A Venture as a side income…with a sudden kickstart

    Almost every youth has a feeling of starting a business (the first thing comes to your mind is traditional business model) and I feel this wish is more at the heart and brain of an employed individual. The inclination towards doing business (may be alongside being employee of an esteemed organization) may come from various factors like:

1. Being stuck within the physical and logical boundaries of the organization where the individual is employed.

2. Getting examples of fellowmates becoming successful in their respective entrepreneurship ideas in implementation.

3. Getting push from the relatives for a better income and living standards.

4. Citing the bleak future of the associated organization.

5. Not getting suitable employment opportunities.

6. Going with the easy flow of the family business.

There may be N number of reasons arising from the day-to-day activities.

Let me share my part of the story as a fact, in opening a shop at a locality of a prominent city of the nation.

      My case starts with the sluggish growth of my job-life and decreasing standard of living due to the inflation and inflated needs and almost a stagnant income. This is 2021 but I have developed a dream of opening a shop around 10 years back when I had already done a job of 2 years but, couldn’t materialize it.

       Actually, many factors come to your mind when you want to start a traditional business:

* The first thing is what business!!

* And after you shortlist few products, then where to setup!!

* How large the investment would be? And how much risk you may take!!

* How much time you can invest or divest into the business!!

* And then as you start discussing with your relatives, a huge back – push on the business model or choice of product or the location or the risk factor!!

We normally waste a lot of time in all of these listed above and can’t really materialize our thoughts.

My case is also not a unique. It is also as general as one may think. When I was loaded with lots of responsibilities, I got to think that its high time that I should ponder upon my thoughts and discussed only with my wife. I was much delighted in starting a business after seeing my in-laws who are a well-established business family. In holidays (which we have much more compared to others being in the academic sector), I used to help them in the business and in the way I could learn a lot. Please mind that the help was voluntary and the strong impetus came because I was highly interested in opening mine one and was imagining how wonderful is it to become an owner rather than getting instructed by others in the job life.

As you say, when you have the willingness, sometimes God also plays a role in it. Two years back, I was approached by a relative (in-laws) for opening a fast-food outlet. We had few discussions and went for a city tour for finding a location. And to our luck, we got a one at a good location (quality of location is assumed – can’t be judged accurately or quantitatively as it depends highly on locality and the type of products). We had a talk with the owner of the shop area and finalized to give an advance of one lakh rupees. Everything went on very fast. But, few issues came gradually as I came to the physical field. The cost of renovation, the distance of the location from my house which was around 20kms, the number of employees to be kept, etc. But, to my dismay, just when I have arranged my part of the share for investment, the partner could not do so and the whole process got stuck and left that business idea.

But, you know, I have come to the physical field and I was not ready to retreat from there. I had a discussion with my wife and thought for a low investment plan and a location near to my residence. But as we all have – a negative intuition: that I won’t get a shop near my residence and at low rent. There came a push from my wife to atleast search for it and then say that didn’t get any. So, I started a search operation at the nearest busy locality which is around 7kms from my residence. And to my utter surprise, I have got it on the very first day of my search.

The main thing is push: wake-up from the bed and chase your dream – It’s not that tough to materialize.

The owner of this shop charged a rent which is one-third of the previous shop where we were supposed to do a fast-food outlet but with equal amount of advance i.e., 1 lakh. Now, the question arose: What should be the product? Had a short survey in that locality on what should be the product!! And decided that it should be “Baby Products” and finalized it. As I have listed earlier that if you take too long to take the decisions, then it’s difficult to materialize it. So goes with our case too that it took only a day to decide many things. I won’t say that this is an idea of a successful entrepreneur but a fact that a low-middle class starts a business alongside the individual’s busy schedule of being an employee.

Then, with the help of internet, I did a lot of research on the list of products for baby items. As I have acquired the shop, I have given contract for furniture and electrical equipment as required. And then went for designing the front-top-latest modelled board.

And hence, on November 12, 2019, the shop is ready and the priest did his job in opening the shop. Then comes my further investment in buying the items from the wholesalers at the wholesale market (but, I know nothing about where to go and where the particular products’ wholesale market is, and moreover no shop owner will help you in this matter – it’s a kind of secret). Being educated, I took the help of internet and emailed all the company heads to allot me a distributor or inform me about the location of theirs. I was delighted that the reply came from most of the company representatives and lots of calls came from their agents distributing in this locality. Slowly, I got to know about the location of few wholesalers whose products are not a listed or branded one. Now, you may be thinking about how I have got the wholesalers’ locations; its easy, just ask one wholesaler about the wholesaler of the other product, they will surely help you out. But the product should not be of their domain.

I have gradually filled my shop with the items that I thought upon. But, the number of items grew much faster than I could presume as the wholesalers recommended more and more varieties. Also, based on the review, we have decided to finalize the name to be written on the board which was not specific only to the babies rather covered the entire range from the birth to atleast the kid reaching at his/her age of 12. Some of the wholesalers even recommended the items for the parents of the kids, as the kids will be accompanied by their parents and hence, you may include some items related to their parents as well. Well, don’t go straight with the recommendations of the wholesalers, they are mostly misleading which I could experience over a period of around 2 years.

Then the question is about the employee to be kept as I won’t be able to run the shop during the day time as I am employed in an organization. Search initiated and ended with the help of the adjacent shop owner who recommended a boy of around 18 years. I also found him to be good and employed him.

The biggest feeling was “I am an employer now”.

Well, I employed him for only one month and had to fire him out because of his mothers’ unscrupulous involvement in his works and his own irregularities. And thought to handle it by self only during evening hours and full-day on holidays and sometimes by my wife.

But, to my dismay, as the business grew and started earning a good profit, the lockdown started and then continued and obviously the profit earned was equal or less than the rent paid. And the situation is still prevailing. In between, going with the flow, I sold a good number of sanitizers, handgloves, masks, etc.

At the end, with reference to my story and experience, I can tell you few things:

* There is no perfect time to kick-start a venture. Just enter the field, everything is manageable.

* Don’t think about loss. If you are hard-working, there can never be loss.

* Need to invest a regular and substantial amount of time compromising some other activities based on self-priority.

* Don’t think much about perfection and perfect opening. Open it and then think.

·       And the most important one: Try to think about a venture where you can move with the flow i.e., with the trend. One must not stick into a particular product and should be able to replace the products based on the demand.

$$ Thanks for reading.

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