The start-up industry is mushrooming each day and is doing much good for people who are passionate and want to stand out of the herd mentality of working from 9-5 and create their own business enterprise, a dedicated team and a customized set of products and services.

As an investor in such companies, you can get to feel the experience both at a personal and a professional level as you get to be an effective contributor towards creating more jobs, promoting a better employment scenario, and offering hope to have a base for capital investments.

Though there are percentages and limits up to which you should invest, the first funding preference for any start-up companies is friends and family and acquaintances as well. So, lesser people look forward to professional investors.

However, there are many start-up companies that have done good with the help of an investor and incubation centres, be it Toppr (a start-up to help with entrance exams) or Instamojo (an e-commerce initiative). Also, with PM Modi’s plans to start 500 incubation centres to help micro, small and medium enterprises, the investing market is bound to grow exponentially.

Here are certain facts you must check – How to invest in start up companies

Research about the business owners

Since the company has not made its mark in the market yet, it is the people behind the company who are and who should be the most important factors behind deciding of or not to invest in the company. Consider researching the educational and work background of the company founders to know more about their skills, knowledge and how well they will be able to sustain themselves in the growing start-up market.

Invest in multiple and different start-up avenues

Even if one company you invest in does not make good, and you invest in diverse businesses, you will sooner or later gain success through one of these mediums. First-time investors need to understand which kind of companies do better and so cracking more than one deals is always helpful.

Find out which field interests you more and also its growing prospects before investing

Just as reading all documents carefully before investing is necessary, similarly knowing which particular domain will fetch more growth in the near future by studying other company’s growth rates and understanding the market scenario better is also something as essential. A field that you are already interested in and know that it can rise to greater heights as seen with past examples, can give you better money back guarantee.

Finding out more about the start-up market scenario

Know about the competitors of the company you are planning to invest in and also how the company is equipped to compete with its competitors or is it an edge above them. Also, researching whether the company you are investing it has a large enough market to sell its products and/or services as well as what the company primarily deals in and is concerned about should be your lookout. The client’s feedback is as necessary to know for you as it is for the company founders and employees themselves.

Scrutinizing how the company has made use or is making use of the funds it gets

You as an investor have all the authority to know the strategies of the company and its motives behind using the fund that it is raising through you. Also, take a note of the salary amount each employee gets and the owner himself/herself earns through this business. Before thinking of increasing or decreasing the amount of funding, you should make a count of how much the company would need to grow their business keeping apart the cost of the products/services and the salary amounts.

Check how legal the company is

Last but not the least, it is mandatory to check the company’s legal documents and all the agreements that the company has signed so far and with whom. Check if all the documents are authentic or make your lawyer check that, rather and know about the infrastructure and how many shares of the company you own according to the legal agreements.

Finding out whether or not the company is likely to pay all its debts and loans and the money you invest in them is your absolute right and duty as well. The company you invest in should have the potential to grow and be useful to the customers it claims to provide products/services for. It is better to take precautions beforehand rather than curing yourself for the loss later.

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Traits of a cancer man – A Cancer man can be reckoned upon for their unflinching devotion for you.

So, in case you are looking for a domesticized husband material, a Cancer man is your sure go-to. He will have your back constantly whenever you need it being your mainstay in the toughest of hours.

Not for the sake of saying, he likes to stay at home, take care of the children and patiently support you in your chosen career.

Cancer men are believed to have the deepest understanding of love and they make the most devoted partners to say the least. A Cancer man is insightfully romantic and sentimental and will not forget any detail about you ranging from your birthday to anniversary.

You just need to make him feel loved, wanted and give all your warmth, he will be bound with you forever.

Traits of a cancer man –

1. How he makes a good partner:

If you marry a Cancer man, you will feel that you are living with your mother again because they have strong maternal instincts. He keeps his things arranged because he is a natural born homebody. His home is a safe refuge for him where he finds the personal security.

2. He is faithful:

He is not a philanderer and home bound. Family comes first to him and their minds are conditioned for long-term relationships. All he wants to find a soulmate with whom he can start a family and he will move heaven and earth to make the relationship prosper. No matter how tough it gets.

3. He is a doting father:

A cancer man will take serious interest in raising the child. He will take active participation in taking care of you through your pregnancy and will execute hands-on approach to raise his children.

4. He will take you seriously:

He is the best man to open up before about your dreams and aspirations. He will put his best feet forward to help you. He is highly intuitive, loving and gentle and will provide you emotional support always.

5. Sex is really dynamic with Cancer men:

Cancer man can have his mood swings sometimes so sex can be really dynamic with him. You need to be in-tune with him and he will be flexible to explore various love making styles. His romanticism is unmatched and he is pretty well behaved and brings the emotional intensity while making love.

6. He will introduce you with his family:

Once he is sure that you are the love of his life he will make no delays to take the relationship to the next level. He will introduce you to his family and make every effort to make you feel special.

These are the characteristic traits of a Cancer man that makes him stand out from other signs in the zodiac calendar. A Cancer man is a keeper.

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Friendship in the workplace – Making friends in the workplace is not a cakewalk.

In fact, there is a saying that colleagues can never be friends. Besides, there are trust issues too. You never know who is plotting behind your back, making mountains out of molehills, leading your words through the rumour mill, leading your image astray.

Mostly, office friendships thrive on idle gossips, sharing food, catching up for parties, covering each other’s shifts. These professional friendships have an enriching effect on our life and make the day at work less stressful.

However, in this bitter sweet symphony of professional life friendship, one needs to maintain the balance.

Friendship in the workplace –

1. Try and avoid the gossip:

This is the thumb rule of making friendships prosper at the workplace. You need to steer clear of the idle gossip that hovers in the office. If it starts with gossiping, then don’t expect it to stretch too far.

2. Try and be kind to all:

You may nurture a bias towards some colleagues but don’t let the other lot figure out your inclination. You need to be in talking terms with everyone, especially when you are given a group task, act normally so that others don’t get the idea that you dislike them deliberately.

3. Don’t be too partial:

There are always shortcomings of being friends with the office colleagues. You need to be straightforward but not rude. You should not let your personal problems influence your administrative decisions. We tend to take wrong decisions under bias which is not advisable.

4. Don’t spend too much time on trying to please others:

If you spend too much time trying to please them, you will end up in self-doubt. No one is a saint so judge everyone before proceeding. You may gel well with someone at work but only spending balanced amount of time is advisable.

5. Be a little secretive:

There should be a thin line between sharing and oversharing. This is a skill that you should master in order not make a laughing stock of yourself in the office. No matter how close to the person you are, you should be sharing limited amount of information regarding your lives and also make sure both are doing that in equal measure. Suppose, you are aware of some piece of information that might tarnish someone else’s image, you should be tight-lipped about it to the other colleagues whom you supposedly think your friend.

6. Weigh their movies:

You should judge people a lot to get your head around their motives. May be the benevolence they show is their way of exhausting some information out of you. Steer clear of these kinds of friendships.

7. Your boundaries should not be blurry:

If you are too friendly with a colleague, you will not be able to be upfront about her errors. You need to draw the line before digging too deep in the friendship otherwise there will be ample room for misunderstandings.

These are the ways to handle friendship in the workplace – So, these are the ways you can make friends in the office space and yet manage a good professional image.

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GenX needs a lot when it comes to recreation and rejuvenation!

They are demanding newer avenues. They are asking for more and more.

The usual, eating business may have the nerve of youth with various urban pubs and restaurants, but with the rising imbalance in the nation’s economy, it is becoming challenging for the youth too, to maintain the kind of lifestyle they want.

Sophisticated, happening, youthful, modern and upbeat, and yet low cost eateries are the need of the hour for the youth today.

Yet, there are many factors enveloping the idea of a successful eatery.

We all know that, with the rise in lifestyle choices, Competition is fierce in the restaurant business. Making a small restaurant profitable amid an economic downturn and national decline in dining out is a challenge. Even for a small eatery, creating efficiencies in the operations, marketing and management are the keys to generating revenue. Profitable small eatery owners asses their businesses frequently, then implement strategies to continually drive downs costs and increase customer satisfaction.

Here are 5 imperative factors that affect the food business for small eatery for genX and how one can control them, if they want to make it a good business idea:

1. Streamlining The Operations

It is important to streamline the operations if you really want to make it a profitable business. Overhead expenses like food, supplies and payroll must be evaluated weekly to ensure maximum output and minimum waste. Also, the point to be noted is that the first-in-first-out, or FIFO, system cuts the cost of perishable goods by using a rotation system in which older food is used first to curb waste. A closely monitored payroll helps plan staffing needs and reduces costs by eliminating unnecessary work hours. Keeping track of profit and loss through accurate accounting is paramount to operational success. Successful owners access their performance trends regularly, making necessary changes to generate profit. If you wish to own and run a profit making eatery for GenX, make sure you comply with this.

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Virtual offices provide communication and address services without providing dedicated office space.

Now start ups can have an office without breaking banks as virtual office concept have come to their rescue. Virtual business center has all the amenities like a regular office.

It proffers scores of benefits and that’s why these offices are becoming more popular day by day. The pre-requisites of virtual organization enable businesses to work remotely with all the required amenities and services.

Here are 6 significant reasons why SMEs should opt for virtual office spaces.

