It’s not easy to balance these opposing requirements, so you have to come up with a clear strategy for splitting revenue into expenses, debt repayment, investment and income.

That’s what this small business income guide is about, to discuss the pros and cons of a small business owner taking a salary vs profit.

How much income to take from your small business

Sachin Bansal, cofounder of Flipkart, has announced that he paid Rs. 699 crore ($100.3 million) as advance tax for his first quarter earnings, on account of the Flipkart-Walmart deal. If you want to avoid this kind of giant tax bill at the end of the day, you need to make regular draws or distributions to pay yourself.

That raises the question of how much income to take from your small business. While there’s no legal limit in most countries, there is a practical limit in terms of keeping your business operational.

1. Don’t withdraw more than 100% of profits. If you start taking invested operational capital and cashflow from revenue, then the business will soon run out of funding and you won’t be able to pay the bills.

2. Pay all the expenses and debt repayment first. Invest half of the profits for business growth, and take the remaining half as your share.

3. Set a salary and add yourself to the payroll. After all expenses (including your salary), invest the profit back into the business.

4. The simplest and most perfect way to set your remuneration by time spent. What if you had to hire a consultant or employee to do the same job? How much would they charge per hour or day, or for the month? Pay yourself the same amount.

Small business plan to calculate your forecasted income

If you want to take home a fixed minimum amount – whether as a salary or profit, then include it in your business plan. Let’s say you need Rs. 12 lakh in annual income. Your forecast for the first year is revenue of Rs. 2 crore, gross income of 50 lakhs and net income of 32 lakhs.

Out of this, you set aside Rs. 20 lakhs to plow back into the business to make it grow faster. That leaves you Rs. 12 lakh for the year, which should be sufficient and steady income for a small business owner. You can take it as a salary of Rs. 1 lakh per month, or a quarterly or annual distribution of 4 lakhs or 12 lakhs respectively.

That may sound simple enough, but the thing to remember is to factor in your need for 12 lakhs annually into your business plan.

The post Small business income guide – Pros and cons of salary vs profit appeared first on Evoma.

But Evoma is now also developing partnerships with many of the biggest real estate companies in India.

If you happen to be an office space buyer, enter your name and contact details below. We’ll make sure you get to see the top available office space for sale that matches your needs.

On the other hand, we also want to provide something of value to you right now, on this page. This is a list of options you can exercise to make corporate real estate investments without buying office space.

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

REIT investments in India became possible under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014. The advantage of investing in REITs over a publicly-listed real estate company is that your investment is diversified into multiple projects of different companies.

So you not only get to choose REITs that have a solid performance track record, but also get the benefit of the REIT investing your funds into different projects based on merit, the promoter’s track record, market interest and trends, etc. In effect, you’re investing in a real estate expert that will then invest further in different projects, offering you a predictable rate of return even when you don’t know anything about real estate, investing or the stock markets.

Note that there are, as of now, no corporate real estate companies in India that have started an REIT, even though SEBI has already issued guidelines and eligibility criteria for listing REITs in India.

Global private equity firm Blackstone is entering into a JV with it’s Embassy Office Parks unit for India’s first corporate REIT that aims to raise Rs. 6,000 crore, but that’s still in the works, and looks like it could actually be listed and successfully go public this year. If so, it should soon be followed by other corporate and hospitality real estate companies racing to compete by raising thousands of crores with their own REITs.

In the meantime, if you’re still interested, here’s a list of of the top 3 overseas REITs that have an impeccable track record, based on recomendations from REIT expert and analyst Brad Thomas, Senior Research Analyst for IREIT Forbes.

Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR) : An an S&P 500 company, is the premier capital provider to leading seniors housing, healthcare companies and research institutions. Investor relations.

W. P. Carey Inc. (NYSE:WPC) : A leading global net-lease REIT that provides long-term sale-leaseback and build-to-suit financing solutions for companies worldwide. Investor relations.

Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O) : Has a five decade track record of providing dependable income from your real estate investments. Investor relations.

Real Estate Funds

Apart from investing directly in a listed real estate company or REIT, the next best option is to invest directly in real estate funds. These are a type of mutual fund where your investments are focused on real estate projects. Here’s a list of the top (as in most reliable) real estate funds you can invest in.

ICICI Prudential – 10 years of real estate investing experience across diversified asset class. Executed over 55 investments, having returned over Rs. 30 billion through more than 20 exits.

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) – You can become an investor in BlackRock by buying shares on the NYSE, and/or by investing in one of their real estate funds. They have over USD 40 billion in client assets, and investment professionals to assist you across 33 offices worldwide.

Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) – Largest real estate private equity firm in the world today, with $111 billion of assets under management by over 450 real estate professionals in 12 offices around the globe.

Blackstone real estate also operates one of the leading real estate finance platforms, including management of the publicly traded Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT).

Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (NSE:IBREALEST) – Indiabulls Real Estate is India’s third largest real estate company, focused on construction and development of commercial, residential properties and SEZ projects across major Indian metros – Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and London.

