How To Become a Successful Entrepreneur in Today’s World?

The Key Steps to Becoming Successful in Today's Society.

Learn how you can start living successfully as an entrepreneur. Before you start your journey, let's first define "entrepreneur," and examine some of the characteristics of an entrepreneur in today's world. The definition of "entrepreneur" is a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. What are some of the typical characteristics that make up an entrepreneur in today’s world?

• Entrepreneurs have passion for what they do in life.


• Entrepreneurs express a great amount of enthusiasm in their line of work.


• Entrepreneurs are goal-oriented in their quest to reach their desired outcomes.


• Entrepreneurs have a creative imagination when it comes to their ideas in business.


• Entrepreneurs have a positive attitude when it comes to building their business and business relationships.


• Entrepreneurs are very quick decision-makers in their business endeavors and ideas.

These are some of the amazing characteristics of an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur chooses not to sit back and take what life deals him; he attacks life head on, takes charge of his own life, and has a persistent determination to create his own path in life. In a book called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, Mr. Hill said that “an educated person is not necessarily a person with any specialized knowledge, but an educated person is one who has so developed the higher faculties of their mind that they can acquire anything they want without violating the rights of others.” Do you know what the higher faculties of your mind are? The higher faculties of your mind are perception, reason, memory, will, intuition and imagination. Many wealthy entrepreneurs today understand these higher faculties; you are going to be introduced to a couple of these higher faculties in the following steps.

After applying the steps below, you will have a good understanding of the entrepreneur personality test. The entrepreneur personality test is a test for you to discover the mindset you have now, compared to the new entrepreneurial mindset that you will be creating. Also, your new entrepreneurial mindset will help you to understand the importance of a network of business opportunities. It is important for you to start networking with other like-minded individuals to help assist you in accomplishing your business goals. Most of the wealthy entrepreneurs today are living successfully due to the many benefits of having a small business as an entrepreneur that’s home-based in the state they live in now. So let’s go into the key steps of what it takes to become successful.

1.Create your new entrepreneurial mindset. Before you can become successful, you have to create a new mindset to achieve the things you want in your life. Examine your current mindset, and how that way of thinking has gotten you to where you're at right now. Be honest with yourself when looking over your current results, because this will give you an accurate measure of the choices that you have made over the years. Only then will you begin to see for yourself that it is time for you to work on your new mindset in order to start living the life you want to experience, regardless of your current circumstances. Once your new entrepreneurial mindset is in motion, you will start making very creative choices to move you faster to your desired goals. Find three to four successful entrepreneurs that have the lifestyle that you want, and ask them if you can interview them individually to understand the reasons why they are so successful at what they do in their current business as an entrepreneur. While you are listening to them, take notes, examine what they say to you about themselves and their success, and grasp what type of mindset they have now in their lives. This will propel your own success in so many different ways because you will be able to apply what you have learned to your own mindset.

Apply personal development in your daily life starting today. For example, read good self-help books like the one mentioned at the end of this article. Listen to self-improvement tapes, CDs, and as an extra bonus, attend a least one personal development seminar a year to help grow, maintain and keep your new entrepreneur mindset growing everyday. Your level of awareness will increase greatly with the new mindset that you are creating to go after the things you want in your life. Having an open mind as an entrepreneur will also help you make better decisions quickly, and become more creative.

2.Get out three blank sheets of white paper and a pen or pencil. Take out three blank sheets of white paper and a pen or pencil. You are going to write down your new mindset as an entrepreneur on your sheets of paper. Writing down what you want (and what you are going to achieve as an entrepreneur) is a very powerful activity that you are making a habit of now. Taking out your sheets of paper right now is a serious gesture that you are making to let your subconscious mind know you are a person of action. This step will help propel you on your new journey, the journey of taking the necessary steps needed to achieve your desired goals. These three blank sheets of paper represent your future. As an entrepreneur with a new mindset you can paint any picture you want to on the three sheets of paper, regardless of your current circumstances.

3.Write down all of your new ideas as an entrepreneur on the first sheet of paper. Label the first blank sheet of paper you have as number one. You have been spending some time changing the way you think, and creating a new entrepreneur mindset: Start writing down all of the new ideas that you have as an entrepreneur now. The ideas that you are writing down now are the ones that you have been thinking about in your mind that you want to create and achieve in your physical presence now. For example, if you have a burning desire in your heart to start your own daycare center, restaurant, hotel, or create a product for people to buy, then write down all of your ideas in every detail. Write down how big the daycare center is going to be, where it is going to be located, what color the building is going to be, how many children you will allow to be kept in your daycare, how many people you will staff, what type of services you will provide to the parents and children coming to the daycare. This is a perfect example of how you can start writing down all of your ideas as an entrepreneur on the sheet of paper now.

4.Write your short-, middle- and long-term goals down on the second sheet of paper. A short-term goal is something you want to achieve in one day, one week or one month. A middle-term goal is something you want to achieve in ninety days to six months. A long-term goal is something you want to achieve in one year or more. Write down what you want to achieve as an entrepreneur on the second blank sheet of paper. List them in the categories stated above as short-, middle- and long-term goals. At the top of the paper, you can have your short-term goals, in the middle section of the paper, you can have your middle-term goals, and at the bottom of the paper you can have your long-term goals (if necessary use the back side of the sheet of paper). Be creative when writing down your goals because this is your life that you will be experiencing in the near future. This is one of the biggest reasons why 1% of our population is earning around 96% of all the money that’s being earned in our world today. They set goals, and they keep at them until they have seen them through into their physical manifestation.

5.Write down fifty things you want to experience in your life now on the third sheet of paper. Write down fifty things that you want to experience in your life now on the third blank sheet of paper. You can start really having some fun in this step by writing down fifty things that you want right now regardless of your current bank account, job, business or relationships in your life now. Those fifty things that you write down will help you to understand that you can have whatever you want in your life as an entrepreneur. However, you have to first know what you want in detail. For example, you might want a brand new house in the city that you are currently living in. If you write down that you want a brand new house, however, that is not what you really want, and it is not in enough detail for you to realize that you can have what you want now. If you write down that you want a brand new two-story house that has five bedrooms, and four bathrooms with a whirlpool Jacuzzi in the master bedroom upstairs, and brown hardwood floors all throughout the downstairs of the house, now you are really writing about wanting that house! You can see it clearly in your mind, and you will surely take the necessary actions when the time comes to buy that home (without violating the rights of others in achieving your goal). This will surely move you in the direction of taking the steps necessary to meet your goals. Many wealthy entrepreneurs get what they want every time because they write it down on paper first; then, they go after it in their daily life.

6.Integrate personal development into your daily lifestyle. Start applying personal development everyday in your daily life. With the new mindset you have now, you should continue to feed your mind everyday with personal development. For instance, you can take out three minutes in a day and meditate on goals or just clear your mind of everything for the moment. Read a good book on personal growth, listen to meditation music, have a conversation with a positive person and people or obtain a personal development program to help keep your mind on track in accomplishing your goals. The meaning of personal development can be found in the term "self-help," which means any practice whereby an individual or a group attempts self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually or emotionally. So you see this is some great stuff to add as a part of your daily life and it will certainly help move you in the right direction. Successful entrepreneurs apply personal development in their daily lives everyday. They work ninety percent on themselves, and ten percent on their businesses. So with that in mind, personal development is a must to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

7.Give yourself a command and follow it. Now that you have been thinking and writing about your goals, the things you want, and your ideas as an entrepreneur, give yourself a command on what you want to achieve first as an entrepreneur, and follow it until you see it through to the finish. Then you can move on to something else that you want to focus on and achieve. You will continue the same process over and over--whatever you decide you want to achieve, give yourself a command and follow it until it is achieved.

8.Keep your new mindset positive by hanging around like-minded individuals. Hang around more like-minded individuals daily, monthly and yearly to keep a positive mindset. Hanging around individuals that have the same entrepreneurial concepts that you do will keep your mindset in a positive state, and on the right track to achieve your goals. You can hang around like-minded individuals by either listening to a group of individuals on the phone via conference calls, attending seminars, being part of an online forum of positive people like yourself, and keeping in contact with the positive like-minded people you have formed a relationship with on your journey in achieving your goals. The more positive like-minded people you associate with regularly, the more it will certainly keep moving you in the direction of becoming successful as an entrepreneur.

