What is the scope of the online laundry service in India

Scope of the online laundry service in India:

The Internet has been a boon to the consumer industry. Starting from Food -Groceries -Utensils-Furniture-Automobiles-Consumer Electronics-Consumer Durables-Clothes-Laundry and you name anything it can be delivered online in a ‘jiffy’

The largest players in the e-commerce/food space are- Amazon/Flipkart/Swiggy/Zomato

Off late laundry is also making its presence in the hyperlocal delivery segment

Laundry should be done according to the worth and the market cannot be captured by giving hefty discounts like the other giants in the consumer tech space.

The biggest challenge is the logistics which is the backbone of the online consumer space

Here is a small comparison between the Delivery Processes of an E-Commerce/Food and Laundry Companies:

A. Delivery process(E-Commerce/Food Delivery)

E-Commerce:

Customer places an order — Company — Vendor/Fulfillment Centers — Customer

Food Delivery:

Customer places an order — Company — Restaurants/Cloud Kitchens — Customer

B. Laundry delivery process:

Customer places an order — Company — Delivery Executive goes to the customer (pick-up the clothes) — Process the clothes (factory) — Delivery Executive deliveries the clothes back to the customer

*There will be a lot of sentiments attached to the clothes and that is the biggest risk

So the basic driving point here is the delivery guy should go twice to a customer’s place which is same as picking a defective product from a customer in the e-commerce context i.e., ‘return product’.

Normal pickup and delivery of clothes is as good as ‘returning a product in the e-commerce’. At the time of delivery, the customer will check the quality for around 20–30 min. If there is any quality issue they will return them back and again we should deliver. So it is as good as ‘returning a product’ TWICE in the e-commerce terminology

Comparison between E-commerce/Food/Laundry Deliveries:

As per industry standards for e-commerce segment the return ratepercentages are-

1. Industry standards- 30%

2. Flipkart- 15–20%,

3. return percentage for Amazon- 5.5%,

But when it comes to the online laundry industry it is 100% return all the time when compared with the e-commerce space

So, online laundry service cannot be compared to Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola or with anyone who provide their services online

In my view as a laundry consultant if the following points are followed judiciously then there is a lot of scope/growth for the ‘online’ laundry segment to prosper-

1. Pricing: 

Price your service accordingly without hefty discounts. Once the investments die down this segment cannot get back on its legs like the other e-commerce or the food delivery companies

2. Quality: 

Quality should be given the topmost priority without which there will be no return customers

3. Delivery Time:

 Promise the customer if you are only 100% sure of delivering the clothes on time. If there is any issue inform him prior to the delivery date

4. Stain Removals: 

The stains cannot be removed 100% but make sure that the same will be conveyed to the customers properly

The laundry industry is itself a 2.2L cr industry and the organized sector is under 5% and the rest is still unorganized. So there is definitely a lot of scope. But keeping all these constant it is time that the laundry industry shows it’s really worth to the customers.

If you have more doubts on how to get into the laundry industry (or) on how to start a laundry plant (or) invest in the laundry industry you can visit-

Website: www.pk-enterprises.com

Email: md.pkenterprises@gmail.com

Call: +917569800675

PK Enterprises- Laundry Planning Consultant

PK Enterprises- Laundry Planning Consultant

PK Enterprises is one of the most sort out laundry consultant’s based out of Hyderabad. It was started by myself Mr.Premanth Kundurthi(PK)  I own a laundry and Dry-Cleaning company- PKC Laundries. I’ve faced a lot of hurdles from the time we started our laundry. I’ve started PK Enterprises to make sure that my fellow members and laundries do not face the same situation. 