Publicly Listed Real Estate Companies

Prestige Estates Projects Limited (NSE:PRESTIGE) – Prestige Group is one of the leading and most successful developers of real estate in India.

Brigade Enterprises Limited (NSE:BRIGADE) – Also one of India’s leading property developers, with a uniquely diverse multi-domain portfolio that covers property development, property management services, hospitality and education.

Sobha Ltd (NSE:SOBHA) – One of the largest and only backward integrated real estate players in the country.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd. (NSE:MAHLIFE) – Mahindra Lifespaces is one of the most reputed residential property developers in India.

Godrej Properties Ltd (BOM:533150) – Godrej Properties has been instrumental in the construction of Residential, commercial and township projects across 12 major cities in India.

The post Corporate Real Estate Investments Without Buying Office Space appeared first on Evoma.

But what are the skills you need, as a startup founder, to go from the first section to the last one? How do you get from thinking about starting a business to a stage where you are figuring out how to grow a successful business?

This is the topic of this post – the 10 must-have skills you need for startup success. It’s a top 10 list for sure, but more importantly, it’s a logical sequence of the skills you need.

1. Conceptualise ideas and turn them into commercially viable products.

Everyone has ideas, but the hard part is converting them into a real business with a commercially viable product.

By far the easiest and best way to test the viability of your idea as a business is to come up with a product demonstration and try to raise funding for it. Bankers and venture capitalists are shrewd enough to tell you if your idea and product is any good.

2. Build and test your product / service.

You don’t necessarily need to have the skills to build a demonstration piece by yourself if you have an idea. You can make do with the skill to find interested collaborators on startup and entrepreneur communities such as Quirky that can help you do it.

3. Raise funding to go to market.

We have a huge collection of posts on the skills you need to have to raise startup funding.

4. Hiring skills to bring the skills you don’t have to your startup.

Startup founders are expected to do everything from opening the office to product demonstration, sales and accounting. But if you don’t have certain skills that are required or the time to do it all by yourself, you need to have the hiring skills to find people who can do it for you. This may be a partner or partners. You can also hire employees if you have raised enough funding to cover their wages.

5. Inspire your employees to walk on coals for you.

A startup that has enough cash is, by definition, not a startup anymore. You have to burn cash and do it all a lot faster than your established competitors to grow. There are never enough employees to handle all aspects of a newly launched startup, so you need to inspire your employees to work all hours of the day and night to get things done. If you can’t do this, and your employees are clocking in and out on time, then your startup has a less than stelllar chance of growing into a success.

6. Selling skills to get your first customers.

As a new startup, the only sales team you have is you. You have to learn to sell your own product and find customers willing to pay for it. Once you have that first set of customers, it becomes easier to build on that, and you can even start hiring salespeople.

7. Networking skills to meet clients and business partners.

Startup founders, especially in metros like Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, have to rely on their networking skills at events and conferences in order to connect with large new clients and business partners. If you don’t attend these events on a weekly basis, you risk being left out of the startup ecosystem that works so well to help startups grow faster than in smaller cities.

8. Delegating skills to get work done on time.

Your startup is your entire life, and you are expected to work every waking hour. But even that’s not enough if you try to do it all by yourself.

Get partners, hire talent, and learn to delegate in order to get the work done on time.

9. Scale your startup to reach new markets.

Once you have built a sustainable business that is generating a steady stream of revenue, the next step is to scale your startup to reach other markets. This may be another branch in your own city, or expansion to other cities. If you are an Internet or tech startup with a virtual product, it’s time to start scaling your marketing and sales team.

10. Skill to start all over again if you fail.

The 9 skills mentioned above are surely necessary for growing a startup from an idea to a success story. But the one last thing you need, above all else, is the ability to get up and start all over again – if you fail.

The most successful startup founders are usually serial entrepreneurs, who have tried many times before. Sometimes they fail, but they start learning how to win. That’s the most essential skill you need to have for startup success.

The post Top 10 Must-Have Skills for Startup Success appeared first on Evoma.

Add to this the Govt. of India’s startup initiative “Fund of Funds” with a corpus of Rs. 10,000 crores, and plans for allowing pension funds to invest in private equity and venture capital. It would be an understatement to say that the startup funding scene in India is on a hot streak.

So as you think about joining the ranks of startup India, perhaps you’re wondering why bother with all these steps on bootstrapping a tech startup?

Tech startup in Bangalore? Come to Evoma. Get startup office space in one of the largest startup ecosystems in Bangalore.

Why Bootstrap a Tech Startup?

Reason #1 – BuzzSumo, Zerodha, Microsoft, Oracle, Coca-Cola. Do you know what all these companies have in common? They all started off as bootstrapped businesses.

Reason #2 – A study from CB Insights shows that of 1,098 startups that received seed funding, only 46% managed to raise a second round, and only 0.91% went on to become unicorns (startups valued at over $1B).  

These are the odds that new entrepreneurs and startups seeking funds are up against. Unless you show some traction and generate significant revenue, finding investors ready to fund you is not so easy.

So if you don’t want startup funding, or can’t get it, then bootstrapping is the way to go.