9.Take seven minutes out of everyday to visualize the end result of your goal in your mind. Take seven minutes out of your day to visualize the end result of your goal that you have decided to achieve within a specific time frame (as mentioned in step number three). For example, if you decided to own your own daycare center, then you could spend seven minutes in the day visualizing about every aspect of your daycare center as if you currently owned it in the present moment. You can also start off visualizing everything that you wrote about the daycare center in step number three. Then you can work your way to the end result of having the daycare center in your possession now. For instance, visualize the amounts of checks that you are receiving from your customers now that you have the daycare center, visualize different cars parked at your daycare center parking lot, visualize the joint ventures that you have created with other daycare center owners in your area in providing better services in your city. Before successful entrepreneurs became successful, they first visualized the end result of their goal, and continued to dwell on that end result a few minutes of everyday until it became a part of their experience in life.

10.Put four positive affirmation statements on a sticky note around your home, office, and work area in times when you need to be encouraged as you move forward with your new idea. Place your affirmation statements in a specific area in your home, office, and work area to help continue your encouragement in accomplishing your new ideas. Affirmations should always be written as positive statements in the present tense. Placing four affirmation statements on a sticky note around an area that you visit most often will further your actions toward your goal because your affirmations will began to work as supportive thoughts, and a placeholder for a more positive mindset in your daily life. Your affirmation statements should always be written in present tense such as, "I own a daycare center in Chicago, Illinois," or you can write, "I am a daycare center owner in Chicago, Illinois." Keep your affirmation statements short, positive, and to the point of what it is that you want to see manifested as an entrepreneur in your life now. You will definitely be putting yourself in the 1% bracket of our population that gets everything they want out of life.

11.Sign your name to the sheets of papers with your new ideas, goals, and the things you want in your life as an entrepreneur. Put your signature on the end of the sheets of paper where you have written down all of your new ideas, goals and the things you want to experience in your life as an entrepreneur. By doing this step, it will promote a sense of seriousness within yourself, that you mean business in accomplishing your ideas, goals and what you want. You also will feel that you have already completed your aspirations by signing your documents of personal achievement. Your signature represents a decided heart and a new mindset. Eric Rodriguez

12.Make a decision to yourself that you will never give up on your new ideas and goals until you see them manifest in your life. Do yourself a huge favor right now and go ahead make the decision to never give up on your new ideas, and goals until you see them manifested in your life as an entrepreneur. Many unsuccessful entrepreneurs in today’s society give up on their goals and ideas at the first sign of temporary defeat. There is no such thing as failure, only temporary defeat in life, period. When a successful entrepreneur has a temporary defeat, he remains calm, relaxed, and confident in his quest to achieve his goal because he understands that every temporary defeat is backed by a great or equal number of successes in his life. That’s why many successful entrepreneurs always get what they want in life; they never give up on what they want.

13.Take action on your new ideas and goals as an entrepreneur. You have been taking action all throughout this article in the steps listed above, so now it is time for you to take the necessary action to make it happen. This step is the meat and potatoes or the salad and yogurt (if you are watching what you eat, you get the picture). Take action everyday on your new ideas and goals as an entrepreneur. You deserve the best that life has to offer, so the only gap between knowing what to do and doing it, is action. Take action everyday regardless of your current circumstances in life. As an entrepreneur with a new mindset, you are the leader, and it's time for you to start living successfully as an entrepreneur in today’s world.
The steps above will keep you getting more of want you want and less of want you don’t want in your life. They have been in use for years by many of the wealthiest entrepreneurs on this planet. You now have in your hands a blueprint to your success in whatever you want to create.

I personally use these steps in my own life everyday, which has brought me an abundance of opportunities, money and phenomenal business relationships that I am very grateful for everyday in my life. So here is to your success! Remember there is no such thing as problems, only opportunities in life. Embrace every opportunity that is in harmony with what your goals and ideas are in life, and you surely will begin living successfully as an entrepreneur in today’s world.

Reference:
Lee Butler
Lee Butler

Entrepreneurs in the Animation Industry.

The Name of the Game is Animation.

If ART and technology could merge to create a business venture, the animation industry would fit the description nicely. With India’s emergence as a global outsourcing leader in the late 1990s, initial efforts were made to create a vibrant animation outsourcing industry.

There was intense interest from Hollywood and elsewhere to use the unbeatable combination of the country’s artistic talent and low production costs. However, questions of quality and scale were soon raised and the pipeline of outsourcing contracts virtually dried up in the early 2000s. Now, a bunch of start-up companies are at the vanguard of reviving the sector and India is all set to enter the big league of global animation with outsourced content, own titles and big-title partnerships. Though the animation industry has often been clubbed under the technology sector, entrepreneurs say the business is 70% art and only 30% technology. This is probably one of the reasons why big corporate houses failed to make a mark and small enterprises driven by the passion of art-loving entrepreneurs were able to win some notable deals.

Neither is it a sector that can offer easy or quick money, say entrepreneurs. Nandish Domlur, chief executive of Paprikaas, a Bangalore-based animation company says businessmen looking to make profits in a very short span are grossly mistaken. “One needs to have a passion for this media and one cannot run this business as just another profitable venture.” India’s animation industry has triggered a flurry of investments and new companies, with the news that companies from the country have provided vital inputs to blockbusters such as Spider-Man and Star Wars. The dream of Hollywood from the comfort of a desktop, many thought. Estimates by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) showed that the Indian animation industry was set to grow from $354 million in 2006 to $869 million by 2010.

Rosy as it seems, the industry needs big investment, patience and a complex set of skills to succeed in this people-driven business. “Animation and gaming are still in their nascent stages. Hence, all those planning to start a venture should be technically sound and have some qualification in animation to understand the basic functioning. With increasing awareness, this may not be necessary but currently, it is essential,” says Toolbox Animation Studio founder Chetan Deshmukh.

To survive and flourish in the animation industry, players need to have a certain amount of global sensibilities. Animation caters to a very diverse marketplace which can range from films, advertising and gaming. As creativity is key, entrepreneurs need to have a keen eye and flair. The focus should always be on content excellence.

The industry, which started in a typical boot-strapped model doing lots of bits and pieces through outsourcing, is now spiralling towards taking greater ownership of its work. The animation business is not about scale but about domain expertise. As it evolves, experts say the industry could spawn India’s own animation characters, based on not just the rich mythological tradition of the country, but also on innovative modern-day characters.

As things stand, the animation industry is investing heavily in creating the capacity to serve content-hungry Western studios. Each seat costs a minimum of $12,000, including high-end software, hardware and data centre infrastructure.

“One needs to have immense conviction and patience for the work, as is the case in any start-up. But for animation, this is very essential as this is a capital-intensive business and has a long-term return on investment prospect. Hence, venture capital companies interested in investing here look at the number of projects at hand which can give a guarantee for return on investment. Short-term business plans may not work. People who put in money now will reap the benefits on a long term. Also, one should understand and respect art,” says Ashish Kulkarni, founder and CEO, Anirights Infomedia , which is soon to be acquired by the Reliance-Anil Dhirbubhai Ambani Group.

Nandish says that one can be successful in the industry by living up to three standards: quality, on-time delivery and cost arbitrage. “One needs to attract customers with low cost, but retain them for high quality,” he adds. The industry has evolved from being in the boutique space and has become more mainstream as it is looking at providing end-to-end services. The industry is now looking at co-producing skills that include developing scripts and creating the digitised content within a certain budget. The entrepreneurs feel that the outsourced services framework will lose flavour over time and ownership of content will be crucial for survival.

Just like any technology sector, the animation industry is also being stymied by the lack of required amount of trained talent. The rare combination of artistic skills and technical expertise is hard to come by. In 2005, Nasscom had predicted that India would need more than three lakh skilled animators by 2008 in content studios alone. In a recent report, the lobby group estimates that the Indian animation industry employed just around 16,500 people in 2006, which would grow to a mere 26,000 by 2010. Hence, there is a huge demand-supply gap. Besides, attrition is the name of the game with even some of the big players losing one out of two employees within a year.

“I have started my own training academy to avert this crisis. This way, I can hire for myself as well as provide quality manpower to the industry,” says Mr Deshmukh. Also, Indian companies are looking for alliances with global players to mitigate this talent crunch to a certain extent. In the case of Paprikaas, which is majority-owned by the Thomson Group, it is able to bring in the freelancers from the West who would work for a couple of months in India and train the people.