The various types of services that can be availed through PK Enterprises are as follows:

1.Land

2.Plant Layout

3.Equipment planning

4.Electrical planning

5.Plumbing

6.Chemicals planning

7.Manpower planning

8.Pricing

9. Business Planning

10. Insights on the laundry industry

1. Land

Once the person has enough insight on the industry then the next important step is to find out a suitable land on where to start the plant/factory. The place of processing is very important in three ways. There are three important points to be noted while choosing a place for setting up a laundry

Water should be adequate as it is the heart of a laundry setup, the water in the location should be of a low ppm and there should be adequate water even during the summer season

The overall logistics should be less from the selected location

The land (factory) should be compliant with the laws of the government (if it is in the city limits then there might be chances that the government will not give full permission to run the show).

2. Plant Layout

Once the location of the plant is finalized next comes the plant layout. In the layout we will have a draft of the actual setup. Where will the machines be placed, which machine comes first, how much space should be left for hand wash etc.

3. Equipment Planning

In this stage we will plan on which equipment to purchase, which brand, capacity of the machinery and other factors. As equipment plays a major role and it takes the bulk of the investment in the laundry setup one should be very much careful while planning for the equipment.

One should be very careful to check if the after service part is as good as the sales part. Because once the machinery is purchased it should run for a good 6-7 years for this to happen the service part should be sorted out.

4. Electrical Planning

Electrical planning is one of the important parts of a laundry setup. First we should know how much input power we actually need and then take a 10-20% percent more on the actuals. 

This helps us in shielding from paying the ACD (Additional Consumption Deposit) charges year over year. As the laundry is a mechanized one electrical planning should be done without any errors.

5. Plumbing

Plumbing is also one of the important divisions in a laundry plant. Pipes through which water is passed to the machines should be aligned properly and they should be leak proof. 

If there is a single leak then the whole plant will be damp and the work will be halted. Plumbing should be done very precisely and at the same time neat and crisp. It should be done in a haphazard way.

In my experience I’ve seen that many laundry owners have spent a lot on plumbing work but on the other hand if they were careful from the start then the money spent by them would have been much lesser

6. Chemicals Planning

Right chemicals add up to the quality of the service. So choosing chemicals is also one of the finer points. The important point is with less investment on chemicals we can bring more quality but at the same time if we do not have enough knowledge on chemicals we can lose more money and on top of that the quality can also be degraded. 

Also chemicals will be suggested depending on the type of client we provide our service. Clients require a specific type of chemicals to be used, depending on the pricing and other things we will specify the brand of chemicals to be used

7. Manpower Planning

Manpower planning is one of the toughest and challenging tasks in a laundry industry. Without manpower nothing can be achieved in this industry. The person who is running the show should have that knack of maintaining people. 

As 90% of the people working here will be blue collar workers, it is very important to maintain and make them work. If this segment is cracked then laundry business will be one of the best. Hence manpower planning should be strategized very smartly and no errors should creep in.

8. Pricing

Pricing is the make or break of any industry. Prices should be competitive and at the same time workable for us. We should not go very less or very high, and this point should be very thoroughly thought off.  We should not give anything for free or at a discounted price. 

Through our quality, service and customer interaction, we should make the customer understand why we charge a certain price. It is our responsibility to help the customer know the worth of the Product or Service we are giving them. 

9. Business Planning

In business planning one should know from where to get the business and whom to tap to get the business. There is a lot of business out there but we should carefully choose among all the available options.

 We should carefully choose our target market and work according to that. Our plan should be focused and we should not deviate. Also sometimes we should be flexible so that we can venture into territories that are unknown to us.

Insights on laundry industry

A person before starting a laundry company should know what all happens in the laundry industry. We at PK Enterprises share you our experiences and insights on how we visualize this industry 5-10 years down the lane. 

This step is very much necessary because the person who is trying to get into this industry will know how the laundry actually works. Without this, if a person starts a laundry setup then there are 99% chances that he/she has a high probability of facing uphill tasks to run their laundry setups

PK Enterprises is their first choice and we are always ready to understand their requirements and provide what they want.Hence at PK Enterprises we will help a person to get fixed to a particular vertical to which he wants to provide his services and make him/her stronger in that particular vertical

We have a thorough knowledge of all the various segments in a laundry industry and through our experience, we can guide a person to successfully start and run a laundry plant. 