1. No need to buy/ rent physical office:

Why to lease or buy when you can have a virtual firm. It’s best for those who cannot afford to have a dedicated office. With a virtual office, you are charged according to your exact needs and usage. You don’t have to cough up a big sum for security deposit or to pay hefty rental charges.

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In the current era, where globalisation seems to be the only awake of the times, societies and economies, it is harder for entrepreneurs to not to recognise the business potentials overseas, in various other countries other than their resident country.

Are you an entrepreneur?

Do you have expansion plans?

Do you see overseas grounds as your potential business-playgrounds?

Is there something which is stopping you from setting up shop across the globe and beginning a plan for world sales domination?

If you have answered all the above questions in an affirmative, then you must read on, because by the end of this article, you will have your answers, at least I can hope so.

Well, today, in the era of ever increasing demands and flourishing markets,  globalization is one of the most sane decisions for the businesses to undergo. For ever-present multinational corporations, entrepreneurial initiatives, single level startups or any other trade,  this is the time to score on the opportunities being offered on the global commerce plate. Since, there are so many who did not flourish, only for the reason that they failed to capture an audience in the international markets.

Today small businesses as well as large corporations can reap the benefits of expanding operations into overseas markets.

Here are substantial reasons for the entrepreneurs to expand your business Overseas markets to reap the utmost returns.

Many Markets Remain Untapped For Various Businesses

If you are running a business that offers products or services that are not available in certain parts of the world, yet are in high demand. By expanding your operation into these markets, you can establish a new base of eager customers without the immediate threat of competition. The government of that nation may make things a little easier for you by offering certain incentives for setting up a business operation, simply for the reason that you are offering something new, and something which is imperative. You will also be providing a boost to the nation’s economy and bridging two nations on commercial grounds. And come to think of it, you may also, create some employment opportunities in the country. Make sure you make a research on the business grounds and choose your destination sensibly.

Favourable Business Climates Must Be Explored

Once you explore, you might become aware that another country might be offering more favourable economic conditions than your home country,  and better returns too. When recession or the implementation of restrictive government policies make turning a profit more difficult, expanding into an area that doesn’t currently pose these challenges can offer a more lucrative alternative. A new nation may offer an economic climate that is more “business-friendly,” offering advantages such as lower taxation or fewer environmental regulations.

Greater Exposure Brings Greater Benefits and Returns

It goes without saying that overseas expansion of entrepreneurial businesses,  increases the exposure to the business, helping them to create a larger “global footprint”. Which, of course, in turn, builds a better brand for the business, bring escalated recognition and larger profits, thereof. This, also, will facilitate even greater expansion in the future. For the experiences once gained, are never a waste when it’s about business. You also can attain greater respect from customers and potential business partners in the domestic market, as they may now view you as a bigger player in your industry.

Business Rejuvenation Happens Instantly

Well, lastly, I would like to add, that In addition to all the up-sides that an overseas expansion has to offer to a a thriving business, entering overseas markets, holds a lot of potential to help revive a struggling enterprise. For instance, businesses operating in a saturated market, or experiencing a shrinking market share can definitely find newer vistas for their products and services in an untapped country. Moreover, if your business is suffering  dead-end due to short supplies of certain amenities or manpower, you have chances to find those in a different country altogether. Again, putting a thorough research, before choosing the destination will help a great deal.

Being an entrepreneur and a business person myself, I am exploring the options of spreading my wings in the countries that can offer me productive grounds to set-up my anchors. And hence, the little informative that I shared here.

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Starting a venture, may be easy, but scaling it up, is the most difficult part.

Statistically an overwhelming majority of startups in India shut shops because they fail to scale up. And the reasons could be varied.

A survey was conducted by a reputed statistical data company to find out the reasons behind a huge number of Startups In India Fail in a few months of launch.

The primary 5 reasons that surfaced are listed here:

1.  Lack of Adequate Capital

We all know that “Cash is King”, and every business runs on cash.

Most business owners in India, who happen to be young enthusiasts, start a business not pre-planning the funding requirements necessary to:

• Obtain Key Infrastructure Such As: Manpower And Equipment By Inception;

And

• Have Sufficient Cash Flow To Fund The Day-To-Day Operations.

The lack of foresight to see and obtain the capital requirements of the business, goes hand in hand with the fact that the most unsuccessful business owners simply have no business plan at all, which becomes one of the key reasons for startup failure.

Having only 95% of the necessary capital to start your business is not enough. You need 100%. At least for first 6 months, or till the expected revenue cycle starts to roll.

Small home-based businesses obviously need less capital than a restaurant or air freight transport company.

2.  Expansion Plans Too Soon

It is very easy for a business owner to think that because of a few “early day successes” that they have nailed their product mix sufficient to expand to a new office, factory, warehouse, geographical location, or some other superfluous area. And that becomes the biggest factor that throws them flat on their face. In a country like India, beliefs, needs and thought processes of the consumers change almost every day, and also at a distance of few kilometers.

Expansion needs to be thought through, fully costed and properly funded.

Expansion also requires infrastructure, not only from a plant and equipment perspective, but also from a manpower perspective too.

Do you have the right team to manage the expansion? Is your team trained to handle the rapid growth as you achieve scale?

Some of the most tragic and failed startup expansions are where a business that has yet to get their business model right in the location they originally founded, all of a sudden expands their business into another geographic location that stretches logistic capabilities and dramatically increases overhead expenditure.

3.  Debt Funding Being the Key Support

“A man in debt is so far a slave”. – said Ralph Waldo Emerson

As soon as a loan is drawn down to start a business, a loan which is most likely secured against the family home or other collaterals, you are on the ‘debt clock‘. Debt payments are now cemented in time and you need your business to get to the Break-Even Point (BEP) as fast as possible. Not achieving your BEP or, not achieving your ‘critical mass’ (some people prefer to use the term ‘scale’) in time, may mean further borrowings to keep your startup afloat. And that is the gruesome mistake startup owners make. In India, banks and local money landers capitalise on such business ideas and startup aspirants.

And then the second obvious place to obtain further funding in India, especially for young brigade, are from personal credit cards. Then there are the family members, your best friend in the whole world (at least when they are getting their money back), and so on and so forth, until you have no further capacity to borrow and interest repayments kill your precious cash-flow.

Too many times, a failed startup is a result of unpaid debts!

4.  Inappropriate or Poor Strategic Management of The Business

“Hope is not a strategy”. – said Rudy Giuliani

A person who is great at their trade craft (say, writers, artists, builders, accountants, chefs, etc.) aspires to have a business in the same line, hoping that they will excel in that too. “Arey mujhe mera kaam aata hai, main business bhi handle kar loonga!” That of course is a typical Indian mentality to a great extent. The case mostly is, that they are great (if not fantastic) at their particular trade, but, they are not groomed nor educated for business. Business is its own wild animal. One wrong move and it can eat you alive.

In India, the government today, or the education ministry, still do not instil a “business owner test” to those wishing to start their own business. There has to be some aptitude testing for people who are willing to open startups on their own.

People becoming entrepreneurs are not necessarily equipped with all the strategic planning and core competency to handle a business. Only enthusiasm and knowledge of the craft doesn’t really help.

Knowing how to operate as a worker within a business is not equal to knowing how to run that business! And that has to be understood well.

5.  Absence Of A Foolproof Business Plan

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. – said Benjamin Franklin

Most failed business owners showcase a common reason that they stopped planning at the Concept Stage, and relied on the day to day goals.

When we plan a holiday, we plan it so meticulously. Each day, each moment is planned to the T, until the return date. Why not use the same mantra for your business?

Asking some imperative questions while planning is very important.

• Why are you in business?
• What needs are you satisfying?
• Why has it not been done before?
• Why can you deliver a better result than your competition?
• How will you obtain your ‘first mover advantage’?
• What is your goal in the business?
• What will keep fueling it with new ideas and funds for next 10 years.

Planning your business forces you to seriously think about all areas of your business and not just the fluffy parts of your business like “sales” or “ profit“.

Meticulous details like: operations, employee ramp-up, funding, financial forecasting and logistics are the must areas that need to be considered.

All said and done, you should be reading this article only if you want to give yourself a fighting chance.

Or else, you can leave your business concept on the napkin you used at the local bar or become a part of the Indian startup list that have bitten dust after a few months of launch!

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Do you like to be outside or on the computer?

Do you like to make things or fix things?

Do you like to hang out with animals or kids?

Don’t get agitated answering these questions for us. We are asking for a reason, pal!

The idea is clear here dude, whatever you like to do, you can build a business out of it! And that’s totally, absolutely possible!

To help you get a feel for the world of possibilities awaiting you, we’ve selected 6 amazingly low cost or no cost Home Business Ideas that are meant for young and exciting people, brimming with energy!

You have to decide whether you are are YOUNG, or EXCITED, or BRIMMIMG WITH ENERGY! Any category you fall in, this is for you.

Now, let’s get started!

1.  PERSONALISED CLEANING SERVICE

If you are cleanliness freak and love to keep everything around you neat and tidy, there are many who would love to hire you! There are people who have money, but no time and inclination to clean and organise things around them! That’s where you fit in.

