Business Idea - Local Coupon Specialist

Just 4-5 years ago internet had not penetrated too well in India. That time there were some websites that were operating coupons. But these websites/coupon books offered coupons for very costly things. Like Yellow Pages - had a coupon book where it would list some of big hotels, restaurants, etc. I have also seen some other coupon books, which will list Hotels in Hill Stations and offer some 40-50% discount on the prices. Mainly the listed things would often be services like spa, massages, beauty salon, organized hair cut shops, etc.  

I think that this sector has not been tapped to its potential. I will explain. If you are supposed to start some small business then you can tap this business idea. There are different models. In one model, you charge merchants for advertising, while distributing the coupons free of charge to the public. In another model, you do not charge merchants, but charge public for the coupon book. You can opt for the second one because most of the time the merchants may not be willing to spend the money. You can charge them for premium spots like Front page, second page, back page, etc.

You go to the local merchants first and then take their permission for overall coupon - like 10 % for purchase of over 1000 bucks & second coupon would be 5 % for purchase of over 500 bucks. They can give some item specific coupons. Once your book is ready, you can think of limiting the number of coupons per merchant. If you have located some 20-30 local merchants with different businesses, you will have enough coupons. Now, if you look at it each coupon can provide Rs. 50 value to the user. If you have such 50 coupons, the total value provided would be Rs. 2500/-. This is considering small ticket coupons. You can have some big coupons too like from furniture merchant. Furniture costs go anywhere between 2000 to 50000 bucks, so if he gives 10% discount, the potential coupon value could be 200 to 1000 bucks if it is capped at 1000. 

The potential value of the coupon book can be anywhere between Rs. 5000 to Rs. 10000/- for the user. How much should the book cost to print? Not more than Rs. 20/-. If you use glossy paper and good packaging, then Rs. 40/-. You might have to print 500 copies. Cost would be Rs. 20000/-. But you can sell it for Rs. 100/-. How many could you sell? To cover your costs you need to sell 200 books. 

User - If the user sees a definite value of Rs. 200/- in it, will he not buy book for Rs. 100/-. He will easily save Rs. 100/- by buying his normal things. If this is the case, the books will easily sell out. 

Merchants - They will continue to advertise in your book because if they do not advertise his competitive merchant will. The book would be popular and who ever has coupon in the book will get more customers. 

You - The coupon book will bring value to User as well as Merchants. This should be able to help you recover the costs and also sell out all the books and make profit. You can limit the coupons use for a month and come out with monthly editions. This project would be for masses.

Scaling Up

Once you are comfortable at one location, you can go at other locations and set up merchants there. You can learn different things from different places and apply at other places. You can also have tie ups with different merchants in tourist places. These coupons can be placed at any of your location 'coupon books'. 

Engage The Family

This is one thing that I watched when I was working with big group. The owners had big vision and they were building world class company. The factory location was not in city. They had build whole self sufficient town where their employees could reside. The factory was very near from their residence and hence employees loved it. Still there would be some attrition because of the location or due to higher salaries offered by competitors or mere family pressure. To tackle this, they made a good arrangement. 

First of all, they brought one good school in the town, so that employees children studied there. Then they also made arrangements for their wives to work in their factory. The roles were small, and there was flexibility in working. For example, roles like documentation, secretary, planning, HR, etc. These roles would be light one and would be done easily for wives who were graduates but did not work till then. The flexibility of time offered convenience to the wives so that they could make tiffin or could pick up their kid, etc. The work also gave extra money to the wives. Consider the scenario. There is this whole family shifting to this factory location. The chief earner has a salary of say - 50000. The wife would be given a salary of 10-15000. The total salary for family went in the range of 60-65000, depending on the role that the wife got. Now, if he has to look for better option, he will not look w.r.t. 50000, but he will have new benchmark of 60-65000 and then will have his options cut out. 

Thus, the owners, with their beautiful vision decreased the attrition rate dramatically, improved lives of the families and increased the confidence of the ladies too.Sometimes, you have to think beyond to make change.

Understanding The Power Of N & T

In one of the last articles, I had talked about the power of compounding. We saw how the number of turnarounds per period is important than the interest/margin rate that we are getting. Some might still not be able to visualize the power of compounding and would undermine it. Some people still give more importance to the discount or margin or profit that they can get and hold their material for larger profits. It might still be good in markets where the demand is limited. For example, there might not be demand for some article, even if the rates are slashed from, say, 500 to 200. In such markets, people should stick to the margins. 

