Ready Reckoner for your Entrepreneurial Dream 1 Presented By: Dr. Sachin S. Vernekar Director, BVIMR – New Delhi Ten Tips to Become Your Own Boss:

What is Entrepreneurship?  “Entrepreneurship is all about an idea which creates differentiated business value to customers”, said Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus of Infosys Technologies. ( Source: The Hindu – Business Line in an excerpt from “TieCon Hubli-2012”.  JOSEPH SCHUMPETER View on Entrepreneurship, “A process where established ways of doing things are destroyed by the creation of new and better ways of getting things done.” 2

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 1. Prepare Your Family – Pillar of Support – My wife wasn’t too comfortable with my entrepreneurial zeal, so we agreed to give it a year. If I failed to zero in on something within this period, I would return to a job Rivi Varghese, Customer XPs ( A Real - Time Intelligent Customer Experience Management Solutions for Banking, Retail and Telecom Industries). 3

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 2. Plan Your Finances –You might not earn anything in the first 2-3 years, so you need to plan your family’s finances accordingly. A capital cushion is essential to ensure that your family lives comfortably – Ashutosh Garg, Guardian Lifecare (Guardian Lifecare Private Limited is an eight-year-old retail chain of health and wellness stores ). 4

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 3. Forget The Job Perks – As a manager in a company, you are accustomed to other people doing things for you. In a start – up, you have to care of everything yourself – from operational expenses to food bills – Jiggy George, Dream Theatre (Official site for band and some of their side projects. Information includes tour dates, discography, album reviews, tablatures, sound clips, photos, links and an online shopping store). 5

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 4. Learn to Cope With Failure – I met 15 VCs before one agreed to fund me. One investor rejected my proposal within five minutes of a presentation. Instead, he spent an hour trying to convince me to go back to my job - Treat failure as a Stepping Stone – Kunal Bahl, Snapdeal (Snapdeal is India's best daily deals website offering up to 90% discounts on dining, health & beauty services, travel, apparels & branded products like mobiles, clothes, watches etc. ) 6

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 5. Have a Plan that is Unique – The business plan should be unique and clutter free. An entrepreneur must look into his area of core competence and use it to devise a strong plan – Kavindra Mishra, Zovi.com ( An exclusive online apparel brand in India; quality mens & womens apparels, formal shirts and leather belts ) 7

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 6. Belief in Yourself - Belief in one’s idea can take you a long way. Our concept was ahead of its time, but I didn’t give up on my vision. At every step, there were people who ridiculed the idea. I had the last laugh– VSS Mani, Just Dial (Just Dial India's No.1 local search engine provides comprehensive updated information on all B2B and B2C Products and Services). 8

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 7. Interact with Like – Minded – My partner Abhishek was running an e-commerce portal, which was acquired by a bigger website. He expressed interest in working with me and we launched our site – Chetan Bafna, Fetise.com (Fetise is India's first online shopping community for Men - selling apparels, shoes and accessories from contemporary luxury brands). 9

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 8. Gain Enough Experience – I used to teach at a diving centre in Lakshadweep. After teaching more than 600 students for eight years. I decided to float my own diving company – Anees Adenwala, Orca Dive Club (Orca Dive Club offers dive solutions for beginners and experienced divers, our aim is to bring the sport of SCUBA closer to the people of India). 10

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 9. Don’t Take Too Much Debt – If you are thinking of starting up, this is the best time. But don’t take a home loan since it kills entrepreneurship. You can never get out of it – Binny Bansal, Flipkart (Flipkart is among India's largest online retailers. It is an electronic commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India). 11

Ten Commandments of Entrepreneurial Dream 10. Have a Plan “B” Ready – After the first few months, we realised that service was not our core competence. Besides, the margins were quite low. This was the time we concluded that it was better to focus on products – Rahul Anand, Happily Unmarried (Happily Unmarried is a product design brand from India). (Source : Excerpt from “How to Fund a Start – Up, The Times of India, February 6, 2012, Page No. 18 ). 12

Think and Act !!!!!!! – Be the Agent of Positive Change 13

Thank You 14