A

Project

On

A Study on Financial Problems Faced by The Start-Ups

SUBMITTED BY

KUNAAL VINAY SARAOGI

Roll No.:52

T.Y.B.M.S. SEMESTER – VI

PROJECT GUIDE

PROF. PRASAD VIJAY ANAREDY

SUBMITTED TO

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

RAJASTHANI SAMMELAN’S

Ghanshyamdas Saraf College

Of Arts & Commerce

Affiliated to University of Mumbai

Reaccredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade

S.V. Road, Malad (West)

Mumbai – 400064.

A.Y. 2018 – 2019

 RAJASTHANI SAMMELAN’S

Ghanshyamdas Saraf College

Of Arts & Commerce

Affiliated to University of Mumbai

Reaccredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade

S.V.Road, Malad (West)

Mumbai – 400064.

A.Y. 2018 – 2019

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Mr. Kunaal Saraogi, Roll no: 52, has worked and duly
completed her/his Project Work for the degree of Bachelor of Management Studies
under the Faculty of Commerce in the subject of Finance and his project is
entitled, “A study on Financial Problem faced by the start-up “under my
supervision.

I further certify that the entire work has been done by the learner under my guidance
and that no part of it has been submitted previously for any Degree or Diploma of any
University.

It is her/his own work and facts reported by her/his personal findings and
investigations.

Name & Signature of:

Project Guide: Principal:

Date:

External Examiner: College Seal

Date:
 DECLARATION

I, the undersigned, Miss/Mr. Kunaal Saraogi , a student of Ghanshyamdas

Saraf College of Arts & Commerce, Malad (West) T.Y.B.M.S. SEMESTER – VI
hereby declare that the work embodied in this project work titled “ A study on
financial problems faced by the start-up’s “, forms my own contribution to the
research work carried out under the guidance of Prof Prasad Vijay Anaredy is a
result of my own research work and has not been previously submitted to any other
University for any other Degree/Diploma to this or any other University.

Wherever reference has been made to previous works of others, it has been clearly
indicated as such and included in the bibliography.

I, hereby further declare that all information of this document has been obtained and
presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct.

Name and Signature of the

student

Certified by

Name and Signature of the Guiding Teacher

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To list who all have helped me is difficult because they are so numerous and the depth
is so enormous.

I would like to acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and fresh
dimensions in the completion of this project.

I take this opportunity to thank the University of Mumbai for giving me chance to do
this project.

I would like to thank my Principal Dr. Jayant Apte for providing the necessary
facilities required for completion of this project.

I take this opportunity to thank our Chief Coordinator Dr. Lipi Mukherjee and
Course Coordinator Prof. Prajna Shetty for their moral support and guidance.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my guide Prof Prasad
Anaredy whose guidance and care made the project successful.

I would like to thank my College Library, for having provided various reference
books and magazines related to my project.
Lastly, I would like to thank each and every person who directly or indirectly helped
me in the completion of the project especially my Parents and Peers who supported
me throughout my project.
 INDEX

Sr. No. Topic Page Number

 Executive Summary
1. Introduction to the Industry
1.1 Definition of Start-up 1-2
1.2 Start-up India 2-6
1.3 Start-up Company 6-7
1.4 Here are the 19 plans given by Government 7-9
1.5 Entrepreneurship 10-11
2. Literature review
2.1 Imperfect education system & conservative 12
lifestyle
2.2 Lack of support system & entrepreneurship 12-13
Ecosystem.
2.3 India lacks enough angel investors 13-14
2.4 Human Talent 14
2.5 Women Entrepreneur 14-15
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Objectives of the study 17-18
3.2 Data Collection Method 19-20
3.3 Women Entrepreneur in India 20-29
3.4 Reasons for limited start-up in India 29-32
3.5 Importance of Finance Agency’s in India 32-39
3.6 Entrepreneurial Development Plan 39-64
4. General Analysis
 PESTLE analysis 65-66
 Challenges and Opportunities 67-71
 Challenges faced by women entrepreneur 72-74
5. 5.1 Findings 75
5.2 Suggestions 75-77
5.3 Conclusions 78
6. 6.1 Article 79-80
6.2 Case Studies 81-84
 Bibliography & Webliography 85
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

India is a country of many great legends that were famous all over the world
because of their work, sharp mind & high skill. Youths in India are very talented,
high skilled & full of innovative ideas. But they don't get opportunity due to lack
of solid support & proper guidance in right direction. In this way, BJP government
launched “START UP INDIA STAND UP INDIA” scheme on 16 January 2016 to
help the youth of India to go in right direction using their new & innovative ideas.
This scheme was launched to motivate & promote new comers towards business &
grow their career as well as economy of the country. This programme is a big start
to enable Start-ups through financial support so that they can use their innovative
ideas in right direction. There are tremendous opportunities for Start-up
entrepreneurs in India. The key areas are Like Textile, Media, Health Sector, Event
Planner, Tourism, Automobile etc. So, there are various opportunities where
entrepreneurs can start their Start-ups. But along with opportunities there are some
challenges also that Start up entrepreneurs may have to face like Infrastructure
Deficit in India, Risk Factor and Right Talent Acquisition etc. Despite of these
challenges, Government as well Start up entrepreneurs should have to work
together to face these challenges & make this programme effective. The study will
focus on Start-up India scheme, opportunities available under this scheme as well
as challenges may have to be faced & suggestions to overcome the challenges so
as to make the Start-up India programme successful.

Skill India Programme, Start-up India and Stand Up India programme are the buzz
words of today in manufacturing, Production and Services sectors. As present
government has taken the oath to inculcate skills in every youth and help them
towards start-ups and establish their own enterprise and become owner of their
own rather doing job with some other and intern help in employment and GDP
development. It is also observed that SC/ST/Women categories are marginalized in
this area since inception and it was the dream of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar that equal
opportunities to be given to them also to grow and showcase their talents, ideas
and ability to prove themselves as a successful entrepreneur, a person and citizen
of India. The present study is to understand the progress of this program and its
success. The results of the study state that nearly 70% of the units expressed
positive growth and expressed that if financial support would have not been
availed through this platform, it would be a dream to start-up their own industries
and women entrepreneurs also feel that they are more empowered and able to
establish their identity.
 1.INTRODUCTION TO THE

COMPANY

1.1 Definition of Start-up:

A start-up company or start-up or start-up is a young company that is just

beginning to develop. Start-ups are usually small and initially financed and
operated by a handful of founders or one individual. These companies offer a
product or service that is not currently being offered elsewhere in the market, or
that the founders believe is being offered in an inferior manner. In the early stages,
start-up companies' expenses tend to exceed their revenues as they work on
developing, testing and marketing their idea. As such, they often require financing.
Start-ups may be funded by traditional small business loans from banks or credit
unions, by government sponsored Small Business Administration loans from local
banks, or by grants from non-profit organizations and state governments.

Paul Graham says that "A start-up is a company designed to grow fast. Being
newly founded does not in itself make a company a start-up. Nor is it necessary for

1
a start-up to work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of
"exit". The only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with start-
ups follows from growth."

1.2 Start-up India:

Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India.

The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
during his 15 August 2015 address from the Red Fort, in New Delhi. The action
plan of this initiative, is based on the following three pillars:

1. Simplification and Handholding.

2. Funding Support and Incentives.
3. Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation.

An additional area of focused relating to this initiative, is to discard restrictive

States Government policies within this domain, such as License Raj, Land
Permissions, Foreign Investment Proposals, and Environmental Clearances. It was
organized by The Department for promotion of industry and internal
trade(DPI&IT). A startup defined as an entity that is headquartered in India, which
was opened less than seven years ago, and has an annual turnover less than ₹25
crore (US$3.5 million). Under this initiative, the government has already launched
the I-MADE program, to help Indian entrepreneurs build 1 million mobile app
start-ups, and the MUDRA Banks scheme (Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana), an
initiative which aims to provide micro-finance, low-interest rate loans to
entrepreneurs from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Initial capital of ₹200
billion (US$2.8 billion) has been allocated for this scheme.

2
The start-up scenario in India has gone a huge makeover, now people are not alien
with the concept of start-ups. Earlier people had no idea what this concept is all
about, thanks to the rise in media’s encouraging coverage towards start-ups
recently. The concept of start-up is somehow different for Indians and not so
different for people of developed economies. Start-ups are something to do with
new product/process for the entire market or fraction of the market. Start-ups must
not be confused with small business, as the biggest difference being is
INNOVATION. Recently government of India has launched “Start-up India”
initiative to foster/support and encourage start up efforts in India. The results are
very satisfactory with initiative being accepted with open arms in country, various
state governments have also started the similar efforts. India stand at a very
important cross road, India stood at number three in overall technology driven stat
ups in the world (Top two positions are held by USA and UK respectively). The
very nature of start-ups in India is technology based which is fuelled by young
IIT’s graduates as the patterns of start-ups in India further suggests, they are
undertaken in very unconventional terrain like medical etc. The important question
remains is, how start-ups are shaping the very structure of economy in India or
elsewhere (In similar economies). The overall impact of start-ups is very visible
initially then, only those ideas persist which are smartly implemented. In India
government is constantly trying to create an environment which is both conducive

3
and optimum for stat ups. The reason is very simple, start-ups are necessary for the
entrepreneurial and innovative growth of any nation. There are nations which are
smaller than ours and less naturally equipped than ours, but made tremendous
growth and advancements in the field of economy and overall development. The
secret of their success is nothing but an appetite for innovation. If India wants to be
in the front lines with developed nations in the world, innovation is the key to
become so. Fortunately, India is endowed with youngest population which is
primarily required for setting up start-ups. With the growing inclination towards
“Having something of my own” attitude is also helping in bringing new ideas into
successful implementation. India has produced some of the leading start-ups in the
world, which are working as the lighthouse for the rest. The prominent example
being OYO Rooms and Zomato (both catering to a very different market segment
and objectives). In short, the start-up scenario is looking very convincing and
bright as the investments is growing in India start-ups from worldwide investing
bodies both organized and individuals. The recent example of such investment
being the huge multibillion-dollar investments in various start-ups functioning in
India like Ola and Flipkart. In a way start up era has started in India and it is the
time to give its due push.

As it is a known fact that when someone starts a new enterprise or tries to get into
entrepreneurship, they face many problems like finance, land permissions,
environmental clearance, foreign investment proposals, family support etc. It is
one of the much-needed initiative plans of Govt of India. This initiative focuses on
filling the gap in the economy and its development and has the objective to fire the
entrepreneurial blood at the bottom level. It has brought lot of positivity and
confidence among the entrepreneurs of India. According to PM Narender Modi the
start-ups, its technology and innovation is exciting and effective instruments for
India’s transformation. An idea can be converted into a start-up. Even sometimes
the crisis becomes the opportunity and it gives birth to the start-ups. Many times,
we have seen that we have an idea but we do not dare to initiate it or we do not
4
find it worthy. On the other hand, other people take that idea as an opportunity and
mobilise into reality. The main objective of the govt is to reduce the load on the
start-ups hence allowing them to concentrate fully on their business and keeping
the low cost of adherence.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Department of Science

and Technology have agreed to partner in an initiative to set up over 75 such
startup support hubs in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), the Indian
Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), the Indian Institutes of Science
Education and Research (IISERs) and National Institutes of Pharmaceutical
Education and Research (NIPERs).

The Reserve Bank of India said it will take steps to help improve the ‘ease of
doing business’ in the country and contribute to an ecosystem that is conducive for
the growth of start-up businesses.

SoftBank, which is headquartered in Japan, has invested US$2 billion into Indian
startups. The Japanese firm has pledged to investment US$10
billion. Google declared to launch a startup, based on the highest votes in which the
top three startups will be allowed to join the next Google Launchpad Week, and
the final winner could win an amount of US$100,000in Google cloud
credits. Oracle on 12 February 2016 announced that it will establish nine
incubation centers. In Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad,
Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Trivandrum and Vijayawada.

The result of first ever startup state ranking were announced in December 2018 by
the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) based on the criteria of
policy, incubation hubs, seeding innovation, scaling innovation, regulatory change,
procurement, communication, North-Eastern states, and hill states.

 2018 Start-up State Ranking are as follows:

 Best performer: Gujarat
 Top performers: Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, and Rajasthan

5
  Leader: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and
Telangana
 Aspiring leaders: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar
Pradesh, and West Bengal
 Emerging states: Assam, Delhi, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir,
Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand
 Beginners: Chandigarh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry,
Sikkim, and Tripura

Kerala has initiated a government start-up policy called "Kerala IT Mission" which
focuses on fetching ₹ 50 billion (US$700 million) in investments for the state's
start-up ecosystem. It also founded India's first telecom incubator Start-up village
in 2012. The state also matches the funding raised by its incubator from Central
government with 1:1. Telangana has launched the largest incubation centre in India
as "T-Hub". Andhra Pradesh has allocated a 17,000-sq.ft. Technological Research
and Innovation Park as a Research and Development laboratory. It has also created
a fund called "Initial Innovation Fund" of ₹100 crore (US$14 million) for
entrepreneurs. The government of Madhya Pradesh has collaborated with
the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to create a fund of ₹200
crore (US$28 million). Rajasthan has also launched a "Start-up Oasis" scheme. In
order to promote start-ups in Odisha, the state government organised a two-day
Start-up Conclave in Bhubaneswar on November 28, 2016.