There are many directions you can take this business. If you want to work during hours when no one else does, you can focus on office goers and restaurants. Restaurants are in great need of daily thorough cleaning and can be a great source of steady clients. Perhaps you would be more interested in house cleaning. Many times with cleaning services you don’t have to spend lots of money on advertising or marketing because your customers will come by word of mouth.

2.  HOME BASED TRAINING CENTRE

You know computer graphics. Or you are a pro cook. Or still better, you have a very creative hand in sketching and painting!

All these skills and much more can be taught to others, especially school students, from a small home based coaching centre, with the minimum investment of money! Trust us, there a lot of people out there, who want to learn a lot, but getting enrolled to professional and high priced institutions is something they just cannot afford!

Make good use of this opportunity and bring your skills to work for them.

3.  COLOURFUL FLEA MARKET

Books, jewellery, artefacts, kitchen stuff and much more on sale!

Make a round of your own stuff and that of your friends and relatives. There would be a lot going unused, yet absolutely saleable. Buy at cheaper prices.

People love to spend weekends rummaging through tables full of other people’s unwanted items, looking for treasures. Make sure to change your layout and put new stuff out for sale often. You want people to come back time and again to see what’s new. You don’t even have to have that much new stuff to make things look new. Just moving an item from a table to the top of a bookshelf might get it noticed, even though the item has been in your inventory since you first started having sales.

4.  DOOR TO DOOR BEAUTY AND SPA SERVICE

Many professionals do not have time to go for personal grooming. On weekends, they prefer to relax at home without leaving the comfort of their own bed! Yet, they crave for that good massage session, a pedicure, a head-champi or a perfect manicure for an upcoming party!

You have to capitalise on this thought!

Make a team of professional beauticians for men and women and start advertising your PROFESSIONAL GROOMING DOOR TO DOOR BUSINESS!

Perfectly suited for housewives and busy professionals alike.

With a minimum investment in the basic equipment and some marketing budget in the local yellow-papers and directory websites will land you instant clientele.

Make sure your services are world-class and do not compromise on the quality and professionalism, so that your impeccable reputation travels far and wide. This business has handsome chances of expansion.

5. BABYSITTING, PET SITTING RUNNING ERRANDS & MORE

5a) Babysitting

For decades babysitting has been a steadfast way for young adults to earn extra money. Many parents find it very difficult to find dependable babysitters. So if you’re reliable and do a good job, you can be guaranteed babysitting work for many years and a ton of referral business when your customers start telling their friends about you. Babysitting can also really pay off monetarily, especially during peak holiday times such as New Year’s, Diwali and Christmas, when you can easily charge Rs. 500 per hour. You can even charge more if you are willing to also do light housekeeping duties such as laundry and cleaning. Start in your own neighbourhood and deliver fliers promoting your service; it will probably only take a day two for the calls from eager parents to start rolling in. I would also suggest that take a first aid training course, as this will make a positive impression on nervous parents and give you the ability to handle an emergency should it happen.

5b) Pet Sitting and Pet Walking

Lots of people have dogs, cats, birds and other types of pets that are not suited to be boarded at kennels or left with friends or family when the need arises, such as pets with chronic health conditions or exotic pets for whom finding suitable boarding is difficult. Likewise, many people prefer to have their pets stay in the safety and familiar surroundings of home, as opposed to an unfamiliar boarding environment. When these pet owners are away from home there is only one available solution, hire a pet sitter to come to their homes to care for their beloved pets while they are away. Sometimes this means having to stay with pets overnight or for even longer periods of time, but for the most part, you can simply check in on the pets two to three times per day (before and after school, and again at night) to feed them, walk them, and provide companionship.

Market your pet-sitting services by talking to neighbours, and through pet-related businesses in your community, such as veterinarians, pet food retailers, dog trainers, dog walkers, and pet grooming services. Remember that many people also hire pet sitters for short periods of time–a weekend away, a night out, or time off for family events. Therefore, you will need to develop a fee schedule for both long- and short-term pet-sitting jobs.

5c) Running Daily Errands

Let’s face it, today’s busy lifestyles in metro cities, means that many working folks don’t have time for even the simplest of errands. Which is great news if you’re a multitasker looking to start your own simple, inexpensive, yet potentially very profitable part-time business. An Errand Service involves doing things like picking up groceries or taking the family member to the doctor for a routine checkup. It can be operated with nothing more than a cell phone and reliable transportation. Land clients by creating a simple marketing brochure explaining the services you provide along with your contact information. The brochures can be hand delivered to homes and businesses, and distributed with the local newspaper. A few promotional items such as pens and memo pads emblazoned with your business logo, name and telephone number given out to current and potential customers will go a long way as a gentle reminder of your fast, reliable and affordable errand services. This is the kind of business where growth is fuelled by referrals, so customer service and satisfaction are the most important goals.

Also, you will have to build a striking rapport with your clients for above three personalised services, as your customer’s trust that you will win from them, will go a long way in your career!

6.  MAKE AND SELL CREATIVE ART JEWELRY

If you are creative with ideas and love fashion, this one is totally for you!

Art Jewelry is a catchphrase covering all nonprecious stone jewellery. Art jewellery can be created from many kinds of raw materials individually or in combination, including metals, plastics, stones, ceramics, fabrics, bone and shell, and exotic hardwoods and softwoods. And you can even incorporate some precious stones and materials such as silver and turquoise into your designs. The basic skills and knowledge you’ll need to learn can include mould making, casting, soldering, polishing, gem and stone cutting, and setting. But don’t worry because there are art jewellery classes taught in every small town and big city across the nation. There are also a multitude of books and videos available on the subject of art jewellery making, and with practice, the learning curve is short.

Once you’re producing art jewellery, it can be sold to or consigned with fashion, jewellery and gift retailers, and art galleries, or sold wholesale to retailers at discounted prices. You can also sell to friends and family; on weekends at flea markets, craft shows and mall kiosks; and online through eCommerce websites and internet malls. Art jewellery making equipment and supplies are easy to find online.

So folks, these are some of the ideas that can work perfectly for you if you an energetic and smiling person.

If you want more ideas, or any kind of guidance on small businesses, you can always write to us.

We are happy to help.

Make your choice and start with your own business, right away!

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It’s hard to dream new dreams!

We all wish to be great thinkers and bold visionaries, and achieve great things like big business moguls, but how many of us are actually able to do that?

And that’s pretty much OK, because while you and I might never come up with the next big thing, but if at all we to think – and act – a little differently than other people… we may in the process achieve differently than other people.

Can’t make a head or tail of what I am rambling about?

Fret not! I will make myself a bit clearer to you.

I am listing here a few thoughts, which if you are able to eliminate from your thinking and vision, can bring you greater success, in almost everything you pick.

#1:  “I Never Get The Right Opportunities.” (Absolutely Disastrous) 

Hey, join the (very, very large) club. No matter how it looks from the outside, no one is GIVEN the opportunities they deserve. Opportunities are earned. You have to have the skills, the calibre, the expertise, or as a fact of the matter, the hardworking Matel to suck the opportunities. And my friend even if someone else did get an opportunity you feel you deserved, you can’t change that fact… so why dwell on it? Walk ahead and look for yours and grab it!

And I would like to add here, in today’s ever growing commercial and business oriented world, access to opportunity is nearly unlimited. You can connect with almost everyone through social media. You can create and sell your own products, develop and distribute your own applications, find your own funding, and build your own team. You don’t need to wait for someone else to give you the opportunity. You can give yourself the opportunity – which, by the way, is what successful people have done for centuries. The only thing holding you back from seizing an opportunity is you and your willingness to try.

Crux: Don’t worry about the opportunities you need to be given; focus on the opportunities you need to take.

#2: “Outer Forces Don’t Let Me Work” (Tell Me About It)

Maybe another person really did ruin opportunities or block ideas or took what was rightfully yours. Maybe the suppliers didn’t come through. Maybe your partner wasn’t committed. Maybe potential customers weren’t smart enough to recognize the value you provide. Maybe your team was not committed enough to deliver.

DOESN’T MATTER.

You can’t control other people. You can only control yourself. When you fail always decide it was your fault. Not only is that a smart way to think, but it’s also almost always true as well. While occasionally something completely outside your control will cause you to fail, most of the time it really is you. And that’s OK. Every successful person has failed numerous times. Most have failed a lot more often than you have; that’s one reason why they’re so successful today. Trust me on this. Embrace every failure. Own it, learn from it, and take full responsibility for making sure that next time you’ll do what it takes to make sure things turn out differently.

Crux: Never think it’s another person’s fault. Finding a fault with self will make you strive harder. Finding a fault with others will make you a laid back person. 

#3:  “I Just Don’t Have Enough Time.” (None Has) 

Sure you do. You have the same amount of time as everyone else. The key is to decide how you will fill your time. For example, anyone can create a schedule. But most people don’t ensure that every task takes only as long as it needs to take. Most people fill a block of time, either given or self-determined, simply because that is the time allotted. Don’t adjust your effort so it fills a time frame. Instead, do everything as quickly and effectively as you can. Then use your “free” time to get other things done…just as quickly and effectively.

Crux: Never think about how time controls you,  instead think of how you can best control your time.

