Enterprise Cover 1

8/3/2019 Enterprise Cover 1

1/4

30 OUTLOOK MONEYl7 september 2011lwww.oloomoy.com

Cve S

Bus30

EasY aUTOHarisHBaLasUB-raMaNi (L)aNdPadMasrEEHarisHbuine

decrition:Prepaidmeteredauto-rickshawservice

Date of launch:

September2010

start-u caital:

`8 lakh

performance:

150 trips/daybroken even inJune 2011


2/4

p://l.oloomoy.com l7 september 2011lOUTLOOK MONEY31

nessesunder10

Cover story

scial ro Eepise banking Inuanc Inving ral ea Financial planning Fliid

AGoogle search or inspirational quotes

or entrepreneurs throws up many lists,

but one that fnds its way into every

compilation is that by a student in entre-

preneur Warren G. Tracys class,

Entrepreneurship is living a ew years

o your lie like most people wont so you

can spend the rest o your lie like most people cant.

There are perhaps no better words to embody the spirit o

an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is about reedom, about

leading your lie the way you want, but, at the same time, it

is a lot o hard work. And yes, it requires money.

Fortunately, however, it doesnt take a ortune to start a

business. With an entrepreneurship ecosystem that is ast

developing and availability o low-cost technology, starting

a business is more about passion and skills that you bring to

the table than having a at bank balance. In this story we

bring you 30 businesses that have been started or an initial

investment o less than `10 lakh. The capital ceiling has a

lkhBYaNagH PaL

Poo: jagadeesh n.v.


3/4

Cve S

ew implications. It has thrown up certain categories o

start-ups which require a low investment up-ront, with ser-

vice and technology start-ups orming a majority. We have

discussed these in broader detail in the ollowing paragraph.

A low start-up capital also implies that, more oten than not,

the entrepreneur brings certain skills to the table, the intel-

lectual capital, which complements the money that is put

into the business. Finally, it means that these entrepreneurs

almost always do not depend on any external source o und-

ing and use their savings to get their business o the ground.

How muCH do you nEEd to Start?

This is a question that all entrepreneurs need to answer.

Broadly, it consists o these three componentsdevelopment

costs (or the developing the product or service), inrastruc-

ture costs (the cost or all business inrastructureofce

space, computers and so on) and customer acquisition cost

(cost incurred in reaching out to the customers.)

This fgure is what you need to get your business started,

assuming that you pump revenues back into it. But there

should be a contingency und in case the business takes lon-

ger than expected to take o, or does not take o at all.

Ideally, this should be six months to a year o operatingexpenses. When an entrepreneur is not depending on an

external source o unding to start o with, or 'bootstrap-

ping' in startup parlance, it becomes important to keep start-

up costs under control. We take a look at some o the promi-

nent trends we have observed in our list o businesses.

Student start-ups. It is not a coincidence that we have a

large proportion o student start-ups. Passionate, vibrant

and eager, these entrepreneurs have decided to take the

plunge even as they are studying.

Laura Parkin, co-ounder and chie executive ofcer,

National Entrepreneurship Network, a community o entre-

preneurs, says that a number o student start-ups havegrown rapidly over the last ew years among its member

institutes. I have got nothing to lose! say students who are

not burdened with amily responsibilities and EMIs. They are,

thus, ree to ollow their passions. Laksheeta Govil, a ashion

student, New Delhi; and Abhinav Mehra, a management

graduate, teamed up to launch Fizzy Goblet, which makes

designer hand-crated shoes. Says Mehra, We are experi-

menting with new material and technology to scale up.

Dorai Thodla o The Start-up Center, an early-stage start-

up accelerator with an initial ocus in the mobile, Web and

sotware technology space, says: As a student one is not

contaminated by the knowledge o how things are done; so

they can explore novel ways o doing things rom building

products to creating a business model. Technology does not

scare students, so they can come up with innovative uses

more easily. They learn ast.

There are cases in which students have

solved a problem in their own campuses and

then scaled up. Ashwin Yogesh R started

Fluid, a campus milkshake kiosk, when he

was a student at Saveetha Engineering

College, Chennai. Having passed out and in

a job, he is working on a business model

that will let him take it to shopping malls and

other locations.

Says Ashish Sinha, ounder, start-ups.in, a portal or Indian

start-ups, Students need not waste time building a business

plan, or running ater VC unding. The ocus should be on

creating a very good product. Successul examples are that

o Mark Zuckerberg o Facebook or Michael Dell o his epon-

ymons computer company. They started solving a problem

within their campus and fgured out a business plan and an

expansion model when they had proo o execution.