But there are markets, where demand can increase if the cost of the product comes down. In those markets, the idea should be to lower the margins so more and more products get sold. For individuals, the example of Savings Bank Account & Other investments would be easy to understand. For example, you have Rs. 10000/- in your account. The Savings Account gives you interest in 6 months period. If they give monthly interest, then the same amount will increase after year end. If you invest in mutual fund, then the compounding is  good since your unit price increases daily.

The adjoining formula for Accumulated Amount has 4 elements. Principal is constant. You can vary the r & n and see how the A varies. If you look at the formula, A is very sensitive towards n. The Power of N is very high when compared to the power of r. If you increase the margins or interest by 1 %, it will not make much change to the outcome. But change in N will immediately make you notice the change. Another element in the formula is t. T is the number of years or periods considered. If your compounding is done per year, your n is 1. But for quarterly compounding, it becomes 4. The power of T signifies the value of time. If you start early in your savings or in your business, then the power of T will take you that much farther. 

Understand the formula and apply it in your life. It will help you in long run. We often forget small things in life. And small things can sometimes make big difference.

Starting A New Business? How To Start Up?

In our early days in business, we had gone to meet one of the successful business man. He was actually friends elder brother. He shared different aspects of the business. One of the aspects was that when you start your business, either start very small or very big. His main reference was w.r.t. money that you put in business. We have seen several businesses trip over despite showing good signs in business. The major reason in those cases can be Cash Flow problem. Cash Flow can trip down any good running business. If you are going great and having good sales figures but are also tight in finance and credit, then God save you. Often the aspect of Cash Flow is forgotten and people expand very fast. Once they sense that there is good demand for their product, they start expanding. When they expand, it is like big overheads and if the cash inflow from new expansion is not coming, then the cash flow problem occurs. Your outflow is more than the inflow. 

This is what he meant, when he said that. If you do not have huge financial back up, then you must start slow and stabilize the business first. Once the cash inflow is there, you would be more confident and then go to the next step. It happens that when we are making business plans, we factor in the business that we would be getting and also the cash flow. But the stabilizing of your product or selling of your product takes time and this delays the cash flow. This may unsettle your business if you had not factored that in or do not have reserve funds. When you go other way round; you have enough deep pockets and have already stabilized your quality & product, then you are ready to go big. You can advertise, keep big launch program and invite the Page 3 people and you have launched yourself in the minds of the people. 

Recognize The Opportunities

There was heavy flood once in a city. The water level was continuously rising. Power had tripped down due to strong wind. People had started to leave the place. There was one old age man. His neighbor asks him, 'I think the flood will increase. I am leaving the place. You too come with me.' Old man says that My God is with me. He will take care of me. After some time, evacuation is ordered. One soldier comes near the house. He asks old man to come. The old man says, My God is with me. He will take care of me. The soldier leaves. After some time the water level Increases and a boat comes near old man's building. He again says that My God will take care of me. Then the water level increased so much that help comes through helicopter. When a rope is thrown at him the old man refuses to come. He says that My God will take care of me. After some time the old man is dead and is in Gods' court.

He asks God that I had so much trust in you that you will save me. But you let me die. Why? God first slaps him and says that it was He who had sent the neighbor, the soldier, the boat and the helicopter. But you did not take my help.

God is always creating opportunities. We just need to train our mind to recognize that. We should take note of the opportunities and take action. If we wait for right time, it may never come.

Perception-A Step To Build Your Brand

Have you heard someone ask for particular brand? Even you must be using only particular brands. Does the quality of different brands really so much different? Many a times the answer will be No. Most of the time the quality is same. But the brand is written all over your mind. No matter what you will buy only those product.

This is due to the perception in your mind about the brand. This perception is not created overnight. It takes long time to create the right image or perception in minds of user. You have to keep the quality consistent every time. The quality is best but along with it is packaging. The packaging changes your view about the product immediately. Visualize the pair of clothes given in simple plastic bag and that in a proper colorful box. The box packing will immediately change the perception of product. You can spend 10 on packing & ask customers 100 and they will happily give it.

You can similarly work towards perception image of your product. This will create brand awareness among consumers.