#4: “Sure, I Would Do That, If I Was Sure It Would Be Worth It.” (Self Detrimental)

Ever heard someone say, “If I knew I would get a raise, then I would be willing to work a lot harder”? Or, “If I knew my startup would succeed then I would definitely be willing to put in more hours”? Or, “If I knew there would be a bigger payoff, then I would be willing to sacrifice more”?

Successful employees earn promotions and higher pay by first working harder; in other words, they earn their success. Successful businesses earn higher revenue by delivering greater value first; they earn their success.

Successful people, in all areas of life, earn bigger “payoffs” by working incredibly hard well before any potential return is in sight; they earn their success through effort and sacrifice.

Most people expect to get more before they will ever consider doing more.

Crux: To succeed, think of compensation not as the driver or motivator or requirement for exceptional effort, but as the deserved reward.

#5: “But There’s Just Nothing Special About Me.” (You Actually Can’t Decide That For Yourself)

It’s easy, and tempting, to assume successful people have some intangible entrepreneurial something like ideas, talent, drive, skills, creativity, etc., that you simply don’t have.

That’s rarely true.

Talents typically reveal themselves only in hindsight. Success is never assured; it only looks that way after it is achieved. Sure, other people may have the skills you don’t have (at least not yet), but you have skills other people don’t have. You don’t need a gift. You just need yourself and a willingness to put in a tremendous amount of hard work, effort, and perseverance, because that is where talent comes from. That is your true gift,  and it’s a gift we’ve all been given. You just have to use it, which you are reluctant to do.

Crux: Never think about what you don’t have. Focus on what you do have, and more importantly, what you are willing to do that others are not. 

I really hope I was able to make a point across, for which you can gain an insight on what miscalculations you might be placing on the way to your professional success.

Thought process and vision have a lot to do with success. You must make sure you have a clearer and progressive one.

The post If I Were Thinking Like This, I Would Never Have Created A Successful Business! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

So it has been a year since you have launched your entrepreneurial venture and are unsure of how well you have progressed and the demand you have raised in the market?

It would be a good idea to test yourself on the grounds of your strengths and weaknesses and even your business strategies to assess how well have you been able to tap the growth areas of your start-up and move forward towards your professional goals and objectives.

This self-appraisal would let you understand if you are moving in the right direction towards accomplishing your long-terms business plans and strategies. This method would enable you to evaluate yourself as to how many goals you have fulfilled in the past year and what all is left to achieve so that you can start working on them and begin a phase that will clearly define meeting your short-term goals for the business.

Entrepreneur appraisal

The time when corporate companies assess their employees and offer them appraisals is almost here and you too as an entrepreneur are not barred from appraising yourself. Why not use this time of the year for chalking out your already accomplished goals and setting future objectives?

You also need to figure out if you are moving in your business as per the planned budget. If you had thought of following the lean operational strategy whereby you do not waste any extra penny, you can jot down the areas where you can cut costs for the future, focussing on other areas where some more money can be invested.

Also, how much time you need to spend on each department that you are working on and the tasks for which you need to devote more time are areas you need to rethink and gauge. An assessment of your time-management skills will help you understand if or not you need to hire assistants and executives for help in executing your job duties.

If you make presentations, spread sheets, workflow charts and project planners, they can well be an aid to your efforts at better time management.

Performance appraisal for entrepreneurs

As a company and an entrepreneur, you need to be versatile and have diversity and variety in the range of products and services that your company offers. This would ensure that you are trying your level best to sustain yourself and grow your business in the market and can be a good competition to other companies in the same segment.

Gauging your strategy to market and promote your products could be a good thing to do now as this is the time that hugely advanced technology has gripped the market and if you are not using cost-effective marketing techniques then you are at a loss of reaching a wider audience efficiently and productively. You can use promotion techniques such as exhibitions, free samples, social media marketing as well as blogs, e-mail newsletters and journals.

This can be a good time to ensure if all your staff is trained well and can even represent the business effectively. The staff should not stay in oblivion to any of the customer’s needs as this can lead to liquidated loss to your company and loss in tapping potential clients and generating further leads. Conducting polls on customer satisfaction and receiving feedback is a good way to know how the customer feels about your company and its services. You can conduct employee training programmes to improve staff training levels.

self appraisal

You can ask yourself questions like the number of customers you have acquired over the past few months, customer retention programmes and how many can you actually retain as well as the fact on whether you are offering better perks to your customers than your competitors.

Hiring good talents who share a similar passion on working with entrepreneurships and making sure that they are capable of fulfilling the company’s goals and expectations in the near future can be a good option now. You also need to ensure if the team knows the specific task it has been assigned.

Make sure your company’s culture is one people would look forward to working in.

Finding out better options for funding like crowd-funding and bootstrapping and your plans on utilizing these funds to the most productive usage and handling investor’s expectations are all viable options for self-appraisal.

Your growth levels with respect to holistic growth, customer satisfaction and the time till when your growth can be feasibly counted on and its transient or permanent nature also needs to be measured at this stage.

So use this appraisal time to do something constructive and fruitful for your business!

Happy Performance Appraisal!

The post Continue With Innovation: Time To Appraise Yourself As An Entrepreneur! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Quitting you cushy high-paying corporate job for being your own boss and starting your own company sounds like a very confident, bold and progressive decision.

However, there is much to consider before you finally decide to quit a daily schedule for something new where there could be erratic work hours and no breaks, forget weekends and parties or going clubbing, especially for the initial days of your start-up career.

Working with insensitive, cruel bosses or having issues with colleagues or even dealing with long hours of commuting and inept company policies cannot be the only reasons why you feel prompted to start something of your own and quit your current employment.

Dreading to wake up to go to work, getting bored and feeling uninspired with your current role and responsibilities and feeling there is nothing new to learn can be enough reasons to believe that you need a drastic change in your professional career but it still does not suggest that you quit your job.

Starting up your own business would mean that you would be the deciding factor for each and every step you take with regards to your business, but it does not claim you being your own boss as there will be some customers who will be at the forefront of your business idea and it is they who will guarantee a success or a failure for your company.

Though uncertainty and the fear of failure are the two biggest reasons for unwillingness to give up the stability and security you are already enjoying, there are several other reasons that might have made you cringe at the idea of starting an entrepreneurial venture.

Even if you find your job miserable and want to quit, you will need a business idea that is possible to carry out and also have a plan ready for carrying out marketing and operations of your company successfully. You can keep working on these plans till the time you are not sure about how you are going to start your own business, and earn a monthly income side by side till that time.

Following the same daily schedule as your current job when you have quit and working the same number of hours would be a boon for your company, rather than letting yourself think that now that you have lot of time in hand, you can keep duties for later.

Money can be yet another big hurdle when it comes to starting up a company. So, it is always fair to yourself that you decide your plan of action before you are firm on taking the leap. Have your projections as realistic as possible as you need to prepare yourself for not earning profit for the initial years of your business. Your ways of supporting yourself and your dependents, if any, should be clear to you. Once this is clear, you can focus on your short-term and long-term goals related to your company without thinking about your bills and payment issues that you need to adhere to, once you are on the grid.

You sure don’t want to be surprised with the costs you have to continuously incur on your business, especially if and when you have not anticipated it. From market research, legal advice, lease agreements, stamp duty, phone, internet installation bills, electricity connections, obtaining statutory licenses, marketing, equipment and fittings to wages to staff members, purchase of initial raw materials and wholesale stock purchases, etc., there are many bills in your kitty that you have to handle, so it is better to figure out the possible unavoidable and unforeseen expenses and even managing through freelance or part-time gigs can contribute a lot to make ends meet. So, consider all your options before you put down your papers.

Also, until and unless your start-up business grows and branches out where you would have to delegate different people for separate works; you will have to manage different tasks on your own. Donning different hats such as the marketer, the techie and even the cleaner is what you should be prepared to do before the impulsive decision to quit. You can still manage with your ego clashes and attitude problems in an office environment, but when you start-up something new, you will be the one responsible for your company’s growth, marketing and maintenance, so you practically cannot afford to have an ego then.

Making an extensive research on your competitors, market value of your business idea and the kind of customers you will have to tackle is a good idea. However, till the time you conduct these research operations, you can consider starting up your venture as a test plan part-time and gradually as you start earning good profits through the same, you can then quit your job to work on your business full-time.

Your family and friends form a strong network of support while starting up a business. They might even help you financially. It is always better to let them in on the risks you are planning to take as your family is definitely affected with your risk-taking initiatives.

You will have to keep options open of part-time, freelancing and even full-time regular jobs while keeping your start-up plans on hold, and avoid burning bridges with recruiters, employers and other networking contacts. It is a small world and you never know when you might even need the help of your current boss in building up your venture. Helping with transition duties during notice period and being honest about your future start-up plans can be beneficial for both you and the company as they also may offer to give you flexible work hours or retain your services as an advisor or consultant to the company.

The first effect after you start your entrepreneurship would be on the monthly salary that you have a habit of expecting at the end of every month.  So you must chalk out how you will handle monthly expenses, if not for salary and how much can your savings last you. Give yourself this buffer time before you plan on making your mark in the business field.

Whether you take a loan or speaking to prospective incubators and investors in your business, you will need to understand that both the plan of getting into manufacturing and services would require you to plan the costs your business will incur. Seeking venture capital or VC can be another good option but you may not be able to secure funds right away so crowd-funding can also be considered. Many new start-up ventures have succeeded using the idea of crowdsourcing of funds.

