Month: August 2020

Categories
Finance Process & Business Expansion Startup Strategy

5 Ideas to Rebuild Small Businesses Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Few tips that can help small entrepreneurs to rebuild their business post COVID-19 pandemic
Few tips that can help small entrepreneurs to rebuild their business post COVID-19 pandemic. | Representative image

Mumbai, August 14: With the coronavirus lockdown still persistent in the country, small businesses are the most hit. While some have pulled down their shutters completely, others are looking for strategies to rebuild and reshape their businesses. Here are a few tips that can help small entrepreneurs to rebuild their businesses:

1) Financial Damage Assessment:

Every entrepreneur needs to analyse and calculate how bad their business has been affected in the COVID-19 lockdown. The first step that one entrepreneur shall take is to update the financial statements which include profit and loss or cash flow statements. Comparison with previous year’s numbers to see the loss is certainly a good idea to begin again.

2) Reshape Business Plan:

Ideas that might have worked pre-COVID-19 era, may not work after the lockdown. So it is very important to remodel the business strategy and do some fine-tuning. Paying close attention to competitors’ plan is another idea that would certainly help in reshaping the lost business.

3) Focus on Generation of Working Capital:

When an entrepreneur takes an initiative to rebuild the business, especially after COVID-19 pandemic, focussing on the generation of working capital becomes the priority. Without this essentiality, all plans to reshape a business model will turn into a failure. Look out for options for a sustainable and suitable financial lender/s who can show some faith in you (entrepreneur). But, for that, mutual understanding and trust are required, which an entrepreneur will have to build with the lender/s.

4) Revamp Budget Account:

Calculative risks during times like COVID-19 always help in revamping budget requirements for entrepreneurs who want to rebuild their businesses. All business ideas have pros and cons, however, a clear idea of what is needed for budgeting and what can be cut from the expenditure would certainly help in achieving the goal — monetary waste. Salary cut to self and only essential hiring are some of the good ideas that have been prescribed by experts.

5) Contingency Plan for the Next Crisis:

This is perhaps the last, but the most effective way to give life to business while rebuilding it. Learn from the previous mistakes and start working on the contingency plan for the next crisis. Saving the profits by cutting down useless expenditures and adapting self to the new way of business are some ways which will keep an entrepreneur in the market for a longer period. Moreover, thinking out-of-the-box to prepare for a worst-case scenario will be fruitful.

Categories
Startup Strategy

Startup Permissions: Here Are Some Licences And Permits Required To Start Your Own Business in India

Permit (Representational Image, Photo Credits: Picpedia)

Starting a business in India requires a set of permission and licenses for its smooth functioning. Fulfilling the legal formalities is one of the first steps which startups should never ignore. Otherwise, there may be huge penalties and other legal complications which will hamper the name and growth of the company.

Depending on your business, there are certain licenses and permissions that are required. Government agencies can fine or shut down a business that operates without a licence.

Business Licence: A legal document that grants you the right to operate a business in your city. It is a permit which indicates that the company has the approval of the government to operate.

Various Kinds of Business Registration: The various kinds of business registration in India are-Private Limited Company, One Person Company, Partnership Firm, Public Limited Company or an NGO/Trust. A business will have to get registered under any of the above type o structure.

Safety Registration/Fire Permits

Depending on the type of business you intend to operate, you may need to get an inspection and permit from the local fire department.

GST Registration:

It has now become mandatory for all businesses to get their GST registration done. It needs to be obtained within 30 days of business incorporation, otherwise, the startup will be subject to heavy penalties.

MSME Registration

MSME Registration can be obtained by micro, small and medium enterprises in India to enjoy few subsidies and benefits in terms of loans, taxation, and other schemes.

Startup India Registration

When the business comes under the definition of a startup as per the DIPP Notification, it can get its Startup India registration done. There are a few criteria for it, for e.g., it has not been more than 10 years from the date of business registration. The annual turnover of the entity for any financial year since its registration has not exceeded Rs. 100 crores.

Categories
Startup

What is a Startup? How Do Investors Add Value To Startups? All You Need To Know

Startups | Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pexels)

India is now becoming the world’s fastest growing startup ecosystem. In order to understand a startup ecosystem, one needs to know what a startup means! A startup is a young company that is usually founded by one or more entrepreneurs to develop a new and unique product. These entrepreneurs launch a service and bring it to market for people to use and benefit out of it. Startup, as the name suggests, begins with initial funding from the founders, their friends, families, relatives, among others.