Focus One Thing At A Time

You have decided a goal and it is quite far away. How do you reach it? For example, a child wants to become great archer. Should the child try to hit the bull's eye directly? If the target is at good distance, would it be able to shoot the arrow so that it reaches the target. No. First it will need to focus on gaining strength in the muscles. The muscles should have enough power so that it is able to throw the arrow to the length where the target is kept. The very first training should focus only on strength building. Once it is able to throw the arrow to the target length, the first step is clear. It can now focus on hitting the target and then the Bull's Eye. 

When the child is trying to play cricket, it is not just about playing the shots or throwing the ball. It always starts with strength training. First, the child should get the strength in its muscles and gain the stamina to last enough in the match. It should be able to run on the field without getting tired. Then it starts with throwing of the ball. It should be able to throw the ball long enough. It should be able to pick the bat and move it easily. Once these things are done, then the training for the shots or the bowling starts. 

The situation is similar when we do our business. The ultimate aim of the business is to earn money. But, it has to make investments - both time & money, so that it has the strength to play along and earn money. You must always focus on one thing at a time. First focus on quality because that is the most important factor. Without it you won't be able to achieve success. Then try to increase the business and then think of the margins. When you have enough business, you can focus on money making & efficiency.

Don't Give Undue Importance To Dogs

Hey, you might be saying that earlier I wrote about Dogs being pretty pets and stress relievers and today I am writing that you should not give undue importance to dogs. But here I am not talking about the actual dogs, but the proverbial dogs. There is a saying that Haathi Chale Bazaar, Kutte Bhouke Hazaar. This was in Hindi. I will translate for you. It says that When an Elephant takes a walk along the market, all the dogs will bark at it. But does the elephant give any heed to the dogs? No. 

Our Entrepreneurial journey is similar. When we take a leap of faith and start on our own, there are many mouths which will say different things. But should we pay any heed to them. There is another proverb, saying Listen to Everyone but Do What your heart says. If you have set up goal and you are following a path, you cannot just throw stones at every dog that barks at you. If you do so, they will only waste your time. Do your job and people will slowly come to you. Your belief is the single most important factor that will take you towards your goal. There is a famous dialogue from film Guru based on Business Legend of India - Dhirubhai Ambani. It says - When people begin to talk behind your back, consider you are successful. "Jab Log Tumhare Khilaf Bolne Lage, Samajh Lo Tarraki Kar Rahe Ho".

Do You Want To Improve Yourself? Here's What You Can Do.

If you want to improve your life, take it in writing that you won't be able to do it at one stroke until there is some flash point. Flash point like somebody has humiliated you and you have decided at that point that come what may, you will show him what you can do. There can be some point like you feel from within that some known person has done so much and you can do it too. You may hear some motivational seminar and are deeply motivated to do something and you carry that motivation until you achieve your goal. These are flash points and these turn your life upside down.

But you might be living a normal life and still want to improve your life. For that you need to do it one step at a time. If you try to run marathon directly, you won't be able to do it without being injured or without exhausting yourself. You need to practice daily and build your stamina. Similarly to improve your life, you need to have some positive readings daily. It might be in some articles or summaries of the books or books itself, so that you learn daily from it and eventually apply it in your life. You can set up some exercise routine. You can get up early - at least in 15 minutes steps. Find something to do when you wake up. Quit some bad habit each week/month. Don't watch TV or at least don't be addicted to it. You should surround yourself with positive people or free yourself from negative energy people. You need to find where your energy is sucked and try to be away from such topic or place or person.

Apply any one of them and let us know how you improved your life.

New Exercise to Move You Fast

Yesterday I wrote about how we need to take care of our health. We should be ready to do that else we will lose ourselves soon enough. If we do not take care of our body now, our body will demand more attention later. And that attention will not let you live in peace. It is always better to start early.

I have started to do some experiments. Some days ago, I bought a ball for my daughter. The ball is of the size of a foot ball, but it is plastic ball which is very light and filled with air. It is not like the volley ball or foot ball or even the basket ball. These balls are heavy and may hurt someone if hit hard. The ball I am talking will not hurt anyone.

The ball is a hit at home / ground. We play many games with it. We can play foot ball, basket ball, tennis (with hand), cricket (small - indoor and outdoor). I even play squash with it. And squash or tennis is quite intensive when we consider our levels of stamina. Squash is best as you can play alone at home and with big ball or with small Table Tennis ball and bat. You can play as hard as you want and as slow as you want without hurting yourself. The balls are so light that there will be no spots on your wall too. Of course, you have to take care that the ball is not wet.

