catch ‘em Young’ is a name I suggested she may give her Tuition classes!

4. Brand humility – The feedback that mom has cherished the most from her students is,they look up to her more as a guardian and mentor, than an English language teacher. She has many a time split up her batch into 2 categories of students – relatively strong and weak, and though her effort would be doubled, she has conducted the same class twice over – tweaking her teaching approach per each batch.

I was startled to find on occasions, parents requesting her to allow a month of time to pay up, and she smilingly agreed. Well, not that I am advocating the same to firms, or else their Collections team would crib on me for a rising Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) ratio! But, the moot point remains – brands should have deep rooted humility in their proposition and communication. It pays.

5. Societal impact - For every batch that mom teaches, there is on an average 15 – 20% students whom she teaches for free, or at a great discount, due to their economic status. Her general tuition fees are at least 30 – 40% lower than what her peer group charges, and she is content with that. It was my persistent effort that saw her (forcibly) increase fees for some higher and college classes, but she did that with a grudge!

‘Triple bottom line’ for firms has been the discussion point for years now. While businesses exist to generate profit for their shareholders, an eye to Society and Environment alike are important too. The plough back effect of the consequent goodwill generated among investor, customer, supplier, and employee community is immense.

Nuggets of business intelligence come by oft times from your day to day interactions. In my case, I had the good fortune of reflecting on the above areas watching my mom conduct her teaching – and a backslap kudos to the Lockdown period for that! Will be penning my next article shortly on another interesting topic around the New normal – a Digital ‘contactless economy’ – shortly. Stay tuned! And till then, Stay Healthy, Stay Safe all.