Here’s how you do it:

As a bootstrap startup, you need to make alternate arrangements for one-time expenses to float your startup, and then the monthly recurring operational expenses.

One word of advice here. Bootstrapping doesn’t mean you don’t spend any money. It just means that you don’t take business loans, and you don’t bring in investors. So, if you have some personal funds you can invest as seed funding, do it.

Startup Challenge No.1: Find a suitable business model

Bootstrapping Solution: To succeed as a bootstrapped startup, you need to have a business model which generates sales and cash flow immediately. So you need a strong marketing plan and campaign that generates hype and leads before the official launch. It gives potential customers a chance to pay in advance for a pre-launch booking of your product or service.

If you find it suitable, you could try crowdfunding, but that is actually point no. 2

Startup Challenge No.2: Funding for one-time startup expenses

Bootstrapping Solution: You’re not borrowing or getting investors on board with crowdfunding. It’s a #growthhack – you’re simply booking a ton of advance sales, and you get enough sales revenue right away to build your startup infrastructure.

If your business idea is not innovative or novel enough to attract crowdfunding, then meet the expenses out of your pocket and/or take in a co-founder who can share some of the burden.

You may be sorely tempted to go the FFF route (Family, Friends and Fools), but bear in mind that bootstrapping means no debt or equity investors. You can bring in cofounders to share your burden, and if they happen to family, friends and fools, then so be it.

Startup Challenge No.3: Capital equipment

Bootstrapping solution: Rent or lease capital equipment. Many manufacturers provide lease-purchase agreements under which you pay the lease until such time as your business growth and revenue permits you to purchase it outright.

Startup Challenge No.4: Office deposit, equipment and furnishings

Bootstrapping solution: Work out of a coworking space – No deposit. No rent. No startup expenses. No maintenance. No bills. Excellent for startups with No money.

Startup Challenge No.5: High burn rate

Bootstrapping solution: As a bootstrapped startup, cash flow is your life-line. Focus only on core revenue generating activities, and eliminate or postpone everything else. It will slow down your growth a bit, but it also reduces burn rate and keeps the cash flow healthy.

Think about it this way – A new rupee earned through more sales probably works out to less than 50 paise in net profit, after costs. But a rupee saved through reduced expenses is an entire rupee earned.

Startup Challenge No.6: Supplier Payments

Bootstrapping solutions: Payments to suppliers, along with the monthly employee wages you pay, form the lion’s share of your recurring expenses. It’s a big load off your chest if you have this under control.

Trade credit – Suppliers typically extend 30 to 90 days credit to trustworthy repeat customers. It’s hard to get this credit when you’re an early stage tech startup with empty pockets, but you still need to try and negotiate extended credit deals from your suppliers. It may help if you approach suppliers through mentors and business leaders who are well known to all the suppliers.

Want business support? Come to Evoma. Get a serviced office and meet hundreds of suppliers, vendors and established businesses in Bangalore.

Factoring – If your business involves long receivables, you can resort to factoring. There are many reputed financing companies who do this for you. They buy your receivables at a discounted rate of between 2 to 15%. Once you sell your receivables, the risk and the task of collecting the receivables is not your headache. You can still end up with a net profit in these transactions if your pricing is able to absorb the high charges.

Startup Challenge No.7: Hiring and Employee Wages

Bootstrapping solution: Reduce your employee wages by making use of freelancers, consultants, and free interns on a project to project basis. If this doesn’t work, then take a training course yourself to learn the necessary skills. Another option is to launch the startup with two or more co-founders with different skill sets to complement your own skills.

If all of you put together can handle all the work in-house, then you only need employees for growth, when you start seeing some traction and have enough sales revenue to hire people and pay their wages.

In conclusion, I’d like to note that there are a lot of moving elements involved in a startup launch. So some of the tips above may not apply to your startup, and you may also have other challenges that require money. So don’t be bootstrapping because you want to, even if it’s not the right fit for you.

Sure, it’s better to be a successful bootstrapped startup than a successful VC-funded one, but the keyword here is successful startup. If you’re not successful, no one cares if you were bootstrapped or funded – apart from the investor who believed in you.

Startup looking for investors to believe in you? Come to Evoma. Get a serviced office and network daily with investors, mentors and business leaders.  

The post Bootstrapping a Tech Startup in India – Challenges and Solutions appeared first on Evoma.

Listed below are the five most common mistakes people make when starting a business and running it.

Need help starting a business? Call Now: 80 4190 3000 or Email: inquiries@evoma.com

1. All product, no vision.

Before starting a business, figure out why you want to do it. Specifically, what is your vision? What is your mission? If you have a vision, figure out what customer problems you can solve within the scope of that vision. That will give you your mission.

Example: ISRO’s products are spacecrafts, but that’s not why the organisation exists. ISRO was established with a vision of demonstrating India’s space research, technology and exploration capabilities to the world. Their initial mission was to end India’s dependence on other countries for launching satellites. Now that’s over and done with, so their new mission is about landing on Mars, a race wherein ISRO is hotly competing with other space organisations from the U.S., China, EU and other advanced nations. Note that the vision remains the same, even though the mission and products have shifted as the organisation grows and matures.