Out you go today and buy that big air ball and start to play with yourself. Show your procrastinating self that when it is play and fun, no one can come in between. You can even go for a walk with the ball and see how the ball will make you take that fast steps.

Remember the Old Saying - Health Is Wealth

I dedicate today's blog towards health. We are too busy with our activities. We become tired at the end of the day. We decide daily that we will start with exercise or walking today. Your inner self wants to start it immediately, but your other procrastinating half always finds some ways to push it to tomorrow. And as you know tomorrow never comes. So, I suggest you do at least some small things to start with.

If you are travelling by car, park your car a little farther, so you have to walk towards your office or home. Go to the market without vehicle, If you leave on higher floor take the stairs. If you stay too high, then take the staircase for 2-3 floors and then take lift. This way you will increase your stamina day by day. Due to our lifestyle - more stresses, more fast food eating, luxury, etc. - our body has lost its stamina. If you want to check it just try walking for 1-2 km or running for about 100-200 m. If you are not already doing it, trust me it will be very difficult. And by doing these small things, you will feel that your stamina increases.

First start walking then intermittent running, until your body is comfortable. Play some games - outdoor of course. And yes, if you have crossed 35-40 years, then you must also regularly check up for Cholesterol, Diabetes, and other things. These checkings are important. These may remind you that indeed you need to step up yourself and start something physical.  

Don't Fight With Pig

Pigs are altogether a different genre. It is one symbol for small savings. Children often refer it as piggy bank. Pork is often eaten in some countries. But when we visualize a Pig, we often refer to a dirty animal eating out near big dust bins or in dirty water with mud over it.

When you visualize this animal, will you dare to go near it? Even the thought is dreadful enough. And to fight with it. What will happen? If at all it happens, you both will get dirty. And it doesn't affect the pig at all. In fact, he will enjoy it. So, it is your bad luck that you got in scramble with pig.

There are situations in our day today business when such situations come. At times, we have to avoid the situation of fight despite provocation. By getting entangled in fight, it is you who would get dirty. I hope you have got message of what types of pigs we are talking about.

How To Create A Simple Website With Own Domain Name At Least Price?

Last time I had written in one of the blogs that you should have your own website. Some people asked me that it is a lot of cost and how come we can just do it at Pocket Money Budget. I can have a free website using different platforms like wik.com, weebly.com and many other sites. You can have mostly a full fledged website. At least, you can have a website with different pages like About Us, Products, Contact, etc with 4-5 pages. But there is one disadvantage that you will have there. You will have to use their web address like - www.weebly.yourname.com. When you print your visiting cards and give all the details, the above web address will embarrass you. It does not look professional. And other way round, you do not want to spend money because you are not depending on that. The website will just give you some credibility and people will know about you. 

If you give it to some external designer then he will charge about Rs. 5000/- & more depending on what you want. There are two different charges for website - One for domain name which has to be renewed each year and second is web hosting program & designing, The designing might be one time, but web hosting is also annually charged. If you go for any other web hosting program, it will also have some annual charges like Rs. 99/month or little more than that. It will be around Rs. 1200/- minimum. When you go for a domain name, for the first year they will give it free if you buy their web hosting program. So, effectively you will get domain name & hosting for around Rs. 1200/- for first year. Some might even give you you@yourname.com email id free. 

If you want to settle it at minimum cost for year after year then I will give you idea. The first part is absolutely necessary. Domain name - Yes. If you want to print yourname.com or yourname.in on your card then you need to purchase the rights for that Domain name. For first year it will be anywhere between Rs. 200 to 500. But if you renew it for second year, it will be around Rs. 600/- odd. You cannot compromise on that. Yes, you can get the other part free. How?

You can go to any of the free website providers listed earlier. Design the website you want using the many templates they have on their website. Editing is okay if not very easy. Once you are ready with the website, you just go to your Domain name and just add your address - www.weebly.yourname.com as forwarded address on your yourname.com. So, if someone clicks or types yourname.com, they will be redirected to www.weebly.yourname.com. Once, someone is on your page, very seldom do they check the address bar.

Go and develop your website today.

Leave Me Alone - Leaving Bad Habits

We all have different types of habits. While good habits will take you far, there are other habits which tend to hold you back. We have to identify those habits. Bad is a very subjective term. For some, smoking, drinking, etc might be bad, while some will consider procrastination, time pass, etc as bad habits. Leaving bad habits is as important as forming new Habits.