1.3 Startup Company:

A start-up or start-up is started by individual founders or entrepreneurs to search
for a repeatable and scalable business model. More specifically, a start-up is a
newly emerged business venture that aims to develop a viable business model to
meet a marketplace need or problem. Founders design start-ups to effectively
develop and validate a scalable business model. Hence, the concepts of start-ups
and entrepreneurship are similar. However, entrepreneurship refers all new
businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to grow

6
big or become registered, while start-ups refer to new businesses that intend to
grow beyond the solo founder, have employees, and intend to grow large. Start-ups
face high uncertainty and do have high rates of failure, but the minority that go on
to be successful companies have the potential to become large and
influential. Some start-ups become unicorns, i.e. privately held start-up
companies valued at over $1 billion. According to TechCrunch, there were 279
unicorns as of March 2018, with most of the unicorns located in China, followed
by the United States. The largest unicorns founded as of October 2018
included Ant Financial, Byte Dance, Uber, Xiaomi, and Airbnb.

1.4 Here are the 19 plans Modi has for start-ups:

1. Self-certification:
The start-ups will adopt self-certification to reduce the regulatory liabilities. The
self-certification will apply to laws including payment of gratuity, labor contract,
provident fund management, water and air pollution acts.
2. Start-up India hub:
An all-India hub will be created as a single contact point for start-up foundations in
India, which will help the entrepreneurs to exchange knowledge and access
financial aid.
3. Register through app:
An online portal, in the shape of a mobile application, will be launched to help
start-up founders to easily register. The app is scheduled to be launched on April 1.
4. Patent protection:
A fast-track system for patent examination at lower costs is being conceptualized
by the central government. The system will promote awareness and adoption of the
Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) by the start-up foundations.
5. Rs 10,000 crore fund:

7
The government will develop a fund with an initial corpus of Rs 2,500 crore and a
total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore over four years, to support upcoming start-up
enterprises. The Life Insurance Corporation of India will play a major role in
developing this corpus. A committee of private professionals selected from the
start-up industry will manage the fund.

6. National Credit Guarantee Trust Company:

A National Credit Guarantee Trust Company (NCGTC) is being conceptualized
with a budget of Rs 500 crore per year for the next four years to support the flow
of funds to start-ups.
7. No Capital Gains Tax:
At present, investments by venture capital funds are exempt from the Capital
Gains Tax. The same policy is being implemented on primary-level investments in
start-ups.
8. No Income Tax for three years:
Start-ups would not pay Income Tax for three years. This policy would
revolutionize the pace with which start-ups would grow in the future.
9. Tax exemption for investments of higher value:
In case of an investment of higher value than the market price, it will be exempt
from paying tax
10. Building entrepreneurs:
Innovation-related study plans for students in over 5 lakh schools. Besides, there
will also be an annual incubator grand challenge to develop world class incubators.
11. Atal Innovation Mission:
The Atal Innovation Mission will be launched to boost innovation and encourage
talented youths.
12. Setting up incubators:
A private-public partnership model is being considered for 35 new incubators and
31 innovation centers at national institutes.

8
13. Research parks:
The government plans to set up seven new research parks, including six in the
Indian Institute of Technology campuses and one in the Indian Institute of Science
campus, with an investment of Rs 100 crore each.
14. Entrepreneurship in biotechnology:
The government will further establish five new biotech clusters, 50 new bio
incubators, 150 technology transfer offices and 20 bio-connect offices in the
country.

15. Dedicated program in schools:

The government will introduce innovation-related program for students in over 5
lakh schools.
16. Legal support:
A panel of facilitators will provide legal support and assistance in submitting
patent applications and other official documents.
17. Rebate:
A rebate amount of 80 percent of the total value will be provided to the
entrepreneurs on filing patent applications.
18. Easy rules:
Norms of public procurement and rules of trading have been simplified for the
start-ups.
19. Faster exit:
If a start-up fails, the government will also assist the entrepreneurs to find suitable
solutions for their problems. If they fail again, the government will provide an easy
way out.

1.5 Entrepreneurship:

9
Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching and running a new
business, which is often initially a small business. The people who create these
businesses are called entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship has been described as the "capacity and willingness to develop,

organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to
make a profit". While definitions of entrepreneurship typically focus on the
launching and running of businesses, due to the high risks involved in launching
a start-up, a significant proportion of start-up businesses have to close due to "lack
of funding, bad business decisions, an economic crisis, lack of market demand—or
a combination of all of these.

A broader definition of the term is sometimes used, especially in the field

of economics. In this usage, an Entrepreneur is an entity which has the ability to
find and act upon opportunities to translate inventions or technology into new
products: "The entrepreneur is able to recognize the commercial potential of the
invention and organize the capital, talent, and other resources that turn an
invention into a commercially viable innovation." In this sense, the term
"Entrepreneurship" also captures innovative activities on the part of established
firms, in addition to similar activities on the part of new businesses.

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, or "the owner or manager of a

business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make
profits". Entrepreneurs act as managers and oversee the launch and growth of an
enterprise. Entrepreneurship is the process by which either an individual or a team
identifies a business opportunity and acquires and deploys the necessary resources
required for its exploitation. Early-19th-century French economist Jean-Baptiste
Say provided a broad definition of entrepreneurship, saying that it "shifts economic
resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and
greater yield". Entrepreneurs create something new, something different—they
change or transmute values. Regardless of the firm size, big or small, they can

10
partake in entrepreneurship opportunities. The opportunity to become an
entrepreneur requires four criteria. First, there must be opportunities or situations
to recombine resources to generate profit. Second, entrepreneurship requires
differences between people, such as preferential access to certain individuals or the
ability to recognize information about opportunities. Third, taking on risk is a
necessary. Fourth, the entrepreneurial process requires the organization of people
and resources.

The entrepreneur is a factor in and the study of entrepreneurship reaches back to

the work of Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith in the late 17th and early 18th
centuries. However, entrepreneurship was largely ignored theoretically until the
late 19th and early 20th centuries and empirically until a profound resurgence in
business and economics since the late 1970s. In the 20th century, the
understanding of entrepreneurship owes much to the work of economist Joseph
Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl
Menger, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek. According to Schumpeter,
an entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or
invention into a successful innovation. Entrepreneurship employs what
Schumpeter called "the gale of creative destruction" to replace in whole or in part
inferior innovations across markets and industries, simultaneously creating new
products including new business models. In this way, creative destruction is largely
responsible for the dynamism of industries and long-run economic growth. The
supposition that entrepreneurship leads to economic growth is an interpretation of
the residual in endogenous growth theory and as such is hotly debated in academic
economics. An alternative description posited by Israel Kerzner suggests that the
majority of innovations may be much more incremental improvements such as the
replacement of paper with plastic in the making of drinking straws.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

11
2.1 The Imperfect Education System and Conservative Lifestyle:

The education system is one of hindrance for start-ups. In college, students are
usually trained with advanced techniques but lack of marketing, sales and
operational ability and leadership skills needed to advance their own enterprises. In
addition, conservative lifestyle also contributes as one of obstacles. As a culture of
family remains, family remains sceptical to change and prefer options that are able
to provide a steady income rather than engaging risk. This places pressure on the
budding entrepreneur who fall victim to the dichotomy of providing for the family
instead of following some “whimsical” dream (Au & Kwan, 2009).

2.2 Lack of Support Networks and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem:

One of the major challenges is that there is severe shortage of start-up support
networks and entrepreneurship ecosystems. In many western countries, there are
special institutions serve as incubators, start-up accelerators, start-up competitions
for entrepreneurs to put their ideas to test and obtain necessary guidance. In India,
incubators, start-up accelerators, and start-up competitions are slowly making their
way into the first-tier cities, but there truly are not enough to go around. As a result
of this shortage, many start-ups fail at the “idea” stage of their business. The
ecosystem usually does not directly provide funding to start-ups; they just serve as
platforms that link investors and entrepreneurs so that entrepreneurs can obtain
necessary funding to test out their ideas. The lack of these facilities makes it more
difficult for entrepreneurs to find investors. In return, investors are more difficult
to find entrepreneurs as well. Even if entrepreneurs are able to find investors, they
will face an entirely different set of challenges. Indian culture inherently does not
promote entrepreneurship. Conversely, it encourages stability, employment at large
state-owned or private organizations and, above all, teaches people to be risk
averse. Even if young Indian individuals have intention to start their own business,
their family usually places a considerable amount of negative pressure on them to
forget entrepreneurship and look for a “stable job” instead.

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2.3 India lacks enough angel investors to fund start-ups:

Unlike the West, India does not have an adequate number of angel investors who
can fuel the growth of the country’s thriving start-up ecosystem, industry body
NASSCOM has said. “For a successful start-up ecosystem there is a need for
enough angel investors who can support budding entrepreneurs from an early
stage. But this is not happening in India and there is a serious lack of it,”
NASSCOM Vice-President Rajat Tandon told PTI. “High net-worth individuals
and corporate executives, among others, should come forward and participate in
this growth story,” he said. A recent report by NASSCOM had said India ranks
third among global start-up ecosystems, with more than 4,200 new-age companies.
Tandon said, “The case is very different in countries like the US. People are just
waiting to invest in good companies. We should also have something like that.”
“Mainly, investors (in India) are afraid because there is a high risk of failure in
these investments and also there is a lack of policy on such investments,” he
added. “Why will investors put money in such companies? They need tax benefits
and a number of other things to put in their money. We have already written about
these things to the Government and I am sure we can expect something by the
year-end,” he said. In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi had announced a new campaign „Start-up India; Stand up India‟ to promote
bank financing for start-ups and offer incentives to boost entrepreneurship and job
creation in the country. “At NASSCOM, we are not only encouraging investors but
also asking people to mentor start-ups. Like someone has a design business, they
can help start-ups develop UIs and guide them in the process. In return they take
some equity,” he said. “And there are people like Ratan Tata and Azim Premji,
who are making a slew of investments and helping these young entrepreneurs.
They are the inspiration,” he said. Ratan Tata has invested in a number of
companies including Ola, Snapdeal, Paytm, Urban Ladder, and Bluestone. Wipro
boss Azim Premji has funded companies such as Myntra and Amagi, among
others, through his investment arm Premji Invest.
13
2.4 Human Talent:

Compared to large mature enterprises, small start-ups are in an exponentially more

difficult dilemma and encountering much severe challenging in recruiting due to
the reason that it cannot pay high salary to its employees or offer any career
development opportunities aside from building their business from the ground up.
What is worse is that working for a start-up in China is far less glamorous than
working for a start-up in the west due to culture differences. It is a disaster for a
company who needs to execute on their business plan with minimal errors to just
survive the month.

2.5 Women Entrepreneur:

Melanne Verveerin, Women entrepreneurs are a vital source of growth that can
power our economies for decades, yet they face tremendous challenges to their full
economic participation. The GEM Women ‘s Report provides important data
which is critical to our understanding of women-run SMEs. V Krishnamoorthy and
R Balasubramaniam, identified the important women entrepreneurial motivation
factors and its impact on entrepreneurial success. The study identified ambition,
skills and knowledge, family support, market opportunities, independence,
government subsidy and satisfaction are the important entrepreneurial motivational
factors. The study also concluded that ambition knowledge and skill independence
dimensions of entrepreneurial motivational has significant impact on
entrepreneurial success.

Jalbert, (2000) performed a study to explore the role of women entrepreneurs in a

global economy. It also examined how women ‘s business associations can
strengthen women ‘s position in business and international trade. The analysis is
performed on the basis of facts and data collected through field work (surveys,
focus groups and interviews) and through examining the existing published
research. The study has shown that the women business owners are making
significant contributions to global economic health, national competitiveness and

14
community commerce by bringing many assets to the global market. Bowen &
Hirsch, (1986), compared & evaluated various research studies done on
entrepreneurship including women entrepreneurship. Its summaries various studies
in this way that female entrepreneurs are relatively well educated in general but
perhaps not in management skills, high in internal locus of control, more
masculine, or instrumental than other women in their values likely to have had
entrepreneurial fathers, relatively likely to have first born or only children, unlikely
to start business in traditionally male dominated industries & experiencing a need
of additional managerial training. Singh, (2008), identifies the reasons &
influencing factors behind entry of women in entrepreneurship. He explained the
characteristics of their businesses in Indian context and also obstacles &
challenges. He mentioned the obstacles in the growth of women entrepreneurship
are mainly lack of interaction with successful entrepreneurs, social un-acceptance
as women entrepreneurs, family responsibility, gender discrimination, missing
network, low priority given by bankers to provide loan to women entrepreneurs.
He suggested the remedial measures like promoting micro enterprises, unlocking
institutional frame work, projecting & pulling to grow & support the winners etc.
The study advocates for ensuring synergy among women related ministry,
economic ministry & social & welfare development ministry of the Government of
India.

15
3.RESEARCH

16
 METHODOLGY

3.1 Objectives:

(A) Meaning:

 A research objective is a clear, concise, declarative statement, which

provides direction to investigate the variables under the study.
 The objectives of a research project summarize what is to be achieved by
the study.

(B) Characteristics:

 Research objective is a concrete statement describing what the research is

trying to achieve.
 A well-known objective will be SMART:
 S – SPECIFIC • M – MEASURABLE. • A – ATTAINABLE. • R –
REALISTIC. • T – TIME BOUND
 Research objective should be RELEVANT, FEASIBLE, LOGICAL,
OBSERVABLE, UNEQUIVOCAL & MEASURABLE.
 Objective is a purpose that can be reasonably achieved within the expected
timeframe and with the available resources.
 The objective of research project summarizes what is to be achieved by the
study.
 The research objectives are the specific accomplishments the researcher
hopes to achieve by the study.
 The objectives include obtaining answers to research questions or testing
the research hypotheses.

