Not a handout

Hi there. Thanks for taking the time to click on this and (hopefully) sit through all I need to say. My name is Gaurav. And this is my story.

Feel free to look me up on LinkedIN: https://in.linkedin.com/in/gaurav-areng-80101022

It’s always been the road most traveled for me. Nothing out of the ordinary there: Go to a good school – get good grades, get into a good college – Excel, be accepted into a good university – come back with a degree that will all eventually help me land a good job at a good organization that will pay me well and keep me content. I did all that. I even moved away to a city I knew nothing about having landed a pretty good job at a good company after coming back to India. Got to utilize my “Global Marketing” degree! . Obviously, as most of these stories go, I quit my job in pursuit of something “better”. No, disrespect to those who work in my field, but more often than not I just look around thinking how much better I could do what they do. I believe in it and myself that much.

My Plan now, in a nutshell, is to reconnect the now digital aspects of marketing to its older, more traditional roots. To connect the dots that so many seem to have forgotten along the way. To establish and run a brand consultancy and marketing firm unlike what’s currently here, and do it with a select team of some of the most diverse, strategic minds I know. Of course, it’s far more detailed than that, but as I said, it’s the plan in a nutshell. Brands and brand consultancy is in our DNA. It’s in almost everyone’s. It’s the emotion an image or sound or voice brings out in us. What I bring to this team is knowledge and proven track record in all online aspects of branding and marketing.

So I’m sitting and typing this now in a 600sq ft little apartment while this amazing woman I love (pictured above {when we're not stressing over work and making bill due dates}) is whiteboarding ideas that we can flesh out and pitch to would-be clients. All our money utilized in domain acquisition, legal fees, hosting charges, registrations… Basically while we make ends meet with what little we still have saved up post us selling whatever of value we thought we wouldn’t be using anymore.

(one of our many long whiteboard days)

To segue away from what seems rather sad, I don’t want handouts. We don’t want handouts. We want to work and prove ourselves and our ideas. The money I’m sure will eventually find its way to us somehow. It can be asked for and borrowed if ever so required. That said, this isn’t a request for start-up capital. What we need is rather simple and basic. We’re currently a team of three. All possessing a varied skill set that only reaches full potential when brought together. We don’t have laptops that are capable of doing the things we need them to do and that’s basically a game changer in terms of what we want to achieve and establish for ourselves. And that’s about it. With good hardware we’ll have all that we need to go full throttle and really start making a wave in our field.

MY PLAN

• I’m designing a rich website as a face for my brand – this will go live in January 2016
• I will float 3 viable/scalable online business ideas by January 2016
• I am approaching brands across sectors to partner my business ideas, in a co-ownership model

WHAT I DO

I’ve always thought of myself as having been one step ahead. There’s not a breathing moment where I’m not trying to discover something new. The internet has just made the world smaller, brought countries, people, businesses within a second’s reach of each other. Individuals can speak to each other, brands can connect with individuals, brands to connect with brands. Google it. See what I did there? Without even knowing it, we use Google synonymously with the internet. And there’s a reason we do this. It is the best search engine today, our window to know anything. Anything.

Google it. Again, the word ‘search’ is almost extinct.

I’ve spent about 6 years of my life, driving business for companies, online. I realized that my role there was limited. I had intel, plans and strategy for the brand, but often times than not, these plans come to nothing, with the limitations imposed by the organization. At times, you just do what the brand wants. Blindly.

I had my share of this, and couldn’t quite come to terms with settling. Especially when the sky is the limit with what one can do and attain online.

So I decided to quit my job and put together a strategy to help brands, one at a time.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

Again, as I mentioned, I don’t want this to only be out of charity. I want to work. We all do. So I’d rather you out there think of it as a fee for services I can deliver. I know it would make more sense if you’re part of organizations, but this is what I do – well.

We provide a range of services; from website design and creation to brochure design. SEO, content marketing, social media management; the works. Think of helping us as hiring us for our services, for cheap. I’ll also attach images here of other sources’ rate cards for some of the global benchmarks. We’re prepared to work the same and many more out for you as a one-time offer depending upon the support we receive and what you need.

And if you can’t help out right here right now, that’s okay, too. Feel free to get in touch for any work that you may have and we’ll be more than happy to help out in any way we can.

WHY I’M HERE

As I mentioned, I have big plans. Now, I am aware that what I’m asking for is not that grand, and not to be used to create and produce a product that will help purify water in Africa or anything remotely as great. But I want to get to work doing something I know I’m good at, at a scale no one organization can provide for me. That’s all. Plans that will help me help brands create interesting/engaging conversations with customers and like-minded brands.

I’m limited by the resources – which are pretty basic in nature.

My partners and I need 3 professional computers with advanced design software to get started with our dream. Thanks to your contribution and belief in us, we can get on track quicker. We have everything we need to get started in place except for the most basic of hardware. This will really help us take off and begin billing hours of work. We can finally get to move back home and set up a little office, hire some more like minded folk to work with us, pick up more technical client requirements. The plan and roadmap is all there – We just want to get started.

Thank you, again, if you managed to get this far.