Also, too much planning may spoil all your plans so when you seem to make assumptions on the basis of your plans so far, realize that it is time to act and not fall in paralysis because of your analysis. You can think of talking to potential customers, and even consider speaking to people who have already experienced the issues in the segment of industry you are planning to launch a start-up in.

If you take care of these necessary do’s and don’ts before you plan on the plunge-in, you are bound to come up with flying colours in your entrepreneurial career.

Note: It is different to start a business and to sustain the same.

Good Luck!

The post Pay Attention To These Essentials Before Taking The Leap From Job To Start-Up! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

How would it be if you get to know that the founders of Rediff.com, Zivame, Snapdeal, Reliance and even Infosys are there to guide you personally into their experiences as entrepreneurs.

Who can be better people to guide you into the world of start-ups and what all you need to learn before venturing into doing something of your own and building a company that you can call yours?

This is what happened at the Bangalore Literature Festival in the month of February this year that comprised of top authors, artistes and speakers for around 24 panels and more than approximate 20,000 attendees for three whole days with topics ranging from politics to Bollywood to music and even entrepreneurship and the steps to building a successful start-up company.

So let’s have a look at the lessons that you can take away from this event:

You don’t need to plan to be an entrepreneur; you can be an accidental one

With many it has been true that they have stumbled upon a great idea of entrepreneurship and have then implemented their idea to become accidental entrepreneurs, only because of their will power, determination and conviction or maybe because of some external stimuli that comes in the form of a given situation which leaves you with no other option other than starting up something new.

idea

Idea need not be gizmo-related or a mapped out area

It is not true that all start-ups are somehow related to technological advancements, they can very well be a completely unchartered area, which nobody has explored so far. Something which is entirely original and comes from a deep insight and social, economic or environmental thought is much welcomed in the start-up scenario.

Un chartered area

Continuous Evolved Learning is the Key

Identifying what can be a good idea for an entrepreneurial venture and continuing with learning procedures to solve difficult situations and having new ideas is the key to the unaltered growth of your company.  You may also have to unlearn in some situations and be imaginative in your approach as you have to show how you are different than your competitors otherwise you can never have the selling benefit.

Continuous evolving

Execute What You Plan

You can have several ideas related to creating the products and services in the company, but the real task that will daunt on you is when you think of its execution, that requires knowledge of the finances needed to pull off the task, your knowhow on how to carry off the operation and the team work. You would need to carry out a lot of experimentation, management of different projects and their step-by-step planning.

Plan Execution

Failure Is Actually the Stepping Stone to Success

When Thomas Edison failed 999 times while lighting a bulb, he claimed that not only did he finally succeed after a lot of trials and experimentation, but he also came to know 999 ways in which a bulb cannot be lighted. Isn’t it inspiring enough?

Failure lets you have the chance to comprehend and understand your mistakes in ideas and execution and certain insights into the operational functionalities of your company. You cannot learn from anything more than what you can learn through failures. The skills and knowledge you acquire along the way will lead you to not only bounce back with double the energy and passion but may also be valued enough by another company, maybe in the country or abroad.

Failure is success

The Fest taught that a start-up needs bright perspectives which you have fostered throughout till your present age and also perseverance and persistence that will help you keep through all your ordeals and get your work done despite rejections and adversities. You need to be flexible to create new things if your old ideas don’t work in certain circumstances.

The Fest witnessed around 60 speakers from ‘Easy Money’ book’s author, Vivek Kaul to Reliance Retail CEO, Damodar Mall and Snapdeal Co-Founder, Kunal Bahl to Infosys Co-Founder, N.R. Narayana Murthy.

The post What The B’Lore Lit Fest Had In Store for Aspiring Entrepreneurs! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

The society has always criticized and looked down with contempt upon people who have not fulfilled the social norms in some way or the other.

These people have been judged for not being smart enough, not having good talents yet having big dreams and the like but they have proved their mettle in innumerable ways.

This video gives an insight into what the people around Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan and Walt Disney, etc. had said about them and how they proved those people wrong.

While Edison was termed as too stupid to understand the class lectures, he was the one responsible for throwing light on the principles of electricity. Similarly, with some other great personalities, society has always misjudged and set certain criteria for some people which has over time proved that where there is a will, there is a way.

Nothing said or made to believe by the society and the people around you can be true if you have the true will to fulfill your dreams. The video talks about people who have not only achieved a lot by their own will and desire and done something of their own and for their own selves, but have also carved a niche for those who wish to start something of their own, instead of being commanded by others!

The video gives the example of Abraham Lincoln who failed in business twice, but is still known to have made his mark in world history. If you wish to start your own start-up, nothing better than getting motivated by such great minds!

The post An Insight Into What Great Personalities Have Survived To Emerge Victorious! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

In India marriages are most commonly associated with heavy responsibilities, comfort, luxury, destination honeymoons, grand wedding set-ups and a lot of preparation and arrangements when you are ready for procreation! The onus for this is primarily upon the man, even if the wife-to-be plans on working after marriage.

For this, either the man is supposed to be enjoying a high-level position in a reputed multinational or be a top-notch businessman. He is supposed to be capable of supporting a family before he plans to get married!

The fact remains so even though 51% of India’s workforce is self-employed.

In such a depressing scenario, think of those who want to leave their present hunky-dory lifestyle and comforting job to start their own venture – something of their own that would mark their style and attitude more than anything else. Why men, even women want to express themselves through their own trademark field of work and work style?

So can they ever progress keeping in mind the prevalence of arranged marriages in the country and the liking for heavy deal marriages and after-marriage life for the couple? Well, some Indian couples who are not risk-averse unlike Indian parents have proved the latter wrong and go on to say that start-ups can be founded by couples after tying the knot as well or even during the courtship period.

They even claim that investors are ready to bet on the couple’s idea of doing business together and are rather happy when both partners are active.

Whether it be Chumbak’s (Home and Accessories venture) co-founders, husband and wife, Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chaddha or Mobifolio’s (A Mobile App Maker) owners, Mrigaen and Nupur Kapadia, nowhere is the co-existence of both the partners in the business under the scanner.

Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chaddha

While for Vivek and Shubhra, their initial days at setting up their brand, Chumbak were cumbersome with funding issues and difference of opinions as well as unnecessary squabbling, things have grown better and better with the passage of time and it has probably been possible only because the duo has made it a point to stick to their start-up goals as much as their personal lives together.

Chumbak has come to be known as one of the pioneers in selling unique merchandise inspired by India with tech stuff, bags, wallets to memorabilia, luggage tags in kiosks and stores in the metros and even in cities like Pune and Hyderabad.

They also have e-commerce brands like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Myntra selling their merchandise.

Speaking of success, app lovers, and intellectual couple, Mrigaen and Nupur (married in 2008) who were once colleagues at Datamatics have been hitched to their entrepreneurial venture, Mobifolio since April last year and their romance with the company as well as with each other has since been growing stronger. The initial days have been tedious and tumultuous for them too but with their flagship innovation, Breakfree for people who are addicted to their smartphones, they have been able to earn profits as more than a lakh downloads have been made for the app on Android phones and the app is soon to launch on iOS systems as well. Not only are they planning on a premium version for the app but also looking forward to ads and other marketing schemes. While one partner handles iOS compatibility and workability with the app, the other manages the Android development for the app.

Mrigaen and Nupur

There are other couples too who focus on their interests and build up on that for their start-up ventures. Foodie Madhulika Pandey and Movie buff, Atit Jain came together to start Gigstart, a marketplace for anchors , singers, dancers, party planners, make-up artists, etc. to come together to take orders and manage parties and events for people. As the start-up evolves, the couple is growing too. They are planning to convert their courtship into marriage but are nowhere looking forward to a make Gigstart a one-partner organization. Both plan to be equally active and valuable to the business and the best part is that even investors vouch for couples engaging in running a business together.

Madhulika and Atit

There are several other couples who have stayed positive through the days of scaling up, funding problems and scouting for investors even as new life, marriage and responsibilities look up to them. It is this attitude of theirs that has made them different from the other married couples who are probably living an unsatisfactory life jostling between job, marriage and even kids in the 24 hours of their day.

So for all you to-be wedded couples out there, starting a start-up venture or building up an idea for the same is the new cool thing for honeymoon plans!

The post Marriage Is Not The End To Courtship, The Fun Begins With Start-Up Plans! appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

You may have started from a small kiosk in a popular mall or a stall at the corner of the street or even a 2 room store in the suburbs, but the idea of establishing and growing into something big and famous is what lurks in the mind of all entrepreneurs.

Though it takes much time to start off with something new and leave the old order of a 9-5 job behind, it takes even more time to gradually market your business, appoint employees, build a good customer base that is regular and consistent and adds up to some more customers.

Business Growth

Basically it takes time to establish a small set-up and its popularity to spread far and wide.

However, once you are successful in proving to people what your company is all about, you need to think on growing your venture.

Coming to this, many people get panicky as to how they will manage different branches, set up bigger stores with more facilities and amendments to cater to all the needs of their clients while even handling their day-to-day workload.