I remember one story that I heard in my early years. One man went to a Wise man and told him that I have these bad Habits and I am not able to break them however hard I try. I have done many things but this habit is not leaving me. The Wise man asks him to come next day. Next day when he reaches there, he finds that the Wise Man is holding a tree. The man asks him if he has found solution to which Wise Man tells in affirmative. But, He tells the man that as the tree is not leaving him, He cannot come & tell solution. The man tells Him that it is He who is holding tree and not the tree that is holding Him. If you leave the Tree, dear sir, you will be free.

The Wise Man immediately leaves the tree and comes near the man. He says that it is similar to this. You say that the Bad Habits are not leaving you, when it is in your hands to leave bad Habits.

Team Work

It is very important that you have a great team in place when you start your own business. Of all the things, team is the top most important thing for the success of your start up. Whatever your idea is, the execution is important and it will be the skills of the team that will talk about your success.

All the great startups coming up in India have more than one founders. Right from Infosys to today's flipkart, it is a team which has started and stayed together. The team also has its responsibilities divided very finely between the people. And more than on any idea, the investors often put money on the founders. And even if you are alone at the top, you should have core team on which responsibilities & trust can be put. You cannot run a one man show and still be big.

Talk About Customer Interests

When you go to customer for your marketing/sales activity, he should be at ease with you or rather the atmosphere should be of ease. Rather than pushing your products, understand his concern. Talk about things that interest him and he will be in you and later in your products. I distinctly remember the incident described in book of Napoleon Hill where he tells us about one saleswoman who had come to sell some magazine.

Of particular interest was thing that she was not getting appointment. But somehow she managed to get an entry for 5 minutes and in that five minutes she was able to sell the subscription of magazine which he had no intention to buy. How did this happen? When she met Me. Napoleon Hill, she did not talk about the subscription or her magazine to start with. She just admired him for his work and later noticed other magazine and began to talk about it. This was of interest to him and he became interested in conversation. By the time it ended, conversation veered towards her magazine and then to the subscription.

Whenever you speak to your customer, speak about the benefits he will have. Of course you will talk about the properties of your products, but in the end you have to highlight the benefits.

Risk Vs Reward

Risk & Rewards are related to each other. Higher the Risk higher is the reward. Safer the bet, you stay where you are. This can be seen in almost all the fields. If you continuously look for safety, you might be living in your comfort zone. You will not be able to leave your comfort zone. If you are not leaving your comfort zone, how do you reach the heights? I remember reading about Ramesh Chauhan, the man who created the Brand Bisleri. When he first came with the idea of selling Bottled Water, distractors were laughing at him. They said that Mr. Chauhan is trying to sell Water in a country where it is available aplenty. How is someone going to sell water when it is availabhle everywhere? But he was not the one who would sit in the comfort zone. He was the one who created the brands like Thumbs Up & Gold Spot. In fact, when Coca Cola bought these brands from him, they tried to kill. But in the end they had to revive Thumbs Up. If Mr. Chauhan had been sitting there in his comfort zone without taking the risk to sell Water, India would not have known Bisleri the way it knows it today. Today Bisleri is a generic name for Bottled Water.  

If you too have to achieve success in whatever field you are, you should go out and take risk. It is said that the biggest risk is not taking any risk. The world is changing very fast and you have to be on your toes. Do you remember the Pager machine? There was one instrument just like mobile phone, which you could take with you and you can give messages on it. It did not change fast enough and it has become history. You should take risk - the only thing I would add is that you should have a complete vision about what you want to do and what is the risk. If you can know the depth that you can fall to, 50 % of the time, you will take the decision to take the risk.

Do Special Or Do It In Special Way

Whenever you start something on your own, you take your entrepreneurial journey, remember one thing. You have to Either Do Something Special - like Special/Different product or Service Or You can do some old thing in a Completely New/Special/Different Way. You can either focus on the product/service or the process or the customer satisfaction. Like the famous saying, Winners do not do different things, they do things in a different way. 

You can take the McDonald's Burger for example. If you consider the Recipe of Vada Pav of Maharashtra, it is similar to Burger. A Potato Patty sandwiched between two Breads. It is very handy. But you go to any McDonald's all over the world and get the same taste in a same way. They have so standardized the processes that you can bet with anybody that you will get the same quality of that Burger and it is famous for its similarity. So, you see that the Burger itself may not so great, but the experience, the taste that McDonald's offers is Special. And so we love it.

