Pitching for funds or wooing a girl? One and the same!
---Contributed by Saksham Karwal
I recently attended a session of the Economic Times Power of Ideas in Delhi in June and while listening to all of the entrepreneurs, whether young or old, there was one thing that continuously struck me. This was that pitching to VC’s for funding is very similar to wooing a girl. I shall elaborate further.
1. Choose the right VC/ Girl
Choose a VC who is interested in investing in a sphere that you are operating in. Know what kinds of companies have been funded by this VC. Pick a girl who is compatible with you and you actually stand a chance with! Try to know what kind of guys the girl has previously dated or fallen for. For both, the VC and/or the girl thorough research is required.
2. Business Plan/ Life Plan
Be prepared with a compact, concise and clear business plan. A VC will glance through it very quick and your plan must immediately impress him. You must have your life ahead mapped out. Women should sense that you know what you are doing and where you are going.
3. Presentation style
You have to be able to sell your business to the person across the chair. You have to be passionate, enthusiastic and full of self conviction so as to make the VC believe in your plan. You have to market yourself in such a way that the girl begins to believe that you are the one stop shop for all her needs.
4. Build Credibility/ Win trust
Show the results of your organization and make the VC believe that you can continue to perform. Be chivalrous, be polite, be a complete gentleman and be there for her. She needs to know that you are more than eligible for her and can trust her life in your hands.
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Emerging Business Forum – Footwear Industry in Agra
- Contributed by Kanak Dutta
Zee Business along with Milagrow Business and Knowledge Solutions presents ‘Emerging Business Forum’- an exclusive 10 city initiative that aims to enable and empower SME clusters to achieve sustainable development and growth. A buoyant India today is witness to many successes of small and medium enterprise. Their role in terms of employment creation, upholding the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation has been crucial in fostering competitiveness in the Indian business and economy.
Beginning December 17th 2008 (Agra), this forum is in the format of panel discussion which would be continued across ten important cities which includes Agra, Ahmadabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Indore, Ludhiana, Merrut, Moradabad, Pune and Tirupur. The forum was first initiated in Agra which is known for Taj Mahal world over and has an enormous leather industry. This city is catering to the huge demand of footwear in the country.
From Milagrow, Kavita Joshi(Knowledge Mentor) and myself were appointed to attend the forum. The main objective was to network with SMEs in Agra and spread the awareness about the Milagrow services among the entrepreneurs. We wanted to understand their problems and try to explore how we could contribute to solving them. A short questionnaire was prepared by me to investigate the hindrances companies have been facing with regards to the smooth running of their business (like taxation, export, economic recession, association benefits etc).
New Ways of Hiring - Solutions for the MSME Sector
- Contributed by Akash Kumar
A recent study done by Milagrow found that one of the major problems faced by SME is managing human capital. Recently, I was having a discussion with one SME. He told me that his company is doing well, his product quality is superior to other MNC’s product, he pays good salaries to his employees even though he is not able to recruit and retain good people in his organization. I went in to depth and found that employee always want to be on safer side. Therefore, they prefer to work the companies which are well established and having sustainability in market. Thus, reaching out to good, loyal and efficient employee remains big task for any SMEs.
Ethics for SMEs
-Contributed by Kanak Dutta, Knowledge Buddy
Business ethics set the standard for how your business is conducted. They define the value system of how you operate in the marketplace and within your business. With legal scandals concerning insider trading and employee theft making the news, it is no wonder that businesses are increasingly giving attention to the ethical basis of their business and how to lead in an ethical way. While the examples above seem to be clear-cut breaches of ethics, many ethical dilemmas that are not so clear-cut are faced on a daily basis in business. In fact, there may not even be a “right” or “wrong” answer to the dilemma, but how you deal with it will says much about you and your business.
These decisions are often referred to as being in the “gray” area. They are not black-or-white, but could be argued appropriately either way.
Importance of Business Ethics in your company
There are definite advantages to owning your own business when you want to establish an ethics policy. Basically ethics come from the top. Without setting an example at the top, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to convince your employees that they too should be ethical in their business dealings. A well-defined ethics policy along with an outline of related standards of conduct provides the framework for ethical, moral behavior within your company.
What is the benefit of developing such a policy, you may be wondering. The benefit is higher employee morale and commitment that in most cases leads to higher profits. But higher profits should not be your motivating factor in defining your ethics policy.
Be Ethical, Stay Committed & Focused, and Deliver Quality in Time: Miracles Will Happen For You
Contributed by Mitesh Agrawal
Mr. C S Prakash started “Pushpak Industrial Services” from almost zero investment and today “Pushpak” is approximate INR 10 crores company. He, a diploma holder in mechanical engineering who comes from a very moderate family background, claims “Being Ethical and Constant in nature” is the success mantra behind Pushpak. Pushpak Industrial Services, incorporated as Pushpak Products India Pvt. Ltd, is now having three different lines of businesses – Manufacturing of Industrial & Office Furniture, Ground & Material Handling Equipments and Electrochemical Process on Spacecraft components (Anodizing). It has customer base from defense sector to MNC like ISRO, HAL, NAL, BEL, Toyota, Bosch, etc.
Like others Mr. Prakash too started doing Apprenticeship Training with Hindustan Aeronautic Limited (HAL) in Bangalore for a stipend of INR 500. But there was big difference among others and him during apprenticeship. He was doing his apprenticeship so seriously that he started working continuously for 2 shifts (from 6am to 11pm) so that he would be able to learn more than others. After completion of his apprenticeship, realizing his talent his well wishers in HAL recommended him to start his own business. At that time, due to poor financial condition, he did not even have money to open a bank account.