The takeaway here is that if you start a business with a product and no vision, it won’t take you very far. How to come up with a vision, and how to create a mission statement? Read this guide.

2. No USP.

You now have a vision, a mission statement, and a product that helps you carry out that mission. You know your product can solve a customer pain point or problem. But the thing is that your competitors are also able to do all this. What is it that differentiates your product, business and brand from all the others in the market? Specifically, what is your Unique Selling Point (USP)?

Example: Evoma is now offering coworking spaces in Bangalore, but then so are dozens of other business centres. What is our USP? I’ll give you two:

• Try coworking at Evoma for one day – Free!
• Evoma coworkers get more than just space. Since the coworking space is located in and part of a larger network of Evoma business centres in Bangalore, you also get access to an ecosystem of startups, big companies and highly successful business leaders who can help you grow your business very fast.

3. Selling to yourself.

Many new businesses create products, marketing materials and website content based on their own knowledge of their own product. You end up with a product that you want or need, and a website that explains everything you know, or might want to know, about your product. The problem is that you are selling your own product to yourself, instead of focusing on the wants and needs of your customers. That’s what you need to do to in order to attract website visitors and get them to buy your product.

Example: Evoma offers serviced offices at our Bangalore business centres. We created buyer personas for ourselves, and one of them is an entrepreneur who is thinking of starting a business. So we’re writing articles like this one, offering to help people who need to know what mistakes to avoid while starting a business online. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

4. Unplanned product launch.

More than anything else, timing makes a huge difference in deciding whether your business will succeed. Netflix was too early the first time round, and they’re too late now to take on iTunes and others who filled the gap when the timing was right. First-mover advantage (FMA) may not always work if the market is not ready for you, but otherwise the longer you wait for your official product launch, the further away you get from your initial business plan.

What you need is a product launch checklist and plan. Just go through this slideshow below, and you’ll know what you have to do.

5. No digital marketing plan.

All sales are now online. Even if you meet or call a potential customer, they will want to check out your business website and connect with you on social media before they make a decision to buy. So if you have a business and a website to go with it, that’s good to help convert offline sales, but it’s not enough to get more online sales.

You won’t get a lot of website visitors just because you built it. What you need is a digital marketing plan that syncs all your marketing campaigns and efforts, including content creation and marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, SMM, email marketing, referrals, etc.  

Website not producing online sales? Use this website grader tool to check your website’s performance and usability, and get recommended fixes that will help you get more traffic and convert more visitors into customers.

The post Top 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid when Starting a Business Online appeared first on Evoma.

So now that we’re clear on what this is all about, here’s a list of the top 10 benefits of cowork office space.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #1. AFFORDABLE

For a tech startup, the annual cost of running a full-time office in Bengaluru could range from $25,359 to $30,081, while operating out of cowork office space would save these startups anywhere between 72% to 76% (Knight Frank report).

Cowork Office Space Benefits #2. NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

Coworking Spaces like Evoma offer a plethora of networking opportunities. In fact, according to Global Coworking Survey, 61% of startups choose a Coworking Space to grow their network.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #3. FINDING TALENT

You can find app developers, SaaS platforms, call centres, biotech startups, branches of large global corporate businesses, and all kinds of strategic partners in the same coworking space. A recent study published by the Harvard Business Review found that working among people doing different jobs may enhance workers’ identity.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #4. ELIMINATES LONELINESS

Running a startup by yourself or even with partners/co-founders is a hard and lonely business. You are cooped up in a small room all by yourself, and this can cause tunnel vision, drop in productivity and all kinds of problems. Placing yourself in a co-working space eliminates this startup loneliness, because you’re working in a culture where all professionals thrive as a tribe. What makes coworking spaces great places to work is socializing with other creative and entrepreneurial people which eventually leads to your innovative breakthrough.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #5. MORE SUCCESS

According to a study by Deskmag, the number of coworking spaces worldwide increased by a whopping 36% in the last year. Startups in coworking offices are four times more likely to be successful than their competitors outside, and there’s significant data to prove it.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #6. IMPROVES PRODUCTIVITY

Deskmag’s research also shows that coworking boosts productivity. According to this report, 68%  of coworkers respondents reported having improved their focus since moving to a coworking space, with 64% claiming that it became easier to complete tasks on deadlines. A full 62% claimed that coworking had improved their standard and quality of work, and 71% had experienced increased creativity. Also, 81% of people who had previously worked from home said that switching to coworking had a positive impact on their levels of productivity as a whole.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #7. COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES

When multiple coworkers with different areas of expertise collaborate together and pitch to clients jointly, they can complete larger projects which might otherwise not be possible on their own.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #8. EASY SCALING TO MATCH GROWTH

As a startup, you don’t have the luxury of scaling your office and infrastructure every month, as you grow. Maybe you can do it once in 4-5 years, and that too an cause a huge amount of disruption to your business. But if you are coworking, the space and facilities you want to use are right there, available any time you want. You can scale up on a day’s notice as you get a project, and then scale back down when the project is completed. This ability to scale instantly allows young startups to compete with the big companies with deep pockets and large setups.