17
(C) Objectives of the study are as follows:

1. To study the financial problems faced by the start-ups in India.

2. To study the Women entrepreneurs in India.
3. To find out the reasons behind few or limited start-ups in India.
4. To highlight the importance of financing agency’s for start-ups in India.
5. To understand the Entrepreneurial Development Plan.

Entrepren Financial
eurship Problems
Develo- faced by
pment start-up
Plan
Objecti
ves
Financing Women
agency's for Entrepren-
start-ups eurs in India
Reasons
behind
limited
start-ups

18
3.2 Data Collection Method:

The data collected in this research project is totally based on secondary data.
The facts and figures are taken by the different resources.

(A) Meaning:

Secondary data means data that are already available i.e., they refer to the data
which have already been collected and analysed by someone else. When the
researcher utilises secondary data, then he has to look into various sources from
where he can obtain them. In this case he is certainly not confronted with the
problems that are usually associated with the collection of original data. Secondary
data may either be published data or unpublished data. Usually published data are
available in: (a) various publications of the central, state are local governments; (b)
various publications of foreign governments or of international bodies and their
subsidiary organisations; (c) technical and trade journals; (d) books, magazines and
newspapers; (e) reports and publications of various associations connected with
business and industry, banks, stock exchanges, etc.; (f) reports prepared by
research scholars, universities, economists, etc. in different fields; and (g) public
records and statistics, historical documents, and other sources of published
information. The sources of unpublished data are many; they may be found in
diaries, letters, unpublished biographies and autobiographies and also may be
available with scholars and research workers, trade associations, labour bureaus
and other public/ private individuals and organisations.

(B) Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Data:

Secondary data is available from other sources and may already have been used in
previous research, making it easier to carry out further research. It is time-saving
and cost-efficient: the data was collected by someone other than the researcher.
Administrative data and census data may cover both larger and much smaller
samples of the population in detail. Information collected by the government will

19
also cover parts of the population that may be less likely to respond to the census
(in countries where this is optional).

A clear benefit of using secondary data is that much of the background work
needed has already been carried out, such as literature reviews or case studies. The
data may have been used in published texts and statistics elsewhere, and the data
could already be promoted in the media or bring in useful personal contacts.
Secondary data generally have a pre-established degree
of validity and reliability which need not be re-examined by the researcher who is
re-using such data.

Secondary data can provide a baseline for primary research to compare the
collected primary data results to and it can also be helpful in research design.

However, secondary data can present problems, too. The data may be out of date or
inaccurate. If using data collected for different research purposes, it may not cover
those samples of the population researchers want to examine, or not in sufficient
detail. Administrative data, which is not originally collected for research, may not
be available in the usual research formats or may be difficult to get access to.

3.3 Women Entrepreneurs in India:

Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or a group of women who

initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise. The Government of India has
defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and controlled by women
having a minimum financial interest of 51 per cent of the capital and giving at least
51 per cent of the employment generated in the enterprise to women ‖. Women
entrepreneurs engaged in business due to push and pull factors which encourage
women to have an independent occupation and stands on their own legs. A sense
towards independent decision-making on their life and career is the motivational
factor behind this urge. With the change of time there is tremendous upliftment in
the status of Indian women entrepreneur. Women entrepreneurs are gaining a
strong hold in most of the developing countries including India, Brazil etc. Another
20
recent trend is women are increasingly coming on the fore front in private and
government business organizations and occupying the top positions everywhere-
like Indra Nooyi, Chanda Kochhar, Shikha Sharma, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Naina
Lal Kidwai, etc. Again, there is increased awareness and women entrepreneurs are
increasingly finding easy to finance their business. Women entrepreneurs are also
taking up issues of environmental changes too.

(A)Status of women entrepreneurs in India:

Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the most important factors contributing to

the development of society. India has been ranked among the worst performing
countries in the area of women entrepreneurship in gender-focused global
entrepreneurship survey, released in July 2013 by PC maker Dell and Washington
based consulting firm Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI).
Of the 17 countries surveyed India ranks 16th, just above Uganda. Countries like
Turkey, Morocco and Egypt has outperformed India. Status of higher education in
women in India came out to be lower than most countries in the world. At present,
women entrepreneurial role is limited in the large-scale industries and technology-
based businesses. But even in small scale industries, the women’s participation is
very low. As per the third all-India census of Small-Scale Industries, only 10.11%
of the micro and small enterprises were owned by women, and only 9.46% of them
were managed by women. While the number of women operating their own
business is increasing globally, women continue to face huge obstacles that stunt
the growth of their businesses, such as lack of capital, strict social constraints, and
limited time and skill.
(B)Reasons for becoming Women Entrepreneurs:
The glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged in every line of
business. The entry of women into business in India is traced out as an extension
of their kitchen activities, mainly 3P ‘s, Pickle, Powder and Pappas. But with the
spread of education and passage of time women started shifting from 3P ‘s to

21
modern 3E ‘s i.e., Energy, Electronics and Engineering. Skill, knowledge and
adaptability in business are the main reasons for women to emerge into business
ventures. Women Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet
her personal needs and become economically independent. A strong desire to do
something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable
of contributing values in both family and social life. With the advent of media,
women are aware of their own traits, rights and also the work situations. The
challenges and opportunities provided to the women of digital era are growing
rapidly that the job seekers are turning into job creators. Many women start a
business due to some traumatic event, such as divorce, discrimination due to
pregnancy or the corporate glass ceiling, the health of a family member, or
economic reasons such as a layoff. But a new talent pool of women entrepreneurs
is forming today, as more women opt to leave corporate world to chart their own
destinies. They are flourishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters,
publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new avenues of economic
participation.
(C)Role of Government to develop Women Entrepreneurs in India:
Development of women has been a policy objective of the government since
independence. Until the 70s the concept of women development was mainly
welfare oriented. In 1970s, there was a shift from welfare approach to development
approach that recognized the mutually reinforcing nature of the process of
development. The 80s adopted a multi-disciplinary approach with an emphasis on
three core areas of health, education and employment. Women were given
priorities in all the sectors including SSI sector. Government and non- government
bodies have paid increasing attention to women economic contribution through
self- employment and industrial ventures.
The First Five-Year Plan (1951-56) envisaged a number of welfare measures for
women. Establishment of the Central Social Welfare Board, organization of

22
Mahala Mandal’s and the Community Development Programmes were a few steps
in this direction.
In the second Five-Year Plan (1956-61), the empowerment of women was closely
linked with the overall approach of intensive agricultural development
programmes.
The Third and Fourth Five-Year Plans (1961- 66 and 1969-74) supported
female education as a major welfare measure.
The Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974-79) emphasized training of women, who were in
need of income and protection. This plan coincided with International Women ‘s
Decade and the submission of Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in
India. In1976, Women ‘s welfare and Development Bureau was set up under the
Ministry of Social Welfare.
The Sixth Five-Year Plan (1980-85) saw a definite shift from welfare to
development. It recognized women ‘s lack of access to resources as a critical factor
impending their growth.
Steps taken in Seventh Five-Year Plan:
In the seventh five-year plan, a special chapter on the “Integration of women in
development” was introduced by Government with following suggestion.

(I) Specific target group:

It was suggested to treat women as a specific target groups in all major
development programs of the country.

(ii) Arranging training facilities:

It is also suggested in the chapter to devise and diversify vocational training
facilities for women to suit their changing needs and skills.

(iii) Developing new equipment’s:

Efforts should be made to increase their efficiency and productivity through
appropriate technologies, equipment’s and practices.

23
(iv) Marketing assistance:
It was suggested to provide the required assistance for marketing the products
produced by women entrepreneurs.

(v) Decision-making process:

It was also suggested to involve the women in decision-making process.

Steps taken by Government during Eight Five-Year Plan:

The Government of India devised special programs to increases employment and
income-generating activities for women in rural areas. The following plans are
lunched during the Eight-Five Year Plan:

(i) Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana and EDPs were introduced to develop
entrepreneurial qualities among rural women.
(ii) ‘Women in agriculture’ scheme was introduced to train women farmers having
small and marginal holdings in agriculture and allied activities.
(iii) To generate more employment opportunities for women KVIC took special
measures in remote areas.
(iv) Women co-operatives schemes were formed to help women in agro-based
industries like dairy farming, poultry, animal husbandry, horticulture etc. with full
financial support from the Government.
(v) Several other schemes like integrated Rural Development Programs (IRDP),
Training of Rural youth for Self-employment (TRYSEM) etc. were started to
alleviated poverty.30-40% reservation is provided to women under these schemes.
Steps taken by Government during Ninth Five-Year Plan:
Economic development and growth are0 not achieved fully without the
development of women entrepreneurs. The Government of India has introduced
the following schemes for promoting women entrepreneurship because the future
of small-scale industries depends upon the women-entrepreneurs:

24
(a) Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD)
scheme was lunched by Ministry of Small Industries to develop women
entrepreneurs in rural, semi-urban and urban areas by developing entrepreneurial
qualities.
(b) Women Comkp0onent Plant, a special strategy adop0ted by Government to
provide assistance to women entrepreneurs.
(c) Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and Swarna Jayanti Sekhari Rozgar
Yojana were introduced by government to provide reservations for women and
encouraging them to start their ventures.
(d) New schemes named Women Development Corporations were introduced by
government to help women entrepreneurs in arranging credit and marketing
facilities.
(e) State Industrial and Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has introduced
following schemes to assist the women entrepreneurs. These schemes are:
(i) Mahila Udyam Nidhi
(ii) Micro Cordite Scheme for Women
(iii) Mahila Vikas Nidhi
(iv) Women Entrepreneurial Development Programmes
(v) Marketing Development Fund for Women

4. Consortium of Women entrepreneurs of India provides a platform to assist the

women entrepreneurs to develop new, creative and innovative techniques of
production, finance and marketing.
There are different bodies such as NGOs, voluntary organizations, Self-help
groups, institutions and individual enterprises from rural and urban areas which
collectively help the women entrepreneurs in their activities.

5. Training Programmes:

25
The following training schemes specially for the self-employment of women are
introduced by government:

(i) Support for Training and Employment Programmed of Women (STEP).

(ii) Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA).
(iii)Small Industry Service Institutes (SISIs)
(iv) State Financial Corporations
(v) National Small Industries Corporations
(vi) District Industrial Centre’s (DICs)
6. Mahila Vikas Nidhi:
SIDBI has developed this fund for the entrepreneurial development of women
especially in rural areas. Under Mahila Vikas Nidhi grants loan to women are
given to start their venture in the field like spinning, weaving, knitting, embroidery
products, block printing, handlooms handicrafts, bamboo products etc.

7. Rastriya Mahila Kosh:

In 1993, Rastriya Mahila Kosh was set up to grant micro credit to pore women at
reasonable rates of interest with very low transaction costs and simple procedures.

26
States No of Units No. of Women Percentage
Registered Entrepreneurs

Tamil Nadu 9618 2930 30.36

Uttar 7980 3180 39.84

Pradesh

Kerala 5487 2135 38.91

Punjab 4791 1618 33.77

Maharashtra 4339 1394 32.12

Gujrat 3872 1538 39.72

Karnataka 3822 1026 26.84

Madhya 2967 842 28.38

Pradesh

Other States 14576 4185 28.71

& UTS

Total 57,452 18,848 32.82

27
Promotional Organizations to help Women Entrepreneur:
Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneur–The FIWE was started in 1993 at
the fourth international conference of women entrepreneurs held in December at
Hyderabad. Its main function was to establish networking and to provide a
package of service to women entrepreneurs’ association in India. Association of
women entrepreneurs in different states are affiliated to FIWE, so that they can
have networking.
Federation of Ladies Organization - FLO was formed in 1983 as a national level
forum for women with the objective of women empowerment. FLO has spectrum
of activities in order to promote women entrepreneurship and professional
excellence.
World Association of Women Entrepreneurs - The world association of Women
entrepreneurs is an international women organization. It aims is to bring together
all women who are qualified to take up an active and leading part in employers’
organization along with their male colleagues.
National Women Development Corporation - NWDC serves all women
especially in rural and urban poor areas through promotion of women development
in rural and urban areas.
Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka - AWAKE was established
in 1983 and has been recognized worldwide. It is an affiliation of Women World
Bank in New York. It is one of India ‘s institution for women totally devoted to
entrepreneurship development.
Women’s India trust (WIT) - The trust was established in 1968 by Kamila
Tyabji. WIT centre at Panvel, 40kms, from Mumbai. The Kamila trust UK was set
up in the early 1990‘s with an aim of selling in England items produced by WIT
family of women in India. Encourage by its London, WIT expanded the export
activities to Australia, Europe, Germany from 1995 onwards. WIT had plans to
launch computer training for women.