It is similar with Vada Pav. People have built buildings on a simple product like Vada Pav. How? They simply do something different with the simple Vada Pav. Some will vary the size, some will put different ingredients in the patty, some will give accompanying chutney. I have seen some stalls, where people like the chutney more than the Vada Pav itself. So, you see here that they are giving different experience with the same product.

Adjust Your Sails When You Cannot Change The Direction Of The Wind

There is one story. A story about a King who has some serious health issue which does not get healed despite different cures from various experts. One day there comes one Swami who tells the King that the problem is related to your eyes and that you should see Only Green so that your eyes feel soothed. The Minister orders everybody around that all things in the Palace should be Green. The Palace is painted Green, all the clothes are changed to green, all the food that was given to him was colored green. There was lot of expense that goes into this. After a while, the King begins to feel better. The Swami returns after many days and is stunned to see all the palace turn green. After hearing everything he gives the King a pair of Green Goggles and says that you could have saved all the money if you had changed the way you see it rather than changing the whole World around you.

Something similar happens in our Business World. As I said earlier, we have Circle of Influence & Circle of Concern. We cannot do much about the Circle of Concern. But what if we just change our position in the Circle of Concern so that you shift yourself to the Circle of Influence. When we have external hostile environments, you just need to adjust yourself so that you are always the winner in long term. 

If there is a situation due to which you have problems in business, just see if you can tweak your project so that your output or your customer or the process - something changes and you remain safe.

Even a Long Journey Starts With a Single Step

When we set ourselves a target, it may seem very far at the outset. We take a target which we think is 5 or 10 years down the line. Even so, if the target given is by external party, like when you are in pressure or as a challenge, the target may overwhelm you. But if you look at the consistent working, you will find that the results after a time period will be imaginative. You can look at how the Insurance plans or the SIP's (Systematic Investment Plan) are marketed these days. They do not say that you have to pay Rs. 20000 per annum as fees. Instead they will say that can you not afford to pay Rs. 55 per day for an insurance of this value. 

Or better still they will market the Rs. 500/- SIP as Rs. 17/day expense. But at the end of the year, it will be about Rs. 6500 or so. Instead if you had said, that take a plan of Rs. 6000 or Rs. 60000/- at once, there will be less takers. 

Similarly, when you look at your goal, do not look at it as one figure or single achievement. Break it down. And always keep it in your mind that every long journey begins with a single step. It is only that the steps should continue. But the thought of long journey often puts our mind off the journey and we procrastinate or do not take the step itself. Take that step and keep your eyes on your target. You will be enthused along your journey and will reach it far early than you thought. 

Getting Organized in Office

When you start up, there are not many papers in your office. But once you are settled, there are different papers that keep coming in. There are visiting cards, brochures, payment advice, duplicate delivery challan, request letters, introductory letters, magazines, etc.  If all these documents remain unorganized at your workplace, chances are that you yourself might be unorganized. As a thumb rule, the more organized you are, better the efficiency. This is because, you give subtle messages to your mind that you should be organized. The craze for getting organized might help you to sort out things either by giving some time in day or in week or doing it as it comes in.

For making your task simpler, you need to make up different categories. Like - Yearwise, monthwise, document wise, purchase, sale, transport copies, magazines, papers, etc. Once you have organized the category, it will be much more easier for you. Whenever something comes, you can just put it in that file. Have different files, or compartments or drawers for these things and let the things go into that very file, compartment, etc. This way you will save a lot of time in organizing the documents as well as retrieving them. You can use different colors, different markers, etc. At one place (at our customers place), I also saw one good thing. They have series of documents and for each series there are different box files. The total documents are like 7-8 box files. They are kept vertically besides each other, so horizontally a size of about A3 or A4 sheet is covered depending on number of box files. They could have simply kept numbers like 1, 2, 3,... posted on them. Instead, pictures speak louder. So they have this big picture of a car or a horse or house which is cut into 6-8 pieces and pasted on these box files. When you look at the cup-board, you will see one big picture and numbers posted above them.

Identify the Circle of Influence

When you decide on a Goal / Target, you should identify the Action Plan. Along with Action plan, you should also identify the Obstacles & the Opportunities. In the Obstacles, you should identify the Circle of Influence.

