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This post was submitted by Jesse.

Funds are the utmost important thing which is required to run any business on short term or long term basis. Funds which are raised by means of public issue are known as venture capital and venture capitalists are people who invest in companies where they find good margin of profit. Basically venture capitalists are the people who need high return on investment and the risk involved in such investment is also high.

Usually venture capitalist get attracted towards business section related to IT, health care, financial services, manufacturing units, foods, beverages, life sciences, etc. the risk involved in such type of investment is high and so venture capitalist always invest considering the growth factor of company. To attract venture capitalist entrepreneur should have stronger background and good marketing techniques. Investors always invest in some famous names
where possibility of growth is higher.

Here are the lists of venture capital companies in India:
• Helion Venture Partners
• Nexus India Capital
• Accel Partners India
• JAFCO Asia
• Epiphany Ventures
• Artiman Ventures
• Inventus (India) Advisory Company
• Canaan Partners
• DFJ India
• BlueRun Ventures
• Netz Capital
• Artheon Ventures
• VentureEast
• Apax Partners
• Intel Capital
• Lightspeed Venture Partners
• IFCI Venture Capital Funds
• India Innovation Investors
• Norwest Venture Partners
• Ojas Venture Partners
• Reliance Venture
• Trident Capital

Angel investors

Angel investors are those who invest in big projects and look for the high returns. They basically assist in entire setting up of business and also in making business plans. People who find more profit in particular investment rather than traditional investment are considered as angel investors. Angel investors can be any entrepreneur who wants to support other entrepreneur for the growth.

As compared to venture capital, angel investment is not that popular because they usually fund for small scale companies in a hidden way.

If you look at the statistics it can be said that in India there are around 2, 50,000 angels present with the investment in around 30, 000 companies. Following is the list of some of the angel investors in India:

Birth and education details

Azim Premji was born in the year 1945 on 24th July in the Mumbai city. He completed his school studies from St. Mary’s school and then planned to pursue electrical engineering. He went to US to carry on with engineering from Standford University. Urge to study and do something great in life was his motto.

Starting point of career

Sudden dismissal of father of Azim Premji in the year 1966 compelled him to come back to India to continue with family business. WIPRO (western Indian vegetable products limited) is known for manufacturing vegetable oil for cooking purpose. When his father passed away he was just 21 years old and the business was of around 2 million.

At the age of 21, handling huge responsibility of business is not an easy task. But he had that determination and urges to take business to new heights with his knowledge. He had management techniques and he utilized for the betterment of business. Successfully he overcome all the challenges and made Wipro one among greatest software companies.

During the first AGM (annual general meeting) shareholders did not had confidence on new owner of WIPRO and doubted the ability of Azim Premji. But he proved himself with his hard working ability. He shifted the focus of company from cooking products to software world. Among research and development services, Wipro is considered as largest company and has turnover of around 70 million.

Today Wipro is multibillion dollar company and this became possible under the provision of Azim Premji.
Wipro got listed to NYSE.

Six sigma concepts were adopted by Wipro and this brought development in business. In the year 1980 IBM quitted from India and Azim Premji took benefit of this by hiring best engineers for computer development. Computer software where also made by Wipro and they created boom in the IT sector. In the year 2000 this company got listed in New York stock exchange.

Today this man “Narayan Murthy” is right in front of us who brought high development in software industry. He says that institution is not making your life, you are the one who is making it by your own skills and hard work.

How to go from rags to riches? Is it possible to get dream converted in to reality? Yes, it is possible if you show complete dedication and hard work towards achieving your goal. In such cases even luck has some contribution but keep in mind that upbringing your luck is in your hand. Following are some of the things which can guide to become riches:

• Determine your goals as this will assist you in making proper plans.
• Goals must be realistic in nature. Go step by step and do not directly aim to reach the tangent point.
• You must have heard “every action has equal and opposite reaction”. Apply this thought to your idea during the implementation stage of idea.
• Utilize money in efficient manner and form the correct budget.
• Put maximum efforts to achieve your target.
• Learn management skills as for an entrepreneur it is boon to achieve success.
• Know more about business management, business laws, investments, etc.
• Carry out as much research work as possible.
• Differentiate yourself from masses.

Above are some of the things which can help you to get converted from rags to riches. Don’t just listen to success stories; create one such rags to riches story of you.

Listen to this inspiring story of Patricia Narayan….

After getting beaten up at the in laws place Patricia had no other option but to leave house with two children. She did not wanted to be burden on her parents and so started living life independently. She managed to make some money by means of preparing jam, pickle and squashes at home. Every day she used to sale the stock and this generated confidence in her. For survival she fought the battle all alone by borrowing some money from her mother.