Startups are becoming very popular in India. A start-up is basically a company or project begun by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. Startups face high uncertainty but some of them do go on to be successful and influential and become unicorns. The startup process can take a really long period of time and can go up to years to be successful. Hence, sustaining effort is required.

Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. One needs to understand the basic concept that an entrepreneur is an individual while startup is an entrepreneurial team, and needs to work accordingly to achieve the desired goals.

How do Investors add value to Startups?

According to Startup India Portal, which is India’s largest online entrepreneurship, the investors, particularly venture capitalists (VCs) add value to startups in a number of ways. The Startup India Portal platform allows startups to network, access free tools & resources and participate in programs & challenges.

  1. Stakeholder Management: Investors play a key role in building up the startup. They help by managing the company board and leadership to facilitate smooth operations of the newly started firm. In addition, their functional experience and domain knowledge of working and investing with startups imparts vision and direction to the company.
  2. Raising Funds: Investors are best guides for the startup to raise subsequent rounds of funding on the basis of stage, maturity, sector focus etc. and aid in networking and connection for the founders to pitch their business to other investors.
  3. Recruiting Right set of people: Sourcing high-quality and best-fit human capital is critical for startups, especially when it comes to recruiting senior executives to manage and drive business goals. The venture capitalists, with their extensive network can help bridge the talent gap by recruiting the right set of people at the right time.
  4. Proper Marketing of the Product: VCs assist with marketing strategy for your product/service.
  5. Merger and acquisition opportunities: The venture capitalists should be alert about the merger and acquisition opportunities in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem to enable greater value addition to the business through inorganic growth.
  6. Organizational Restructuring: As a young startup matures into an full-fledged established company, the venture capitalists help with the right organizational structuring and introduce processes to increase capital efficiency, lower costs and scale efficiently.

In India, the Government, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, has started and promoted Startup India initiative to recognize and promote startups. This initiate is aimed to develop Indian economy and attract talented entrepreneurs.

Categories
Startup

Here’s What Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi Govt is Doing For Startups Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Delhi, August 13: Amid the coronavirus pandemic, when businesses have been badly hit, it is the startups who have been affected the most. In order to give fillip, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently met industry leaders, young entrepreneurs to draft a new policy for startups. The objective is to make Delhi a leading choice for startups.

Delhi boasts of over 7000 start-ups and it is also on top of the list of cities with the most number of active start-ups, according to a report by TiE. In addition to this, the CM further highlighted that the valuation of the city’s start-ups is about $50 billion. The report published in 2019, mentioned that Delhi-NCR is set to become one of the top five global startup hubs with 12,000 start-ups, 30 unicorns, and a cumulative valuation of about $150 billion by 2025.

The Objective Behind the Draft policy For Startups:

According to the statement released by the Chief Minister’s office, the objective of the draft policy is to support entrepreneurs and help create a robust economic and policy infrastructure that will create new jobs and add competitive dynamics into the current economic system.

Takeaways of CM’s Meeting With Experts:

The prominent participants in the discussion held were Ajay Chowdhry of HCL, Rajan Anandan MD Sequoia Capital, Padmaja Ruparel of Indian Angel Network, Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO, Swiggy, Suchita Salwan, founder and CEO, Little Black Book, Tarun Bhalla, founder, Avishkaar and others.

Some of the suggestions included creating industry-academic partnerships, entrepreneurship programs for young professionals in Delhi and making the national capital’s physical infrastructure more conducive for startups to work.

Here’s the 2-Step Process of Drafting the New Policy:

The drafting of the new policy for startups will be conducted in a two-step process. The first step involved consulting industry leaders, experts from various sectors to provide valuable inputs in drafting the policy.

In the second step, the draft would be put up online for the public to recommend changes and suggest new policy rules.

Arvind Kejriwal along with the industry leaders are hopeful that with the new startup policy, Delhi will surely become a preferred destination for startups. It will also fight the economic instability that has been created due to the coronavirus crisis.

Categories
Marketing

7 Business Marketing Strategies to Build Your Brand!

Business Marketing Strategies

Introduction

Are you using the perfect business marketing strategy for your brand?
Do you how to market your product without investing too much?

People often misunderstand Sales with Marketing; they consider Sales as a part of Marketing. However, marketing and sales are very different from each other.

Sales increase your revenue by increasing the sales of products, while Marketing works on increasing the recall value of your product.
Although Marketing supports the Sales function, it is not directly linked to it.