It has taken a while for the animation sector to get the recognition that information technology sector enjoys. Early entrepreneurs made some mistakes, but the country is richer for the experience. And now, a new breed of confident and mature start-ups are painting the global content creation market with their myriad colours. They are ready to fight the star wars in the entertainment business.

Reference:
PP Thimmaya & Saket Ambarkhane
Editors of Economic Times

The Animation Man: DQ Entertainment.

Tapaas Chakravarti loved comics enough to mop up an impressive collection, but for a long time, thought little of making a career out of it. A sales and marketing professional, he had modest ambitions and a low-risk job profile until eight years ago. Then, overtaken by a passion for animation and entertainment, he chucked his job and started DQ Entertainment that has grown into one of India’s largest production houses for animation and visual effects now.

Sitting pretty at his vaastu-designed office in a winding lane off Hyderabad’s posh Banjara Hills area, Chakravarti talks of taking DQE, which started as an animation outsourcing firm, to the next level of creating own animation titles and diversifying into games. Set up in 1999 with an initial investment of Rs 5 crore, DQ Group has today become a Rs 250-crore entity with 3,200 employees. It has expanded its production facilities to China and Philippines and has lined up a number of projects involving the creation of intellectual property. 

But the dream of entrepreneurship was not easy to realise for Chakravarti. When he started, there was no funding available for animation ventures. So, he dipped into his savings from his stints at Sandoz India (now Novartis), Coats of India and Shriram group and started the firm. But within a year, early track record helped DQE get its first equity investor. Four others came on board in 2002. Now, the promoter holding is only 25% with investors including International Finance Corporation, TDA Capital Group, India Value Fund, and IL&FS Investment Managers holding the balance. 

“We focused on outsourced animation work to begin with. But, for the last three years, the thrust is on IP generation. Only 25% of our revenue come from outsourcing now and the rest comes from outsourced work and co-production,” Mr Chakravarti says. 

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) estimates that global animation market will grow from $59 billion in 2006 to $80 billion by 2010. The market for animated content and related services is estimated at $25-26 billion and forecast to cross $34 billion by 2010. Gaming market worldwide is expected to grow from $21 billion to $42 billion, while the gaming content market is estimated at about $7 billion in 2006 and is expected to cross $13 billion by 2010. 

“What makes us different from our competitors is that, we moved from being an outsourcing partner to an IP generator. We also have strong tie-ups in place, which helps us produce quality content,” he says. DQE has partnerships with leading production houses such as Universal, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, France-based TFI, M6, BBC and Italy-based RAI Group. 

The company has also formed joint ventures with two French production houses: Method Films and Onyx Films. “We have picked up 30% stake in Method and 5% in Onyx. Under Methods Films JV, we are looking at producing feature films. And, with Onyx, we have started working on two feature films. Skyland will be ready for release in 2008 while Night of the Child King will be released in 2009,” he says. 

DQ Entertainment is now ready to diversify into the gaming segment, covering the gamut of 3-dimension console games, mobile games and online web-based games. 

In the pipeline is a console game based on Harry Potter. “We already have the content in place as we own IPs. The challenges lies in transforming the art into technology,” he says. 

It is also setting up pre-production and post-production studios in Paris and Los Angeles at an investment of $10 million. While the Paris studio will be a joint venture with France-based Onyx Films, the US facility will be set up by DQE itself. 

The company has also lined up strategies to address the talent crunch, which is a major challenge for companies in this segment. DQ is working with state governments and setting up its own training academies to ready supply of trained manpower. “We are working with Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for setting up animation academies. We are planning to set up 10 academies of our own,” he said. The company has added over 4,000 animation and gaming personnel to the talent pool and it is aiming to train over 3,000 more in next two years. DQE will also invest Rs 19 crore on a new campus in Hyderabad.

Interview with DQE CEO Tapaas Chakravarti.

What's the latest news with DQ Entertainment Ltd?

A major long-term contract for 4 - 26x26 3D TV Series and 2 feature films in 3D have been finalized on 17th of January with a major French producer to be co-produced with Broadcasters from Europe and USA. This production will be completed between 2006 - 2009. The deal is over Rs 180 crores - a major break through for DQ Entertainment! On 2nd of Jan, DQE also went ahead and signed a contract for two 2D TV Series with a European major with a deal over 50 crores to be completed in the next 18 months.

We are working on a 3D console game based on the animated TV series Skyland, which is our co production with a French studio and has sold in 77 countries. This 3D console game production has already started in France and in India with confirmation from a major US publisher for sales and marketing by middle of 2007. We are very happy that the second season of Skyland - 26x26 co-production is also confirmed to start by 3rd quarter of 2006.

Last year we worked on 26 projects some of which are continuing into 2006. 20 of these are TV series and 6 are Direct to Home Videos.

We are the largest outsourcing and co-production studio in the world with a total of close to 2700 artists. Amongst these 1900 artists are working at DQ's 2D & Flash animation units in India, South East Asia and Far-East, while over 850 artists are engaged in the 3D division in India. We are looking to grow to 4000 in the next 18 months, which will include maximum growth in 3D Mobile and Online games. 

The gaming division already has over 192 people under training with ambitious plans for rapid growth.

When and how was DQE formed?

Originally in the early nineties we were a software and multimedia company, but I always had a passion for art and cartoons. I had a personal collection of more than 4,000 comics, which I have now donated to a library.

In the Mid 90's due to my international exposure, I knew that something could be done in animation. We wanted to kick-start the studio but nobody was willing to fund it. All the investors then, thought that only Disney and Warner did animation. The Mid 90's witnessed the dot com boom and investors were of the opinion that we should start a dot com company. 

With no funding available for an animation venture I invested my own earnings in 1999 and formed DQE. By the end of 2000, the company got its first equity investor and four more investors came in 2002 after they saw our immense performance and we have never looked back since then.

Managing a vast multitude of creative people must be tough. Please throw some light on your management practices?

We call it superior management skills where artists are empowered with freedom for being creative under the company guidelines. Every employee of the company has a feeling of ownership for the work that they do and also for the company.

The key factor is believing in ourselves and the creation of a core management team that has the same conviction. Equally important is simplicity of operations, corporate governance, where each and every person's role is well defined. Enough freedom is given to an artist to use his/her creativity for quality and we have very effective management for production.

Every project has to be of the best quality and on time. Non-stop training and development for creative people with very well defined HR, Technical and creative programs. We set up the DQ center for learning around six years ago and In house training has been one of our major investments in the last six years. 

We have developed (and patented) a proprietary ERP system, which is the first in the world for production management, people management, and company management. 

What is the most important issue facing the Indian animation industry?

Training.

Gear up for training fresh people, If the government comes forward and takes animation training on their agenda then many studios will be saved from bankruptcy. 

This Industry is growing rapidly; entrepreneurs and big companies are also in the fray. In a long-term perspective this augurs well, it is a good sign and the Indian industry will have more recognition worldwide. But short term such a scenario will mean a severe war to retain talent and human resource.

Today the attrition rate at DQ is just 2 to 3%, however we are gearing ourselves for a higher percentage.

My message is you should invest in training. You must train and invest in training and development. It is a must investment.

Do not crib, cry and fight with competition, we are a democratic country. People can move after their contracts have expired. All good companies must invest in training and manpower. Not depend on hiring people from other studios. All big companies in IT sector have robust training programs and sizeable investments in training, in spite of that there is a 20% attrition rate there, the BPO industry boasts of an even higher rate close to 30%.

The people here don't want to move because they believe that DQ is for them, they are looked after well, still there is some attrition due to the hometown factor. I consider churn as a cross-fertilization of knowledge, this will grow the industry and people do come back, it's a circle. 

30% of investment in our company has been into training. It is a humungous task and only this way one can create a lasting workforce and a company that generates value and world class award winning content.

We believe that the Central as well as State Governments have to take progressive and quick initiatives to promote creation of local content for TV and theatrical markets to further enhance the potential of this industry.

Could you elaborate on the Awards bit?

We have won quite a few International Awards. Toddworld - 56x 11 mins, , a co-production with Mike Young Productions for Discovery Kids was nominated for Emmy. Delta State (Flash animation cum live action) won awards at BAAF, Mumbai and then at Annecy, France. Two of our other TV series will be competing at the 05-06 Emmy Awards. Our company was selected as the top 100 Asian Companies for the year 2005 by Red Herring, California. 

Future Plans?