Success Creates its Own Applause
Contributed by Mitesh Agrawal
Micro and rural entrepreneurs can constitute an integral part of county’s economy. They can serve as the appropriate channel to reach out to largely untapped rural market and help sustain the business for big players. The efforts made by them have been duly encouraged. Next issue will be further detailing on how rural and micro entrepreneurship can be developed and how its benefits can be drawn towards economy’s overall development. Not only MSMEs who fall under this category help strengthen country’s economy but also have triumphed over poverty to empower themselves, their community and the nation. Two attempts of rewarding rural/ micro entrepreneurship are detailed below:
For The People Who Dared To Dream
The Micro Entrepreneur Awards program is an endeavor to recognize individual micro entrepreneurs from across the country, who have risen from poverty to self sufficiency. The program, launched in India in 2004, is an annual feature and has the following objectives:
Indian SMBs To Invest $640 Mn On Packaged Software
SMBs in India are on track to invest about $ 640 million on buying packaged software this year, up more than 25% over what they invested in 2006. Spending on databases, accounting, networking, productivity and system software will account for more than 90% of the total software spending by SMBs this year, according to the latest report by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners.According to Nirupam Chaudhuri, research manager with AMI Partners. “SMB users have become more alert and they know what they need to be able to accelerate their business. A small percentage of IT-savvy SMBs have progressed to the third wave of IT adoption and are now demanding tailor-made solutions with superior support services.”Small businesses posted a 23% rise in software spending while medium businesses showed 30% growth in software spend last year.Investment in packaged software is driven by business needs. SMBs are most concerned about rationalisation of investments. Having state of the art technology with the latest security features is viewed as a major factor in overcoming competition. Vendors can no longer push anything and everything as a package to users. "These days SMBs need to be convinced on all the features a software package contains, and are only willing to pay for features they plan to use,” Chaudhuri says. “In keeping with this trend, vendors have also launched solutions and packages in which pay-as-you-use features are incorporated, thus allowing SMBs to access only the modules they’ve paid for."
Source : Sme Zone
SMBs Perturbed By Rising Costs And Insufficient Funds
According to an AMI study, rising operational costs, insufficient access to capital and growing competition is forcing many SMBs to re-evaluate their competitive strengths.In the emerging markets, lack of access to capital is a major concern, as in the mature markets."While firms in mature markets are more concerned with satisfying their current revenue forecasts, SMBs in emerging markets - such as India in particular - are finding it difficult to obtain the necessary capital to grow their operations," claims Spencer Richardson, AMI analyst. "This leads to delays in the launch of new products and services, since cost control often takes the form of curtailed development efforts."In the newly industrialised markets (NIM) in south-east Asia, getting access to market intelligence and information is the greatest hitch."SMBs in NIM are faced with a very real issue; their basic infrastructure deficit disables much of their ability to communicate with the outside world. SMBs in mature markets are taking giant strides in business operations while SMBs in the NIM regions are struggling just to catch up."SMBs rate uncertain economic environment and insufficient access to capital as the top two concerns, across mature markets like US, UK and Japan.
Source : SME Zone
Special regime for SMEs in new companies’ Bill
Small companies will now get a say in the corporate sector. The new Companies Bill, 2008 will for the first time define what makes a small enterprise. The bill is up for approval in the coming parliament session.
A small company shall be defined as a company which satisfies three conditions—it should not have a paid-up share capital and a turn-over beyond a specified limit, the company should not be regulated by any sectoral regulator and it should not hold any subsidiary company.
According to the first condition, the company should not have a paid-up share capital and a turnover beyond a specified limit. The limit is to be notified later on by the central government. According to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006, a small enterprise is one having an investment of more than Rs 25 lakh but less than Rs 5 crore if it is dealing in the production of goods whereas if the enterprise is dealing in the rendering of services then the investment in equipment should be more than ten lakh rupees but should not exceed the limit of two crore.
As per the second condition for a small enterprise in the new Companies Bill, the company is not to be regulated by any sectoral regulator, which means that those companies that are governed by a sectoral regulator cannot be classified as small companies.
Banking companies, which are regulated by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), telecom companies, which are governed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and electric companies by electricity act do not classify under the provision for the small companies in the new Companies Bill.
Venture capital cos may focus on growth equity
Source: www.livemint.com
Experts say because of changing risk profiles, there may be a shift away from earlier stage to later stage investing
Bangalore: In the face of a global meltdown, some venture capital firms are planning to shift from early stage start-ups to backing companies that have been around for some years and need capital to push growth.
“There may happen a shift away from earlier stage investing to later stage safer investments simply because of shifting risk profiles,” says Mohanjit Jolly, executive director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson India Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd (DFJ). The firm, which started as a pure early stage technology focused fund in India, has now decided to take decisions on a case-to-case basis.
This would be a repetition of what happened between 1999 and 2001, when the fortunes of dot-com firms, whose basis of valuation was eyeballs rather than revenues, nosedived and several Indian investors such as ICICI Venture and ChrysCapital (then Chrysalis Capital) moved away from funding early stage companies.
Mumbai-based Matrix Partners India says the stage shift will be visible in the number of deals in the near future. “There will be a decrease in the number of deals in early stage, while the deal flow in growth investment is actually improving,” says co-founder and managing director Rishi Navani, adding that as risk aversion is rampant currently, growth equity will appear safer.
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