Cowork Office Space Benefits #9. VIRTUAL OFFICE BENEFITS

Coworking Spaces like Evoma also offer virtual office benefits where you can have your mails and phone calls directed to our prestigious address. It’s vital to have this combination of coworking spaces with virtual office services, because you’re not going to be there all the time to receive your mail and take calls.

Cowork Space Benefits #10. HIGH END OFFICE ADDRESS

When you sign up to cowork at Evoma, you get a professional Bangalore business address in a prime location without having to pay the huge amount of monthly rental that big companies pay in an address like Whitefield. A nice business address like this also creates a great first impression on your clients and business partners.

To sum it up, coworking is changing the way people and organizations work. Want to find out more about the benefits of coworking @ Evoma? Experience it for a day – For FREE!

The post Top 10 Benefits of Cowork Office Space appeared first on Evoma.

You may be very much interested in starting your own new business, but you should have a small financial investment plan. Your business needs at least certain amount money with a good business plan. For low investment business ideas, the principle investment should range from one to five Lac Indian rupees. Small business can be started right from home but it is always better when you go for a small business space with minimum rent.

Even if you start your own business with low investment, these business ideas can mentor you the basics of running the business such as  how and where to set up your shop, pricing method, accounting basics, customer negotiations, marketing, sales and promotion. The below mentioned are the 10 new business ideas or tips to start as an entrepreneur.

Online Book Store Service:

You can start this business with any level of investment. The better option is to rent a small shop to connect with publishers to keep and maintain book stocks. To start with have 200 to 250 books as a stock at your store. To grow your business quicker it is better to have 500 to 1000 books as a stock. From just reading, collecting and discussing about your book business you should be aware of some popular online book selling organizations bibliophilegroup.com, bookweb.org, ioba.org and biblio.com/bookstores.

It should have a general business plan about how to start an online book store. To set up your online bookstore find a perfect business name or domain name. For assistance, refer websites like instantdomainsearch.com, godaddy.com, whois.net and more. Acquire business license with the help of a local Chartered Accountant.  Own a website for starting and selling your books online.

Get a good payment gateway with basic transaction charges like Paytm and CCAvenue. Select a logistics company for shipping your products like Bluedart, FedEx and more. Find your perfect suppliers and distributors for your books such as ubspd.com and ibhworld.com.

Personalized and Custom Made Gift Shop:

You can start your own personalized gift shop if you have this special kind of interest within you. To start, you have to do a small research by visiting other custom gift shops. You have to look for a right location, small business plan and better marketing services. You should plan your investment plan based on your financial status and other circumstances. Choose a unique name for your shop. Buy impressing and special gift products for your shop to attract your customers. Advertise your shop through flyers, referrals, newspapers and online if you build a website. For buying customized gift products for your shop you can refer few popular sites for product ideas like custommade.com, personalcreations.com, uncommongoods.com and gifts.com.

Corporate Event Management and Wedding Planner Service:

This would be your greatest idea to service your people during celebrations and festivals. These days, particularly marriages are conducted in special corporate halls and corporate hotels. So planning your customer’s wedding event is the most sensitive job. As a wedding planner you can earn lot of income by arranging and managing your customer’s events. For this business idea, you can refer these sites such as shubhweddingplanner.com, purplechariot.com and marrymeweddings.in.

Interior Designing and Handicraft Business:

It is not necessary that you already knew about interior designing or not. You can partner with a professional interior designer to market and manage their business. This business requires less investment to start your own firm. In cities handicraft products are becoming very popular as people are very much interested in decorating their homes with craft products.

You should find a good supplier of craft products. This kind of business could be done by promoting your products online through your website. Servicing your customers by designing and decorating their homes will fetch you good income. For interior designing business idea you can refer carafina.in, homelane.com and designarcinteriors.com.

Insurance, Investment and Mutual Fund Agency:

Starting an insurance agency is an old kind of business and it requires very less investment. You have to put more time and effort to find out your customers and build your network. If you have a concern about being a financial advisor for an individual or a firm, this would be a good business to start. You have to do marketing without any large investment and you can earn by commissions. Similarly to become a mutual fund agent, AMFI certification is a must which allows you to promote different mutual fund schemes. You can find more training programs and guides on nism.ac.in and utimf.com.

Weight Loss, Beauty and Nutritionist Centers:

You should have flair knowledge about beauty techniques and make-up ideas. Almost every one of us are so much keen on being handsome or beautiful depending on their gender. This business attracts more customers if you provide a good and special service for your customers. Becoming a nutritionist also needs a short term training to start your own service on directing your customers. To get a better business idea you can refer websites like homesalonservice.com, getlook.in, vlccwellness.com and nutritionvista.com.

Personality and Skill development Service:

If you want to become a personality development or skill development trainer, you should get trained by attending some private and government based training programs like msde.gov.in, nscsindia.org, mmmts.com and letstalk.co.in. You can serve your customers by training them with communication skills, soft skills, personality development and more.