Circle of Influence is the one in which we have control. There are different factors, which we can internally control. Then there are external factors on which we have no control. These factors are the Circle of Concern. You cannot do much on the Circle of Concern - hence it is concern. These are the external factors over which you can have little control. The factors such as Taxes, Inflation, Views of Other people, Terrorist Attack, Earthquake, etc. are all things over which you cannot do anything. You just have to put these things aside so you do not waste your time & energy on these. You should always focus on what you can do and what is in your hands.

Whenever we think about our target, we should always think about the Circle of Influence. Because these are the things which we can plan, we can change and adjust as per our need. The are in full control of us. You should have short term as well as long term strategies for these. It is in your hands to learn new things, it is in your hands to vary the prices of your products till it gets acceptability. It is up to you to check the costs and keep your overheads in limits so that you can take out profits even at low level of sales. These are all under your Circle of Influence.

First thing you need to do is to identify your target, obstacles, opportunities & the circle of influence.

Second Surgical Strike By India PM Narendra Modi

Last couple of months have seen some big firing along the borders. Some of our soldiers had to give their life. Our PM then planned Surgical Strike on Enemy territory and destroyed the Terrorist hideouts in their territory. After that there were many shootouts along different regions on the border. The basic reason behind that is the black money being circulated via different nations to fund the terrorists. This money is used to buy ammunition and this is then used against our own army.

This blog is not very Business Like. But I am sure this will be one of the big things I am watching in my life. The thing that will change the whole Indian Outlook. Today our PM enacted a second surgical strike and that is on the black money. Black Money - The money which is kept in hideouts without paying taxes. First, time till 30th September was given. After that this is the first surgical strike done by the Government. People can now submit their notes of Rs. 500 & Rs. 1000 in banks or post offices till 30th December. People who have legitimate money need not panic as they can give declaration and still deposit the notes in designated RBI offices.

On second thoughts - Can this money be given to poor by the rich? Poor who do not have much income or who have very big gap before the taxable limit of Rs. 2 lakh comes in. This way, poor will have some money in their account and will be boon for them. Indirect help to poor by our honorable PM.

Theoretical Calculation - Great Way If This Can Be Applied Practically.

I am going to write one sentence, which you may have to read it again to understand. This is very powerful.

If we invest Rs. 10000/- each month for a year, and have 10 % returns in one month, with complete stock sale/turnaround and invest the amount again without any withdrawals, at the end of the year you will have Rs. 2.13 lac stock.

The below table is just for demo.

Interest
10%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1	10000	11000	12100	13310	14641	16105.1	17715.61	19487.17	21435.89	23579.48	25937.42	28531.17
2		10000	11000	12100	13310	14641	16105.1	17715.61	19487.17	21435.89	23579.48	25937.42
3			10000	11000	12100	13310	14641	16105.1	17715.61	19487.17	21435.89	23579.48
4				10000	11000	12100	13310	14641	16105.1	17715.61	19487.17	21435.89
5					10000	11000	12100	13310	14641	16105.1	17715.61	19487.17
6						10000	11000	12100	13310	14641	16105.1	17715.61
7							10000	11000	12100	13310	14641	16105.1
8								10000	11000	12100	13310	14641
9									10000	11000	12100	13310
10										10000	11000	12100
11											10000	11000
12												10000
											Total	213854.8
Amount Invested Each Month=10000. Returns Each Month: 10%. Assumption: Complete Stock Turnaround per month. Complete reinvestment.

If you are able to do the same turnaround in two months time, then you will have Rs. 1.6 lac stock. The calculations gives an idea about the turnaround of our stocks. From the time that you buy your material to the time of the sale, if you do complete turnaround in quick time, you will be far ahead. You just watched that you can quickly build wealth if you set short turnaround time and put in the money again in to the business. 

Target for Sales

When you are deciding for your goal or target for any period, say month or week or year, you should also make certain plan to achieve it. And by default you should have plans for 120% of your targets. For example, if you are targeting a sale of 50 lakh, then you must actually plan about how you can sale for 60 lakh. When you make schedule for 60 lakh, you will almost always clear your targets of 50 lakhs.

This happens because you will have some schedule or sales cancel, you might not have raw material or design or packing material or labor or such things which can miss your targets. When you have written plan for your targets, your major work in the morning Time would be to review the list and push things which have remained behind.

If you do this, you will see that in coming days you will not only meet your targets consistently, but even surpass them.