Author: yazdi

Business Ideas, Business Plans, Calendar, Finance

Pioneering Spirit

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If you are an entrepreneur looking to blaze new trails with your business, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Share your business story today for a chance to meet business icons face to face, impress them with your pioneering spirit and unique business plan to win:

 A sponsorship by Canaan Partners to a business programme at Cambridge
A coveted mentorship from The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)
A Lufthansa Business Class return ticket to a destination of your choice in Europe 

In the extremely successful Season 2, ten entrepreneurs like you were selected as ‘pioneers of tomorrow’ and received the invaluable benefit of a TiE mentorship as well as a free Business Class ticket.

You could be next.

Click Here to Register Now

Business Ideas, Motivations, News

Next Big Things

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From creating cars that communicate with each other, to helping kids write their own books, to improvising medical devices worthy of MacGyver, these six innovators promise to change the way we live

  • SHUTTER TO THINK – Lytro founder Ren Ng is taking the blur (and the fuss) out of photography
  • MEANINGFUL GESTURE – Inside Aviad Maizels’ quest to render your remote control deader than the VCR
  • SHORT STORIES – To get kids interested in learning, Sharon Kan had an idea: help them write their own books
  • DRIVING FORCE – Meet Paul Mascarenas: the man behind Ford’s push to become the world’s most high-tech automaker
  • LOCAL NETWORK – How Jennifer Pahlka’s Code for America is transforming the way ailing cities solve problems
  • DR. DIY – MIT’s Jose Gomez-Marquez is devising cheap, ingenious tools that could revolutionize third-world medicine

Business Plans, Motivations

Making a sound business plan

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The single biggest hurdle that entrepreneurs confront when they consider launching a new business is not knowing if their business idea is truly a good idea. Can they support themselves and their family? What are the chances of success – or failure ? Most people are not accountants, and struggle with understanding the principles behind financial forecasting. In such situations, the major mistake to be avoided is to assume that you will be successful and will somehow get through !  A sound business plan is one of the keys to success.

A sound Business Plan is always useful for self evaluation of your business. It may give you a yes / no signal, before you actually plunge in. It would highlight the pros and cons of your business and help you keep a watch on  your weaknesses. Besides, if you are looking for a partner or a financier, it is a good document to keep handy at all times.

One must keep in mind the following components of a good business plan :

  • Executive  summary : This would be a quick summary of what you intend to do and how. What is your main business mission and what needs does it set out to fulfil ? It should give the reader a quick overview of your business model, the key financials, the marketing strategies, technology required, if applicable, etc. Ideally it should never exceed 2-3 pages. It should be lucidly written and should excite the reader and lead him on to read the full plan.
  • Business description : This section of your business plan should describe in detail, all aspects of your business model. What are the revenue generators, the operations, the costs, the technology, the infrastructure, finance and admin requirements. This is the core component of your Business Plan.
  • Market Analysis : Use this section to dissect the market and analyse it in depth. Know your industry’s average financial performance statistics. Make your market forecasts plausible and relevant to the current situation. A detailed review of the competition, what they are upto and how they are pricing similar products would help tremendously. Touch upon your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and product differentiation so that you stand out from the crowd, and use this to generate better prices for your product or service.
  • Financial Projections : Identify the selling price of your product / service in the market, know your costs, find out exactly how much you will pay to source or manufacture your product. Also, there would be several fixed costs which you will have to incur to run your business. List out such costs and how you intend to track and control them – this might be the key to your success in some cases. Your financial projections should also include your initial investments in fixed assets and infrastructure and how you would most likely finance the same. Whether you would take loans or take equity from a financial partner, if you would take loans, whether they would be secure or unsecure, at what cost would the loans be available, etc.
  • Human Resources : What kind of people would you require to succeed ? Would you need partners ? Senior Executives ? Mentors ? WorkersHow many and when ? How much would they cost ?
  • Scalability : What if you succeed and reach your peak as projected in the first 3 years ? Is your plan scalable ? What would it take to move up the ladder ? Additional resources ? Space ? People ?
  • Plan B: What if your main plan fails – would  there be a fall back ? Would you continue to operate at a reduced level ? Would you outsource before you consider manufacturing again ? What are the costs of aborting the venture? Think about all this and document it in your business plan.

Remember, a business plan is not cast in stone. You should review it annually and change it according to the realities you face, to make it more effective and relevant. Also, it should be relatively confidential – it should not be available to all and sundry.

There are books and websites galore on the subject and you will have to wade  your way through, to get the right one. You may look up http://wzcc.net/bpc09_resources.asp or www.enterprisers.in for a variety of resources to make business plans, to start with.

So before you take the plunge, be sure to make a sound business plan. Remember – not planning to succeed is a sure plan for failure !