We are already in the process of creating TV and Theatrical content for India and global markets, produced exclusively by us and assisted by US and French based companies. 

Skyland was co produced for four Broadcasters and sold in 77 countries including Nickelodeon U.S., that is the kind of business model we are pursuing. We have to create a series that sells in 77 countries!!

Major thrust area for us in the next 3 years will be 3D Online and Mobile Games development on a large scale and enhancing capacities for 2D, Flash and 3D Animation production for Asian and Indian Markets. There will also be a major foray into distribution Merchandising and Publishing. 

Most of the co productions out of India are nothing but dignified reduction of price to get orders, It was true for us also initially but now in the last one year we have a sizeable share in the backend of most of the projects we do. We will move towards real co productions with hard currency investments where we will be involved in the pre production, original property ideas, distribution and merchandising with partners. 

We are also rapidly expanding into high end games development, animated feature film production for worldwide distribution and other children's entertainment related businesses. Many big things will happen in 2006 and onwards.

No plans for opening other studios in Indian cities in the near future, long term we may expand to Mumbai, Bangalore or Kolkatta.

A large fund raising is bound to happen sooner or later, with objective of global growth plans. Vision 2010 for DQ is to be a globally recognized children's entertainment company.

Hiring your man Friday.

Hiring your man Friday.

This is what we call in the business “a good problem to have”. The hiring and on-boarding of professional talent is a classic growing pains-type of problem that is faced by every entrepreneur. 

From my work in Silicon Valley, I have observed that startups in any industry go through three distinct phases of organisational growth characterised by very different needs. Stage One is all about innovation — creating that “killer product”. In this stage the strategy focuses on speed to market and the emphasis is on creating a culture of innovation by hiring and nurturing creative talent and product development skills, in an organisation that is relatively unconstrained by formal structure and roles. 

Stage Two is all about market penetration — creating as broad a footprint as possible for the product. In this stage, the strategy focuses on building awareness and creating sales channels, and the emphasis shifts to building a sales culture by hiring market developers and salespersons, and getting more sophisticated in terms of measuring and rewarding sales performance. 

Stage Three marks the “graduation” from startup to a viable business. It is entered when the company realises that it is has grown so quickly that things are getting out of control, and there is a risk of frittering away the gains it has achieved to competition that will quickly smell success and move in, sometimes with deeper pockets. The focus of this stage of growth is profit extraction. The strategy focuses on balancing the competing demands of effectiveness and efficiency — bringing costs and quality under control while maximising revenue. The secret to success in this critical third stage is recognising and managing the interrelatedness of the 3Ps of successful growth — professionalising, introduction of process, and profit extraction. 

Professionals bring expertise and experience with having “been there, done that”. The introduction of process brings greater predictability that is critical for better coordination in a growing business, and greater control over cost and quality. Finally, the emerging emphasis on profitability marks the transition from a wistful startup to a viable commercial business. Many startups fail because their leaders don’t recognise that their organisation and mindset regarding how they are structured, how roles are defined, who they hire, how they are rewarded, etc., needs to consciously make the shift from one stage of growth to the other. 

The introduction of the 3Ps of growth into a startup is always a very difficult challenge. Startups are often fired by visionary even missionary zeal, and a sense of intimacy, of being like family. That is exactly what is needed for success in Stages 1 and 2, but could also become the biggest stumbling block to success in Stage 3. The hiring and introduction of professionals will often become the lightning rod for drawing criticism from employees who are used to a “just do it” way of operating and see the professional as the one who “doesn’t get it”. The trigger for this ire is almost always the introduction of process — which is the ugly “P-word” in the world of entrepreneurs — and the increasing emphasis on cost or bottom-line considerations. 

The writer asks the question about red flags he/she should look for in a resume when hiring senior staff for the first time in a startup. The fact that he/she recognises this is going to be a challenge is a good sign. So how should we go about it? 

Success of senior staff plays out in three acts spread out over a year or so. Act One is the hiring of the right person. The entrepreneur should look for fit in terms of attitude, experience, and expertise in that order of priority. Attitude in terms of willingness to work in an environment that may be more rough and tumble than orderly. Experience of having worked in unstructured and rapidly changing situations, introducing process and discipline into it and dealing with/overcoming resistance. And expertise in the relevant functional area. There is nothing wrong with hiring someone with a big company background to work in a startup as long as they meet the selection criteria. On the other hand, selecting someone whose resume suggests a gap or lack of fit in one of the three ingredients attitude, experience, or expertise, could be risky. 

It is important, however, for the entrepreneur to recognise that success will depend not only on good hiring, but also on Acts Two and Three — on-boarding and on-going support. By definition, every startup feels different and operates differently. Any new hire that comes into senior positions will be seen and treated as an “outsider”. It will be important to anticipate this reaction and pave the way for a smooth on-boarding of the new senior hire because startups cannot afford disruptive internal conflict. Within months, as the professional starts introducing the business processes that he was hired to implement, waves of resistance are likely. This too can be managed with sufficient forethought and planning. These actions are not just important, they are critical to ensure the startup moves past its growing pains to becoming a viable business. 

Author Reference:

Rajan Srikanth 

President, Asia, 

Mercer Human Resource Consulting

Asking the Profesionals: Capt Gopinath

‘UNLOCK INNOVATION’

I am a 45-year-old businessman from Gujarat. Currently, I have a trading business operational out of Mumbai and Gujarat. However, it is not performing as well as I had hoped it would. Moreover, my worries have multiplied as I have had a string of unsuccessful business ventures before starting this business. This has started affecting my decision making. I am worried that I might fail in this business as well, as I did in my previous experiences. How do I deal with this phase in my entrepreneurial venture? Please advise.

Captain G. R. Gopinath

INDIA today is a country abounding with opportunities and optimism. The 9% GDP growth rate of the past few years, coupled with rising incomes and progressive liberalisation, has inspired a wave of first generation entrepreneurs to the fore. Newage entrepreneurs, both small and big, are making a foray into diverse sectors and pioneering new opportunities and potential.

You can be an entrepreneur and achieve your dreams regardless of where you are right now. Do make sure you have a vision, a well researched plan in place and stay positive? It also helps to take a long view as you may have to take a step back to survive for the next day.
I often tell people that, we cannot let the fear of stumbling make us give up walking and moving ahead. I have not studied management nor do I follow B-School jargons. I believe in taking risks, pursuing challenges and innovating at every step. I largely rely on my gut instinct which is backed by exhaustive reading and discussions.

CAUSE AND EFFECT:

In a business the two most important activities are cost optimisation and increasing profit/income. It is critical to study the market, the opportunities to differentiate your product in the market and provide the consumer more reasons to acquire it than ignore it. To identify what you are doing wrong, you have to come clear on your own strengths, weaknesses and objectives. Specify your goals and the course of action you believe will lead to it. You refer to your trading business spread between Mumbai and Gujarat. You need to understand your business space, your competitors and above all your target consumer. Think for yourself. Disengage yourself from what everyone in your industry is doing or saying. Do your own research exhaustively on your market, competition and the product.

INNOVATE:

Unlock innovation. Start by taking a long, hard look at rules and behaviours inside your organisation that might be scuttling innovation in the first place. Don’t hesitate to challenge outlined assumptions. Do not restrict innovation only to the business product, work on your processes, structure, business model and even the market. Ask questions like “What if we do this differently?” or “ What if we target a different consumer base?” During the course, you can identify processes that will enable you to inch closer to your objective. Look for innovation from diverse and multiple sources. Innovation can stem from employees, partners, suppliers and also consumers, make sure that you are not ignoring any of them.

I was born in a remote village in Karnataka where my father was a school teacher. I studied in a Kannada medium school till class 7 .After graduating from the National Defence Academy I fought in the 1971 Bangladesh war and later served in the Indian Army for eight years. I knew I had to leave my sheltered army life and explore new opportunities but I hadn’t figured out what I wanted to do. I took premature retirement in 1978 and with Rs 6,000 in my pocket left for my village with plans to till my ancestral land. That decision turned out to be the turning point of my life. As luck would have it, a dam built on River Hemavathy had submerged our lands in exchange for which the government allotted us 40 acres of barren land which no one in my family wanted, due to its inaccessibility. I decided to live on the land and give it a try.

With loans from family and friends I started with agriculture which proved to be a constant struggle leading to perpetual debt. I learnt about sericulture and decided to move away from the traditional techniques and adopt modern sericulture practices which are cost effective, environmentally safe and sustainable in the long run. Finally, the gamble paid off, I made profits and was able to pay off my debts. The eco friendly technique of silk farming also earned me the Rolex International Award in 1996.