Is it that only a girl who has to sacrifice in a marriage?

I had recently watched a wonderful telugu movie Fidaa that revolved around the premise - "Why should only girls have to sacrifice in a marriage?" That question has actually triggered few thoughts which I'm going to share it with you here.

The premise has actually portrayed that boys are not at all at the taking end which I would like to negate with. However strained the relationship might be with her parents and siblings prior to marriage, the love, care, respect and affection of the family members multiplies on the girl after she leaves her home after marriage. This scenario actually works oppositely for boys. Post marriage, wife becomes the priority of the man and would strain the relationship of the boy with his family members to that extent that many a times the boy gets separated from his parents because of clashes and ends up not talking to his parents and siblings for the rest of his life. So the point I want to reiterate here is that boys are at par with the girls in terms of sacrificing or in most cases more than what is actually done by girls.

Also, once the girl leaves her home, the boy would not have any trace of her unless she tells it to him. Whereas boys are not at that liberty. During the course of her stay at the in-laws she, at some point or the other, gets hold onto the memories of the guy be it any letter to his crush, a photograph, a gift or it's likes. This in some cases would leave the guy in explaining things which he would not be willing to discuss and might further cast doubts and lead to the change in attitude of the girl towards the guy and eventually end up in clashes.

These were my immediate thoughts after watching the movie which I wanted to share it with you all. It is the way of life and it is not always the girl who takes the brunt, the guy too bears the burden equally or even more eventually going forward in life. 

Going on a 'Trip' - #Drugmania

Hello friends!

Today I'm going to take you through an altogether different wave compared to our previous posts. This is about the string that has stung on many which has got the undue limelight in the recent past. Yes, it's about drugs - or rather I would talk about why people in general are influenced by drugs.

Ask the young generation today as to what is their plan for the weekend or observe what would they do after a rough day at work and how would they relieve their stress or maybe even after a break-up. You would be understanding that most of them are chilling in their own way which might be 'smoking up', 'boozing down', 'weeding out' and so on. So this has been the 'in-thing' of the town for the younger generation to chill out.

But what has lead to this mindset of the current generation?

The thought process or may be even the mistakes committed by the children, all depends on the upbringing of the parents and the values imbibed by them in their off-spring. The parents these days are rubbing their aspirations onto their children blindly without even considering their interests. Recently I was shocked to see a parent who has celebrated his daughter's first birthday with the words 'Happy birthday Doctor' written on the cake. So the career and her profession are already decided at the time of the birth and the child is forcefully inclined to become a doctor in her development phase from a child to an adult, to that point that the toys she plays are all pertaining to the profession doctor. The child is never given a scope to indulge or rather even think of her interests. Going ahead, imagine the amount of the pressure the child would be into to become a doctor considering that there are thousands of eyes waiting to actually see that happen which has been proclaimed by their parents from her tender age. When she finally cannot become a doctor, she would be receiving brick-bats and rantings from the entire society let-alone by her own parents. This would eventually lead the child into depression and would get under the influence of drugs in some way or the other to cope up with the pressure. I've taken a one of a situation to drive this point home, which I'm sure each one of you might be witnessing in your daily lives at varying degrees and varying scales.

My appeal to the parents is to spend quality time with your children each day. Even in the busy lives it is particularly required by the parents to take time for their their children, talking out on what's going on in their lives. This disconnect between parents and children is on a rise which is leading to the children getting addicted to other things like games, gadgets, social networks and have become slaves of the internet. The parents should take time in letting their kids understand the right from the wrong and the good from the bad. For instance, prohibiting your children to smoke or booze, changing the channel during an intimate scene on TV would actually pique interest in them and out of curiosity they end up indulging in the prohibited things. However if the same thing is explained patiently by the parents evaluating the pros and cons of indulging in a particular thing, the understanding of the child and the outcome would be much different in a matured manner.