28
Consortium of women entrepreneur of India (CWEI) - In the context of the
opening up of the economy and the need for up-gradation of technology, the
consortium of women entrepreneur of India started in year 2001 provides a
common platform to help women entrepreneurs in finding innovative techniques of
production marketing and finance.
Self-help groups (SHGs) - A SHGs’ is a small, economical homogeneous and
significant group of rural and urban poor, voluntarily formed to save and mutually
agreed to contribute to common fund to be lent to its members as per group
decision.
3.4 Reasons behind limited start-ups in India:
The failing-start-up problem in India has become a big issue in the start-up
ecosystem. As per statistics, majority of entrepreneurs fail while trying to
establish their business. After studying failed start-ups in India, I have
compiled a list of several major reasons behind their failure. From the lack of
talent to changing market dynamics, these top reasons can become a nightmare
for any entrepreneur who wants to start a new venture in the ever-changing

29
Indian-market.

Not Understanding the Needs of the Society:

Most successful business ideas arise from needs of the society. Since high
school, teenagers become a part of the competition to get the best college and
eventually, the best job. Due to competition, most people spend countless hours
in studies and disconnect themselves from society. The divide between the
tech-driven lifestyle of millennials and lack of understanding for society’s
demands contribute towards failing business models. The educational pressure
is one of the many reasons that experts believe to be the source for lack of
understanding between people and society.
Lack of fresh and Innovative Ideas:

30
Almost every niche market in India is suffocated with multiple startups trying
to provide solutions to the same problem. This calls for entrepreneurs to be
inventive and push the boundaries using innovation to stand out. Due to
competition, the urge to grab market share makes an entrepreneur vulnerable to
mistakes by producing the wrong product.
Lack of People with Hands-on Experience:
The startup ecosystem in India has a dearth of talent due to issues like brain
drain. Due to the competition among startups, the idea of training a new
employee goes right out of the window as time is a critical factor. Nobody
wants to spend resources training the new crop when you can get experienced
personnel. This has created a void of experienced professionals, who can
contribute from the first day itself. By hiring amateurs, which most Indian
startups do, they fail to provide a better product, which eventually leads to a
startup’s demise.
Limited Access to Funding:
Entrepreneurs have to fight hard to get funding for their startups nowadays. To
get started, they use their savings or take money from friends and family. Very
few are lucky to get angel funding. Moreover, venture capitalists tend to
finance only those business ideas that can provide a good return on investment.
This results in majority of young entrepreneurs missing VC funding. As a
result, most Indian entrepreneurs are not able to continue their venture due to
lack of funding.
Lack of Understanding between Technical and Management Teams
There is a big difference between a technical graduate and a management
graduate. For a startup to succeed, complete understanding is need between the
two. The lack of technical know-how among management graduates and the
lack of managerial knowledge among technical graduates is one of the common
reasons behind the failure of startups in India.
Offering very High Salaries

31
Startups in India face a serious shortage of talent pool. To bring experienced
professionals on board, they offer high salaries to keep the startup in safe
hands. However, offering high salaries to employees makes the startup eat into
its resources. The shortage of funds leads to instability within the startup,
which leads to bad decisions.
Lack of Interpersonal and Soft Skills
Most entrepreneurs in India are found to lack interpersonal and soft skills. Due
to poor communication skills, an entrepreneur increases the failure rate of
his/her startup. The lack of such essential skills makes a startup not able to
compete in international market. Also, entrepreneurs face a lot of difficulty in
pitching their business ideas to a venture capitalist with poor communication.
Not Able to Address the Issue of Scalability
Over one-third of Indian population is on the internet. Startups that have
successfully built a product based on the needs of the society and are running
profitably, will face the issue of scalability. In such cases, lack of awareness or
no mentor-ship becomes the deciding factors behind a startup’s failure. Due to
inexperience, entrepreneurs fail to understand the changing needs of their
product’s growing consumer base.
Unaware of Changing Market Dynamics:
Market dynamics keep changing with new trends becoming outdated in no
time. Before a startup knows what hit them, it is often too late to react and
change the strategy. Such scenarios arise when a startup’s core team is unable
to make timely decisions due to lack of industry insight, not conducting
thorough research about the niche market, targeting a wide market segment,
and more.
Every founder cannot be the CEO:
There can be only one CEO, even if there are many founders. Only one person sets
the vision, and the others execute after there is broad agreement over what needs to
be done. Too many people trying to display the big picture is a waste of time and

32
shows role ambiguity. “Too many cooks spoil the broth” comes in when everybody
is the boss. Direction comes from a single person and that position must be stable,
secure, and given space to experiment, with a reasonable error margin.
Meritocracy:
This should be ruthlessly executed from the top down. The agenda is to build a
business and not protect anyone. Right people doing the right task is the only way
to build a business. With a well-laid appraisal mechanism, talent must be timely
rewarded and given a greater platform so that they feel as much as a part of the
venture as the founders. It takes 8-10 years to build a good/great business, and
without a performing team which sticks around, it is simply not possible.

3.5 To highlight the importance of financing agency’s in India:

A start-up is a reflection of an out of the box idea which is put into execution for
the generation of revenues through the sale of products and services that are unique
and fills the gap of the consumer needs that are in the market. India is fifth in the
world in the aspect of the startups with 3100 startups functioning since the last 3-4
years. India has been seeing a trend of risk-taking entrepreneurs who are willing to
sacrifice huge opportunity costs for startups. But, according to a study, more than
94% of the business leads to the falling scenario due to the lack of sufficient funds.
Lack of funding is a common barrier seen in the startup world. The known
example of the Saurav Karukar’s startup SASLAB technologies in 2014 was due
to the lack of funding. The generation of revenue is not a piece of cake without the
constant fuel of funding to the business. So, most of the times this inquisitive
question hits the mind of every other entrepreneur: How my startup should be
funded?

The funding of the business also depends on the nature of the business and the type
of the business. Some startups that are unique but the idea holds a lot of risk for the
business the funding becomes tough. The business can be funded through various

33
means and ways in India. Here, is a guide that can make you startup grow by leaps
and bounds through the proper source of funding.

(A) Venture Capital:

Venture Capital is money provided by professionals who invest and manage young
rapidly growing companies that have the potential to develop into significant
economic contributors. According to SEBI regulations, venture capital fund means
a fund established in the form of a company or trust, which raises money through
loans, donations, issue of securities or units and makes or proposes, to make
investments in accordance with these regulations. The funds so collected are
available for investment in potentially highly profitable enterprises at a high risk of
loss. A Venture Capitalist is an individual or a company who provides. Investment
Capital, Management Expertise, Networking & marketing support while funding
and running highly innovative & prospective areas of products as well as services.
In India, the Venture Capital Funds can be categorized into the following groups:

Promoted by Public Banks: These type of Venture Capitalist funds is promoted by

Public Banks. SBI Capital Markets Ltd and Can bank Venture Capital Fund are
some examples of these kinds of VC funds.

Promoted by the Central Government controlled development finance institutions:

This group contains Venture Capital Funds that are promoted by development
finance institutions that are controlled by the Central Government of the country.
The examples are IFCI Venture Capital Funds Ltd. (IFCI Venture) and SIDBI
Venture Capital Limited (SVCL).

Promoted by State Government Controlled development finance Institutions: This

group includes Venture Capital Funds which are promoted by development finance
institutions controlled by state government. Some of the famous examples are:

34
 Hyderabad Information Technology Venture Enterprises Limited (HITVEL),
Kerala Venture Capital Fund Private Limited, Gujarat Venture Finance Limited
(GVFL), Punjab InfoTech Venture Fund.

Overseas Venture Capital Funds: This group comprises of Venture Capital funds
from outside India. Like: BTS India Private Equity Fund Ltd., Walden
International Investment Group, SEAF India Investment and Growth Fund.

Promoted by Private Sector Companies: This category consists of Venture Capital

funds promoted by private Sector Companies. Like: Infinity Venture India Fund,
IL&FS Trust Company Limited (ITCL).

Your pitch is crucial to obtaining funding. Sequoia, one of the most successful VC
firms on the planet, stresses, “you need to convey the main reasons why an
investor should love your business in the first 5 minutes.” Sequoia partners state
you can do this in three simple steps, which are:

 Explain what’s changed. Detail the innovation, industry shift, or problem

that presents substantial opportunity for your company.
 Explain what you do. In one sentence, show how your company can
capitalize on this opportunity.
 Explain the facts. Get to your company’s story and financials quickly. Lay
out the opportunity with numbers. Discuss the team and their abilities and
experience.

(B)Bootstrapping:

Bootstrapping or in layman terms is the self-funding of your startup financing

when you are an immature entrepreneur and don’t get any support from any bank
or any other financial source unless you hold a strong plan to execute the business
along with a sure guarantee of growth of the business. Also, one of the ways to

35
start funding the business is that the source of the funding is flexible as your
borrowing from your friends and family. You can borrow the money at low-interest
rates and also can avail the benefit of not being answerable to anyone. At the
maturity stage of the business, this is considered as an edge in front of the
investors as they consider it as a good point for the startups that have low
requirements. But, not advisable to startups who are in need have vigorous funding
since day 1 for their operations.

(C)Crowd Funding:
One of the developing sources of finance for your start-up is to avail the finance
from the public. The process works in an interactive way wherein an entrepreneur
pitches his business idea in front of the layman on a platform where he orients
them about his business, the process and how revenues would be generated along
with the seed capital amount and where would the amount be invested into. The
crowd then reverts the pitch in the form of donation or form of pre-buying orders
for the entrepreneur. This type of sourcing not only full-fills the need of the
entrepreneur but also generates an audience for him who are willing to fund his
idea as well as support it giving a boost for the business in the initial years. This
also grabs the attention of the venture capitalists few years down the timeline and
would be interested in funding your business by looking at the success of your
campaign and your risk.

(D)Angel Investors:
Angels are generally wealthy individuals or retired company executives who invest
directly in small firms owned by others. They are often leaders in their own field
who not only contribute their experience and network of contacts but also their
technical and/or management knowledge. Angels tend to finance the early stages
of the business with investments in the order of $25,000 to $100,000. Institutional
venture capitalists prefer larger investments, in the order of $1,000,000.

36
In exchange for risking their money, they reserve the right to supervise the
company's management practices. In concrete terms, this often involves a seat on
the board of directors and an assurance of transparency.

Angels tend to keep a low profile. To meet them, you have to contact specialized
associations or search websites on angels. The National Angel Capital
Organization (NACO) is an umbrella organization that helps build capacity for
Canadian angel investors. You can check out their member’s directory for ideas
about who to contact in your region.

(E)Incubators & Accelerators:

Incubators and accelerators are one of the other options when you’re looking for an
initial start-up investment. They are basically the programs for a short span of time
that help the business to grow and nurture also with to provide them with other
mentors and connections for the benefit. Incubators are basically the programs
where they provide you with an in-house space and equipment with their funding
to run your start-up against stakes going as high as up to 20%. On the other hand,
accelerators are the programs with a short span of time where you are assigned a
small seed capital along with a return of a large mentor network against the stakes
of 2-10% of your business. Thus, incubators are like your parents who nurture you
and the accelerators are the programs which give you huge opportunities. India
holds some popular names of Amity Innovation Incubator & Angel Prime.

(F)Government Programs:
The government is also providing incentives for the startups and to promote them.
The government of India passed the startup fund in the union budget of 2014-15
which is valued at 10,000 crores for Indian startups. There are more programs
launched by the government to take the benefit such as the Bank of Ideas and
Innovations by the program that will support the new product ideas. There are also
government programs wherein you need no collateral security against the loan you
borrow for your startup under the name of Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro
37
and Small Enterprises. The government also started with MUDRA with an amount
of 20,000 crores to sanction loans to startup once you clear the criteria. There are
also institutions who take lower interest rates as compared to the market. The
awareness is a parameter if you are applying for loan through the government
programs.

(F) High Net-Individuals:

Lastly, our final source of funding is the High Net-worth individuals who are
individuals with ample amount of financial resources for your startup. These
individuals are having their existing business and are looking for opportunities to
invest into your business with their resources for the time span of 1-3. After this
time span, they expect the amount of the investment to be twice or thrice during
this period. They mainly invest in those businesses which are having the highest
caliber level to sustain in the market and generate good revenue streams in short
span of time. The first advantage of this type of funding that you can design a
custom investment based on the funds you need which give you an edge. Lastly,
the high net-worth individuals charge you lower fees.

(G)Bank Loans:

This might probably be the first option when you have an idea of your own start-
up. Banks offer loans to the entrepreneurs who are eligible and capable of carrying
out a sustainable and stable business project. For the sanction of the loan, the bank
takes into consideration the business model, the valuation of various inventories
and the project report along with other documentation. But now the process is
hassle free and without any collateral. Under all the banks there are 7-8 different
types of loans for the SME Business. But the only thing that needs to be taken care
of is the timely repayment of the amount. The funding done by the bank has got
benefits such as the profit or loss remains with you along with the proper

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procedure and framework of the banks. Also, they are available every and charge
less as compared to venture capitals i.e. 13-17%.

(H) Friends and Family:

One of the best places to raise funds is from your own house. As your family is well
aware of your talents, they will be willing to support you regardless of what you
want to do. Family and friends are the only ones who know your potential and will
be willing to give you money to start your business.

This may seem like a great way of gaining investment partners, but everything has
its drawbacks. Acquiring loans or investment form family or friends may be
advantageous to some businesses as they have faith in your talents and your
success. But for others that require expert assistance or guidelines, angel investors
are the best way as your family might not have those experiences which are needed.

This may be a good way for you to raise money as they love and care for you but it
is not fun when you lose it as it may affect your relationship with that person
forever. A good way of raising funds from your family may be if you choose those
who have the knowledge of business and its risks while investing.

Regardless of this fact, it is important to behave like a professional with them, and
while they are considering to invest, you should lay out all the risks involved in the
investment so they can decide at first.