While there is no recipe for success, you should keep in mind that sometimes innovation is first met with hardship. Many times there is a lot of push back. It is important to remember why you started the business in the first place. If the dream inspires you keep on fighting, if not, it is better to change course. Most importantly, learn to assimilate failure. No failure or disappointment is a closed chapter. It is an invaluable opportunity to rectify errors, and move forward.

EXECUTE:

While planning is important for progress and success. It is execution which becomes the undoing of great plans and strategies. It is critical to motivate your team to identify with your vision and help them pursue and achieve their potential. A good thumb rule is ‘Ready, Fire, Aim.’

The Giant Leap

It’s just the age for first love, first vote and first drive in father’s car. But it can also be the age for your first company.

NOT YET out of teens and already dreaming of being an entrepreneur? You have an idea to fix a problem and believe you can make money from it? It might have been unthinkable in the golden age of lathe machines and steam engines, but in the featherlight economy of internet and mobile phones, it is not just real, but an inviting precollege career option. Imagine Google being founded by a 60-year-old business patriarch! Both Larry Page and Sergei Brin were 25 when they started what would become synonymous with web searching, but the age of entry for startup businesses is coming down. More and more workable business ideas are coming out of campuses, often from abroad but occasionally from India too. Fearlessness, exploratory mindset and self-confidence — all ingredients of youth — are becoming business assets. Teenage startups offer a unique proposition; if you succeed, you make it big. If you fail, you are wiser by the experience that college education couldn’t have given. Never was time so ripe for the country to warm up to this interplay of youth and entrepreneurship.

But then, success stories are often hyped up and failures, larger in number, ignored. The road to entrepreneurial success is hard and unpredictable even for veterans, and can be quite daunting for a teenager. There are so many things that one must get right from the start, if the venture has to take a professional step forward. Here are a few tips that can show the light, but the journey is all yours.

Studies Or Business?

So, your parents have told you to finish college and do whatever you want only later. The good news is that internet has eased so many of the business functions that go into firing up a startup, that you can run the business in your spare time. When the Aggarwal brothers, Raghav and Abhinav, started exampapersonline.com, one was in college and the other in school. Peak season visits on their web site have touched 10,000 a month, but the business hasn’t affected their education. They plan to continue their study and qualify themselves better for business, but they also have plans for expanding the site and offer new services. With a bit of time management, it is possible to ride both the horses.

That said, big education is not essential for successful entrepreneurship. An MBA, for instance, is fancied by kids looking for a career in business, but business experts say you don‘t pick up the art of entrepreneurship from the degree itself. “MBA, by itself, imparts very few skills that are really valuable in a startup situation,” says Alok Mittal, a venture capitalist with Canaan Partners. “The uncertainty and non-linearity of startup businesses is something that most MBA courses shy away from. What it does provide is an allround theoretical view of how businesses function, but it’s not very difficult to pick that up in any case.” Want to hear what an IIM entrepreneurship professor has to say when asked if it is better to get an MBA before trying out a new business? “Certainly not. MBA makes students more risk averse,” observes Anil K Gupta of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Everyone Says It Won’t Work

The single biggest hurdle that young entrepreneurs report is that elders do not take them seriously, at least initially. Let us hope the grown-ups will grow out of this attitude as news spreads about more successes, but till then you have to learn to live with dismissive comments. Even friends can be sceptical. “People tend to have this natural tendency to want to put down an idea however good it is. We saw some of this from our peers and sometimes, they even throw you off track,” says 17-year-old Abhinav. But then, “If you are convinced, then that’s all that matters.”

Canaan’s Mittal likens entrepreneurship to new world exploration. “I would take an analogy of an explorer who has a vision which is seldom shared by others.” The traveller must have the courage to face unexpected obstacles and find his way around in an unknown land.

A deep knowledge of what you do, a professional attitude and focus on solving your customer’s problems will gain you recognition in due course.

Do I Need Prior Work Experience?

There are those who think it would be useful to have some work experience and others who feel such experience can actually make people timid. But hardly any expert suggests work as an essential qualification for entrepreneurship. “It is a myth that experience is a must for entrepreneurial success,” says R Satyanarayan, founder of Career Launcher, which is training 55,000 business school aspirants this year.

TechEnclave, an online discussion forum for computer hardware issues, enjoys the patronage of 20,000 users today. Its founders, Ajay Datta and Sumit Chaudhary, were teenagers going to engineering college and picked up some experience working informally for their friends’ web sites. “Work experience is not needed. If you just have a good idea, that’s it,” Mr Datta says. It is important to know the importance of business operations, finance, marketing and negotiation and these skills can be picked up while working for somebody else. It is a matter of personal choice whether one must work before starting up a business or just take the plunge. “If one has an entrepreneurial spirit, he/she will do it either ways,” says Manish Vij, co-founder of Quasa Media.

Do I Need A Partner Or A Mentor?

A partner who brings complementary skills, experience or money can be valuable, but of utmost importance is “alignment of objectives and high degree of trust in each other,” says Mr Mittal. A single leader startup might have its own value though. It would be easier to impart focus to the business and maintain the vision. But if you must get a partner, choose someone you know and respect, says Abhijeet Virmani, founder of Positron Advisory Services. The same thing goes for a mentor. Young people benefit immensely from mentors, who can shorten the learning curve and help in making decisions at crucial turning points. However, having a mentor is no alternative to the hard work required to make a business successful. “A mentor is not needed to solve a business problem as much as to solve a dilemma in the head,” says Mr Satyanarayan. The guide can help you decide if and when you need to raise money, hire people or form collaborations. You should not turn to the mentor for day-to-day problems.

If Something Goes Wrong?

Two hours of sleep should improve your head, says Mr Satyanarayan. All businesses, big and small, hit low points. The ability to remain calm and make logical decisions during such a phase is critical. “I remind myself that this is a hole that I need to climb out of and I sleep it off. Never make a decision at the top most or bottom most of your game.” Early troubles can actually teach an entrepreneur valuable lessons in business. Exampapersonline, run by Aggarwal brothers, saw a slump in student visits to their site immediately after the annual examinations. They say this forced them to think of ways to spread out the traffic to the whole of the year. They have come up with new ideas to keep the site relevant for periods far from exams. They are now planning to launch internship listings, campus reporting and project work forums.

My Idea Needs A Lot Of Money

An expensive idea can still be a great one to pursue if it can provide commensurate returns, says Mr Mittal. “As a first-time entrepreneur, understanding how to phase the capital raising process is a key. Progressively, as you establish the opportunity better and address the risks in the business, you can raise more capital and fund expansion.” Services based businesses that leverage the power of technology and Internet can be started at a fraction of the cost of manufacturing businesses. Mr Satyanarayan says, “True entrepreneurship is about making sure that a business model is mortally dependent on capital.” So, here goes. Entrepreneurship is like a game of chess. The starting move defines your position, the middle game shows your grit and staying power and the end game determines your fate. It takes both a bit of daring and bit of careful approach to make the winning move.

Article Resource:
Author: Jacob Cherian is the Chief Editor in the The Economic Times, Mumbai and the article appeared in one of their successful columns on Entrepreneurship/Start-ups called "Starship Enterprise".

Scrap yard to Success....

Jitendra Singh with son Lokendra

STEPPING STONES FROM SCRAP YARD TO SUCCESS

This serial entrepreneur went through a roller-coaster ride in a career spanning three-and-a-half decades and learnt some survival lessons on the way

STEEL ingots, magnets, flowers and film-making — these disparate interests hardly hold a connection for most of us. But for Jitendra Singh, they mark the turning points of a long entrepreneurial journey that began in the early 1970s and continues to this day. In these years, Mr Singh says, he tasted success and failure in good measure and each experience left him with rich experience and lessons in business leadership.

It all started on a tour to Japan in 1968. Young Jitendra had gone there along with his father, whose metal scrap business had a few customers in the land of the rising sun. A nationwide strike had given this engineering student an impromptu vacation and he used that to stay and learn his first lessons in business from Japanese workmen.

“There was a cluster of furnaces in Japan’s Kansai region (known as a steel hub). India’s steel industry had never seen that kind of growth. I realised that there was space in India to set up similar facilities, especially when we were just developing and I predicted huge demand for steel,” says Mr Singh. He found a willing venture capitalist in his father and the family applied for government licences to make steel ingots in the country.