Marketing is an overall game plan through which your product’s value proposition and unique strength get instilled in your customer’s mind like recall value.

Below are 7 types of business marketing strategies that will help you to scale up your business.

1. Niche Marketing

Niche marketing focuses on a specific demographic, psychographic, and geographic customers. It is a kind of marketing which focuses on customers of a specific region, with one specific product of a particular price range.

It refers to selling a specific product to a specific customer at a specific price. This kind of marketing reduces the size of the market, finishes the competition, and captures the whole market.

For Example:

There are many genres of TV channels like news, sports, music, and entertainment. However, there is only one channel dedicated to cricket- Star Cricket. It is a channel-focused only on one sport i.e. Cricket. It has created a recall value in minds of the audience, that whenever they want to watch cricket they switch to Star cricket.

It reduced the size of the market by focusing on one specific sport and audience, which helped it to remove competition and capture the whole market.

2. Trade Show Marketing

It is becoming a very popular business marketing strategy for showcasing products and services among corporates. As industries and businesses are evolving, everyone from the same industry is coming under one roof to showcase their products.

For Example:

In the trade show of the Apparel Industry, all industries involved in cloth making will showcase their products under one roof. It includes manufacturers of fabric, thread, finished cloths, sewing machines, and retailers coming under one roof to market their products.

This kind of marketing helps corporate get bulk orders, vendors, clients and make new partners without big effort. You can also organize- demonstrations, speeches, and promotional offers to attract people at your stall in trade shows.

3. Social Media Marketing
With increasing digitization around the world, social media marketing has become the most important business marketing strategy example to advertise your business.

You can’t afford to miss the opportunity of advertising your products on the social media platform, as it has emerged as one of the most intensive and the cheapest way to reach out to the customers.

There are currently Rs. 45 crores active internet users in India, which is going to double in the next two years.
As per government data, there will be Rs. 84 crores active internet users in India in 2021.
Social media is the platform where customers themselves promote your product while sharing it with others, which has credibility and trust factor.

Data analytics tool gives information about who are your customers, and where are they from, which helps you to retarget and remarket your product.

4. Freebie Marketing

Among other effective business marketing strategies example is freebie marketing. Giving Freebies along with your main product in a strategic manner helps to run a successful business.

Many companies offer small freebies with their main products to attract customers and increase their sales.

Under this marketing strategy, you can offer a low-value item with a high-value item to allure customers. It helps to build a recall value for your product among customers.

For instance, you can offer a small pouch of tomato sauce with a pack of noodle, or a coffee cup on the purchase of two packs of Coffee, or a small backpack with a Suitcase.

5. Undercover Marketing
It is a hidden style of marketing which is also called Buzz marketing. Just like undercover agents, these products are kept a secret, while creating hype around it through advertisement.

Undercover marketing creates excitement among customers which sparks curiosity revolving around products, event before its official launch.

It is more like a teaser of a movie, which generates curiosity among the audience through hyped propaganda, without revealing much about it.

Moviemakers insert some social, political and religious elements in movies to en-cash the hype sparked by the controversy around it.

6. Outbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing

Outbound marketing: In this, you tell customers about your product through various mediums like Tele Marketing/Calling, Tele Shopping, Letter, and TV and Radio Commercial Ads. In this, you reach out to customers through various mediums.

Inbound marketing: In this, you have to generate magnetic energy around your product to attract customers through different ways of online promotion. Here customers automatically reach out to you through the influence of Blogging, Email, Social Media, SEO, and Webinars.

7. Cross Promotion Marketing
Cross-promotion marketing has emerged as one of the most unique ways of marketing of two or more products in a single advertisement, without investing much of energy, time and money.

In this, two or more companies come together to advertise their different products in a single advertisement through the Rub-off Effect.
Their target customers are the same but their products don’t compete with each other. It increases its customer reach without increasing the budget.

For Example:

The advertisement of BMW Car can be done with the Louis Vuitton handbag in a single advertisement as the target audience of both products is similar. Those driving BMW cars will only be using Louis Vuitton bags as both products are of premium quality.

Other Examples of Cross Promotion:

McDonald’s and Coca Cola
Pizza Hut and Pepsi
Kit Kat and Android
Apple and Amazon
Uber with Spotify

With the changing demand of customers and advancement in technology, the traditional method of marketing has become outmoded.