Next comes the second parents of children. Yes, you have guessed it right, it's the teachers who play a crucial role in moulding the understanding of the child. Instead of always concentrating on the academics and grades, teachers should take the time and responsibility to imbibe moral values and ethics in the children in their day to day life. Guiding the child in choosing the correct path for them from childhood will actually groom them for their life ahead in future to make the choices that are right for them without getting influence by their peers.

Finally it is upon us, each one of us. We have to make our own choices as an adult. We all are well educated and have a clarity of what is detrimental to us. Let us not play with our lives. As most of us are aware that the venom of snake in small quantities is used in the medical field as a medicine to treat deadly diseases. But isn't the snake venom poisonous and deadly by itself?  Also, many existing and proven researches say that Marijuana is good for sound health only if taken in suggested and proper proportions. Similarly is the case with drugs and alcohol. If you are curious and cannot resist from consuming these things, then try it and enjoy it. But do it within your limits. Getting to know your own limits and enjoying within your limits is important. Do not compete with your peers as each one of us are different and have different capacities. This is not something that should be compared and competed. 

Having a break-up, not getting the desired grades, failing an exam or typically having a bad day does not give you a pass to overdose yourself with drugs and alcohol. Remember that your life is a precious. With just failing an exam or having a break-up, your close ones for whom you are important should not be at loss. Do not get bogged down by small things. Life is much more than a break-up or an exam. Be bold and act right!

The only suggestion I would give to youth is be able to explain your aspirations and whims to your parents. If you could not convince your parents who were with you all these years, who nurtured you all through , who were with you all along, then you would never be able to earn anyone's belief with your decisions. Do not blame them without explaining what you are up to in your life. Weigh between decisions you make before you put them in action. Play well play safe!

Darkest side of our festivals.

Ganesh Chaturthi is a century old tradition, early instances trace back to times of Chatrapati Shivaji. He initiated celebrations to promote culture and nationalism. The ritual was continued during the rule of Peshwas, for whom Lord Ganesh was a family deity.

When did this private house hold event turned to be a Gala event?

It was in 1857 when a great rebellion broke in the country against colonial rule, Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak a prominent leader of the rebellion saw the need to unite people when public, social, political gatherings were banned by the British. Soon he revived the festival with patriotic spirit amid tyranny of British rule. He was the first to put large hoardings of Ganesha in pavilions and establish the tradition of their immersion on the tenth day. This greatly served the noble cause of bringing people together against the English rule. Even after the independence people never left the ritual.  

For then we might be out of British rule but we are still in the clutches of Human ignorance. Ganesh Utsav over the years have become a harsh burden to environment. Now it is only being celebrated for fun, entertainment, political branding. Depressing fact here is these Utsavs are organized by teenagers and youth who are very well educated but none cares about unruly effects they are causing. But are they really at fault? I would like to give them benefit of doubt, it’s because when a teenager wants to go to a friend for sleepover to complete a project work parents become intolerant for they don’t know what kids are up to. But if same kid asks to stay back at Ganesh all night probably no parent would restrict for its such a divine deed and whole family gets Lord’s blessings. Truth here is much disturbing, in many pandals, they drink alcohol, they smoke, they dance to most cheesy songs from movies. Well it’s not just affecting them but people around them too. Most trouble causing day is the day they would take deity to Nimarjanam procession. The day is a nightmare to people living around. Process starts in the evening when every house hold person wants to get relaxed. The rigorous sound made by drums is no soothing to any babies or elderly persons. This goes for whole night while everyone misses their dearly sleep. Technology is growing so is the human greed and ignorance. Every year environmentalists forewarn us about after consequences we are about to face, WE IGNORE. No matter how many active campaigns are held with slogan ‘Go Green’, WE IGNORE. Long gone are clay Ganesh deities, our love for plaster of paris never dies. WE IGNORE the damage it causes to environment. WE IGNORE the chaos it causes in the traffic. This being rainy season city is a hell to a regular rider on roads. It will take eternity to reach their destination. We blame government for every inconvenience caused IGNORING the fact that it is we who created havoc in harmony our lives. We are spending fortune for these celebrations but how many of us are paying taxes intact. Let alone those taxes, are we playing dumb at rationalising priorities of our lives.

