Start up, not a new word these days. We
have been hearing this word since quite few years. It has now been a dream of
every youngster out there to get them into this sort of thing. This sort of thing ! What is this thing?
What is start-up? Why people out there are keen to get into this? Start-ups these days have not only
attracted the attention of experts, business persons and other stakeholders, its
success stories have also become a hot topic of discussion in the towns across
the globe.
Start-up; an entrepreneurial
venture or a new business in the form of a company,
a partnership or temporary organization, designed to search for a
repeatable and scalable business modal, is what the literal meaning comes out to be.
This
business modal, where persons from different spheres as well as students,
earlier or later in their graduate school make a commitment to turn an idea into carrying out a business, out
of the funds accumulated, borrowed or inherited, to run and exist on a platform that promises to fulfill
the basic expectations, needs and tries to solve the problems in the
society and get a living out of it, the revenues.
Alike start-ups being famous in other streams, it
has also to do with some great scopes in our CA fraternity too. Today every CA as well as CA students aspire to engage themselves into an entrepreneurial
adventure and start something new on their own. Starting an entrepreneurial venture is never easy
but however there is nothing that can hold you from starting one if your
dedication and determinations are high. There are million opportunities and
trillion possibilities. Along with the possibilities, there also come
challenges and risks. Here, in this piece, has been featured few success
start-up stories from our CA profession that will let us discover what the real
possibilities and what the actual challenges are.
GAURI DEVIDAYAL FINDS THE
TABLE
Gauri Devidayal, a qualified Chartered Accountant, a
law graduate from the University College London and currently donning the
owner’s role at her Mumbai based restaurant, The Table. 'I am
not a risk-taking entrepreneur by nature, but I’ve definitely caught the bug
now having run this business, and I enjoy it.'
Gauri
left a lucrative career as a tax consultant with Price Waterhouse Coopers and
later with KPMG in London, where she lived for eight years. She says she had that entrepreneurial instincts within
in her that let her cope with one biggest change in her life and she claims
she’s happy doing that. The Table, Mumbai based restaurant today serves fine quality dining
experience to thousands per week. The diners range from solo to family. Every
bit of hospitality that the couple thinks must be given is given indeed at
great space and affordable cost. She, as of now, is happy serving there as the managing person.
TRY T-SHIRTS (T: TANMAY,
R:ROHIT, Y:YASH)
Gurgaon based Tanmay, Rohit and Yash getting some
time after their article ship hours tried shaping their ideas and getting them
printed on t-shirts co-founded a small business of printing t-shirts and
selling them. 'Initially, when I proposed
this idea to the boys, they turned crazy and tried shutting me up quoting
‘t-shirt salesman’, but today they
thank me upon receiving the 2/3rd share of 80K per month roughly' says
Rohit, co-founder TRY T-shirts. When asked about the scale of operation of their
small business they claimed it to be of smaller one as of now but they showed
confidence of making it to 1M Rupee business by the year 2016. 'We have got all
our plans on paper waiting its proper execution by the end of each months of
2016' tells another co-founder, Yash, TRY T-shirts.
Also when our team inquired what the functions are
involved in their business at this stage and how do they manage time for it
besides the hectic article ship hours, Rohit has to say, 'The time management is not as tough as you guys
think but yeah it has made our clocks go the daily schedule of 16 hours and talking
about the function, the core designing and print task is upon me and Yash and
Tanmay together get the merchandise ready for print at the print house and
thanks to the today's rapid growing e commerce, we don’t bother much about the
dispatch. We simply post them on the web portal and whatever left after our not
meeting on the web we sell them to the local vendors. All this we do is after
the office period and weekends and holidays.'
FROM EXPERT AT BOOKS OF
ACCOUNTS TO FOOD-TECH ENTREPRENEUR
Chartered Accountant turned Food-tech entrepreneur,
Sanjay D. Lalwani shares his journey to this milestone of his life. 'Starting
with own venture was more of joy &self satisfaction. Being in a Indian
society, food is something which I could see connects relations/people and we
are happy that we have this opportunity to serve varieties of food delicacies
at your doorstep.' Mr.Lalwani
and his team have also got a website registered www.foodwalas.com. At Foodwalas, they claim and are
indeed explorers of food. On their journey, they’re seeking out the legendary
local famous food, amazing artisans and great gourmet food sellers that produce
amazing regional products. Their vision is an online marketplace that connects
curious eaters with India’s best gourmet food sellers. Their goal is to ensure
that every famous foodstuff across India is made available online for sale. So
that every foodie can enjoy it, right at his place, with just a click. When asked
was it really tough for him to switch the role from an auditor to an
entrepreneur, Lalwani delightfully answered, 'It was much easier indeed since I
being from a management fraternity. Chartered Accountancy has taught me a lot
from time management to finding potential market and risk dealing.'
Now having read these start-up samples, let us
analyse the possibilities hidden there in and challenges that we may come upon. When talking about the possibilities, no doubt
there are few but millions. Every person who is a chartered accountant and who
are pursuing must have in them atleast one per cent of business person hidden
in them.
KNOWLEDGE OF BUSINESS WORLD
We are already so much into this word business.
From our curriculum texts books to real life client dealing we don’t miss of
single bit of it. We are there witnessing live how business traits are made,
who is setting the example, which brand is leading the market, who got the court
order stay making default in any activity. Much beyond the audits and taxation,
CAs are well defined as business guru; person guiding an entity in carrying out
whole set of activities from conversion of resources into product. Simply
talking CAs are the trade and company drivers.
STRATEGY MAKING
We are so well fed by our curriculum the renowned
strategy making techniques that we aptly apply in real life scenarios. Strategy
making has never been a challenge nor will it be. CAs are well paid in drafting strategies to
corporates. So here’s my point why just draft those chanakayanitis and give
them to others not and not apply in our own?
EASY KICKING-OFF
From visiting the MCA officers cubical to lawyers
cabin, we can get all the legal document relating incorporation of a business
readily done with just sitting under one roof, meaning, we are well abreast of
the procedures launching a business. It can become really an easy cake to make
and kick off our business.
OPPORTUNITY COST
Manager, finance person, supervisor and all CAs
can be an all-in-one combo ensuing huge saving of cost. If we are to join an
entrepreneurial we may be blessed with huge opportunity cost and that’s a key
driving factor starting one.
Well now discussing the challenges part, I recall
Swami Vivekananda’s saying, 'If you are not facing any challenge, you are on a
wrong path. The more the struggle, the bigger the result.'
TIME MANAGEMENT
The biggest obstacle that may come while kicking
off an entrepreneurial journey is the proper time management addressal.One can
fall short if he/she doesn’t lay out the time management which their plan seek.
But no worries as discussed earlier we are a breed of better time managers
since our course has aptly taught us.
RISK
One professional may not easily risk out their
lucrative career and come into starting up something from very zero. Switching
from one career to another is always a big deal and the well-established CA who
manage potential professional of their clients and make handsome money don’t
easily get convinced by the concept of entrepreneurialism and start-up.
DurgaPrakash
CA Final
CA Final
iediusdurga@gmail.com