Indian Steel Corporation (ISC), the Singh family’s new firm, obtained three licences and by 1973, had set up two plants at Kolkata and Mumbai, each with 12 tonne arc furnaces. Industrial units making small steel items were the customers and soon, the business started gaining ground. Demand was growing and Mr Singh decided it was time to scale up capacities.

The first hurdle came in the form of high interest rates. The proposal was not only turned down by many banks, but the high cost of borrowing made it unaffordable for the family to take loans for expansion. But Mr Singh had resolved to expand capacity five times and looked for options.

“That’s the second thing that one should do to cement a new business; expand. Unlike now, it was tough to raise money back then. Assistance from banks was hard to come by, so we thought of going for a public offering,” says Mr Singh. Inspired by the highly successful IPO from Reliance and Dhirubhai Ambani’s daring vision, Jitendra Singh went to the capital markets to raise Rs 1 crore.

The IPO brought in the money, the expansion was completed and the steel ingots business found a growing market. Revenues increased consistently for a decade. But Mr Singh got a severe jolt, when his father died in 1982. He took help from his uncles and managed the company, though ownership issues and a family split would ensue later.

In 1985, ISC got into engineering. In the metal scrap business, the company used heavy magnets that would aggregate the material and release them into a waiting furnace. Many engineering, capital goods and steel units had similar needs and Jitendra decided to start manufacturing industrial magnets.

“We have been repairing our own magnets, which weigh anything between 5 to 10 tonne. We had collaboration with a UK company. With the manufacturing sector growing in the country, we sensed an opportunity in the business,” says Mr Singh. The initiative clicked. Within a couple of years, revenue reached as high as Rs 75 crore (Rs 300 crore at today’s prices, says Mr Singh).

Thus, Mr Singh had established a reputation for getting into businesses where he had no prior experience and learning on the job. “As an entrepreneur, one needs to keep diversifying so that all the revenues are not dependent on one business,” the veteran explains.

In 1992, his uncles also passed away and the business was split. He and his brothers got the Mumbai side of the business, with operations in Khopoli and Bhandup near the metropolis. However, this meant a sudden drop in revenues. “We adapted,” Mr Singh recalls. ISC tapped the demand for magnets across the subcontinent. A Bangladesh office and a factory in Malaysia were soon opened. This move helped stabilise revenues, but Mr Singh felt more diversification was needed to overcome the hard times.

That is when the fragrance of flowers attracted him. Mr Singh set up an export-oriented floriculture unit in the mid 1990s. “We set up a joint venture with an Israeli company. It was not that difficult to get into the business in India and we saw a high demand for flowers in the export market. But within a short time, high duty rates imposed by the EU made the business non-viable and we closed shop,” says Mr Singh.

More bad news was in store. Beginning 1997, the global steel industry entered one of its worst phases. Steel prices fell and the Asian financial crisis made bank loans hard to come by. “We somehow continued operations till 2003, but had to shut shop after that. We didn’t have the financial support to go for backward and forward integration, which could have saved the business,” says Mr Singh. Revenues had shrunk to new lows and the business had to be reinvented.

“Now, we wanted to get into businesses where margins are better to withstand any recession,” says Mr Singh. But he was now joined by his son Lokendra, who not only understood the family business but was clued into opportunities emerging in modern times. “In our ingots business, the difference between production and selling costs was slim. So the margins were low. A recession would wipe out the profits at one go,” says Lokendra. The father-son duo zeroed in on three sectors for diversification; media, pharmaceuticals and food & hospitality.

The first piece of good news came from the flowers business. A changing lifestyle and rising middle class incomes made India a hot, growing market for flowers. Jitendra was quick to revive his floriculture business. The Khopoli unit, which had filled with the grating noise of metal scraps business for decades, was now handling tender flowers.

At that time, a movie-maker friend visited Singh’s unit in Bhandup and happened to see the backyard warehouse where metal parts had been stored. He asked for the space for a few days, so that he could film parts of his film there. Mr Singh agreed. At the shooting, film star Raj Babbar, who had also known the Singhs previously, remarked the warehouse was an ideal place for a regular studio. It did not take much to get the serial entrepreneur making plans for a new venture; an investment of Rs 3lakh for a rental studio for films and television soaps.

“We had a lot of empty space at our Bhandup-based facility. Earlier this year, we set up the 8,000 sq ft studio. Within two months, we have been reporting 100% occupancy,” he says. He wants to add another 5,000 sq ft to the facility soon.

Among other plans, he is eyeing project engineering, building on his magnets business. “Today, we have 80% share in India’s magnets market,” claims Mr Singh. At Rs 30 crore, the company might be far removed from its days of glory, but Mr Singh is hopeful. “The steel industry is in for a long-term boom...I don’t have any turnover targets. I only hope to go step-by-step, learn from every step you take, forward or backward.”

These days, Mr Singh often takes visitors to show off his star-studded ex-warehouse floor, where a movie or a TV soap is being shot. And he refuses to draw curtains down on his entrepreneurial dreams that have sustained his long journey from a scrap yard.

Article Resource:
Author: Prince Mathews Thomas is the Chief Editor in the The Economic Times, Mumbai and the article appeared in one of their successful columns on Entrepreneurship/Start-ups called "Starship Enterprise".

Micro Financing

Financing Micro Dreams

MICROFINANCE is on the lips of every banker in India today. Private equity and venture capital investor have also taken a fancy for this growing sector that seeks to tap the credit and other financial needs of the country’s poor and unserved populations. This has given a rare opportunity to entrepreneurs to bring together social work and capital-led business professionalism. Intellectual Capital Advisory, or Intellecap as it better known, is a five-year-old firm that taps this niche, helping microfinance institutions (MFI) and similar groups scale up and make the investment grade.

Active since 2004, Intellecap has worked with around 30 organisations, assisting them with their business plans, helping them structure innovative debt instruments and also facilitating private equity investments. It acted as advisor to Legatum in the $25 million investment into ShareFin, one of the largest investments in an MFI in India.

“It’s not hard to figure why so many funds are flocking to MFIs. There are 8 crore families below the poverty line and even if each family takes a Rs 5,000 loan, it is a huge market,” says Vineet Rai, co-founder. Rai started the venture with his wife, Swati Rai, and two other friends, Pawan Mehra and Upendra Bhatt.

Rai and Mehra met at IIM-A where Pawan was a student. Rai was the CEO of Gyan, an incubation fund for rural innovation set up by IIMA and the Gujarat government. The two of them, along with Bhatt, a friend of Pawan’s, put together their savings and started the institution.

It is hard to pinpoint Intellecap’s precise line of business because like the firms it advises, it was not set up with the motive for huge profits. It was set up to bridge the gap between the entrepreneurs and investors, provide consultancy services and support to for-profit social enterprises along the lines of what their mainstream corporate counterparts could access, and knowledge advisory in the form of an MFI gateway it manages for the World Bank. The nature of the companies it advises also makes it difficult for Intellecap to earn substantial revenues from a single client or transaction, unless it has a diverse revenue mix.

In 2004, nearly all its revenues came from knowledge advisory and the MFI portal it built and still manages. In 2005, however, revenues from consulting services also kicked in and it was its largest business. In the last two years, in addition to these revenue streams it also got revenues from helping MFIs structure innovative debt instruments and advising on investment transactions such as the Legatum-Sharefin deal.

Social investment banking is a growing business and Intellecap is currently in talks with six organisations on the sell side and has working relationships with 10 entities on the buy side. As Intellecap grows and with the huge interest in the microfinance sector, this could soon turn out to be its largest business in the coming years.

“There is a complete dichotomy between the entrepreneurs of some of these socially-focused ventures and the investors who fund them. The entrepreneurs are talking about the poor and the investors are talking term sheet and drag along clauses — there is a fear psychosis when you talk about financing,” says about the need for such an advisory service.

Earlier this month, Intellecap itself got an $8.4 million investment from Legatum. It intends to use these funds to expand globally with centres in Amsterdam, London and Africa. “Amsterdam and London is where the money supply is and places like Africa and Asia is where this money is needed the most,” says Rai. Currently, Intellecap’s operations are spread between Hyderabad, which is emerging as the MFI hub of the country, and Mumbai. “Our entire team is below 30. I’m oldest person around,” says Vineet, all of 35.

What is Micro Financing?

Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including the self-employed. The term also refers to the practice of sustainably delivering those services. More broadly, it refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers".

About Intellecap:

Intellecap is focused on the multiple bottom-line investment industry. As such, they offer services to various players within this space including investors, enterprises, entrepreneurs, multi-lateral development agencies, policy makers, and many others.

In order to intelligently allocate capital, they provide these diverse players with individualized services that range from investment banking, enterprise development, research, and trainings, to knowledge management and thought leading publications to develop the multiple bottom-line industry as a whole.

Working in both indirect strategic advisory roles and direct design and execution, Intellecap leverages its understanding of mainstream, profit-oriented business models to create unique solutions that create multiple bottom-line returns.

Article Resources:
Author: N Shivapriya is the cheif editor in the Economic Times and the article appeared in one of their successful columns called "Starship Enterprise". For more information on Intellecap log on Successful Entrepreneur: Micro Financing

Design Trends in upcoming Retail Stores

Designs on their mind.

The story of a team of five youngsters who sensed an opportunity before others and built one of the largest independent studios in the country

FOR A while it seemed like the design revolution was going to pass India. With a retail boom well and truly on, it was only natural that there would be a ripple effect in product and display design, but many retailers chose to go overseas for store design and display. Shark Design is one of those companies that had sniffed the opportunity five years ago and lapped it up. Its founders seem to have got a headstart over a host of advertising agencies that are beginning to get interested in design.

The design firm, run by five thirty-somethings, has been at the forefront of the retail store design business in the last five years.

Their work is there to see at practically every retail store — Pantaloon, Etam, Reebok, Samsung and the Worldspace lounges, to name but a few. And it’s not just the store design for these retailers, the actual point-of purchase displays and other retail knickknacks have all been designed and manufactured by Shark Design. While the company asserts its presence also in 3D modelling and animation, it would be no exaggeration to say that nearly all its revenues come from retail design and manufacturing.

How did it all come about? In 2002, three friends, Ashish Jain, Manish Jain and Avnish Jain kicked steady day-jobs in some of the biggest advertising agencies of the country to start their own business. But back then, design wasn’t uppermost on their minds. The company they set up was Eventz Entertainment, which as the name suggests, was an event management company. It was only next year that Eventz Entertainment morphed into Shark Design, and Avnish was the brains behind the design. Today, just about four years later, Shark Design is one of the largest independent design studios in the country, and one of the few that have a fully equipped manufacturing facility as well. The design firm clocked a turnover of Rs 30 crore in FY07. It had already broken even after three years of operation in FY06. Interestingly, the design house ran entirely on its own steam out of a small office in Delhi. There were no bank loans, and no borrowings from family etc.

(Clockwise from left): Ajay Naqvi, Avenish Jain, Manish Jain and Ashish Jain

Amit Ajwani, one of the five partners who joined the organisation just after it was set up, describes the defining moment for the company. He says: “It was a Samsung event that we were working on. We were asked by them to create a display unit for an event and that was the beginning.” Mr Ajwani was an old JWT hand and had studied together with one of the co-founders, in Indore. He quit JWT about three years ago, where he was servicing a bulk of the Unilever businesses to take charge of the Mumbai branch of Shark Design. Ajay Naqvi, formerly of Ogilvy & Mather — and the man with the baritone voice behind “kuch log Sumo chalate hai” — came on board around the same time.

The advertising background of the founding partners has been a great influence in shaping the agency. Says Mr Ajwani: “We spend a lot of time on shop floors trying to understand consumer behaviour and we see how we can translate these learnings into our design and manufacturing.” That surely must have impressed Kishore Biyani, the Future Group head honcho. Mr Biyani recounts spending hours on the shop floor in his book, and he’s given most of the new retail business to Shark Design even though Future Group has an in-house design firm called Idiom. A lot of emphasis has also been spent on market research and understanding what clients want. Besides the Future Group, for whom Shark handles Pantaloon, Etam and aLL stores, the other big clients include Samsung and Worldspace.

Mr Ajwani and the others are too concerned about the imminent entry of foreign design houses. Fitch Design, one of the leading retail design firms worldwide, has just made a big-bang entry into India by bagging the AV Birla Retail account and designing their ‘more.’ stores. Most of the domestic work would still go to Indian design firms since the account size would be too small for someone like Fitch.

Second, Shark’s manufacturing facilities allow them to work on design execution instead of actual design and it has already worked with Fitch on a few designs that the latter has created. The company also says it is cheaper than any of the big design houses, with Mr Ajwani reckoning that it charges barely a sixth of what a big design house like Fitch would charge.

Of course, the five don’t want to rest on their laurels. Mr Ajwani has clearly stated that the company aims to top Rs 100 crore by 2010, which means that it has to grow at 100% every year for the next three years. Unless the organised retail industry is completely thrown off the rails by all manner of protesters, it would take a brave man to bet against this sort of growth.

Article Resources:
Irshad Daftari is the Chief Editor in the The Economic Times, Mumbai and the article appeared in one of their successful columns on Entrepreneurship/Startups called "Starship Enterprise". For more information on Shark Design log on Successful Entrepreneur - Design Studios

Retail design trends for 2008.

As 2007 runs out, retail fixture manufacturers and designers have their eyes turned to 2008. What exactly will the New Year bring in terms of retail design? There are certainly bound to be surprises and wildcards (as there always are), but there are also a few emerging trends, having built momentum during recent years, that will go full steam into the upcoming year.

Green is the new “it” trend

When Wal-Mart starts doing it, you know it has to be big. Of course, I’m talking about “going green.” Reducing your negative environmental impact used to be something only the niche, nature-loving brands worked toward, but as society begins embracing the environmentally conscious state of mind, more retailers are jumping on the bandwagon to stay in tune with their target customers.

It’s more than just seeing

More and more, consumers are looking for more than just products or services when they enter a business. They are looking for an experience. With the power a great experience has on same-store sales, retailers are doing their best to create immersive environments that are a treat for more than just the eyes. Hearing, smell, taste, and touch are stepping out from sight’s shadow to create a complete sensory experience.

Seven Signs of a Successful Entrepreneur

Seven signs of an Entrepreneur

IT TAKES an entrepreneurial fire in your belly to start a business — and make it succeed — and not everyone has it. How do you know if you have what it takes to start a business? There’s really no way to know for sure. But there are things in common among the emotional and family fabric of people ready to consider an entrepreneurial venture. You don’t have to fit all seven of these categories to be a good candidate for entrepreneurship. But it probably wouldn’t hurt. In general, the more you have in common with these characteristics, the closer you probably are to being ready to try going out on your own.

1

You come from a line of people who couldn’t work for someone else. People who are successful at establishing their own business tend to have had parents who worked for themselves. It’s usually easier to get a job with a company than to start your own business; people who strike out on their own often have the direct example of a parent to look to.

2

You’re a lousy employee. No need to sugar-coat this one. People who start their own businesses tend to have been fired from or quit more than one job. It is not to say you were laid off for lack of work or transitioned from one job to a better-paying one — you were cut loose, or you quit before they could fire you. Think of it as the marketplace telling you that the only person who can effectively motivate and manage you is yourself.

3

You see more than one definition of “job security.” The very few people who’ve stayed with one employer for 25 or 30 years may look incredibly secure, but how many people do you know who are able to stay with one company for that long? In a rapidly changing economy, job security can be frighteningly fleeting. To paraphrase one business observer, “It’s way better to have 100 idiot clients than to have one idiot boss.”

4

You’ve gone as far as you can go, or you’re not going anywhere at all. Sometimes the motivation to start a new venture comes from having reached the top of the pile where you are, looking around, and saying, “What’s next?” Early success can be wonderful, but early retirement can sometimes drive energetic and motivated people totally batty. On the other hand, the drive to build something new can also come from deciding that you’re stuck in the middle instead of at the top. Fear of stagnation can be a powerful motivator, especially if you have an idea for something that could be at least more interesting and potentially more lucrative.

5

You’ve done the market research already. Don’t even talk to me about your great business idea if you haven’t put the time into figuring out if there’s a market for your product or service. As the people behind any number of failed internet ventures will tell you, “cool” doesn’t necessarily translate into “profitable.” Don’t bother building it if you haven’t figured out whether there’s a good chance the customers will come.

6

You’ve got the support of your family. Starting a business is stressful under the best of circumstances. Trying to do it without the support of your spouse or other significant family members or friends would probably be unbearable.