Change has to start from an individual to address a community. Change is every individual’s responsibility. Instead of spending heap of amount on momentary hazardous colossal entities for celebrations a community could spend it in many productive ways. Unless we realise this soon we will be doomed with our IGNORANCE. 

After all festival should be an occasion every one should rejoice and celebrate happily but not a disturbing moment. God lies in every good deed you do, I wish everyone realises it.

Being an entrepreneur - 3

Hello everyone!

I'm back with our next post in the blog series of Being an Entrepreneur. Hope you had gone through the previous posts. Having seen the challenges faced by an entrepreneur starting from the birth of an entrepreneur and then sustaining through the journey in our earlier posts, I'll now emphasize on the qualities that are required to be imbibed in an entrepreneur to get one going into establishing a distinguished position for himself.

By now, we all have come to know that the essential quality that forms the core DNA of an entrepreneur is 'Passion'. So let us understand and analyze passion in depth. Passion is a strong compelling feeling usually related to love or anger and hence can be both constructive and destructive. For example, a doctor is passionate for constructing the society while on the other hand, a terrorist is also passionate and works for destructing the society. So, it is the purpose that adds meaning to passion. Hence, it is important for one to understand the aspects of passion that would be helpful in daily life, both in our personal and professional lives.

As an entrepreneur, you should first have this clear cut constructive purpose, the change you wish to see with your establishment of business. For instance, my purpose of setting up PKC Laundries is to tap the huge potential of the laundry industry by providing best in class door-step on demand laundry solutions and to generate employment. Once the purpose is set, passion is what that drives you to achieve the purpose. 

So the question pops up now, as to how passionate should one be, to really achieve the purpose. The following are the anchors which wholly together make a passionate person.

1. Setting high standards - Pushing yourself  will keep you abreast and ahead of the competition as you will always be striving to provide the best of the services to your customers. Setting high standards moulds trendsetters who break the conventions with their high standards. Also, it keeps you focussed on your purpose all through the journey of startup without deviating or getting disturbed by the external sources or competition. Setting high standards for yourself and aligning your team towards it has to be learnt first. Your team has to be first treated basically as fellow human beings instead of slaves. Only when this is done, you and your team can assimilate the high standards and work together towards achieving your goal. Remember that the productivity of an effective team is much more greater than the sum of the individual productivity of each member of the team.

2. Giving cent percent - Giving all you can, not leaving an iota of effort that you can possibly put in. Whatever you undertake, from the smallest task to the crucial decision you take in your business, giving hundred percent of your interest and effort  helps in establishing strong roots to your business that will not be wavered by any competition or threat that comes your way. An entrepreneur should be flexible and grounded enough to get into the shoes of any role that is required for the business. You are required to actually play many roles to understand everyone's roles, responsibilities and how that would effect the various aspects of business. Though you are the head of the startup, it should not keep you from taking up any job when needed. After all, it is your dream and that you have to strive hard to witness your dream come true!

3. Never say die attitude - Motivating and stretching yourself all through the journey into the startup inspite of hiccups is an indispensable quality of an entrepreneur. You are bound to face innumerable criticisms, you will fall down many times in your attempt to move forward. But what matters is standing up in the face of adversity inspite of falling down a hundred times. Never give up until the entire universe gives-in to your purpose. As Adolf Hitler had once quoted  that one who wins without problems, it is just a 'Victory', but one who wins with lot of troubles, that is 'History'! 