It is time to influence your customer base through the third party by adopting modern types of business marketing strategies.

Categories
Marketing

3 Multi-Level Marketing Strategies to Evaluate Your Business

Marketing Strategies

Introduction

  • Are you unable to evaluate your performance?
  • Do know the organizational effectiveness of your company?

A business doesn’t run by creating hullabaloo in the market. It works on proper frameworks and efficient strategies of execution.

The following given tools will help you understand 3 multi-level marketing strategies to evaluate your product, competence and organization’s performance before jumping into a big breakthrough.

1. Product Evaluation

Product evaluation is the first and foremost multi-level marketing strategy to analyze the quality of the product you are planning to launch.

Need and urgency of the product: Many times when any businessman launches a product which has a big margin, but not a big need, while some times their product has the need but their market size is very small.

Until your product is not unique enough to attract customers it is not going to increase your sales in the market. Try to understand the need and urgency of your product in the market.

For Example:
Many MLM companies without understanding market size start selling software and end up being bankrupt, as the software has no need among common customers.

Identify the uniqueness of the envisioned product: You have to make sure that your product is not similar to products already available in the market at a low price. You need to work on the uniqueness of your product, which does not exist in the market.

Repurchase: If a product does not have repurchase value in the market, it will affect your recurring revenue.
If a merchant is selling a product that is not needed by the customer repeatedly in a frequent interval, then your recurring revenue will fluctuate drastically.

For Example:
A merchant selling suit length in India will not have repurchase value as it is not a product that customers need frequently.

All global giants work on Problem Solving Product, the product which solves the burning problem of their customers

If you manufacture a burning problem-solving product, then your product will automatically be repurchased without investing in branding.

Big digital brands like Tesla, Facebook, Apple, IBM, Alibaba, Amazon, work on problem-solving products, hence they hardly need to advertise their product.
Thus, if you don’t evaluate your product properly before launching, then it will be time-consuming, expensive and disruptive for your business.

2. Competence Evaluation
Personal Effectiveness: You should have the strength to deal with failure, negative market feedback, and customer’s backlash. You should have conviction and enthusiasm to work day and night towards the success of your business.

Inter-Personal effectiveness: You need to develop a capability to influence others through interpersonal communication, which helps you handle adverse situations while dealing with people in big size projects.

Organizational effectiveness: Organizational effectiveness is your ability to influence people working with you at the senior and junior levels. This is the most essential quality a leader needs to have to run any organization. The scriptures also said about organizational effectiveness for a leader.

According to the Bhagavad Gita 3.21:
yad yad acarati sresthas
tat tad evetaro janah
sa yat pramanam kurute
lokas tad anuvartate

The above shloka in Bhagavad Gita proclaims, “Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.”

In an organization, a subordinate follows what his leader does, but if a leader only says and doesn’t act, so will do subordinators.

3. Performance Evaluation
You can prepare a worksheet strategy to record and analyze your organization’s performance through below given 5 performance evaluation methods:

The next most important step is performance evaluation. Now you have to analyze your organization’s overall performance on the basis of effort score and result score.

Another most important multi-level marketing strategy is competency evaluation. You need to evaluate your competence to run a business on the below-given parameters:

i. No. of calls made daily
ii. No. of meetings done daily
iii. Repurchase daily
iv. No. of hiring/joining – weekly
v. No. of programs and meetings organized as an up line- monthly

On the basis of these 5 steps, write down your score on the worksheet on a regular basis and analyze your effort and result score.

Evaluate your performance on the basis of events & meetings you conduct for the organization’s effectiveness, product training, motivational training, behavioral training, technical training, soft skill training, and skill / will training for employees.

Categories
HR & People Management

How to build a high-Performance team in your organization

high-Performance team

Introduction

  • Do you want to know about a collaborative advantage?
  • Are your employees effective or ineffective?
  • Do you want to how to build a high-Performance team?

In today’s cut-throat competition most companies want to build a High-Performanceteam – a team that performs and at the same time maintains the speed.
But, the question is “How?”

So, here we will see ways to how to build a high performing team, wherein, one employee is doing the task of about five employees!

Have you Heard of Collaborative Advantage?

You might have definitely heard of ‘Competitive Advantage’. But have you heard of ‘Collaborative Advantage’?

Collaborative Advantage, in the corporate world, means forming an association for mutual benefit.

When applied within an organization, it means forging an association between the employees on the basis of their strengths for enhancing the performance of the whole team.