Fitness and Yoga Instructor Service:

Obviously, this would be a part time business for you if you have flair for starting a fitness centre. Starting a yoga centre is a respectable and a small business idea. But you should be a trained and certified yoga guru. For training and certification you can reach training centers such as goldsgym.in for fitness and sivananda.org for yoga.

Electrical and Plumbing Online Service:

If you are good at electrical and plumbing service, you can start your own online service to book your customer needs. In this business you can have your own service technicians or you can outsource the work to other service technicians. You can earn your money or commissions by paying a part of it to your technicians and customer bookings. For starting this online business you can have a look on websites like housejoy.in, helpr.in and easyfix.in.

Mobile Applications, Web Development and Blogging agency

Are you a tech guy? If you are, then you can develop customized mobile apps for the mobile as that can simplify other businesses automation process. Similarly if you want to start a web designing business, need not necessary you should know web designing. Instead you can develop customized websites from many website templates available online.

Or else try to create a blog with less or no investment. Free blog design and templates are available online and this requires a lot more work. Start writing in your blogs and you would start to earn money when your blog becomes popular. You can refer online tutorials and templates like template.net, sitepoint.com, how-to-build-websites.com and w3schools.com to start your business.

The post Top 10 Business Ideas with Low Investment appeared first on Evoma.

A company at its crux, is an artificial person created by law. It’s an association of individuals having a separate legal existence, perpetual succession and a common seal. It’s capital is generally divided into transferable shares, subject to certain conditions.

There are many types of companies, the most popular of which are Private (pvt. ltd.) and Public (ltd.).  Both private and public limited companies have it’s own advantages and disadvantages.

An entrepreneur has to choose the type based on his funding plans. Let’s take a look at the key factors of both Private and Public ltd companies.

The common differences between a private and public limited company are as follows:

What is a Private limited company?

A private limited company is a business entity that is held by private owners. This type of entity limits the owner’s liability to their ownership stake, and restricts shareholders from publicly trading shares.

Advantages of a Private Limited Company

Members: You can start a private limited company with a minimum of only 2 members (and maximum of 200), as per the provisions of the Companies Act 2013.

Limited liability: The liability of each shareholder or member is limited. This means that if the company runs into a loss, the company shareholders are liable to sell their company shares to clear the debt or liability. The individual or personal assets of shareholders or members are not at risk.

Perpetual succession: As per company law, perpetual succession means that the company continues its existence even any owner or member dies, goes bankruptcy, exits from the business and transfers his shares to another person.

Prospectus: Prospectus is a detailed statement that must be issued by a company that goes public. However, private limited companies do not need to issue a prospectus because the public is not invited to subscribe for the shares of the company.

Number of directors: A private limited company needs a minimum of only 2 directors. At least one director on the board of directors must have stayed in India for a total period of not less than 182 days in the previous calendar year. The directors and the shareholders can be the same people.

Capital: Minimum share capital required is only Rs. 1 lakh.

Disadvantages of a Private Limited Company

• The shares in a private limited company cannot be sold or transferred to anyone unless other shareholders agree on the same.
• There is no option to invite public to subscribe to the shares.
• It is mandatory that you should mention Pvt. Ltd. at the end of a company name.

What is a Public Company?

A public company is a company that has permission to issue registered securities to the general public through an initial public offering (IPO) and it is traded on at least one stock exchange market. A public company is not authorised to begin its business operations just upon the grant of the certificate of incorporation. In order to be eligible to run as a public company, it should obtain another document called a trading certificate.

Advantages of a Public Limited Company

Members: In order for a company to be public , it should have a minimum of 7 members (maximum  unlimited).

Limited liability: The liability of a public company is limited. No shareholder is individually liable for the payment. The public limited company is a separate legal entity, and each shareholder is a part of it.

Board of Directors: A public company is headed by a board of directors. It should have a minimum of 3 and can have a maximum of 15 board of directors. They are elected from among the shareholders by the shareholders of the company in annual general meetings. The elected directors act as  representatives of the shareholders in managing the company and taking decisions. Having a bigger board of directors therefore benefits all shareholders in terms of transparency as well as fostering a democratic management process.

Transparency: Private limited companies are strictly regulated and are required by law to publish their complete financial statements annually to ensure the true financial position of the company is made clear to their owners (shareholders) and potential investors. This also helps to determine the market value of its shares.

Capital: A public company can raise capital from the public by issuing shares through stock markets. Public companies can also raise capital by issuing bonds and debentures that are unsecured debts issued to  a company on the basis of financial performance  and integrity of the company.

Transferable shares: A public limited company’s shares are purchased and sold on the market. They are freely transferred among the members and the people trading on stock markets.

Disadvantages of going public:

Prospectus: For a public company, issuing prospectus is mandatory  because the public is invited to subscribe for the shares of the company.

Expensive: Going public is an expensive and time consuming process. A public company must put its affairs in order and prepare reports and disclosures that match with SEBI regulations concerning initial public offerings (IPO). The owner has to hire specialists like accountants and underwriters to take the company through the process.