Remember that attaining success is not a destination but rather a journey wherein small achievements each day will add up to achieve your purpose. To live through each day and smiling in the face of adversity to win the respect of people; to earn the appreciations; to endure the critics; to find the best in your employees; to leave the world a bit better; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have existed. This is attaining success!

After being in this start-up world for more than a year now, having faced challenges each day  with a piece of advice to all the budding entrepreneurs.

1. Believe in yourself and be passionate about your startup, about your dream. Do not run after money and put your dream into some other hands. Be the rider of your dream and stop not until it's destination is reached. The satisfaction you get by living your dream is just inexplicable and priceless!

2. Take bold decisions. Listen to the world for suggestions and advice. But you alone should be the decision maker. Either it will turn out in your favour or it will be a lesson learnt hard. Understand that there is nothing called 'Right decision' rather the decisions taken are made right. Even if it costs you heavily now, it will prepare you for further challenges in your journey. Be grateful that it is your decision and never ever blame others for your decisions.

3. And an earnest request to all the parents - Stop rubbing your aims on your children from the day they are born. A change should actually start from within ourselves. Kids are the wonderful creatures of the mother earth who are pure and are always bubbling with ideas. Aren't there any other avenues for a tenth pass-out rather than just entering the rat race of becoming a doctor or an engineer?Why are we as parents, limiting the ideas and opportunities of children? There is much more meaning to life, than just becoming an engineer or a doctor. Guide the younger generation on the limitless opportunities kindling the world. Give your child the freedom to evaluate, understand and pursue his passion. Give him the freedom to choose and explore the road not taken. Your child's dream is half won just by gaining your confidence in their idea. Do not get blind-folded by what the society utters. Trust your child and let him own and drive his first startup called 'life'.

4. Teach values to the younger generation. Those values are enough to ensure that your child walks along the right path. We should all envisage in building a society where-in our neighbours' curiosity should be regarding the number of people we are providing livelihood to, rather than the salary that we earn. 

Recently I got stumbled upon an experience of one of my friend who had once lived in France. He happened to witness two cats sitting on an opposite wall alongside the road. The cats were looking to enter the house on the other side of the road for which they have to cross the road. What happened next is literally marvelous. The cats together have walked a distance of 500 metres towards their right, used the zebra crossing to cross the road and then walked again left towards the house. When speechless animals can themselves understand, and are willing to change and adapt to change, why can't we, the superior beings of this planet are adamant to change and cannot embrace change for the betterment of the society?  When we all are determined to change as a society, then nothing can come in our way in becoming a super power of the world.

Finally my dear friend, stand up for your dream and there's no looking back - 'Do what your heart says!'

Being an entrepreneur - 2

Hi folks! It's been a while I've posted here on account of few personal commitments that I was engaged in. I'm back now and let's keep the ball rolling.

The key point that was reiterated in the previous blog post was that the success of business these days is directly proportional to the amount of 'cash burning'.

Cash burning has been the reason for the bout of start-ups that have been started with superior and extraordinary ideas to shut shop within a little time of their existence.

As we have seen in our earlier post that the concept of funding took it's birth to make able the budding entrepreneurs smell finances to run the business who have minimum access to capital to put in the business.

We see umpteen programs each day popping up everywhere in the media that are aimed at boosting the startup culture. Though this support system is much appreciated, the truth at the grass-root level is that they are of no avail to the budding startups. All such programs actually keep so many conditions to avail the benefit, that would mostly be given to the startups which are governed by an influential person or may be backed by political support or should either be run by filthy rich persons. Such instances of providing benefits to genuine startups is meagre and limited. 

For instance, lets consider the government initiative to support startups. It has been noticed that the government funding will be sanctioned to the startups only if 25% capital investment is shown. And that 25% of capital investment should be shown exclusively in the setup of machinery or the core part of the startup. This scenario is like if the startup builds the foundation, then the government will give some sort of support for the construction of the building. But doesn't the government realize that the building would not stand still if the foundation is not sturdy?