3.6 Entrepreneurship Development Plan:

Entrepreneurship is the process of setting up one’s own business as distinct from

pursuing any other economic activity, be it employment or practising some
profession. The person who set-up his business is called an entrepreneur. The
output of the process, that is, the business unit is called an enterprise.

39
It is interesting to note that entrepreneurship besides providing self-employment to
the entrepreneur is responsible to a great extent for creation and expansion of
opportunities for the other two economic activities, that is, employment and
profession. (Can you think why and how?) Further, each business gives rise to
other businesses– the suppliers of raw materials and components, service providers
(be it transport, courier, telecom, distributor middlemen and advertising firms,
accounting firms and advocates etc.

And, in the process, entrepreneurship becomes crucial for overall economic

development of a nation. Given its important role in the overall scheme of
economic development, it is interesting to note that not many persons opt for a
career in entrepreneurship. Traditionally, it was believed that entrepreneurs are
born. No society can wait for the chance of ‘birth’ of entrepreneurs to pursue its
developmental plans. In fact, plans for economic development would bear little
fruit unless entrepreneurship development is regarded as a deliberate process of
making people aware of entrepreneurship as a career at an early age and creating
situations where they may actually make a choice to become entrepreneurs. When
you make this choice, you become a job-provider rather than a job-seeker, besides
enjoying a host of other financial and psychological rewards. Taking to
entrepreneurship is surely more a matter of aspiring to become an entrepreneur
rather as being born as one.

Concept of Entrepreneurship:

You are aware that entrepreneurship is regarded as one of the four major factors of
production, the other three being land, labour and capital. However, it should
surprise you that as regards its French origin, the term ‘entrepreneurship’ (derived
from the verb ‘entreprende’ meaning ‘to undertake’) pertained not to economics
but to undertaking of military expeditions. So is true of many terms in
management such as strategy (a course of action to beat the competition, the
‘enemy’) and logistics (movement of men and machines for timely availability),

40
etc. Historically, as wars are followed by economic reconstruction, it should be no
surprise that military concepts are used in economics and management. It may be
pointed out that whereas the wars are rare and far between, in today’s competitive
world, entrepreneurs wage wars every day. There is a tremendous pressure to
continually develop new products, explore new markets, update technology and
devise innovative ways of marketing and so on. The term ‘entrepreneur’ was first
introduced in economics by the early 18th century French economist Richard
Cantillon. In his writings, he formally defined the entrepreneur as the “agent who
buys means of production at certain prices in order to sell the produce at uncertain
prices in the future”. Since then a perusal of the usage of the term in economics
shows that entrepreneurship implies risk/uncertainty bearing; coordination of
productive resources; introduction of innovations; and the provision of capital.

We would like to define entrepreneurship as a systematic, purposeful and creative

activity of identifying a need, mobilising resources and organising production with
a view to delivering value to the customers, returns for the investors and profits for
the self in accordance with the risks and uncertainties associated with business.
This definition points to certain characteristics of entrepreneurship that we turn our
attention to.

Characteristics of Entrepreneurship:

In the SVO formulation of the concepts of entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and

enterprise, we saw that entrepreneurship is about the process of setting up a
business. One cannot help but marvel at the beauty of the process: how does one
first of all decide to choose own business as a career; how does one sense a market
opportunity; how does one muster up courage to embark upon it, and mobilise the
requisite resources, etc.; so much so that recourse to entrepreneurship, in common
parlance, is considered as an exclusive preserve of a few gifted individuals. In the
following paragraphs, our effort would be to establish entrepreneurship as a career
that you should aspire for. Remember, resources may be limited, aspiration need

41
not be. So, you can aspire for something greater, bigger than your present status
and resources. And start today. Remember, aspiration means desire multiplied by
action.

1.Systematic Activity: Entrepreneurship is not a mysterious gift or charm and

something that happens by chance! It is a systematic, step-by step and purposeful
activity. It has certain temperamental, skill and other knowledge and competency
requirements that can be acquired, learnt and developed, both by formal
educational and vocational training as well as by observation and work experience.
Such an understanding of the process of entrepreneurship is crucial for dispelling
the myth that entrepreneurs are born rather than made.

2. Lawful and Purposeful Activity: The object of entrepreneurship is lawful

business. It is important to take note of this as one may try to legitimise unlawful
actions as entrepreneurship on the grounds that just as entrepreneurship entails
risk, so does illicit businesses. Purpose of entrepreneurship is creation of value for
personal profit and social gain.

3. Innovation: From the point of view of the firm, innovation may be cost saving
or revenue-enhancing. If it does both it is more than welcome. Even if it does
none, it is still welcome as innovation must become a habit! Entrepreneurship is
creative in the sense that it involves creation of value. You must appreciate that in
the absence of entrepreneurship ‘matter’ does not become a “resource.” By
combining the various factors of production, entrepreneurs produce goods and
services that meet the needs and wants of the society. Every entrepreneurial act
result in income and wealth generation. Even when innovations destroy the
existing industries, for example, zerox machines destroyed carbon paper industry,
mobile telephony threatens landline/ basic telephony, net gains accruing to the
economy lend such entrepreneurial actions as commendable as the acts of creative
destruction. Entrepreneurship is creative also in the sense that it involves
innovation- introduction of new products, discovery of new markets and sources of

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supply of inputs, technological breakthroughs as well as introduction of newer
organisational forms for doing things better, cheaper, faster and, in the present
context, in a manner that causes the least harm to the ecology/environment. It is
possible that entrepreneurs in developing countries may not be pioneering/
innovative in introducing pathbreaking, radical innovations. They may be the first
or second adopters of technologies developed elsewhere. That does not make their
achievement small. For imitating technologies from developed world to the
indigenous setting is quite challenging. A lady entrepreneur wanting to introduce
thermal pads for industrial heating faced tremendous reluctance form the owners of
chemical and sugar mills despite the established superiority of her products over
the conventional heating of the vessels by burning of wood/coke or using LPG.
Moreover, there is no need to suffer from “it was not invented here” complex–
there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The global electronics major, Sony did not
invent the transistor! It used the transistor to build entertainment products that are
world leaders.

4. Organisation of Production: Production, implying creation of form, place,

time personal utility, requires the combined utilisation of diverse factors of
production, land, labour, capital and technology. Entrepreneur, in response to a
perceived business opportunity mobilises these resources into a productive
enterprise or firm. It may be pointed out that the entrepreneur may not be
possessing any of these resources; he may just have the ‘idea’ that he promotes
among the resource providers. In an economy with a well-developed financial
system, he has to convince just the funding institutions and with the capital so
arranged he may enter into contracts of supply of equipment, materials, utilities
(such as water and electricity) and technology. What lies at the core of organisation
of production is the knowledge about availability and location of the resources as
well as the optimum way to combine them. An entrepreneur needs negotiation
skills to raise these in the best interests of the enterprise. Organisation of
production also involves product development and development of the market for
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the product. Besides, entrepreneur may be required to develop even the sources of
supply of requisite inputs. For example, whether it is a matter of putting together
an automobile manufacturing unit or manufacture of burger/pizza, besides
cultivating a market and developing products to suit its tastes and preferences,
there would be a need to develop a pool of suppliers of the diverse components or
elements that go into their manufacture.

5. Risk-taking: As the entrepreneur contracts for an assured supply of the various

inputs for his project, he incurs the risk of paying them off whether or not the
venture succeeds. Thus, landowner gets the contracted rent, capital providers gets
the contracted interest, and the workforce gets the contracted wages and salaries.
However, there is no assurance of profit to the entrepreneur. It may be pointed out
that the possibility of absolute ruin may be rare as the entrepreneur does
everything within his control to de-risk the business. For example, he may enter
into prior contract with the customers of his production. So much so that he may
just be contract manufacturer or marketer of someone else’s products! What is
generally implied by risk taking is that realised profit may be less than the
expected profit. It is generally believed that entrepreneurs take high risks. Yes,
individuals opting for a career in entrepreneurship take a bigger risk that involved
in a career in employment or practice of a profession as there is no “assured”
payoff. (See Box above) In practice, for example, when a person quits a job to start
on his own, he tries to calculate whether he or she would be able to earn the same
level of income or not. To an observer, the risk of quitting a well-entrenched and
promising career seems a “high” risk, but what the person has taken is a calculated
risk. The situation is similarly to a motorcyclist in the ‘ring of death’ or a trapeze
artist in circus. While the spectators are in the awe of the high-risk, the artists have
taken a calculated risk given their training, skills, and of course, confidence and
daring. It is said that the entrepreneurs thrive on circumstances where odds
favouring and against success area even, that is 50:50 situations. They are so sure
of their capabilities that they convert 50% chances into 100% success. They avoid
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situations with higher risks as they hate failure as anyone would do; they dislike
lower risk situations as business ceases to be a game/fun! Risk as such more than a
financial stake, becomes a matter of personal stake, where less than expected
performance causes displeasure and distress. The characteristics of
entrepreneurship discussed as above apply in diverse contexts, so does the usage of
the term, viz., Agricultural/Rural Entrepreneurship, Industrial entrepreneurship,
Techno-preneurship, Net preneurship, Green/Environmental or Eco-preneurship,
Intra-corporate/firm or Intra-preneusrhip and Social entrepreneurship. In fact,
entrepreneurship has come to be regarded as a ‘type of behaviours’, whereby one,
(i) rather than becoming a part of the problem, proactively tries to solve it; (ii) uses
personal creativity and intellect to develop innovative solutions; (iii) thinks beyond
resources presently controlled in exploiting the emerging opportunities or
attending to the impending problems; (iv) has the conviction to convince others of
one’s ideas and seek their commitment towards the project; and (v) has the courage
of heart to withstand adversities, persist despite setbacks and be generally
optimistic.

Relations between Entrepreneurship and Management:

Entrepreneurship is about business start-ups and renewals. That is, it appears at the
time of starting a new business, disappears for some time in the course of
stabilising the venture as an on-going business and reappears in case there is a
need for introducing changes in product, market, technology, structure and so on.
In fact, it is said that everyone is an entrepreneur when he actually ‘carries out new
combinations,’ and loses that character as soon as he has built up his business,
when he settles down to running it as other people run their businesses. In
developed countries, the distinction between the entrepreneurial focus on start-ups
and managerial focus on routine is so sharp that it is argued that once the project

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has reached a level of maturity, the entrepreneurs must move out and the managers
must come in.

In developing countries, however, the concept of owner-manager seems more apt

for entrepreneurship as the entrepreneur remains attached even to the day-to-day
operations of the venture. In fact, their lacking in managerial skills is often
forwarded as the cause of business failures. Just as managers are expected to play
entrepreneurial roles in the times of need, likewise the entrepreneurs must also
demonstrate managerial abilities for the success of their ventures. Irrespective of
whether the entrepreneurs pave way for the managers or they themselves assume
the managerial responsibilities, it is possible to distinguish between the term’s
entrepreneurship and management.

Need for Entrepreneurship:

Every country, whether developed or developing, needs entrepreneurs. Whereas, a
developing country needs entrepreneurs to initiate the process of development, the
developed one needs entrepreneurship to sustain it. In the present Indian context,
where on the one hand, employment opportunities in public sector and large-scale
sector are shrinking, and on the other, vast opportunities arising from globalisation
are waiting to be exploited; entrepreneurship can really take India to the heights of
becoming a super economic power. Studies by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a
research programme involving annual assessment of the national level of
entrepreneurial activity across a number of countries show that differences in the
levels of entrepreneurial activity account for the differences in the level of
economic growth to the extent of as much as 33%. What is that the entrepreneurs
do to affect economic development? This leads us to a discussion of the functions
of the entrepreneurs in relation to economic development. As the enterprise is the
object of their endeavour, it is also necessary that we examine their functions in
relation to the enterprise as well. Thus, the need for entrepreneurship arises from

46
the functions the entrepreneurs perform in relation to the process of economic
development and in relation to the business enterprise.

Functions of Entrepreneurs in Relation to Economic development:

You are aware that entrepreneurs “organise” the production process. In the absence
this function, all other resources, namely land, labour and capital would remain
idle. They may not be inventing/discovering the products, their role in commercial
exploitation of the advancements in science and technology via organisation of the
productive apparatus makes the other resources productive and useful. So much so
that it is said that in the absence of entrepreneurial intervention, every plant would
remain a weed and every mineral would remain a rock.

1. Contribution to GDP: Increase in the Gross Domestic Product or GDP is the

most common definition of economic development. You are aware that income is
generated in the process of production. So, entrepreneurs generate income via
organisation of production be it agriculture, manufacturing or services. You are
also aware that income generated is distributed among the factors of production
where land gets rent, labour gets wages and salaries, capital gets interest and the
residual income accrues to the entrepreneur in the form of profits. As rent and
interest accrue to those few who have land and capital respectively whereas larger
masses are destined to earn their incomes via wage employment, the biggest
contribution of the entrepreneurship lies in capital formation and generation of
employment. This is what we turn our attention to.

2. Capital Formation: The entrepreneurial decision, in effect, is an investment

decision that augments the productive capacity of the economy and hence results
in capital formation. In fact, GDP and capital formation are related to each other
via Capital Output Ratio (COR); more precisely Incremental Capital Output Ratio
(ICOR) that measures the percentage increase in capital formation required
obtaining a percentage increase in GDP. So, if a country desires to grow @ 10.0 %
p.a. and its ICOR is 2.6, then it must ensure capital formation @ 26.0% p.a.