Try not to expand your start-up when you are busy in handling some important projects for the business or about to launch a new product or service for the clients.

Choosing which way to grow your business is also an important decision. If you want to grow organically and sell your current products to newer and unexplored markets or sell new products to existing customers or you plan a rapid growth by buying other similar businesses, is the first move in the decision, just as soon as you think of growing your company.

It is always up to you to figure out and decide whether or not you should run the business as it is or make plans for its expansion, keeping in mind the merits and demerits of growing a business venture.

Before expanding your business, you must be sure enough that this is a good idea and a good time to pursue this initiative.

While the merits of growing your business entail going for greater discounts as bulk buys become common and suppliers would ensure that the demand meets supply.

Bigger businesses ensure more security, and greater sale of products and services as well as increased chances of earning more profit, depending on the profit margin for them.

However, there is also the other side of business expansion. It takes much more time to manage larger businesses and lot more money obviously. Hiring people and delegating them particular work in different branches thereby losing your direct control over the entire business as and when it starts growing. Also providing one-on-one or face-to-face service to your customers becomes a hassle and may not be feasible all the time; you may have to recruit people who can particularly doing client servicing for your company. Alternatively, you can also provide training and development lessons to your existing employees so that they are better able to handle clients.

Taking loans to buy equipment and newer lands will also ensue and you may have to manage selling greater number of products which will again make you spend more cash on the making costs of the products. So you should be ready to deal with cash-flow problems before you plan on growing your business.

Business analysis

Before expanding your business, you will need to understand what your company is best at. You would have to map out the most workable aspects where your business can excel, whether it is product marketing, finances, understanding and exploring markets or client servicing.

To chalk out the performance levels of your business, you can perform a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and understand the strengths and opportunities your company possesses and can be beware of the weaknesses and threats your company might face at a given point of time and plan your business growth accordingly.

Also, make sure you follow the below given pointers to know if this is a good time to grow your business:

You have a regular, consistent set of customers

When your company is no more a store for certain products and services and it has already grown into a brand where the awareness level among your customers and other people about your brand is growing, you know that you are ready to expand. Businesses spread through word of mouth most easily and rapidly. When you know this is happening, and you can see a future for your business, it is time to grow.

Successful Business

You can easily handle the extra workload

You have to be personally ready in all respects to help your business prosper because even after you start growing as a company, things will take time to come to a normal pace. Your health, family, lifestyle all should support your business growth.

Handle extra workloads

Make sure the right kinds of employees are working for you

Not only having an efficient co-founder whose needs and thoughts are compatible with you, but choosing the right qualified and skilled staff who can relate to the work they do is very important. Some of them might needed to be posted in different branches once your business grows, so plan all of this in advance.

Right employees

Working on the above points and ensuring if you are already meeting the goals that you had earlier established while starting off can help you understand that this is the right time to grow.

All the best for a better business future!

The post How To Know When Is The Best Time To Grow Your Start-Up Venture? appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Start-ups are all about taking risks. True.

But, when it comes to legal issues concerning an entrepreneurial venture, precaution is always better than cure.

It would be such a pity if a great business idea, support from family and friends and good amount of capital investment all goes for a toss for nothing but legal matters that you did not care to notice or avoided just because they seemed plain boring to you or you were not aware of certain laws.

Well, in India this has been a common case. Take for example, the SuKam entrepreneur who landed up in jail for the simple reason that he did not know he had to pay excise duties. Also, bribing and non-implementation of laws plus a slow and inefficient judicial system are all issues that are too difficult to handle in this country.

Starting and growing a business in India is a tough nut to crack mainly because of the regulatory and legal system that makes the whole process so complex, especially when even written agreements are not honoured by the parties at the other end, licenses need bribing and waiting and maintaining registers, paying huge taxes and accepting money from foreign investors, all of it starts to haunt on you.

Also witnessing the scenario in India and as it has been in all these years, it seems a faint possibility that anything in the legal and judiciary industry will ever face the winds of change.

While bigger, more established companies like Tata, Birla, Reliance, Infosys, Larsen and Tubro, etc. spend huge stacks of cash just to sort out their legal hassles and issues with the regulatory bodies and judicial systems, you have probably just started or are about to start with your new business and cannot afford spending crores of rupees just on legal bills!

Customizing Legal documents and employing a lawyer for the company is not possible until and unless the company starts generating some handsome revenue. However, if you look at the larger picture, the costs aggravate much more when legal issues start cropping up.

So follow these tips and emphasize as much on the legal matters as on other factors related to the stability and exponential growth of your business:

Agreements between Company Founders

The ownership matters should be decided at the very beginning if there is more than one founder in the company. This is ideal to be done in writing after the verbal agreement. Also, if there is an accidental departure or demise of one of the founders, then what should be the further course of action? These things should be settled at the very earliest as a part of company’s confidential documents/agreements so that the company is not left to be partially owned and managed by one of the founders with innumerable uncomforting questions from investors and supporters of the business.

Also, if you plan to incorporate later in the business, there are many online services for legal advices that will serve you better and will be more cost-effective than Lawyers and Chartered Accountants.

You can also enter into a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) in order to save yourself from the co-founder’s misconduct or negligence and even from heavy tax bills. LLP’s can easily be changed into a full-time Private Sector Firm as well, later. Taking the valuable guidance of senior mentors and investors as well as some other successful entrepreneurs, especially in your field of business can prove to be fruitful in the long run.

Agreement between company founders

IP Ownership

The ownership of your business and all the legal documents supporting that is mandatory for you to take any decisions in favour of the company and even if you plan to sell it later. From tax registrations to trade licenses to Shop and Establishment Registration to even Labour and Employment registrations, you will have to go through a lot of legal documents to obtain licenses in India which are many with respect to a business in India. Investors are also pretty careful and vigilant on license issues before they enter in any kind of pact with a company so to keep investments coming in and growing each day, it is necessary to take care of the licenses.

You can also save yourself from lawsuits and heavy fines and eventual shut-down of your company by keeping a track of the license conditions, knowing the necessary licenses you need to get and whether you are fulfilling all conditions for each of the licenses you require.

Intellectual property

Equity Grants

The amount of shares both founders own in the company is an important matter for both and needs proper focus and attention at the very start of the business venture.

Share Equity

Tax Deals

If you are starting with a low-key business affair then you may not have to pay any taxes. But, as you plan on expanding your business or if you have started with a fairly big start-up venture as per the size, investment and team members of the company, tax officers will start bugging you and might even start looking at all transactions you have made till date, even when you were not that big in the market. So, before it all becomes a costly affair with you ending up paying your entire business capital and even more than that to the tax lawyers and undergo the fear of imprisonment, big lawsuits and accusations of criminal offenses against your account dealings and tax issues and have to pay massive fines, clear the tax deals before even entering the radar of the tax officers.

Taxation in India

Different Types of Contracts with Vendors and Investors and their Enforcement

Depending on the type of business you acquire, you also need to sign contracts with different vendors and as there is a variety in the vendor list, so is there a variety in the contracts signed with vendors. Whenever you opt for outside assistance for product or service design and development, contract management becomes essential whether it be content-based agreements, ad contracts, distributorship pacts or franchisee contracts.

Also, enforcing contracts through non-compete clauses, arbitration or out-of-court settlements, strategies through which you can recover money or registration agreements can land you in a better position where your partners, employees, consultants in your company and other people you are related to via your business will not let you down on the obligations in the agreements.

Contracts with vendors and investors

If you do not want to get trapped in the legal pitfall, then following these tips before the issues arise will help you triumph in your entrepreneurial venture at the end!

The post Legal Issues In Start-ups In India And How To Handle Them appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Do you wonder why some people slog from 9 to 5 while there are others who build their own businesses, and grow into business owners capable of taking their own decisions and acting as their own boss? It is not about money or opportunity, neither is it an out-of-the-box idea that takes successful entrepreneurs to magical or miraculous levels. It is only about thinking differently and changing your mind set as well as your lifestyle accordingly.

However exciting, enthralling and attractive an opportunity entrepreneurship might sound, it is indeed tough to manage firstly growing your idea, creating something out of it, promotion and marketing of your concept, gathering people who can support you for the cause, building up on the capital, and last but not the least, making a team and handling your team members.  

To know how you can be that employee who is different from the others, you would have to know about what perspectives and thought-process you need to develop that would mark you as tad different from the herd:

Create Different Ideas and Research on Their Feasibility

You can start by writing down your ideas every once in a while or on a regular basis and find out how practically feasible the concept is or even if it is original. If someone else has worked on the same or a similar concept, how successful has that person been in terms of money and fame is all you need to research, before concluding that this is something you need to/want to work upon and gathering resources for the same. However, do not step back from a concept, thinking that it is big and you might not be able to pave your way through the thick storms that might come your way in this endeavour. Many companies that have started from a small level dreamed big and aimed to achieve their dreams and well yes, they did! Instamojo and InOpen Technologies are just few names in India that are doing pretty well though they never knew they could be this big at the time they started.

Learn to take risks and overcome fears each day. These risks would enable you to sow higher benefits than what you had thought of reaping at the initial stage.