E-Series – Yazdi Tantra

Motivations, Networking, News

SME Manufacturing Summit – Strategies and Initiatives for Sustainable Growth

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SME Chamber of India, SME Export Promotion Council, India International Trade Centre, SME Technology Development Council and Maharashtra Industrial and Economic Development Association are jointly organising “SME Manufacturing Summit – Theme – Strategies and Initiatives for Sustainable Growth” on 13th January, 2012 at Mumbai with the support of Government of Maharashtra.

This Summit will provide a unique opportunity to Manufacturing SMEs to  understand emerging business opportunities, latest technology, Investment, Bank Finance, Private Equity / Venture Capital, Joint Venture, Technology Transfer,Contract Manufacturing, International Collaborations, Innovation, Industrial Automation, Business and Finance Management  and Strategy for Business Growth.   This also  will provide information and support   to Manufacturing SMEs  for enhancing connectivity for export business opportunity.  Even though SMEs  are backbone of Indian economy, their problems and issues are not properly  taken care of by the concerned Government agencies.

The participants can take advantage of interaction with potential business partner SMEs, CEOs of Corporate & NBFCs, Senior Government Officials & Bankers, Technocrats, Project Management , Financial, Marketing and IT  Consultants, PE / VC Funds, Investors and  experts from different fields such as quality control, processes, operations,  logistics and ICT.

We invite SMEs and Entrepreneurs from manufacturing and service sector industries as well as other sectors also to participate at this important Summit  and request you to  download Registration Form .  Also find links about our earlier activities for your reference.

We look forward to your early registration and your involvement in our activities for the growth of your business.

With regards,

Neera Inamdar
Dy. Secretary General
Small and Medium Business Development Chamber of India (SME Chamber of India)
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Registered & Head Office:
3, Upper Ground Floor, Samruddhi Venture Park, Marol MIDC Industrial Estate, Andheri (E), Mumbai-400093
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Tel: 91-22-61509800 | 66674444 | 66770218/19  | Fax: +91-22-29271750 | 28250414
E-mail: smechamberofindia@vsnl.net  | smechamber@vsnl.net  |  www.smechamberofindia.com
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Registration Form 
Programme 
SME Manufacturing Summit on 13th January, 2012  – http://www.smechamberofindia.com/smemanufacturingsummit/Programme.doc

Business Ideas, Resources, Technology

Pay with a Tweet !

yazdi

Sell your products for the price of a tweet.

In today’s world the value of people talking about your product is sometimes higher than the money you would get for it. ‘Pay with a Tweet’ is the first social payment system, where people pay with the value of their social network.

It’s simple, every time somebody pays with a tweet, he or she tells all their friends about the product. Boom.

Click Here for the website and how to proceed.

Business Ideas, Business Plans, Motivations, Networking, News

Global Entrepreneurship Summit – IIT Kharagpur

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The theme for this year’s summit is “Innovation-The Creators of Tomorrow”. The highlight of the summit is the “Startup Camp” to be held on 15th January 2012. The camp would provide a platform for the startups, venture capitalists and students all across the nation to interact with one another and also provide students the splendid opportunity to gain internships! The summit will also feature Guest Lectures by eminent innovatorsand World-Class Workshops on the various aspects related to Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

We are a non-profit student organisation at IIT Kharagpur with the aim of fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship among college students in India. We are one of the most successful entrepreneurial organisations in the country with 28 start-ups incubated within 5 years of our inception.

We conduct our flagship event – Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) every year in January, and this is oneof the biggest entrepreneurial platforms for academicians, new-age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities, venture capitalists and students to gather at one place and share their entrepreneurial endeavours and experiences, and to pledge to take entrepreneurship to greater scales. GES 2012 will be held from 13-15 January 2012 at IIT Kharagpur. More than 2000 students from various engineering colleges in India will be a part of this summit.

GES 2012 also plays host to the Global Entrepreneurship Conference in India. The conference aims to provide a platform where promotion of entrepreneurship could be discussed with a global perspective. It will feature a live video conference with foreign universities and US entrepreneurs to understand the entrepreneurial environmental in different nations.

We would like you to be part of GES 2012 and make good use of the resources and rich entrepreneurial environment to take entrepreneurship in India to new level

For more details on the summit, you can visit the site: www.ges.ecell-iitkgp.org

 

You can also visit E-Cell IIT Kharagpur’s site: www.ecell-iitkgp.org or like our FB page:www.facebook.com/ecell.iitkgp to know more about our yearlong activities.

Thank you,                                                                        

Magazine Partner:  Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur

Education, Startups

National Skills Development Corporation

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National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC)

NSDC is a first-of-its-kind Public Private Partnership (PPP) in India set up to facilitate the development and upgrading of the skills of the growing Indian workforce through skill training programs. A large part of the organisation’s efforts are directed at the private sector and towards developing the skills in the unorganised sector in India. NSDC supports skill development efforts, especially in the unorganised sector in India by funding skill training and development programmes. It also engages in advocacy and training programmes, in-depth research to discover skill gaps in the Indian workforce, and developing accreditation norms. To know more, click here.