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Entrepreneurs, by investing their own savings and informally mobilising the
savings of their friends and relatives contribute to the process of capital formation.
These informal funding supplements the funds made available by the formal
means of raising resources from banks, financial institutions and capital markets.

3. Generation of Employment: Every new business is a source of employment to

people with different abilities, skills and qualifications. As such entrepreneurship
becomes a source of livelihood to those who do neither have capital to earn interest
on nor have the land to earn rent. In fact, what they earn is not only a livelihood or
means of sustenance but also a lifestyle for themselves and their families as well as
personal job satisfaction. As such entrepreneurs touch the lives of many, directly as
well as indirectly.

4. Generation of Business Opportunities for Others: Every new business creates

opportunities for the suppliers of inputs (this is referred to as backward linkages)
and the marketers of the output (what is referred to as forward linkages). As a pen
manufacturer you would create opportunities for refill manufacturers as well as
wholesalers and retailers of stationery products. These immediate linkages induce
further linkages. For example, greater opportunities for refill manufacturers would
mean expansion of business for ink manufacturers. In general, there are greater
opportunities for transporters, advertisers, and, so on. So, via a chain-reaction,
entrepreneurship provides a spur to the level of economic activity.

5. Improvement in Economic Efficiency: You are aware that efficiency means to

have greater output from the same input. Entrepreneurs improve economic
efficiency by, a. Improving processes, reducing wastes, increasing yield, and, b.
Bringing about technical progress, that is, by altering labour-capital ratios. You are
aware that if labour is provided with good implements (capital), its productivity
increases.

6. Increasing the Spectrum and Scope of Economic Activities: Development

does not merely mean ‘more’ and ‘better’ of the existing, it also and more crucially

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means diversification of economic activities– across the geographic, sectoral and
technological scope. You are aware that underdeveloped countries are caught in the
vicious cycles on the demand as well as supply side. Entrepreneurs penetrate into
and break these cycles, for example, by organising and orienting domestic
production for exports. Thus, production (and thereby generation of income) is not
constrained by the inadequacy of domestic demand. (Demand-side Vicious Cycle).
In today’s context, you are aware that India is poised to become a manufacturing
hub for the global markets for diverse products. Economic development is also
constrained by the supply-side pressures resulting into absence of capacity to meet
the demand whether domestic or overseas. Entrepreneurs mobilise local and even
overseas resources to augment the productive capacity of a country. Indian
Multinational Giants is fast becoming a reality. Entrepreneurs lead the process of
economic development via bringing about sectoral change. You must be aware that
as the economies grow, percentage of GDP originating from agriculture decreases
and that originating in industry and services sectors goes up. Entrepreneurs
through their decisions to divest from the stale sectors and invest in green-field
sectors bring about a virtual transformation of the economy from ‘underdeveloped’
to an ‘emerging’ and ‘developed’ status.

7. Impact on Local Communities: Entrepreneurship, in its natural habitat, that is,

small business is at a great level. You may see from table on marginalised groups.
That small-scale entrepreneurship enables such marginalised groups as women,
SC, ST and OBC to pursue their economic dreams. As there are no entry barriers in
terms of educational qualifications, entrepreneurship is an even more attractive
career option for such marginalised groups. Agro based rural industries and craft-
based cottage industries can really catapult local communities to socio-economic
success stories. Local governments do their bit in developing these
entrepreneurship clusters with a view to encouraging inter-firm collaboration and
development of common facilities. entitled, ‘Entrepreneurship Clusters in India.’
In regard to the development of entrepreneurship for impacting local communities,
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some corporate-sector initiatives also deserve a mention. ITC through their ‘e-
Chau pal’ and HLL through their ‘Shakti’ initiatives have sought to mobilise native
entrepreneurs for improving the lot of those lying at the bottom of the economic
pyramid.

8. Fostering the Spirit of Exploration, Experimentation and Daring:

Economic development, among other things, requires breaking away from the
shackles of traditions and beliefs that restrict growth. For example, if ‘crossing the
seas’ were a taboo, there would not have been international trade and the resultant
economic growth. The established ways of life need to be challenged and change
must be seen as an opportunity to improve rather than something to be scared of.
Entrepreneurs, through their urge to do something new, seeing change as an
opportunity, experimenting with the novel ideas and showing the courage to try
them prepare a fertile ground for persistent economic development. Have you seen
the Hindi movie ‘Lagan,’ where the protagonist Bhuvan raises a cricket team from
the villagers who had not even seen the game? Don’t the feats of Karasn Bhai of
‘Nirma’ who challenged ‘Surf’ from the mighty Hindustan Lever Limited make
you proud of the daring of the entrepreneurs? Thus, whether one looks at economic
development narrowly in terms of the increase in GDP or in the wider context of
economic, institutional and social change, entrepreneurship plays a crucial role.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor studies report a lag of 1-2 years between
entrepreneurial activity and economic development, suggesting that it takes time
for the impact of entrepreneurship on economic development. An important
observation needs be made here. While entrepreneurship leads to economic
development, the vice-versa is also true. That is, economic development also
fosters entrepreneurship development. Growing economies provide a fertile soil
for the flourishing of entrepreneurship, an aspect that we will take up while
discussing entrepreneurship development.

Role of Entrepreneur in relation to their Enterprise:

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Drawing an analogy from musicology in explaining the role of the entrepreneurs in
relation to their enterprise, one may say that an entrepreneur is not only the
composer of the musical score and the conductor of orchestra but also a one-man
band. His roles and functions get much broader in scope in a developing country
context like ours. entitled ‘Role and Functions of the Entrepreneur in Relation to
his/her enterprise.’ These elements are no sequential as the figure may convey, the
entrepreneur may have to address to all these elements simultaneously. Yet,
depending upon their backgrounds, the individual entrepreneur may prefer one
over the other. For example, technicians tend to be over obsessed with the
production aspect; those with marketing background may over emphasise creation
of market. Investor type entrepreneurs may be over concerned with the returns
from the project. One should resist the temptation of looking at the business only
from one’s own narrow perspective. Having said this, it is apt that we provide a
brief description of the various issues that may be relevant at each stage.

Opportunity Scouting: Entrepreneurial opportunities have to be actively searched

for. One may rely on personal observation, discovery or invention.
Personal/professional contacts/networks and experience or may also help in
identifying business opportunities. Alternatively, one may rely on published
reports, surveys and the like. Narayan Reddy of Virchow Laboratories relied on the
personal discovery of the molecule during his employment with a pharmaceutical
company. As observation means seeing/hearing/smelling with a purpose,
opportunity spotting presupposes tendency to look at the things and phenomenon
from an entrepreneurial mindset. Most of us have a consumer’s mindset. If we see
any object of desire, may be a pen, laptop, latest model of the mobile phone or
somebody eating pizza or burger, we crave to have the same thing for ourselves.
The entrepreneurial mind, on the other hand starts working out, what would be the
market size, where to procure it from and at what price, will I able to woo the
customers from the existing players and how– by selling it cheaper, by providing
more value or by better service and so on. Entrepreneurial opportunities may also
51
be identified through a process of research of international, domestic, sectoral/
industrial analysis. For example, post WTO, international trade and investment
have become freer of restrictions. Textile quotas are being phased out, and, there
are greater opportunities for textile and textile made-ups from India. Global
outsourcing is on the rise and India offers a huge and varied pool of technical
manpower that makes it a cost-effective destination for in-bound global
outsourcing in manufacturing as well as Information Technology Enabled Services
(ITES).

Identification of Specific Product Offering: While the environment scan leads to

the discovery of more generalised business opportunities, there is a need to zero in
on to a specific product or service idea. For example, trade liberalisation since
WTOs has resulted in export opportunities, but the question is what to export and
where? You may be required to compile a country-product matrix to be able to
decide.

This way you may arrive at the product-market combination showing the fastest
growing import and from your point of view export potential. Deciding on the
product offering makes the highest demand on the entrepreneur’s creativity and
innovativeness. Yet, in a competitive environment, it is possible to differentiate
your product offering even if the generic product is the same and serves the same
need. Clearly decision on specific product offering necessitates decisions on who
is buying, why, and what are the value expectations. You will be able to succeed
when the value delivered not only meets but also exceeds customers’ expectations
and create a ‘Vow!’ impact.

Feasibility Analysis: The product offering idea must be technically feasible, that is
it should be possible with the available technology to convert the idea into a
reality. And this should be possible at a cost that can be covered by the price it will
fetch; in other words, the idea must be economically feasible too. The project cost
should be within the resources available and the resource providers should be

52
reasonably sure of an appropriate return on (profit) and return of (safety and
liquidity) of their investments. That is, the idea must be financially viable as well.
There should be enough sales in the immediate and the prospect of growth in the
foreseeable future; there should be adequate assurance on the commercial viability
of the chosen product offering. Now a day, it is also important to be sure that there
aren’t any environmental and other legal restrictions/necessity of prior approvals
for setting up the business. It is also to be decided as to whether the business will
be organised as a proprietary concern/partnership firm/ company or cooperative
entity. Clearly the chosen product offering must be feasible from the diverse
perspectives. You must compile these findings in the form of a business plan that
would have to be submitted to the funding authorities, in the Indian context, the
State Finance Corporation of your area. They may be having a prescribed proforma
in which the details of the business plan are required to be furnished and, as such
there may a need to adapt the contents accordingly. An idea about the generic
contents of a business plan may be had from. The business plan may be appraised
by the funding institution, and upon satisfying itself about the desirability of
assisting your project and upon the furnishing of some margin money it may
sanction the loan amount. Recall, Narayan Reddy and his two other associates
provided Rs. 8 lakhs and the APSFC contributed Rs. 20 lakhs toward the overall
project cost of Rs. 28 lakhs. Upon the project approval, the entrepreneur can
proceed for project commissioning, that is putting up the factory premises,
installing the equipment, obtaining the supplies of the input materials with a view
to starting the manufacture and marketing the product. As noted earlier too,
entrepreneurial functions do not come to an end with the business start-up. He
often looks after its day-to-day operations and strives for its stability and growth.
Entrepreneurial roles and functions clearly seem onerous. Perhaps that is why
many shy away to simpler, softer and safer options of employment and practice of
profession. Entrepreneurial going may be tough; but then that is where the tough
get going! Do not worry if presently you may find yourself short on those

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competencies, values and attitudes. It is just a matter of making up your mind for a
career in entrepreneurship and grooming yourselves for it. This takes us to the
discussion of the process of entrepreneurship development.

The process of Entrepreneurship Development:

Entrepreneurship does not emerge spontaneously. Rather it is the outcome of a

dynamic process of interaction between the person and the environment.
Ultimately the choice of entrepreneurship as a career lies with the individual, yet
he must see it as a desirable as well as a feasible option. In this regard, it becomes
imperative to look at both the factors in the environment as well as the factors in
the individual as having a nearing on the perception of desirability and feasibility
and thereby entrepreneurship development. One may, therefore, model the process
of entrepreneurship development in terms. In general, capitalist economy with its
emphasis on individual achievement is more suitable for entrepreneurship. Lower
rates of taxation on personal income, lower rates of interest and moderate inflation
stimulate entrepreneurial activity. (Can you think why it is so?) Moderately low
external value of domestic currency or in other words, moderately lower exchange
rates, stimulate import substituting and export promoting entrepreneurship. (Can
you rationalise why?). Well-developed financial system, good infrastructure,
helpful bureaucracy all these have a favourable impact on entrepreneurship.
Specially designed and dedicated institutions such as National Institute for
Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (visit, niesbud.nic.in),
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (visit, www.ediindia.org) that
conduct entrepreneurship awareness and entrepreneurship development
programmes (EAPs and EDPs) a further fillip to this activity.

An important enabler or disabler of entrepreneurship is the prevailing socio-

cultural milieu. Those societies that respect individual freedom to choose among
occupations, that encourage the spirit of enquiry, exploration and experimentation,
celebrate individual accomplishment and in general accord important status to the

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entrepreneurs are likely to have self-sustaining supply of able and willing men and
women for taking to entrepreneurship as a career.