Competitive Advantage, without Collaborative Advantage, is not going to improve the speed and performance of your organisation.

Thus, you need to inculcate a collaborative advantage in your organisation to boost your growth, by creating a sense of inclusiveness among your employees.

“You don’t have to build the business, you have to build the right people, and they will build your business.” Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

How Collaborative Advantage can be Achieved?

Collaborative advantage can be achieved through incentivizing the role and the goal of your employees, recognizing and rewarding their efforts and results.

This leads to the effective and efficient performance of employees.

You need a team where 1 person can do a work of about 5 people. But nowadays finding people of such caliber is becoming difficult.

Let’s discuss the ways of building and leading a high performance team.

Tip #1: Give them a Paid Vacation

One of the best ways to reward your top-performing employees is to give them paid vacation at frequent intervals. Send them on vacation on the company’s expenditure.

It will not only boost the morals of top performers but also inspire others to improve their performance to get rewarded.

“Anything that is appreciated gets repeated.”

Tip #2: Give them Trophies and Certificates instead of Cash

For building and leading high performance team, do not give cash awards to your performing employees as it is short-lived.

Instead, reward them with trophies and certificates on a public platform. It remains imprinted in their minds for a long time.

Prepare HR policies for Trophies and Certificates.
Prepare a set of the parameter for giving awards and trophies as per the role and goal of employees.
Write down the rewards against each goal and put it on the bulletin board.
Make ways to appreciate them publically.

Tip #3: Coffee with the CEO or Lunch with the Boss

You can reward the Star Performer of the Year by arranging a coffee with the CEO of the company or a lunch with the boss.

You can take a picture with him and frame it on the bulletin board.

This will not only pump him with delight but will also motivate others to work hard to achieve the treat.

Tip #4: Photo-Video Case Study of a Star Performer

Make a testimonial, short videos, and videos depicting the appreciation of Star Performer by all the employees. Now, club it together to make a case study.

Once done with this, share the case study in all the groups and on social media handles of the company. This will make them feel good. They will repeat the same effort for the same or better result.

Once you start incentivizing the effort with the result, the complete culture of the office will change and speed will increase.

Tip #5: Star Performer to Represent the Company

Whenever there is any kind of reward, award, and recognition being given to your company, let the Star Performer represent your company, and

Let them take the award.
Make them shine in public meetings and social gatherings.
Let them speak on these public forums.
This will not just boost them but also the others.

Tip #6: Incentivize 100% Attendance, Punctuality or consecutive 90 days Presence

If someone is coming before time or has a 100% attendance for 90 days, he/she should be incentivized with gifts and cash.

This will make people realize the importance of time and they will also come on time.

Always remember, “To build a good intellectual capital and financial capital you need to have a good human capital.”

Tip #7: Loyalty and Ownership Award

If someone saves the company from any kind of money theft, betrayal, or financial damage then he/she should be awarded.

And if you start rewarding the loyalty and ownership of one person, the others will follow the suit.

This will increase the speed and enhance the performance of the other employees as well.

Tip #8: Praise in Public and Correct in Private

This is the most important tool of building and leading a high performance team in an organization. If someone is doing things out of the box or is giving his efforts in doing too good for the company, praise him in public.

Let everybody know about his work and his efforts.

Motivate him and help him in eradicating the problem once and for all.

Never correct your employees in public but in private. This will boost morale.

Tip #9: Recognition for Improvement in Cost, Quality, & Customer Centricity

Incentivize the employees who help the company in reducing its cost and increasing its quality, customer satisfaction, and positive cash flow.

Recognize them for taking new initiatives for the growth of the company.

Tip #10: Performance Linked

Send your Star Performer on monthly party outings; send them to watch motivational movies, sports events, celebrations and much more.

These are several steps of how to build a high performing team by which you can incentivize the Star Performers and influence other employees to raise their productivity.

Categories
Business Case Studies

How E-Commerce Marketplace is Redefining the Industry?

E-Commerce Marketplace

Introduction

  • What is E-commerce Marketplace?
  • What are its advantages and disadvantages?
  • Are you planning to take your business on the E-commerce platform?

India is the 3rd largest E-commerce market in the world after China and the United States of America, and in the next few years, e-commerce marketplace in India is set to surpass that of the USA.

What is E-commerce and How it Grows

It is the most innovative way of doing business without establishing any physical store around the world. It has seamless potential to “expand your business as swiftly as never before”.