Her first step towards entrepreneurship was when she began working with mobile cart which she received at free of cost from friend of dad. She had to train two handicap people to work with her on cart. In the year 1982 on 21st June she began her career as business women. During the first day of the business she managed to sale only 1 cup of coffee at 50 paise. She got disappointed and her mother gave her inspiration during the period of disappointment.

Tea, coffee and cigarettes where usually sold in such cart but she managed to sale cutlets, samosas, bajjis and fresh juices. Slowly she started making Rs 600 to Rs 700 each day. There were days when she even managed to make Rs.25, 000 per day. Then she got offered to run a canteen and then came the turning point when she managed to provide food to training school by central government. She had to provide three time meals to around 700 students and earned Rs. 80, 000 on weekly basis.

After this phase she got connected with restaurants. Her son insisted to have her own restaurant but during that period she lost her daughter and son in law in an accident. She took some time to back from trauma. Now with the assistance of son she is back as an entrepreneur and is running restaurant in the name of daughter Sandeepha. Today she is managing to make Rs. 2, 00,000 per day. Her journey to convert revenue from 50 paise to 2 Lakh per day is of 30 years.

For this successful journey she was awarded with Ficci entrepreneur of the year. One thing which can be learnt from her is that only you can help yourself to come up in life and never compromise with quality in any business you enter.

Eliminate your fear as this is the correct time to show confidence and successfully accomplish the interview. Prepreparation plays very important role in such cases as this can give you the idea of forming question for interview. If you are newbie to this field then you might find it difficult to interview for the first time, but as soon as you accomplish more and more interviews, your confidence will automatically get raised.

Pre preparation interview tips for entrepreneurs

• Collect complete details of interviewer
• Get information which states the struggling period of entrepreneur
• Opt for correct day, date and time of interview
• Prepare the basic list of questions
• Decide the topic which you want to focus mainly on while interviewing
• Try to follow more research work and collect the data if required
• Write to the person whom you are interviewing so that he or she can understand the motive of interview
• When you are interviewing an entrepreneur, don’t be late
Interview tips for entrepreneurs – At the time of interview
• Show confidence, not over confidence
• Smartly deal with hypocritical answers
• Make sure you sit with the correct posture
• Do not make too much of hand movements
• Even if you are asking some question which are negative, see to it that it does not showcase some insulting feature
• Start interview with generic type of questions
• Do not directly start with the main topic of interview

Post interview preparation

Post preparation….you must be wondering once the interview is over what preparation are to be done. Best preparation is “learn from your mistakes”. So that while interviewing another entrepreneur you do not face the same complications and can deal with different matter effectively.
Commonly asked interview questions
• How you got the idea of business?
• What was your long term vision behind your idea?
• What helped you to gain confidence of public?
• Do you find your employees as important part of your business family?
• What is the thing that boosted you to go ahead as successful entrepreneur?
• With whom would you like to share the credit of success?
• Any piece of advice for today’s youth?
• What are basic skills which entrepreneurs needs to have?
• Do you think failures are essential?
• How to deal with fear?
• 5 years down the line you look yourself as…?
• What is reason behind considerable growth rate of your company?

Let’s connect the development of child with business. If you are planning to have your own business then franchising is considered to be the best option. Whether there is recession or not preschool franchising can never keep you jobless. Preschool franchising sector is booming in India with every passing day because parents urge to provide best to their children is increasing.

There was a time when preschool studies were not give good importance, but now parents are getting more and more concerned. These schools are for children between the ages 1.5 to 5 years. Playgroups, preparatory schools, kindergartens, etc are some of the names of preschools. Preschool franchising was not well organized in India but now the situation has changed. Mass of Indian population is driving towards organized sector and so the importance of preschool franchising has increased.

Franchise opportunity is not less, you just need to identify the correct one and provide excellent services accordingly. When you are franchising some brand name you need to live up to their expectation. This is possible when you have good amount of knowledge and tactics to deal with different situation. Overall 10% of the population belongs to age group of 1 to 5 and as compared to that preschools are quiet less. The main reason behind this is lack of quality teaching.

Now the scenario is different. People are made aware about the importance of preschool education. Teaching quality in India is also improving. If you look at all such factors then one thing can be said that preschool franchise can turn out to be profitable deal. Franchising in the field of education has promising future because government of India is now showing keen interest in educational field.

If you want to have preschool franchises then do take care of the location factor. You can achieve success only when you select correct location, quality staff, good amenities, etc. Nearby environment plays very important role in bringing up of children so make sure you set up schoold at the correct place at correct time.