That way the government support for 99% of the startups can be ruled out. The situation to get funding from banks is even worse as they expect the startup to operate for three years and then register profits post which the banks would be able to evaluate and decide if they can fund the business. The  thriving of the business for the initial three years is actual the crucial time for funding, rather than getting the funding after three years post registering profits because the business in itself can reinvest in the business and grow steadily albeit a slow pace. Once the startup is profitable in three years, then availing finances by way of funding by investors is not a herculean task. However availing finances in the initial stages from the investors is something where the entrepreneur has to take many risks and chances.

The story changes with the advent of the  mentors and investors. In the name of mentoring, the idea of the startup with which it has been born and is ideally the core DNA of the startup is tweaked, changed, twisted, crushed, convoluted, blended, braided and swivelled into a totally different setup. This happens in the name of moulding and guiding the startup in the right direction as the startup has no experience in the business. With the investment brought in by the investor, the control of the entrepreneur goes in the hands of the investor with the majority of the stake-holding in the business. For the sustainability and continuity of the business of startup and in the need of the finances, the entrepreneur gets influenced having no other option after multiple attempts by the mentors and investor and compromises the core DNA of the startup for the mashed up idea of the mentors and investors. Now the entrepreneur is left to swim and survive in the ocean of reality and meeting the obligations to the mentors and investors. There have been many instances where the startups have ceased to operate because they have got choked by the mentors and the investors leaving the entrepreneurs with no other option than to shut shop or sell off the business stake inspite of being able enough to manage the business. 

In the name of accelerator programs, the mentors or investors influence the entrepreneurs that funding is compulsory. Under compulsion and influence, the entrepreneurs get fooled around that success can only be attained with the exposure and participation in such kind of programs. The influence in most cases is to that extent that the entrepreneur ends up concentrating more on the programs than the startup's idea itself. Eventually commercialization has taken place in the startup culture too, because most of the programs do good to themselves (in terms of getting a stake or earning money), than to the startups.

It is to be noted that there exists few mentors who genuinely help in the growth of the business with their experience. However, the entrepreneur has to be wary about the extent to which he take his mentor's advice. The prime issue of having a mentor is that, one's vision and thought process would be limited and guided between two lines. Considering even the day to day operations of a business setup like marketing where in printing pamphlets, it's distribution, online advertising, TV commercials,  etc.,  have to be done using the existing contacts of the mentors at a pre-determined price. This leads to limited scope to creativity, innovation and lessens your bargaining power. When you are not able to decide on the vendors and suggest ideas for differentiating your startups among your peers, then how will you deal with the customers of your startup? You are ultimately creating more dependency on mentors and making your choices limited. The nuances of the business will be understood once you actually get into the market, interact with number of people, vendors and shortlist yourself the best bet for your budget and service requirements rather than limiting yourself with the pre-defined set of parameters. Thinking out-of-box and not limiting your opportunities is one of the essential characteristics of an entrepreneur.

So ultimately the entrepreneur is left with the option of raising funds from family and friends with no interest rates or many times at high interest rates. Many a times, parents do not support the idea of setting up a startup which leaves the entrepreneur taking digs at many instances in the way forward and affecting his confidence levels. However a little support from the parents would go a long way in boosting up the confidence of the entrepreneur if not essentially a financial support.

My advice to all the budding entrepreneurs out there is to stop running after money and do not get blind folded by the mentors and investors. Do not let your passion die out and get swayed away by external forces. The core idea of the startup should be the crux of all the decisions taken ahead. Do not let your passion die out and stay determined on your idea of the startup. Do not mind to say a 'NO' if you are required to compromise on the core DNA of your startup. Be aware of all the programs and people you are associated with.You have taken on this journey of setting up a startup because you do not want to bow down to somebody, isn't it? Then do not let that happen even during your journey into a startup. Success will definitely be yours!