The role of the individual in Entrepreneurship Development:

Mr. Narayan Reddy was desirous of starting a small-scale industry and also had a
sense of efficacy or readiness to pursue it given his qualifications, experience and
the necessary values, attitudes and motivation (the opening case does not elaborate
this. We will discuss these at suitable places). Even you may like to see as to where
do you find yourself on the desirability (willingness)-efficacy (ability) matrix,
won’t you? As you may see from the matrix figure able and willing men and
women are a “ready” source of entrepreneurship. Such persons leap up the first
opportunity comes their way to be on their own. Recall, Narayan Reddy leapt up
the opportunity as he met the two medicos who had returned from the Gulf. At any
point of time, there are many men and women who “want” to set up a business of
their own but experience self-perceived barriers to entrepreneurship. They could be
having a low perception of self-efficacy either on account of lack of resources (or
to be more correct, resourcefulness), knowledge or know-how, and the skills.
Collectively, these are referred to as competencies, which now we turn our
attention to.
Entrepreneurial Competencies:

Every opportunity and successful performance of every role and function has a
competence requirement. It’s true of entrepreneurship as well. entitled ‘Cash OR
KASH?’ The term ‘competence’ refers to a composite of knowledge, skills and a
host of psychosocial attributes (including Attitudes and Motivation that we will be
discussing separately) in a person that mark his/her effectiveness for a task. The
phrase ‘composite’ is crucial. For example, the competence “ability to
communicate vision” is much more than proficiency in writing/ speaking skills. It

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would involve, just to illustrate, vision clarity, understanding the audience
background, interest and readiness, knowledge about the media and choosing the
most appropriate one, attracting attention, delivery, leaving not merely an
impression but also an impact and, assessing effectiveness. So, when the
entrepreneur in the television interview pointed out KASH as the determinants of
successful entrepreneurship, he was indeed referring to the competencies.
Competency approach to human resource development in general and
entrepreneurship development in particular was pioneered by David McClelland, a
Harvard University psychologist in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. (You will be
learning more on McClelland’s work when we discuss entrepreneurial motivation.)
McClelland set out to define competency variables that could be used in predicting
job performance and that were not biased by race, gender, or socio-economic
factors. As a result, it becomes more important to learn what a person does rather
than who he/she is. That is why management and also entrepreneurship is better
defined as what a manager or an entrepreneur does. Because competencies can be
built via a process of education and development, we may say that entrepreneurs
are made. What are the distinct competencies for entrepreneurship? In this regard
one may refer to the efforts of Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
(EDI), a national resource institution in the area of entrepreneurship education
research and development EDI has identified a set of 15 competencies that
contribute toward entrepreneurial performance and success. These are briefly
stated hereunder.

Initiative: Acting out of choice rather than compulsion, taking the lead rather than
waiting for others to start. Sees and Acts on Opportunities: A mindset where one is
trained to look for business opportunities from everyday experiences. Recall
‘oranges’ example.

Efficiency Orientation: Concern for conservation of time, money and effort.

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Systematic Planning: Breaking up the complex whole into parts, close
examination of the parts and inferring about the whole; e.g. simultaneously.

Persistence: A ‘never say die’ attitude, not giving up easily, striving continuously
until success is achieved. Information seeking: Knowing and knowing who knows,
consulting experts, reading relevant material and an overall openness to ideas and
information.

Concern for High Quality of Work: Attention to details and observance of

established standards and norms. Commitment to Work Contract: Taking personal
pains to complete a task as scheduled. attending to production, marketing and
financial aspects (parts) of the overall business strategy (the whole).
Problem-solving: Observing the symptoms, diagnosing and curing. Self-
confidence: Not being afraid of the risks associated with business and relying on
one’s capabilities to successfully manage these.

Assertiveness: Conveying emphatically one’s vision and convincing others of its

value.

Persuasion: Eliciting support of others in the venture.

Use of Influence Strategies: Providing leadership.

Monitoring: Ensuring the progress of the venture as planned.

Concern for Employee Welfare: Believing in employee wellbeing as the key to

competitiveness and success and initiating programmes of employee welfare. You
would, now, be interested in knowing as to how to build these competencies.
Knowledge competencies (what you know regarding facts, technologies, a
profession, procedures, a job, an organisation, etc.) can be developed by, for
example by reading and interacting with people who know. Skill competencies
(what you say or do that results in good or poor performance) can be acquired by
practice, haven’t you heard “practice makes a man perfect”? For example,
‘persuasion,’ and ‘use of influence strategies’ require presentation skills. You may

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do double the homework on what you want to say, how you want to say, who is
your audience and what are their backgrounds, what could be the possible
questions that may be asked, what would be their answers and so on. Practice it all
over a number of times, may be before mirror or your friends, so that when you are
actually in that situation, you perform well.

Entrepreneurial Motivation:

Men and women who have a perception of self-efficacy and are yet to feel
interested in or motivated by the idea of being on their own comprise a potential,
future source of entrepreneurship. What motivates a person is a question easier
asked than answered. Mr. Narayan Reddy was driven by the desire to utilise his
discovery of the molecule as a business opportunity. In terms of Maslow’s need
hierarchy theory, one may say that Mr. Narayan Reddy was driven by the need for
self-actualisation. Since entrepreneurial situation is characterised by personal
accomplishment in competitive situations and involving higher standards of
excellence, one often come across reference to ‘need for achievement’ or N-ach for
short as the primary driver of entrepreneurial behaviour. See Box entitled ‘How
NAch. Drives Entrepreneurship and Economic Development’.

Need for Achievement (N-Ach.): Need for achievement implies a desire to

accomplish something difficult. To master, manipulate, or organise physical
objects, human beings or ideas. To do this as rapidly and as independently as
possible. To overcome obstacles and attain a high standard. To excel one’s self. To
rival and surpass others. To increase self–regard by successful exercise of talent.
Yes, entrepreneurship provides you with the best opportunity for making the best
use of your talents as in employment the 9-5 routine, pressure to adhere to rules
and regulations, preference for compliance of boss’s instructions over the use of
personal creativity and innovativeness stifles your progress and self-development.
You can create a work environment that suits your abilities and interests.

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Need for Power (N-Pow): Need for Power is the concern for influencing people or
the behaviour of others for moving in the chosen direction and attaining the
envisioned objectives. In common perception, politicians, social religious leaders
Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Government Bureaucrats/Civil Servants typify
the need for power. Such a perception seems more based on the belief that the
source of power lies in the “position” a person occupies in organisational/societal
context. In the same vein, business ownership too may imply a need for power.
Moreover, you would appreciate that the process of founding a business, one has to
win the commitment of capital providers, suppliers of equipment and materials, the
employees and that of the customers. Power may not be used to further one’s self-
interests alone, it may be also be used to touch the lives of others, to make a
difference. Entrepreneurs driven by this socialised face of the need for power. They
found organisations that are a source of sustenance and self- respect for many.
needs. Entrepreneurs are believed to be low on affiliation, as they are and expected
to be, innovative, trendsetters and tradition breakers. However, it is not necessary
that affiliation should only interfere with achievement. In certain cultures, family
comprises the bedrock on which the successful careers are built. One works, as if,
not for personal gratification but for family. Desire to

Need for Affiliation (N-Aff.): Often you must have heard your parents saying that
whatever they do they do it for their children. If a man thinks about interpersonal
relationships, he has a concern for affiliation. It implies, among other things a
tendency of the people to conform to the wishes and norms of those whom they
value. Apparently, social activists, environmentalists, teachers, and doctors and
nurses may seem as predominantly driven by these carries on the tradition of
business in the family and the community to which one belongs, may be
interpreted as reflecting need for affiliation as well. In the countries with the
colonial past, such as ours, the first generation of entrepreneurs in Independent
India was driven by patriotic fervour and the desire to rebuild the economy left

59
stagnated by the alien rulers. One can certainly trace some elements of affiliation
motivation in such instances.

Need for Autonomy (N-Aut.): The need for autonomy is a desire for independence
and being responsible and accountable to oneself rather than some external
authority for performance. It is the desire for an opportunity for the fullest
expression of one’s abilities. In the context of entrepreneurship, it is usually
interpreted as the determination not to work for someone else. In most job
situations, employees are given little freedom to exercise their discretion in taking
decisions and choosing a course of action so much so that absence of it drives
them into starting their own ventures. As such n-pow. becomes more a desire for
preserving one’s ethos rather than the freedom from the boss. Take the example of
another Hyderabad based entrepreneur entitled Entrepreneurship for Preserving
Personal Work Ethos). What does the above discussion mean for entrepreneurship
development? It means that for promoting entrepreneurship it is important to
kindle and arouse the right motivation. In the absence of motivation, even able
men and women may not take to entrepreneurship. Hence. In every
Entrepreneurship Awareness Programme (EAP) or Entrepreneurship Development
Programme (EDP), there are special sessions on entrepreneurial motivation,
besides sessions on entrepreneurial competencies. You may note that motivation
and ability can positively reinforce each other. Persons having abilities search for
the avenues for their expression and hence are drawn to entrepreneurship. Persons
eager to be on their own may strive hard to acquire the necessary competencies to
realise their dreams. How truly one has said that entrepreneurs are the dreamers
who do! In explaining and developing entrepreneurial motivation, it is important to
learn that different individuals are motivated differently, and that one may be
trying to satisfy more than one need through one’s pursuit. This is an important
observation as economic theory very simply says that the objective of the firm or
that of the entrepreneur is profit maximisation.

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Entrepreneurial Values and Attitudes:

While explaining human behaviour, one often comes across the terms’ values and
attitudes. Rather than attempting to distinguish between these two terms, it would
be sufficient to say here that taken together, entrepreneurial values and attitudes
refer to the behavioural choices’ individuals make for success in entrepreneurship.
The word ‘choice’ is important, as there are alternative ways of behaving too. In
entrepreneurship, a host of behavioural tendencies or orientations have been
reported as having a bearing on success. The entrepreneur in ‘Cash or KASH’
labelled these as ‘Habits’, some researches have called these as policies or
strategies. Be it the decision to make a choice about entrepreneurship as a career,
be it the decision to choose the product line, growth strategy, profit making and
social responsibility you would be required to make choices. The choice that you
make may have a tremendous impact on your performance. What we do here is to
profile some of the dimensions relating to starting and managing a business and
the associated behavioural alternatives, we have considered here two to keep the
things simple. We have highlighted those alternatives that have been generally
observed to be associated with superior performance.

Entrepreneurship for Preserving Personal Work Ethos:

In industries having captive power plants, a day’s downtime can cause a loss of
crores of rupees. While working for a public sector electrical major, an engineer
found it really difficult to cope with the bureaucratic attitude in servicing the
customers. It clashed with his personal value, ‘client’s problems be attended first,
paperwork can wait’. He quit the job and started a turbine repairing and furbishing
company. Incidentally, it takes more money to travel or to transport than to repair
or refurbish the turbine. But the downtime is reduced and the clients are happy.
Later the company also diversified into the manufacture of the parts and
commissioning of the captive power plants on a turnkey basis.

How N-Ach. Drives Economic and Entrepreneurship Development:

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Credit for investigating and bringing to the fore the role of need for achievement
goes to McClelland, the Harvard professor whom we referred to also in the
discussion of competency-based approach to human resource and entrepreneurship
development. He set out to investigate why some countries are more developed
than others He sought to find answer to this question by examining the proposition
that ‘differences in the level of achievement motivation are responsible for
‘differences in the level of economic development’. For this he examined the
popular stories and folklore and readers up to primary classes of 39 countries for
finding out whether they focused on personal accomplishment, triumph of human
courage and effort over the circumstances and so on. McClelland’s research upheld
the proposition that differences in the levels of achievement motivation as revealed
by the analysis of the stories and the readers accounted for the differences in the
level of economic development. How? What would be the process? McClelland
observed that entrepreneurship becomes the medium through which the
achievement motivation manifests the best and through which the development
takes off.

The Role of Environment in Entrepreneurship Development:

Entrepreneurs bring about economic growth and development, and the latter in
turn provides a fertile soil for the flourishing of entrepreneurship. There certainly
is a mutually facilitating reciprocity between economic growth and
entrepreneurship development.
Business Plan

1. Executive Summary
2. Business/industry background
3. Product/service to be offered
4. Market analysis
5. Sales and marketing strategy
6. Production/operations strategy
7. Management
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8. Risk factors
9. Funds required
63
 Resource Mobilisation

Scanning the environment for entrepreneurial opportumities

Development of product/service idea

Assessment of feasibility of the idea and the preparation of a business plan

Appraisal by the funding agencies

Project commissioning and launch

Adaptation and management growth

Review

Process of Setting up a Business

Roles and Functions of the Entrepreneur in relation the Enterprise:

Developing Exchange Relationships:

1. Perceiving market opportunities

2. Gaining command over scarce resources

3. Purchasing inputs

4. Marketing of Products and responding to competition

Political Administration:

5. Dealing with public bureaucracy (approvals, concessions, taxes)

6. Managing human relations within the firm

7. Managing customer and supplier relations.

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Management Control:

8. Managing finance

9. Managing production

Technology:

10. Acquiring and overseeing assembly of the factory

11. Industrial engineering (minimizing inputs with a given production process)

12. Upgrading the production process and product quality

13. Introducing new production techniques and products.

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 4.GENERAL ANALYSIS
4.1 PESTLE Analysis:
PESTLE analysis is a business measurement tool to assess the overall macro
environment of business. PESTLE is acronym
for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental. It is a
part of the external analysis while conducting market research, and it gives an
overview of multiple macro-environmental factors before taking business decision.

Political Factors: Political factors are the medium by which Government

intervenes the functioning of an enterprise. Government regulations are evaluated
in terms of its capacity to influence the business environment and markets. The
principle issues in this segment are political stability, tax guidelines, trade
regulations, safety regulations, labor laws, and business laws.

Startups India Action Plan Impact: The action plans suggest law enforcement
agencies to keep off the functioning of startups in the first three years of its
operations. But after three years, companies need to follow the regulations.

Example- Tax exemptions, Self-certifications for 3 years

Economic Factors: These factors include economic growth, interest

rates, exchange rates, and inflation rate. These factors extraordinarily affect how
businesses operate and make decisions.

Startups India Action Plan Impact: There will be an improvement in the ease of
doing business especially for startups which will boost entrepreneurship. There is
a corpus fund for startups at lesser interest rate which will improve the ease of
setting up news businesses.

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Social Factors: These factors have a great impact on the buying patterns which is
an important determinant for businesses. High trends in social factors affect the
demand for a products and operational mode of enterprises.

Startups India Action Plan Impact: Startups action plan will change the buying
pattern and behavior of consumers as this action plan is more focused on products
and services which will be driven through new technologies and innovations.