E-commerce marketplace is an online platform to sell products to customers all over the world without any physical barrier around the clock.

It not only increases your sales but reduces cost drastically.

It helps you in:

  • Fast selling of goods and services.
  • Reach out to a huge customer base.
  • Less investment in marketing and sales promotion.
  • Fast supply chain and electronic funds transfer mechanism.

Advantages of E-commerce Marketplace Services

1: Engage with your Customers
With more and more people coming on an online platform, your presence on the internet “builds a healthy relationship with customers”, which imbibes trust among them towards your products and services.

2: Windfall Gain of New Customers

In the traditional business model, only selected people, who know you personally or who reside in the vicinity, purchase from your shop, while on the online market platform “the whole world is your market”.

Today, anybody can purchase your product from any corner of the world on figure tips.

3: Saving on Operational Cost

Here, the whole business is built on “web management system” with automatic inventory calculators, which “saves your cost on manpower”.

Now, you don’t need teller, accountant, and office building to accommodate your business.

4: Data-Driven Selling

In the traditional business model, you are unable to understand the needs of your customers.

However, in the online market place, you can understand the buying habits of your customers through data-driven traffic.

5: Digital Branding is Fast and Cost Effective

As compared to TV, Radio, Print adds, digital branding is fast and cost-effective.

You just need to “develop your digital marketing team” to beat big brands.

6: Digital Sales Pitching vs. Physical Sales Pitching

There is a greater chance of human error in the sales mechanism of the traditional business model; while in digital sales pitching you can give perfect information without any error.

The online platform provides an opportunity to “showcase products with unlimited details and visual presentation”.

7: Re-Marketing and Re-Targeting in a Boundary Less Market

It’s a barrier-free market where a person can visit anytime, anywhere even if he/she doesn’t intend to purchase a product.

The online market place is so efficient that even if a customer doesn’t purchase your product, you can “re-market” and “re-target” your products to that particular customer through various Google tools and increase your visibility.

But it is not possible at physical stores.

8: 24/7 Potential Real Income

A physical shop cannot remain open for 24 hours, while the digital platform is available 24 x 7, where customers can buy products any time from any place.

9: International Profitable Scalability

You can expand your business seamlessly at lightning speed across the globe through an E-commerce marketplace.

You can increase your profit as you can decide your margin and scale-up it without opening a physical store.

10: Affordable Employees and Affordable IT Infrastructure

The online market place doesn’t need an actual office as it can be operated from a virtual office.

You can engage people from any corner of the country through a virtual office, without investing heavily on salary, office and administrative cost.

11: Fast Order Processing Despite Huge Market Place

A physical store has limited capacity to accommodate customers at a single point of time, but in E-commerce, you can attend any number of customers simultaneously.

Moreover, people have the tendency to purchase from big market place instead of a small physical store with limited choices.

Challenges in E-Commerce Marketplace

1: Site Crash

Due to technical problems and external attacks, your website can break down anytime during a transaction, which may affect your business and customer base.

2: Customers can’t try before they buy

Before buying a product, a customer wants to try it physically which is impossible on an online platform.

This problem can be resolved by showcasing your product through graphical and visual presentation.

3: Customer can be Impatient if there is Limited Information

At a physical store, customer can ask as many questions as he wants to know about a product before buying, which has been a shortcoming of the online marketplace.

4: Shipping Delays can be Irritating

Many times online market place suffers a delay in shipping due to the logistic process or unavailability of products which leads to a decrease in customer satisfaction.

5: Constantly Upkeep Technology and Inventory

An E-commerce marketplace should have constant up-gradation of software to make the shopping experience more smooth and convenient.

6: High Competition, Low Margin, and Marketplace Fee

Many times you need to decrease your margin profit due to high competition. You also have to pay a fee to marketplace on the sale of products.

7: Limited Control in Other’s House

Here, you have little control over e-commerce marketplace services as your products are sold by someone else’s platform.

Categories
Finance Process & Business Expansion Startup Strategy

Emergency Credit Facility Under ECLGS for Small Businesses Hiked From Rs 25 Crore to Rs 50 Crore, NCGTC Modifies Operational Guidelines

MSME (Photo Credits:
Emergency Credit Facility Under ECLG for small businesses hiked from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore by NCGTC. | Representational Image.