Gradual Persistent Efforts would take you to new heights

There might be many roadblocks and pitfalls like less number of employees, financial crunches and the likes so you must put dedicated efforts for product/service development and marketing, and instead of being content at each step the business grows, plan your next move and efforts you need to put in for enhancing your business opportunities. You need to be patient and persistent however, if you seek results on these efforts.

Finding Out About Competitors Rather Than Criticizing Them

If you want to sustain in the industry that your business thrives in, you would have to know your competitors in and out – what they do differently, their profit margins, their experiences, what they aim to achieve, et al. You will then come to know how your business idea is different from theirs already or what features if incorporated would make your business idea a unique one. These unique features and special attributes of your business that differentiate you from your rival companies can be a part of your personal branding programme and marketing initiatives.

Mistakes are Common and Nobody is a Perfectionist

Just repeat this line after me. You are sure to feel a spirit of confidence and hopeful of achieving success someday. If you want to earn profits and be a successful entrepreneur, you would have to ditch perfection in every sense of the word, howsoever perfect your idea and your plan to execute the idea might be. Just don’t try to make your workplace a perfect place or your products and services perfect ones, as striving for imperfection gives the opportunity to learn more, grow more and improve more. You have to work keeping in mind what you want to attain at the end of it and not focus on the unnecessary nitty-gritties of the business.

Also, do not be afraid of making mistakes as humans are erroneous and you must never keep yourself away from the notion. However, try not to repeat them and learn a lesson each time you or your company makes a mistake by first acknowledging them and then finding out ways in which you can avoid this mistake for the time ahead.

Follow a Strict Regime

Just the way you follow exercise and diet regimes to attain that perfectly toned body, your business too needs you to have decorum in your life to achieve your goals and work in the right direction.

Take Others’ Views on Your Ideas and Work Plans

Some people might have a different opinion to you and you will need to patiently listen to what others have to opine sometimes, if you wish to expand your business and not keep your directives too rigid. You may be even taken by surprise to know what others’ perspectives are on your business idea and the execution of the same.

Forget your work-life balance in the initial stages of entrepreneurship

If you can make your business your life, your goal, your career and everything, you can have a better understanding of how far you have reached in your business goals and how much more you need to attain to gain success. You have to eat, sleep, drink, walk, talk and live your entrepreneurship and would have to restrain from separating your business from you once you are at home. 

So prepare better for the challenges, think them as opportunities to prove yourself, be passionate about what you do and how you achieve it and think big, take swift decisions, and do not forget to trust yourself as well as your start-up team if you want to touch the sky. Dream Big and achieve new milestones! All the best for a successful start-up! Do comment on what makes you a unique entrepreneur.

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We all have heard about the Silicon Valley and Bay Area in California which have come to be the start-up capitals abroad, but what about our own country where start-ups and entrepreneurships are booming each day and NASSCOM referring India as the third largest entrepreneurial industry?

If the start-up bug has hit you too, it is worth the time and effort to take a look into the best hubs in India for launching and promoting a start-up company.

Here is a list of some Indian states where start-ups have mushroomed heavily:

Bangalore: 

A place for the tech-savvy and internet surfers, Bangalore is the place where the first Indian Institute of Science was established in 1909 and has since been the most prominent hub for space advancements, nuclear technologies and warfare as well as advanced computing.

Both the UK Indian Business Council (UKIBC) and Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund (KITVEN Fund) are promoting support facilities of mentoring, policy insight, training and expertise and market research before making an entry in the wide entrepreneurship market as well as co-funding newly launched ventures so that VCs and incubators can come to the city for major investments and networking benefits.

Koramangala is one part of the city where you can get these benefits and will help to nurture your start-up and make it flourish. Bangalore certainly has a work culture where technology, advancements according to the cosmopolitan era and globalization has developed in their complete forms. It is a place where socially upfront people come across and interact in public places regarding innovative ideas, concepts, thoughts and upcoming plans and events.

It is certainly motivating for companies that aspire to be at par with biggies like IBM, HP, Wipro, Microsoft, Accenture, Cognizant and Samsung.

You will also find several opportunities to network and market your company with highly educated people who are always there on online communities, pubs and coffee houses. There are several forums and professional events taking place and the city speaks volumes on business.

The City Means Business!

However, you may have to think about the infrastructure and all the part that goes into structuring a business such as the real estate problems, tax issues, equipment for office, conveyance issues, fixing internet and filing up statutory documents. These are some of the issues that will undoubtedly crop up for those of you who are planning to swarm to the city for your entrepreneurial venture. The only respite is talking to mentors who have encountered similar experiences and can guide you on how to look for incubator schemes, boost your company’s services and ecosystem with innovative ideas, tools and services as well as seeking cost-effective measures for every little thing that you need to do for the business.

Chennai

Not only culturally active, this is the spot for growing business. IT and automobile are two sectors that have seen a major boost in Chennai. Exporting IT technology is what Chennai is second best in, in the whole country. After Mumbai, Chennai is known to be the financial hub. Companies with a turnover of more than a billion US dollars are all here in Chennai.

Few among the twenty companies that have reached or are soon about to reach the 1 billion dollar mark are Indix, Bharatmatrimony, Freshdesk and Zoho. There are several start-up events and investor meetings held here which can be inspiring enough!

Delhi-NCR

Hiring tech-savvy individuals, setting business infrastructure and attending formal events are much easier in Delhi, NOIDA, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad. Highly business-oriented and professional people are a part of this city and you will get to learn a lot of innovative techniques and guidelines on building up a business, of not anything else.

Some of the best start-ups that have grown and flourished here are Zomato, iimjobs, Zestbuds, Airwoot, LimeTray, MangoReader , Overcart, MyShaadi.in, HapPay, ClearTax, MobiKwik, Hike, Motorpaneer, TouchTalent, Times Internet, Snapdeal, Gigstart, Blue Lotus, Vogue, Tripoto and even IndiaMART. Need we say more?

Mumbai

Being the financial centre of the country and the place that boosts the country’s economy, Mumbai can be the ideal hub for starting a start-up! However, the accommodation and infrastructure for the business can be costly, but if you are settled financially, this can certainly be the best place with much of the country’s population located here and with media companies galore, your company might just get a lot of attention if it does well!

So now you know which place suits you the best. Though places like Bangalore and Chennai might initially pose food and language problems, but anyway, who said that the road to establishing your start-up is gonna be easy?

Just pack your bag, buck yourself up and explore these opportunities to the fullest. All the best!

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Where India has been rated as the third largest Entrepreneurial industry in the world, the country is also home to nearly 350 million people living below poverty line (World Bank reports).

While many do not even taste the fruit of education or jobs, about a third of the total 1.2 billion population is devoid of any of the basic amenities of food, shelter, clothing and healthcare. 

How about ideas where both entrepreneurship and these social issues of the country get intermingled to make India a country with brighter future for the underprivileged as well?

Social entrepreneurship has the ability to work towards eradicating all social evils and bring about a social impact that is beneficial for all. These social changes are much more effective than what a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) is able to fulfil. While NGOs only come into play when there is a major upheaval or uprising regarding a prime social evil, and effect short-term, small-scale and transient changes, social entrepreneurship can aim to strive for long-term goals with more prompt and permanent effects. Areas where government support systems and NGOs fail, social entrepreneurship has proved to thrive better.

Social Entrepreneurships are emerging as effective business models as the business idea is motivated more by social benefits rather than personal gains and eradicating social problems is the main motto and earning profits is secondary.

Whether it be the Grameen Bank of handicapped Dr. Muhammad Yunnus that has received the Nobel Peace Prize and offers low-interest loans to the poor who have nothing to pose as the collateral or security in case they are not able to repay the loan amount, or the Aravind Eye Hospital by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy and Thulasiraj D Ravilla way back in 1976 that has treated more than two million patients, mostly for free or the Social Entrepreneur Award winner, Brij Kothari of ‘Planet Read and Bookbox’ that aims at getting rid of illiteracy, we have a successful business model in making in India: Social Entrepreneurship.

Just Change, SEWA, Childline, Barefoot College, Fair Trade Forum, Dream a Dream, et al are just a few of the success stories.

If you are driven by passion, innovative solutions and ambition to eradicate social issues of the country through business breakthroughs, you may build a successful social empire with lesser challenges and better facilities for all. But for that you first need to be aware of the roadblocks and understand the ways in which you can succeed:

Figure out what social cause affects you the most

You may not be able to solve all issues and tackle all problems. So make a list of the causes that affect you the most and work on the cause that you most strongly feel about. Then find out why this cause is troubling you and what are the issues within the cause that you would need to handle. You may be able to figure out effective and cheaper ways to solve the issue or else you can engage yourself with NGOs at first to understand where your passion lies.

Research on Incubators, Universities and Institutes Offering Guidance and Finance

There are business corporations and Incubators such as Rainer Arnhold Fellowship that is a two-year fellowship and trains you to solve health, poverty and conservation issues in developing countries. You will also get around INR 60,000 as an annual stipend. UnLtd India in Mumbai again offers a one-year programme for people working on projects both part-time and full-time. There is a vast funding that is offered for people working at different levels. A summer fellowship called Unreasonable Institute plays a pivotal role in training entrepreneurs with necessary skills by taking them all the way to US to work with mentors and entrepreneurs across the globe. At the end of a successfully completed programme, entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas to the investors, who will then choose to fund some of the best concepts. Echoing Green is yet another initiative that offers two-year fellowship for social entrepreneur start-ups where grants are allowed separately for individuals and partner groups. Entrepreneurs are also offered with stipends and health insurance deals in this programme. There are some firms that dedicatedly invest in social entrepreneur companies that can have a positive impact on the society. Some are Agora partnerships, Acumen Fund, First Light Ventures and Good Capital.