7

You know you cannot do it alone. You might excel at promoting a business. Maybe you love running the financial end of the enterprise. You could be someone who starts a business because you have unique creative or technical know-how to create a product.

Any of the above is possible, but it’s unlikely that you are going to excel at all of these tasks — or at all of the tasks involved in running any business. Forget all that “lone wolf” stuff. No matter how “go-italone” your philosophy is, you’re going to need some help sometime.

The willingness to get that help — having employees, partners or consultants for those areas in which you are not an expert — is one indicator of likely future success. As development consultant Ernesto Sirolli writes in “Ripples from the Zambezi,” “No successful entrepreneur has ever succeeded alone... The person who is most capable of enlisting the support of others is the most likely to succeed.”

Reference:
(Adapted from Microsoft’s Small Business Centre website)

A Crorepati who lives in a hut!

Successful Entrepreneur in the Making!!!

His story is an inspiration for millions. A self-made entrepreneur, his mission is to help the poor through job creation. E Sarathbabu hit the headlines after he rejected several high profile job offers from various MNCs after he passed out of IIM, Ahmedabad two years ago.

He instead started a catering business of his own, inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, worked as an ayah in an Anganvadi to educate him and his siblings. As a child, he also sold idlis in the slum where he lived. "We talk about India shining and India growing, but we should ensure that people do not die of hunger. We can be a developed country but we should not leave the poor people behind. I am worried for them because I know what hunger is and I still remember the days I was hungry," says Sarathbabu.

In August 2006, Sarathbabu's entrepreneurial dream came true with Foodking. He had no personal ambition but wanted to buy a house and a car for his mother. He has bought a car but is yet to buy a house for his mother. The "foodking" still lives in the same hut in Madipakkam in Chennai. Today, Foodking has six units and 200 employees, and the turnover of the company is Rs.32 lakh a month. But it has not been a bed of roses for Sarathbabu. After struggling and making losses in the first year, he managed a turnaround in 2007.

How has his experience as a 'Foodking' been in the last two years? Sarathbabu shares the trial and tribulations of an exciting and challenging job in an interview with Shobha Warrier.

A Tough Beginning

As I am a first generation entrepreneur, the first year was very challenging. I had a loan of Rs 20 lakh by the end of first year. I had no experience in handling people in business, and it was difficult to identify the right people. Though I made losses in the first year, not even once did I regret my decision of not accepting the offers from MNCs and starting an enterprise of my own. I looked at my losses as a learning experience. I was confident that I would be successful one day.

Sleeping on the railway platform

My first unit was at IIM, Ahmedabad. When we started our second unit in October 2006, I thought now I would start making money. But I made losses of around Rs 2000 a day. A first generation entrepreneur cannot afford such a loss. But I worked really hard, working till 3 a.m. in the morning. What reduced my losses were the birthday party offers.

I started the third unit again in Ahmedabad but it also made losses. All my units were cafeteria and I understood then that the small cafeterias do not work; I needed huge volumes to work. My friends who were extremely supportive in the first year when things were difficult for me. I had taken loans from my IIM-A friends. They were earning very well.

In December 2006, an IIM Ahmedabad alumni event took place in Mumbai and I decided to go there mainly to get a contract. I was hopeful of getting it. I also knew that if I got the huge contract, I would come out of all the losses I had been incurring.

I booked my train ticket from Ahmedabad to Mumbai for Rs 300 and I had Rs 200 in my hand. As the meet went on till late at night, I could reach the station only at midnight. I missed the train. I decided to sit on the platform till the morning and travel by the next train in the morning. I didn't have the money to check into a hotel. I didn't want to disturb any of my friends so late at night.

It was an unforgettable night as I was even shoved off by policemen from the platform. It was quite insulting and embarrassing. After two hours, people started moving in, I also went in.

A man who sat next to me on the platform gave me a newspaper so that I could sleep. I spread the newspaper and slept on the platform! I sleep well. I got my ticket refund in the morning and went back to Ahmedabad. And, luck did not favour me, I didn't get the contract.

In March 2007, I got an offer to start a unit at BITS, Pilani (Sarathbabu was an alumnus of BITS, Pilani). That was the first medium break for me. For the first time, I started making profits there though the other units continued to make losses. The reason for our success at BITS, Pilani was the volume; there were more students and there was a need for a unit like ours while in Ahmedabad, they have at least a hundred options.

If I made Rs 5000 a day at Ahmedabad in two shifts, here I made Rs 15,000 a day. BITS, Pilani unit gave me the confidence to move on. Unless you make money, you can't be confident in business.

What changed my fortune

When all my friends who worked for various MNCs made good money every month and I made losses with my venture. But I kept telling myself, I am moving in the right direction to reach my ambition and vision. My dream was to provide employment and I was doing just that. I continued to work till 3 a.m. but I never felt tired.

Through BITS, Pilani, I got the BITS, Goa contract and that was the biggest break for me. It was not a cafeteria like the earlier ones but the dining hall that we got. We had to feed 1300 students. We started our operations in July 2007. At Rs 50, for 1300 students, our sales was Rs 65,000 per day. We soon started making a profit of Rs 10 to 15,000 a day. Around 60 to 70 people work there. I gave the charge of the Ahmedabad operations to one of my managers and moved to Goa.

I was still in debt by Rs 15-20 lakhs but I knew BITS, Goa would keep my dream alive. Within six months of starting our operations in Goa, I repaid all my debt.

I was called to give a speech at the SRM Deemed University. After the speech, I asked the Chancellor, can you give me an opportunity to serve in your campus? He said, "If not you, to whom will I give such an opportunity?" It's a food court but a big one, similar to the one at BITS, Pilani. There are around 17,000 students there.

Now, I have the BITS, Hyderabad contract, ready to start in July 2008. Other than the six units, I have approached a few more universities and corporate houses too. In the first year, I had made a loss of Rs 25 lakh. Right now, we have a turnover of Rs 32 lakh every month, which works out to 3.5 crore (Rs 35 million) a year.

I have hired about 200 people. Indirectly, we touch the lives of around 1000 people. By this year end, we will have 500 people working for us. Only 10% of my workers are educated, the rest are uneducated. I want to make a change in their lives. If they have any problem, I will take care of it. We support the marriages and education of poor families. We are paying more to the employees as the company is doing well. Now that the foundation is strong, I plan to have ten units and a turnover of Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) turnover by next year

His advice: Never give up!

In the last two years, I have given more than 120 lectures in various institutions in India. When I got the first opportunity to speak, I thought God had given me an opportunity to encourage or inspire entrepreneurs. When youngsters tell me they are inspired, I feel good.

When you just dish out the theory, nobody believes you. But when you do it, they believe you. What I tell them is based on my own experiences.
When I thought of starting a company, I felt India needed 100 people like Narayana Murthy and Ambani. If 100 such people support 2 lakh people each, imagine how many Indians get supported.

Entrepreneurship is needed to uplift the poor. It is not easy to be an entrepreneur, especially a first generation entrepreneur.
There will be lots of challenges in the beginning but you should learn to look for the light at the end of the tunnel.
Never give up even if there are hurdles. There are many who give up within a week.
You need determination and a tough mind to cross the initial hurdles.
If you are starting without much money, you should not have any overhead expenses.

He still lives in the same hut

As I am in the food business, I know how much the price of every food item has gone up. Many people will languish in poverty because of inflation. Had my mother been working as an Anganvadi ayah today and earning Rs 1500, she would not have been able to feed us and educate us.

On the one side, we talk about India shining and India growing, but we should ensure that people do not die of hunger. We can be a developed country but we should not leave the poor people behind. I am worried for them because I know what hunger is and I still remember the days I was hungry. That is why I feel it is our responsibility to take care of them.

I wanted to buy a car and a house for my mother. I bought a car first, not a house. I still live in the same house, the same hut. I can build a house right now but I want my business to grow a little more. I feel good in the hut; that's where I get my energy, that's where I lived 25 years of my life. I want to remind myself that the money and fame should not take me away from what I want to achieve.

But within six months, I will build a good house for my mother. Her only advice to me is, don't waste money.

Till I was in the 10th, there was no electricity in my house. I had to sit near the kerosene lamp and concentrate hard. That's how I learnt to concentrate.
The two year journey has been very enriching. It seems like a 20-year journey for me. I was living every moment of the two years, from sleeping on the Mumbai railway station platform to this level.