Equity Dilution: Any company going public is selling a part of the company’s ownership to strangers. Each bit of ownership that the owner sells comes out of their current equity position. It is not always possible to raise the amount of money that you may need to operate a public corporation from shares, so company owners should hold at least 51 percent of the ownership in their control.

Loss of Management Control: Once a private company goes public, managing the business becomes more complicated. The owner of the company can no longer make decisions independently. Even as a majority shareholder, they are accountable to minority shareholders about how the company is managed. Also, company owners  will no longer have total control over the composition of the board of directors since SEBI regulations place restrictions on board composition to ensure the independence of the board from insider impact.

Increased Regulatory Oversight: Going public brings a private company under the supervision of the SEBI and other regulatory authorities that regulate public companies, as well as the stock exchange that has agreed to list the company’s stock. This increase in regulatory oversight significantly influences management of the business.

Enhanced Reporting Requirements: A private company can keep its internal business information private. A public company, however, must make extensive quarterly and annual reports about business operations, financial position, compensation of directors and officers and other internal matters. It loses most privacy rights as a consequence of allowing the public to invest in its stock.

Increased Liability: Taking a private company public increases the potential liability of the company and its officers and directors for mismanagement. By law, a public company has a responsibility to its shareholders to maximize shareholder profits and disclose information about business operations. The company and its management can be sued for self-dealing, making material misrepresentations to shareholders or hiding information that federal securities laws require to be disclosed.

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Entrepreneurship is the behavior of starting your own business instead of working for someone else. It depends on your own interest to take risks, develop, form, manage and grow a business. This role refers to the act of bringing up a new business idea and taking the whole responsibility to lead the business when there is a success or failure.

An entrepreneur might be the boss or chief executive of any kind of small or large business. There are various forms of entrepreneurships like Social, Serial, Lifestyle and Business. To be a great business leader, you should have basic principles and characteristics. Test yourself for the characteristics or factors that you want to have to be an entrepreneur and why you should be doing it.

The factors you should follow to be an Entrepreneur

The Passion and vision are the key to success. Loving what you do is rudimentary to the development of your business. While just passion and vision will not suffice as someone might be embarking on the journey for the first time, it is imperative to be the domain expert or have the applicable skills as the leader of your business for e.g. Successful entrepreneurs need to be as someone might be embarking on the journey for the first time. Seek help from like minded people and predecessors.

Take small steps at a time. Reward on the lines of plan, strategy and execution. Watch out and brace yourself for pitfalls. Should have the ability to learn from mistakes, re-adapt re-align and move on quickly. You may have a great business plan and you may be confident with your plan. Communication is the very effective tool to engage with your executives internally and  As an entrepreneur, you should ensure that you can invest by finding capital investors for your business and there are many ways  to start a business without money.

Maintain a high level of work ethics, develop people management skills to create a fun and stimulating work environment for your employee. Being an entrepreneur, you should be able to organize and manage your own tasks. There are a lot of tools which can also help you do so. The tools are

• Centrallo
• Easynote.io
• Meister Task
• Pintask
• Todo Cloud
• Todoist
• TrackingTime
• Trello
• Wrike

In case, if you want to start a mobile application and development firm, you should have enough knowledge in application development, mobile technology and mobile app marketing. Your business might need more people.

Here are some pointers which can help you hire the right candidate for the role:

• Put better job descriptions
• Plan Your employee recruiting strategy
• Use a checklist
• Concentrate on soft skills
• Review applications and credentials
• Fix the personality to the job
• Screen your candidates
• Ask right type of questions
• Allow candidates question you
• Check their references and backgrounds

The risk you take would be measured by the amount of money and time you invest in your business. The result or reward of your business depends on how much risk you take and what kind of effort you put in your business. Try to engage with people, customers, meetings and associations as this would help you to have a network to make your business successful.
If you want experience the above mentioned characteristics as a business head, attend a few start-up workshops, seminars and networking events. Experience and enjoy your role to be an Entrepreneur.

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To become a small business entrepreneur, you have to learn to wade through risks and challenges. Be disciplined, self-driven, hard working, confident and also think smart. Believe in the product or service you are providing. Brush up your marketing and leadership skills. This helps in establishing your business in the competitive market. The Government of India has several skill development schemes like Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and UDAAN.

The PMKVY is the main scheme of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The objective is to deliver industry relevant skill training programme to a huge community of Indian youth. This skill training will help them to have a secured living and their skills will be evaluated and certified by Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). For more information, see here.

The objective of UDAAN is to provide skills training and to increase employment for Jammu and Kashmir. This industry initiative also aims to provide exposure on rich talent pool of J&K for Indian corporates. UDAAN plans to provide training for 40000 youths in 5 year period. Candidates will be evaluated and considered for job offers by the partnering corporates after completion of their training period. Stipend and other expenses for travelling, boarding and lodging will also be provided during their training programme. For more information, click here.