Internet and mobile start-ups. The Internet and mobile as

platorms are opening up opportunities or many areas

education, gaming, entertainment, media, advertisement,

enterprise and personal productivity, commerce, and much

more, says Tanvi Shah Rangwala, director, ICT initiatives,

paionate,virant and

eagertudenttart-u are fat

riing in India


Cover story


1Validate the idea first; dont start develop-

ment till you can do some inormal research

and talk to a ew potential customers.

2Build a simple version o the product, get

potential customers to try it out and revise it

based on their eedback

3Make a list o expenses. Find out the ones

which are immediate and those o which can

be postponed

4 I you need to buy stocks, look or bulk

purchase discounts. Negotiating with your

suppliers or deerred payment also helps

5 I possible, work rom home. Rent urni-

ture and equipment, or buy used ones.I an

expense can be deerred, deer it

6Use open source sotware to cut down on

licensing costs or sotware. When buying

computers and peripherals, look or deals

7Leverage social media marketing to the

hilt. Build a social network. Be on Facebook,

Twitter and blog about your product

8Cut down on utility bills by preventing any

wastage. Reuse and recycle to bring down

stationery and printing costs to a minimum

HOw TO cHEcKsTarT-UP cOsTs


4/4

Cve S

iAccelerator, a program we designed to equip technology

entrepreneurs in the Internet and mobile domains to estab-

lish well run and proftable companies in India.

Games, mobile applications, Web- and cloud-based applica-

tions are also areas o opportunity. Rangawala adds, The

scalability o the business model, the sustainable competitive

advantage and the agility o development and operation are

the most crucial success actors or technology start-ups.

Vinayak Joshi, o LearningConcepts.in, a mobile and Web-

enabled desktop applications developer ocused on the educa-

tion industry, says, The biggest challenge was to convince

potential clients that we are as good as the big names.

Sinha advises those in the mobile application business. He

says, They should come out o the developer mindset and

build an application as i they are building a product business

with proper marketing, positioning and a business plan.

Solving a problem. A certain brand o entrepreneurs is into

the businesses o solving customer problems, but in a smart-

er way than what is currently available. For that they usually

leverage a technology platorm. How many times have you

planned to dine out with a riend but were not sure where to

go? Zomato.com aims to solve this problem. Founded by

Gurgaon-based Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, it pro-

vides a list, based on location and cuisine, o eating out and

nightlie options in 10 cities in India. along with scanned

menus, directions and reviews. Says Chaddah, There was

no one-stop place to get all the inormation required to

decide on a restaurant when we wanted to dine out, order in

ood or go or a drink. We wanted to bridge this gap in the

market in the best way possible. Now they have 800,000

monthly users on their website.

Sinha says that such businesses should ideally solve an

India related, or local problem, and not copy a global model.

The entrepreneur should have a deep understanding o the

consumer mindset and existing solutions to the problems

against which he has to compete. The bigger the problem,

the more money people would be willing to pay or it.

Another set o people leverage their skills to leave their job

and start up on their own. People see others making more

money and they ask themselves, Why not me?. So, instead

o doing a 9-5 job, they decide to go it alone, providing a ser-

vice in which they have some expertise.

Social entrepreneurs. These businesses work on a model

that not only makes money, but also creates a sustainable

social impact. Molly Alexander, business manager, Acumen

Fund, India, a non-proft global venture und, says: Many o

the challenges aced by India have not been solved at

scale by government or private sector

approaches. We believe the opportunity or

social entrepreneurs is growing in India

with Indian innovation leading the way

with strong examples globally.

Sweetly Designs, creates a sustainable

livelihood or rural artisans by providing

them access to global markets or handicrats

and empowering them with training, raw materi-

als, knowledge resources and other support.

AutomotionAds, a transit advertising company that pro-

vides customised solutions on autorickshaws, empowers

low-income drivers and their amilies with benefts such as

micropension, insurance, ree education and so on.

Social entrepreneurs, says Dolly, needs to know their capi-

tal needs, measure social and fnancial returns and look or

appropriate partnerships to be successul. Starting on the

entrepreneurial journey is a leap o aith. Go right ahead!r

[email protected]


Up nextxBnkin: securin your cheque pg 42

Cover story


cftll.om

(L-r) TiraTHKaMdar, BHaviK

JHavEri,MONica gUPTa &MaNOJ gUPTa

buine decrition:Online luxuryhandicrafts branddedicated to socialupliftment

Date of launch:January 2011

startu caital:

`10 lakh

performance:3,000 productsand over 10,000customers

Game,moile, We-

and cloud-aeda are area of

coe for techtart-u

sanjit kundu

Enterprise Cover 1

Documents

Transcript of Enterprise Cover 1