New Delhi, August 12: The National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) on Wednesday issued a circular regarding the modification of operational guidelines for Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). The common trustee company informed that the new operational guidelines will now cover individuals and more enterprises amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Informing about the minutes of the modification of operational guidelines for ECLGS, the NCGTC stated that the upper ceiling of loans — outstanding as on February 2, 2020 — has been increased under the scheme from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore. Apart from this, there has been a hike in the upper ceiling of annual turnover from Rs 100 crore to Rs 250 crore. This has been done in line with the increased ceiling of loans outstanding and revised definition of MSME issued by Union Ministry of MSME.

Among other details, the NCGTC circular stated that there has been an increase in the maximum amount of NCGTC to Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) under the ECLGS. The amount limit has been raised from Rs 5 crore — at present 20 per cent of Rs 25 crore — to Rs 10 crore, which is 20 per cent of Rs 50 crore. However, it has been made clear that those individual loans given for business purposes should fulfil the eligibility criteria prescribed under the scheme.

NCGTC Circular Regarding the Modification of Operational Guidelines for ECLGS:

Earlier on May 23, 2020, the NCGTC was set up by the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Financial Services as a common trustee company to manage and operate various credit guarantee trust funds. It was incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1956 on March 28, 2014, with a paid-up capital of Rs 10 crore.

Under the NCGTC, five trust funds currently operate:

1) Credit Guarantee Fund for Skill Development (CGFSD
2) Credit Guarantee Fund for Education loans (CGFEL)
3) Credit Guarantee Fund for Factoring (CGFF)
4) Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU)
5) Credit Guarantee Fund for Standup India (CGFSI)

The NCGTC was launched ECLGS on May 23, 2020, for all the financial institutions of India. Among the four key points, which differs it from other schemes include — 100 per cent credit guarantee, zero guarantee fee for banks and customers, pre-approved loans and minimum bank’s risk weight allocation. However, the scheme will continue till October 31, 2020, or till the time Rs 3 lakh crore of the loan amount is sanctioned. The NCGTC has also made it clear that borrowers must be GST registered wherever it is necessary.

Categories
Startup Strategy

Startups From Home: 5 Business Ideas to Start From Home Amid COVID-19

Startup (Representational Image Only, Photo Credits: NeedPix.com)

Mumbai, August 12: The entire world is reeling under the effect of coronavirus, from businesses being shut, factories non-operational, to employees being handed over pink slips. The pandemic has bludgeoned economies worldwide, and the smallest of businesses have felt the heat. In a scenario, when thousands have gone jobless, we take a look at five business ideas which you can start from the comfort of your own home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The best part is that these business ideas will require a minimum to no investments. So if you are wondering to start a business from home, here are a few ideas which you can consider.

Sale of Masks, Gloves, PPE

The demand for masks has skyrocketed after countries across the world said that it is an important preventive measure to curb the spread of COVID-19. In India too, all the states have imposed a strict fine in order to ensure that people are abiding by the rule. From being sold as a fashion accessory to a life-saving piece of safety equipment, there is a huge demand for selling masks.

In such a scenario, there is an opportunity, if you want to start a business dealing with the sale of masks, gloves, PPE suits or hand sanitizers.

Remote Tutor

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, when schools are shut, students are facing the problem to complete their syllabus and struggling with doubts. Here lies a great opportunity for home tutors who can continue to teach their students from home via online classes. One just needs a good internet connection to start with online teaching.

Fitness Trainer

The pandemic has taken a toll on our lives, with additional workload both at the office and at home, people are being stressed. On top of it, fitness centres at several places continue to remain closed. If you are a fitness trainer, then you can start your online classes, be it yoga, power yoga or meditation from the convenience of your home.

Cooking Classes

There has been a huge demand for online cooking classes ever since the lockdown. Your friends, family members, office colleagues have all been experimenting with different dishes and have been putting it up on social media. Amid the coronavirus induced lockdown when people are still hesitating to go to restaurants, they have been making most of the dishes on their own. From experimenting with new cuisines to trying out new ingredients, there is a huge demand among the people to learn quick and healthy dishes.

If you have a knack in cooking or an expert in this area, there is a huge opportunity for you to start with your online cooking classes.

Freelance Writing and Copyrighting

You can take up freelance writing and copyrighting projects. Initially, the payment can be low, but once you build your own portfolio of work, you can start demanding a premium for your service.

So if you want to start something on your own, don’t delay your plan. These are some business ideas which you can start from the comfort and the convenience of your own home today amid the coronavirus pandemic.