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!

Dhobi industry - Oh yeah!

During the daily course of my life, as I enjoy a three course nutritious meal each day, wearing branded clothing which is right in fashion and snoring away a good night's sleep under the roof of my own home; my mind at times drifts upon those people who are not able to avail any of the basic needs required to live with dignity in the society. There are countless number of people who are suffering in dire poverty in every walk of life. Poverty is such a disgrace to the nation, to which all of us together need to stand up to alleviate it. Stats yell out that India has the largest population in the world dwelling in poverty. About 21.9% of the total population of India is under the below poverty line who are not able to earn an average income of ₹ 33/day. So here comes the question as to how, we, the common men can contribute in a healthy manner to soft-pedal it each day, if not eradicate it completely overnight which of-course is a next to impossible task. 

As I brood on this disease that our nation had been grieving upon since ages, and the basic needs of human - food, clothing and shelter; it's not hard for all of us to realize that these three industries of food, clothing and shelter contribute a noteworthy portion of revenue to the service industry of the country. Among these sectors, food and shelter sectors are seen brimming with various innovative and competitive services day-in and day-out making the lives of the consumers pleasurable. Much to my surprise, the clothing sector with laundry services seems to be the most untapped area and the full potential is yet to be unleashed. 

Throwing some light on this Dhobi industry, the organised sector in the laundry service market is only ₹ 5,000.0 crores whereas the unorganised market is about ₹ 2,20,000.0 crores. Where unorganised sector thrives, there is no structure to the industry and there is a huge loss of opportunity to generate revenue for the country. That's when it had dawned upon me that there lies a huge untapped market for the laundry business with the majority of the market being highly unstructured, untapped and unorganised. 

Most of the population relied on dhobis and domestic helps to cater to their laundry needs which I now feel is an age old lost custom. In this present era with the busy weekdays and the slothful weekends of all the working and the student strata, doing their laundry is a daunting and an enervating task. This spurted the demand for the laundry services at disposal and has thus enabled the erstwhile smaller and unorganised laundry industry to strive to become organised and is ringing with opportunities to grow beyond conformity with an estimated market size of ₹ 2,20,000 crores.

All said and done, if we actually zoom into the base of the laundry industry, the foundation in itself has always been shaky with lack of proper structure in terms of quality and commitment. In this current generation, consumer focused on-demand service is the ultimate key for a business in any industry where we have seen the likes of Ola, Bigbasket, Hotstar and others tasting success which have adopted the mantra and are serving the customers in completing their job in a hassle-free manner. So here arises a pressing need for the consumer focused on demand service in the laundry industry too where you can avail quality laundry services at the click of a button with on-time delivery. With this driving force, the birth of PKC Laundries took roots.

Scrutinizing the things that are required to be changed in the laundry industry to make it organized, I had stumbled upon the following thoughts -

1. Safe practices of Dhobis - Persons who are into this profession, are exposed to harsh chemicals and intense heat which eventually deprives them of healthy life in the long term. The Dhobis are physically capable of doing laundry of about 30 clothes per day. However, in the need to pacify the burning stomachs of self and the family, they tend to take up the laundry task of 3-4 times of their ability. It is to be noted that all the processes that require chemical treatment to the clothes like bleaching and dry cleaning; have to be carried out in a secluded place wearing all the necessary protective masks and clothing. The chemicals used are very harmful to the skin when exposed to or inhaled, leading to  skin diseases and breathing disorders which may induce cancer in the long-term upon continuous exposure. Such is the impact on Dhobis, of which they are basically not aware. On the whole, Dhobis are compromising on their health and the health of the clothes too. Therefore the prime most thing that has to be done, is to educate Dhobis on the severity of impact cause on their health and their family indirectly and make them aware of the safe practices.

2. Licensed inclusion of Dhobis - Just like the Gold sellers to the meat sellers and to the belt shop owners who need a license to set shop their facility, licensing is required even for Dhobis to run their services. The major step towards making laundry industry into an organized industry, I intend Government to provide each Dhobi a license for setting a Dhobi service stop and bringing them onto same platform. Once such move is initiated, there will be no bounds in moulding an organized laundry industry. Laundry shops can be set up at a centralised location in each city wherein these licensed Dhobis carry out the operations. As a next move, Government could then provide basic equipment like steam iron boxes replacing the heavy and scorching smoky charcoal iron, safety equipment like gloves and safety masks for carrying out the chemical treatment of clothes. Currently, there is a wide demand-supply gap in laundry industry. These steps if implemented, would aid in that gap and also provide the opportunity of creating jobs. Just imagine the quantum of jobs that would be generated if the organized laundry market spins ahead from Rs. 5,000.0 crore mark to Rs. 2,20,000.0 crores. Isn't it mind boggling just to picture the future of laundry market? Yes, it is and I can hear a resounding Yes from each of the reader out there. With the increase in jobs, grows the revenue of the country. All this can happen, if and only if the laundry industry becomes organized.

3. Dignity of Laundry job - Well, this I'm rather surprised that over ages, doing the job of laundry had been a job of little significance and looked down by everyone. It is thought to be job for the lower strata illiterate people. For instance, just question yourself. Do you want to associate yourself in a job related to laundry? I can sense a big, firm NO. And yes, even I had and I am going through this phase, where I'm demeaned as a laundry person and that I could have been one even without any education. This cliched thinking of many has actually deprived the laundry industry of the glory it could have attained. All such like minded people, when actually go to other countries, do not take a back step in taking up jobs like being a receptionist, working in a petrol bunk, supermarket as salesperson, waiters in hotels and restaurants. When inquired about the same, I had always got a plain answer that there is dignity of labour abroad which is missing in India. Doing laundry is our daily need and I feel there is a necessity to give the Laundry job its long due dignity. The industry requires people who are well educated, who can stand up for taking the industry to the next level.

Many might question that such vision is a wild goose chase and is unattainable in India. I retort, as to why it cannot?  It's all in our blocked thinking. As rightly quoted by Sir Abdul Kalam, it's time we give wings to our thoughts and set ablaze to bring a change in the society no matter how small.

I leave you on this note, with a little hope that I have kindled the thoughts of at-least a few.