Have a big idea but start with a small initiative in a niche area

Make partnerships with individuals and organizations that are compatible with your idea and have the same goals and objectives to achieve stability in your venture and learn what will be good for the company and what will not. You may partner with other small-scale organizations, matching your scale, to give your venture the necessary base.

Aim towards Financial sustainability of the business and not individual profits

Since yours is not a traditional business idea and hence is not aimed at keeping profit margins, you need to affiliate your venture with a charity organization or an institution working for a cause, donate some company profits and fundraise using innovative methods that bring out the social element in your business idea.

There are some self-help groups in India that consist of few people who gather their savings per month and collect them in a funding account from where they can borrow when needed. This especially happens in the rural set-up. The group may be linked to a bank where they all hold a joint account. The group is deemed eligible for a bank loan after at least six months of repaying loans among the group members. The bank relies on its monitoring of this group and the peer pressure. The idea of micro-financing works very well with the poor as they do not have money to open a bank account, neither can they offer collaterals in lieu of their loan, nor are they able to deal with the paperwork formalities on account of their illiteracy.

The success rates of Bharatiya Samruddhi Investments and Consulting Services and SKS Microfinanace that lends microloans and insurance to poor women in rural areas of India bear a testimony to the fact that microfinance is a fast mushrooming field in India, especially in the impoverished places of the country.

Change is the only constant thing

You may have to try different techniques and business tactics or models to finally taste success. Don’t be hopeful that the moment you launch your start-up it will be ready and growing. For people to understand and relate to your business idea, it takes time and much of patience.

Check Out Web Resources

To maintain and kindle your interest in social entrepreneurship, you can check out these web resources viz., www.ilid.org, www.ediindia.org and www.nsef-india.org. While ILID helpa social entrepreneurs understand, innovate and improve upon delivering their best efforts and coming up with best results for the underprivileged class, EDI offers you to learn all about social entrepreneurship through distance diploma course. You can enrol yourself for this programme at any age with a graduation degree or technical diploma. EDI is supported by some government banks and financial pillars of India such as IDBI, IFCI, ICICI and SBI. NSEF is associated with social entrepreneurial activities in as many as 30 academic organizations and is linked to 50 social enterprises that promote social entrepreneurship and help you get educated and inspired and even support your social entrepreneurship ventures through congenial environments. Even Narsee Monjee Instuitute of Management Studies and Tata Institute of Social Sciences offer diploma programme (MBA) and two-year M.A. degree in social entrepreneurship respectively.

Keep track of your goal and accomplishments so far

If you become profit-oriented and do not care about why you started with your social entrepreneurship venture at the first place, you will not succeed. However, if you take your passion for solving the social issues through business strategies into consideration and keep track of your goals and how much you have achieved so far, then you will always be in association with the right people, customers, partners, events, programmes and publications. 

All said and done, you must not think of the social entrepreneurship activities as a charity. It is as much a business and you would need to employ effective practices, put the best possible strategies in place and improvise on management issues as you would do in any other business set-up. You will need to recruit people who are more experienced than you in their specific areas and also market your business by creating a personality of your brand and using the social media websites. You must also follow transparent and ethical practices and dealings with your investors, partners and donors, if any. Make your reports as clear and transparent as possible and connect emotionally with your customers through verbal communication, videos, blogs, et al. Partner with people who have similar interests and goals as you.

Start off the New Year with a positive note for the society. Start off with your own social entrepreneur enterprise. All the Best!

The post What It Takes For Social Entrepreneurs To Succeed In India appeared first on Youngisthan.in.

Whether you own a firm based on the technology industry, a company in the banking sector or your start-up is related to social work, you will be amazed to find how your characteristics, your moves towards launching and making your start-up prosper and your risk-taking abilities define you as an entrepreneur.

Yes! Whether yours is a multi-billion dollar agency or just a recently launched firm in the big, wide market, you can be classified as one among these entrepreneurs, especially if you are in India:

The straightforward visionaries

You love challenges and are smart enough to be outspoken about the problems you face and your methods of solving them. Wackiness is what drives you sometimes and you can be bold and charismatic in your approach towards different issues. You love to create products and services useful for the world. For you, keeping your customers happy and satisfied with your company’s services is your ultimate outlook and you seek no more than this, not even flattering your investors for a better deal. The only target you set for your employees is happy customers, thus promoting a strong bond between the employees, the company and the customers, making for an enriched company culture and high expectations. You are optimistic about reaching your goals, have a positive attitude and much business knowledge and expertise, although the technological advancements might bog you down a little.

Doers and Go-Getters

Remember Aamir Khan as Sanjay Singhania in Ghajini? He seemed to work more and work harder than give speeches on his goals and upcoming schemes. If you believe in actions more than endless talks and doing more than debates, you are sure to be the go-getter kind of entrepreneur who like to think, plan and execute methods addressing their vision for the company rather than setting appointments for press conferences and media talks where company goals can be discussed. You would definitely understand and appreciate Shahid Kapoor from Jab We Met and his plans to expand his company and reach the highest possible level in the telecom industry, because even you can relate to that easily. You are a visionary, yes, but do not like to come in front of the media and public to announce your company’s progress, until and unless it is something your company requires.

Apna Sapna Money Money! The Money-Minded Entrepreneurs

If you value the process of minting money and revenue-making, you certainly dream of huge piles of the green paper. Your ultimate aim is to expand your company through take-overs, mergers and acquisitions and being in the good books of the investors is all you care about. Money is what motivates you as you wake up each morning and your bank balance is the only update that bothers you.

Young, Daydreamer yet Naïve

If you are a recent graduate and keep shifting your ideas between different business types and you can recall having doing so even during your classes, you are the daring daydreamer who is naïve yet boasts of knowing it all. Some of you might have faced hurdles and got scared to pursue your entrepreneurship dreams further, while others have continued with life as it came and struggled on to stand up to your goals, dreams and self-expectations. You want to make it big and make it fast!

The Talkative Entrepreneur

If building up a business is your secondary objective, and talking about your big business ideas is what motivates you, then you are the talkative types. You may be more interested in fundraising activities and talking about start-up loans than actually focussing on growing up on your business idea. Talking about the different start-up models and inspiring speeches, you are the one whom naïve entrepreneurs may end up referring. But, prevent yourself from going overboard at these motivational talks as inspiring speeches without action pointers may not be of much help to the young entrepreneurs just starting off with their start-up careers.

The Sulking Unhappy Asian Natives

If you always find yourself complaining about the entrepreneurship opportunities in the US or other foreign countries, and think that the location of India or other Asian countries do not stand good chances in front of the industrial complexes of foreign shores, you are the sulking type. Some of you may be able to analyse how certain marketing trends and business ideas can be similar to that of the industries abroad and build your business on those lines, while some others keep dreaming of crossing the foreign lines someday and waste their time and knowledge when they are here in their home country.

The Show-Offs

If you just want to own a start-up company because of peer pressure or only because you think it can be a good style statement to flaunt to others, you are the flaunting or show-off type. You plain like to pose yourself as an entrepreneur and know that entrepreneurship is not your cup of tea.

The Fight-Pickers      

If you are a person who hates to listen to a ‘no’ and are used to winning at all costs, by hook or by crook, you certainly have a bold, loud, daredevil kind of personality and your ways of doing your business reflects that pretty clearly. You pick fights, take risks and are very spontaneous decision maker. You do not back from taking the wrong path just so you win as you are not able to accept loss and losers.

The Multi-Tasking Mavens

If you always have liked the multitasking carousels and believe in owning and facilitating multiple companies together, you are sure to be a multitasking maven. However, focussing on a single line of product and one type of business is not your agenda and many different products, services and businesses occupy your mind and daily schedules. For you, concentrating on one business is boring. You like to don different roles at the same time and are known to be active, spontaneous and of course, a multitasking hero, just like the well-spread branches of an overgrown tree.

You may also be willing to spend your weekends or work overtime to pursue your goals in different companies. Alternatively, entrepreneurship might be your second career and you work very hard to do all the necessary research and building up a team for assistance.

Others (Solitary/Inventor/Technical/Competitor)

If you like to work independently even though you have the team spirit and can balance a team work as well, you are the independent and confident sorts, while if you love to create and improvise upon your creations, and want to be famous for your innovations and inventions; you always have the greatest and best of ideas. Entrepreneurship is then made for you. On the other hand, if you are tech-savvy and want to gain technical expertise with degrees, extra courses or technical jobs, you may soon start your own technical business. If you have a formula for success and have great concept and are abreast of current market trends in your industry, you are the competitor types who is envied by the capitalists. 

Entrepreneurship can also have social causes and all for the welfare of the society, where human fulfilment is the main motive. Getting to know your style and kind of doing business can serve you better in the industry.

So did you figure out what characteristics define you and which type of an entrepreneur you are? 

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