Things which you can learn in entrepreneurship courses are:
• Way to start new business
• Type of incorporation for different businesses
• Different tax issues involved in business
• Advantages and disadvantage of business
• Studying market trend
• Marketing strategies
• Funding
• Accounting concepts
• Business planning

Colleges offering entrepreneurship courses are:
• IM, Ahmedabad, Bangalore & Kolkata
• All India Management Association Center for Management Education, New Delhi
• Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi
• Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gujarat
• FICCI, New Delhi
• Small Industries Service Institute, New Delhi
• National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development, New Delhi
• National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), New Delhi
• ASEED and Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India(EDII), New Delhi
• Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), New Delhi
• Institute of Marketing and Management (IMM), New Delhi
• Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jharkhand
• Xavier Institute of Management (XIM), Orissa
• Management Development Institute, Haryana
• Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), Madhya Pradesh
• Symbiosis Center for Management, Maharashtra
• Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Some of the entrepreneurship courses offered in India are:
Advanced Diploma in Enterprise Management
• Duration: 6 months
• Eligibility: Graduation and preferably with work experience of 5 – 10 years
Certificate Course in Export Marketing
• Duration: 4 months
• Eligibility: Graduation
Certificate Course in International Business Language
• Duration: 5 months
• Eligibility: Graduation
Certificate Course in International Trade Logistic
• Duration: 4 months
• Eligibility: Graduation
Diploma/Certificate Courses in Entrepreneurship
• Duration: 6 months- 1 year
• Eligibility: Graduation/ Diploma/10+2 with 3 years experience
Diploma in Entrepreneurship
• Duration: 9 months
• Eligibility: Graduation
Diploma in Planning and Entrepreneurship
• Duration: 2 years
• Eligibility: 10+2
Executive Masters in International Trade
• Duration: 1 year
• Eligibility: Graduation
Executive MBA+M.Com/PGDBA
• Duration: 2 years
• Eligibility: Graduation or appearing for final exam.
Executive Postgraduate Program
• Duration: 3 years
• Eligibility: Graduation with minimum 55%
Executive Postgraduate Diploma in Management
• Duration: 3 years
• Eligibility: Bachelor’s/Master’s degree with 5 years experience
BA (General-Human Resource Development Marketing, Operations Research and Finance)
• Duration: 2 years 6 months
• Eligibility: Graduation
PG Diploma in Management of Small and Medium Enterprises
• Duration: 1 year
• Eligibility: Graduation
PGDBA
• Duration: 2 years
• Eligibility: Graduation
PGDBM
• Duration: 2 years
• Eligibility: Graduate
Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship Management (PGDEM)
• Duration: 9 months
• Eligibility: middle level executive
PGDEM
• Duration: 6 months
• Eligibility: Graduation
M.A in Social Entrepreneurship
• Duration: 2 years
• Eligibility: Bachelor’s degree of minimum 3 years in any discipline
Diploma / Part time MBA in Social Entrepreneurship
• Duration: Diploma-1 year; Part time MBA- 3 years
• Eligibility: Graduation in any discipline + 1 year exp. for Diploma or 2 years experience for MBA in social sector
Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship
• Duration: 6 months
• Eligibility: Graduate in any discipline
PG Diploma in Social Initiative & Management
• Duration: 1 year
• Eligibility: Anyone working in social sector or is interested to their own social enterprises

Following are the list of famous entrepreneurs in India who have globally represented the country by showcasing excellent business skills:

Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani born in the year 1932 in the Chorwad village in Gujarat started its entrepreneur career by selling “bhajias” near pilgrim at Girnar. In 16 years of age he completed matriculation and moved to Aden where he started working as attendant at gas station. At that point no one would have thought that in near time this person will owe such a big empire.

Growth of India’s private sector started with Reliance India LTD. Reliance group is known for its petro chemical business and apart from this it has diversified in to various other fields like telecommunication, information technology, textiles, capital markets, power, energy, logistics and retails. Raising money in international market is not an easy task which was successfully done by reliance group under the Dhirubhai Ambani guidance with the assistance of son’s Mukesh and Anil Ambani. FICCI (Federation of India Chambers of Commerce and Industry) announce Dhirubhai Ambani as Indian entrepreneur of 20th century.

ADi Godrej

Adi Godrej, the son of Burjorji Godrej belongs to business family who where in to manufacturing soaps and locks. At the age of 17 he left India and accomplished management studies abroad. After coming back to India he entered in to family business and made use of modern day business concepts to take it to new heights. Godrej group also entered in to philanthropic activities. To face the globalized challenges Adi Godrej restructured the company’s policy.

Azim Premji

Azim Premji, the chairman of Wipro technology was considered among most powerful 20 persons by Asiaweek magazine. At the age of 21 he had to hold over the responsibility of family business due to the sudden denise of his father. His ability where doubted by shareholders as at such a small age handling huge business is difficult job.