Plan to Find Finance for Small Business :

A small business plan requires an initial investment. There are many ways to finance your business plan such as finding good investors, financiers, small business loans or business grants. Bootstrapping is another way of funding your business through revenue generated from sales. Many business loan schemes are available from the Government sectors to initially support your business.

Some of the Indian Government’s small business loan schemes are listed below:

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI): Promotion and development are the active roles played by this loan scheme for small business industries. SIDBI provides various schemes like Direct assistance Scheme, Indirect assistance scheme, Promotional and development activities, National equity fund scheme, Technology development and modernization fund scheme, Mahila Udyam Nidhi (MUN) scheme, Equipment finance scheme, Single window scheme, Food processing industries scheme (FPTUFS) and Integrated development of leather sector scheme (IDLSS). For more information, go here .

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD): Promoting agriculture based rural business enterprises is the main objective of this scheme. Mostly NABARD offers financial assistance to small scale industries namely village and cottage industries.

The Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGMSE): This scheme provides collateral free credit to both existing and new Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). SIDBI and MSMEs launched Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) to start the scheme. This scheme provides working capital facility upto Rs 100 lakh per borrowing unit and credit facility in term loan form. The Government and SDBI contributes the amount by the ratio of 4:1 respectively. For more details click here.

National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC): This scheme was established in 1999 and its prime objective is to import machines on hire purchase terms. It works for distributing and supplying both imported and indigenous raw material along with small business unit products export. For more information see here.

Credit Link Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) for Technology Up gradation: The ministry of Small scale industries runs a scheme for SSI technology upgradations called as CLCSS. It provides capital subsidy of 15 percent (Maximum 15 lakhs limited) for the modernization of plant and machinery of SSI units as a credit availed by them. From the start of this scheme, a subsidy of Rs.1619.32 Cr have been availed from 28,287 units. To know more, go here.

Technology and Quality Upgradation Support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises: The main aim of this scheme is to make aware of MSME manufacturing sector to use manufacturing processes and energy efficient technologies to reduce emission of hazardous gases and production cost. This scheme also increases the product quality of MSMEs to promote them towards global competition. Government of India gives financial support upto 75 percent through this scheme. For more details, click here.

Market Development Assistance Scheme for MSMEs: The MDA Scheme for MSMEs provide funding for exhibitions and international trade fairs under Indian MSME stall to help indian manufacturing SMEs get attention in International Markets. It even offers funding for export promotion councils, FIEO and for industry associations sector specific market study. This scheme provides one time registration fee of 75% as compensation and an annual fee of 75% as recurring amount paid by SMEs to GSI for the bar code for first three years.

Mini Tools Room and Training Centre Scheme: The main goal of this scheme is to develop more tool room facilities to provide technological support and training facility in tool design and manufacturing to create designers, engineers, supervisors and skilled workers. The Indian Government provides financial assistance in one-time grant-in-aid form to assist State Governments to set up Mini Tools Room and Training Centres. For machinery and equipments 90% of the cost (Rs.9 crores maximum) is provided as financial aid and 75% (Rs 7.50 crores maximum) has to be upgraded for the existing room.

Select Your Business Structure:

Choosing a business structure which is most beneficial to you is the foremost and most important step in any startup. The business structure should have the advantage of flexibility in case you think of changing the structure in future. The most common and popular business structures are partnership, sole proprietorship, a corporation, Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) or Limited Liability Company (LLC).

Choose Your Business Name and Register:

A business get recognised initially by its name. The value of business is synonymous with the name of the business. So it is very important to choose the right name for your business. After you finalise the name you need to register it for all legal implications such as filing taxes and licensing purpose. Corporations, LLPs and LLCs file their business after when they complete their formation paperwork.

Fix Your Location and Get Your Permits:

Demographic location of your business is yet another important aspect of a business whether it is small or big. Location is decided considering factors such as operational cost, scope for expansion and proximity to customers. Depending upon the type of business one has to comply with the laws of the land also for permits.

Measure Your Break-Even Point:

Break even point is the state when your revenue generated meets your expenditure in business. It’s always advisable to calculate the break-even point as it helps in future planning and growth of businesses. An accurate planning helps entrepreneurs help realize their profits and maintain stability.The break-even point is the level where you are earning as much as you are spending the things your money. Generally, business entrepreneurs love to operate beyond the break-even point. This helps them to realize their profits, maintain stability and to focus on their future growth. A simple formula to calculate break-even point is

Break-even point = Fixed costs/ (Unit selling price – Variable costs)

Break-even analysis can be calculated by using with a good cloud based accounting system as well.

Market and Sell Your Business:

Once the business process is established, the next important aspect is to find a position in the market. For that you need to have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) which is creative enough to attract key customers. Apart form that smart marketing ideas and timely promotions takes the business a long way.

Enroll Yourself in More Business Networks and Grow Your Business:

Being part of an effective business network help to grow your business. It can be achieved by enrolling yourself in business groups,business clubs, business publications, etc. Leverage the network for reaching out to more prospective customers, services and online resources. Examples for business groups are local business chambers like Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Business Network International (BNI), Indian Angel Network and many more.

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