Azim Premji successfully handled business which deals with bakery, hair care soaps, ethnic toiletries ingredients, hydraulic cylinders, baby toiletries and so on. Premji focused on software development after soaps and today Wipro is considered to be the chief software company in India. In the year 2005 he was awarded with Padma Bhushan award.

Karsanbhai Patel
Karsanbhai Patel belongs to the farmer family of Mehsana in Gujarat and was working with government of Gujarat in the Geology and mining department. He is the person who is responsible for the success of Nirma. He started business of detergent powder on small scale basis by making use of indigenous technology. Door to door selling of Nirma washing powder was done and that to at the price Rs. 3 per kg without compromising on quality. During those day’s detergent industry was dominated by MNC’s and in limited time period Karsanbhai created revolution in Indian detergent industry.

Some of the features of Nirma like environment friendly, labor intensive technology and phosphate free detergent made it different from others. He has contributed lot in creating employment opportunity in India.

Narayan Murthy
Narayan Murthy is the chief mentor and non executive chairman of Infosys technology and is highly ethical person. From university of Mysore he completed B.E. Electrical and M.Tech from IIT Kanpur. At the beginning of the career he worked with Patni computer systems and then brought in to existence Infosys with other 6 software professionals. Economists have named him eighth among fifteen powerful business people. It is the first Indian company listed on NASDAQ and has turnover of more than $2 billion.

Kumar Mangalam Birla
Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chartered Accountant and then he did MBA from London school of business. After the demise of father Aditya Birla, he took over the responsibility of business. Aditya Birla house which is now India’s third largest house and Kumar Mangalam is the chairperson of this group. He also participated in diversified sectors like cellular telephony, BPO, asset management and software. He aptly handled the giant business of cement and textiles.

Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata is the chairperson of Tata group which includes Tata motors, Tata powers, Tata consultancy, Tata steel, Tata chemicals, Tata teleservices and Tata tea. Under his leadership Tata group was brought up to new heights with the use of latest technology. Due to his effective leadership Tata motors got listen at New York Stock exchange. He was awarded with Padma Bhushan in the year 2000.

Apart from this other famous entrepreneurs in India are Dr. K. Anji Reddy, Bhai Mohan Singh, B.M. Munjal, Ekta Kapoor, Karsanbhai Patel, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, K.P. Singh, Lalit Suri, M.S. Oberoi, Nandan Nilekani, Naresh Goyal, Dr. Pratap Reddy, Rahul Bajaj, Ramalinga Raju, Raunaq Singh, Subhash Chandra, Tulsi Tanti, Sunil Mittal, Shiv Nadan, Vijay Mallya, Naina Lal Kidwai, Shahnaz Hussain, Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Shobhana Bhartia and Mallika Srinivasan.

Following are some of the things you need to consider while starting a small business such as:

Business plans

No business can be started randomly without any plans. If you want to strive in business on long term basis then planning is must for it. Without planning you cannot take a right move at any point of time. When you are starting small business things go in a complete flow and to maintain that flow you need be ready with business plan. In case due to certain consequences if your plan cannot proceed further then you might get in to trouble. To avoid such troubles always be ready with plan “b”.

Determining money making opportunity

How much opportunity do you find in your business? Whether you are starting small business from home or from work place, it is essential to determine the amount of money you can make on yearly basis. Initially no businesses can guarantee for huge profits but see to it that you at least do not get in to loss. For the amount of hard work you put in your business, see to it that you get results accordingly. If you find less amount of money making opportunity then verify the plan again and bring in the needed changes.

Naming of business

Once you are done with all preparation then comes the naming session of business. Give some identity to your business by naming it. Many times people make mistake by selecting name which does not go well with the type of business. Competition has reached to the height and to mark your presence in such scenario you need to be perfect in every aspect of business. Give legal name to business and then start with other legal formalities.

Gaining license or permit

Legally when you start any business it is important to have government recognition and this can be obtained by gaining license or permits. It is advisable to accomplish legal formalities as soon as possible in order to avoid future complications. Many times first you need to complete the registration process of your name of business before asking for license.

Understanding goals

Determining business goals is very important as it can help you to understand the amount of hard work you need to put in to achieve your goal. The goal you desire should be realistic in nature. Without determining goal you would not be able to take your business to the desired level. Be clear with what you want and when you want. Start planning procedure as per the desired goals.

Planning strategies

While starting with a small business many people have misconception that they do not have to plan strategies for the success of business. Today you go anywhere around the market in any field, you would find good amount of competition. In order to face such competition it is important to be ready with some planning strategies. Marketing is the most important part of business and so make sure you plan proper marketing strategies.

Above are some of the points which can allow you in successfully starting with a small business. Starting small business is a step to reach towards long business plans, so take every step with due care.