Technological Factors: These factors include technological aspects like R&D

activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change.
These can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and
influence the outsourcing decisions.

Startups India Action Plan Impact: Though there is not enough space for R&D
activity in the startups action plan. This action plan would be a key contributor to
technological aspects like the rate of technological changes i.e. technology beyond
portal and mobile apps; etc.

Legal Factors: This factor includes consumer law, antitrust law, employment law,
and health and safety law. These factors can affect how company operates, cost
structure, and market demand for its products.

Startups India Action Plan Impact: Exemption of startups from labor

inspections for the first 3 years from labor department etc. will definitely boost the
business environment.

Environmental Factors: These include ecological and environmental aspects

such as weather, climate change, environmental law etc. which may affect
industries such as tourism, farming, and insurance.

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Startups India Action Plan Impact: There is no special mention about in the
announcements. However, the fund allotted through credit guarantee scheme will
cover risk if any occurs.

4.2 Challenges and Opportunities of Start-ups:

Whatever may be the kind of start-up, Indian start-ups face its own set of
challenges and some stellar opportunities.
The challenges can be classified as:
Culture:
Entrepreneurship and start-ups are only a recent phenomenon in the country. It is
only in the last decade and half that people in the country have moved from being
job seekers to job creators. Doing a start-up is tough and every country sees more
failures than success. More often than not an entrepreneur needs to be prepared to
face failures and unprecedented hardship. However, culturally we are not groomed
to fail and failure is frowned upon. Entrepreneurship thrives on celebrations and a
society that fails to appreciate business failures stifles innovation and creativity
even before it can start. A start-up failing has to be OK as failures often teach an
entrepreneur, what to do and what not to do.
Mentoring:
Doing a start-up is perilous and often a lonely journey. You may have co-founders,
but you may not necessarily possess the business acumen to succeed.Having a
brilliant idea is different from making that idea a business success. For a start-up, it
is very important to have mentors who have been through a similar process of
starting or have business experience. A great mentor is often what separates
success from failure by providing valuable inputs. However, there is no formal
mechanism to mentor start-ups in the country. Every mentoring that happens is on

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an ad-hoc basis. A start-up that has raised funds can count the investors for some
form of mentoring, but honest, unbiased, good business mentors are far and few in
between. For start-ups finding a good mentor is often an uphill task.
Policies:
Government is the single largest enabler for the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Government's role in ease of doing business and helping companies start is vital to
ensuring success. The latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business (out of 189
economies) ranks India at an abysmal 142 where starting a business rank for the
country is even lower at 158.It is uncannily difficult to start a business in India and
myriad laws and regulations means it takes about 30 days to comply compared to
just 9 days in OECD countries. The government’s role has so far been limited to
giving out grants and loans, but without an effective, enabling environment,
implementation is far off the target. In this regard it will be interesting to see the
contours of the recently announced Start-up Fund in this year’s budget. For start-
ups to thrive and succeed, the government has a lot to do and understand the
importance of entrepreneurship in economic development.
Hiring:
The economy has been in a flux and along with the world economy the heady days
of high growth are long gone. In an uncertain economy where, one is not sure
about demand, for a start-up, it is particularly difficult to make correct estimates on
the number of employees needed. This, however, is the minor problem where the
biggest issue is about finding skilled manpower. India’s skilling need is so huge
that National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been mandated to skill
150 million Indians by 2022. For a start-up, it is particularly difficult to attract and
hire talent and skilled workers. A start-up often cannot match the salaries drawn at
larger companies nor is a job at a start-up seen as a steady one. This means start-
ups face severe hiring challenges and at times have to settle for the next best
option.

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Funding:
Capital and access to capital has been a perennial problem for start-ups. While, of
late angel investors, venture capital and private equity have brought succour to
some extent, a large number of start-ups still grapple to raise funds from
institutional setup. Funding challenge is not merely limited to seed rounds, but also
for vital Series A and B rounds. For a start-up looking to scale, it is still very hard
to raise rounds to scale as the number of investors that write larger cheques in
India are very limited in number.

The Opportunities are as follows:

Demographic dividend:
According to the latest UN report India with 356 million 10-24-year-olds have the
largest concentration of youth population despite having a smaller population than
China. This augurs well for the country as right education and healthcare can see
the economy soar. Youth is the driving force behind innovation, creation, and the
future leaders of a country. Youth also drives demand and consumption pattern in a
country. For start-ups youth make up the workforce that it so desperately needs and
going forward youth can be a huge talent base for start-ups.
Best suited to address emerging countries’ challenges – India has a unique set of
problems that need innovations to originate out of the country. Problems around its
health, education, infrastructure, sanitation are unique to the country and solutions
from western world cannot solve it. Each problem provides a unique opportunity
for start-ups to solve some pressing issue and at the same time create a business
around it. What helps is that most problems around emerging economies are
similar in nature and solutions applicable here can also work in many countries in
Africa and elsewhere. This enables Indian start-ups to acquire an even bigger scale
and at the same time make a meaningful impact around the world.
Large population:

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For start-ups in the country, it is not essential to go overseas. India, with over a
billion people, present a very large home market for any goods or services. A rising
disposable income and growing aspirations of a mushrooming middle class have
meant there is a large appetite for brands. The large population has also led to a
consumer expenditure growth, which has in turn has propped up supply and
production. Start-ups that look to service and cater to the large population in
solving a pain point or providing a utility in one of the world’s most important
consumer markets, stand to do well.
High Mobile penetration:
According to latest TRAI figures India's tele-density reached 76.55 percent with a
subscriber base of 95.76 crore. Significantly wireless subscriber base touched
95.76 crore, just shy of 100 crore mark. High mobile penetration in urban and rural
India has reshaped the economy of the country and how goods and services are
offered. It has led to greater efficiencies and increased productivity. It has meant
businesses profit through faster decision making, better logistics and even
something like access to bank accounts. Higher mobile penetration has also led to
increased financial inclusion and flow of credit to the unbanked. Growth in mobile
penetration is transforming the way businesses and consumers communicate and
work. With data enabled mobile phones, the very nature of start-ups and businesses
have changed. For example, start-ups that develop mobile apps now have an ever-
increasing market to cater to. India is at crossroads where it now has to cater to the
aspirations of a billion people. Existing frameworks can prove to be inadequate
and there is a great need to leverage a billion minds and become a global power.
Start-ups and entrepreneurship are the best way forward in becoming a knowledge
superpower. Ashish Mittal is founder and Chief mentor, Turning Ideas, focused on
helping multiple start-ups in mobile, social and cloud domain. He was instrumental
in starting Google Enterprise business in India and worked for Microsoft, Oracle
and IBM. He is part of advisory board for multiple higher education Institutes and

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Government and also guides students in becoming Industry ready. He also drives
charity for underprivileged known as Turning Life Foundation.
De-globalization:
Critics will argue that this will be a challenge, however, ever coin has two sides; it is a
challenge for some, and opportunity for the others.
Brexit added fuel to the fire, while the new president of The USA has given early
indications of lower corporate taxes, and destination taxes for US based
corporations. Make in India, is also a part of this de globalized world, where we are
promoting to make in India rather than anywhere else in the world. This is an
opportunity for the Indian start-ups, more importantly, lesser brain drain, companies
abroad will look to hire from India, and therefore greater talent pool will be available
for start-ups. India is a more closed economy as compared to China, and we do have
substantial exports to the US, but this will be unaffected, although de-globalization
could have adverse-effect on larger corporations who will scale down operations and
become more frugal, this would also present opportunities for start-up companies to fill
the void.
Connectivity:
Indian telecom industry has nearly 100 crore subscribers, mobile connectivity has made
inroads in the rural and urban population. Government of India’s digital push is going to
improve connectivity and data to the next level. The race to cheapest data has started
and disruption is certain. The cheap data has helps everyone to get their hands on it,
start-ups will have an easier time to tap into markets, territories and even traditional
businesses.

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4.3 Challenges faced by Women Entrepreneur:

Conflicts between Work and Domestic Commitment’s: Women's family obligations

also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and
developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older
dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their
business" (Starcher, 1996). Married women entrepreneurs have to make fine balance
between the business and their home.
Problems access to finance: Women entrepreneurs are lacking access to finance
because women generally do not have property in their names to use them as a
collateral security for obtaining funds from external source. The bank also considers the
women as less credit worthy and discourages the women entrepreneurs. The family

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members of her have little confidence in the capability of the women to run the
business.
Lack of family support: This is common issue for every woman in India. Sometimes
the family may make the women feel guilty of neglecting household duties in her
pursuit of business obligations. Cultural traditions may hold back a woman from
venturing into her own business.

Limited mobility: Unlike men, women modality for travelling from place to place in
India is limited due to the various reasons. Women on their own find it difficult to
accommodate in smaller towns even the dual responsibility that the women have to
cope with making business success as well as looking after the home, restrict in their
mobility.

Male Dominated Society: Important barrier to the empowerment of women through

enterprise is the main chauvinist predominant social factor and believes are not
conducive to the blossoming of women entrepreneur. This consideration act as a
stumbling block in their strife for equal status with men in the economic activity.
Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships: Married women
have to make a fine balance between business and family. The business success also
depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process
and management.
Role Conflict: Entrepreneurship needs a high level of commitment, devotion and
dedication. Women taking on mantle of entrepreneurship suffer from stress and
strain caused by role overload and role conflicts.

Lack of proper Education: The greatest barrier of the entrepreneurial career

among women is the lack of education. In India 60% of women are illiterate and
illiteracy is the major problem of socio-economic backwardness. Lack of
information and experience creates further problems in setting up of business.

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Discrimination in childhood: Right from early childhood, girl child is taught not
to be aggressive. They are discouraged to move out of the family and take up the
business. This attitude of the family members makes women week and passive in
approach.

Low need for Success: Need for achievement independence autonomy are the
prerequisites for the success of the entrepreneurship. But women are proud to bask
in the glory of their parents, husband, children etc. Their preconceived notions
about the role in the life inhibit achievement and independence.

Low Risk Bearing Ability: Women in India need a protected life and they are
confined to the four walls of house. They are less educated and economically not
self-dependent and lack the entrepreneurial initiative or training, inferiority
complex, unplanned growth etc. all this reduces the ability of women to bear a
risk.

Lack of Self Confidence: Women lack of self confidence in their own abilities
which is partly due to socio cultural environment. Having accepted a subordinate
status for long even at home members of their family do not appear to have total
confidence in their abilities and on their decision making.

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 5.FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS &
CONCLUSIONS
5.1 Findings:
Many businesses start with a dream, but it takes more than just a dream for them to
grow into successful businesses—including the tenacity to overcome the many
challenges facing start-ups today. Start-ups take time, effort, and energy. Funding
is a major concern for start-ups and small businesses. When the economy tanked, it
made it harder to convince investors and banks alike to part with the cash that’s
essential for growth in the early days of a business. Credit today is tight, and it’s
not clear precisely when it will become more readily available. Plus, there’s a
growing trend of smaller initial investments in early stage start-ups. Intensifying
the challenge of raising funds, major leaps in technology have led investors to raise
the bar in terms of how much legwork entrepreneurs are expected to do before
even pitching their companies.

5.2 Suggestions:
Solutions for reason of failures:
 Entrepreneurs should conduct in-depth market researches to understand
the need of the society and then proceed to the product design phase.
 Entrepreneurs need to analyse their business idea and think out of the
box. An ideal example can be the number of start-ups in the ecommerce
industry, but rarely anyone focuses on logistics-based start-up ideas,
where the need is.
 Start-ups should aim to hire those people who share the same zeal to
make the start-up successful.
 Entrepreneurs should reach out to multiple venture capitalists and know
who is better aligned towards the goals of start-ups.
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  Business process should involve meetings of the management team and
technical teams on weekly basis to ensure a smooth workflow.
 Start-ups should be policy driven and offer same salaries to team
members. It should offer incentives for performance-based work. Doing
so will help manage the funding in an appropriate way.
 Entrepreneurs can enrol themselves at personality development classes
to improve their soft skills or hire an experienced person for business
communication.
 Entrepreneurs should keep a close watch on the growing demand for
their product and focus on response time and capacity planning.
 An entrepreneur should keep up with changing market dynamics to see a
decline in the demand for their product and take necessary steps to run
the start-up profitably.

To remove the obstacles for Women Entrepreneur:

The basic requirement in development of women entrepreneurship is to make
aware the women regarding her existence, her unique identity and her contribution
towards the economic growth and development of country. The elimination of
obstacles for women entrepreneurship requires a major change in traditional
attitudes and mindsets of people in society rather than being limited to only
creation of opportunities for women. Hence, it is imperative to design programmes
that will address to attitudinal changes, training, supportive services. The basic
instinct of entrepreneurship should be tried to be reaped into the minds of the
women from their childhood. This could be achieved by carefully designing the
curriculum that will impart the basic knowledge along with its practical
implication regarding management (financial, legal etc.) of an enterprise. Adopting
a structured skill training package can pave the way for development of women
entrepreneurship. Such programmes can train, motivate and assist the upcoming
women entrepreneurship in achieving their ultimate goals. Various schemes like

77
the World Bank sponsored programmes can be undertaken for such purposes. The
course design should focus on imparting input on profitability, marketability and
practical management lessons. Besides, there should be consideration in helping
the women entrepreneurs in balancing their family life and work life. As a special
concern, computer illiterate women can be trained on Information Technology to
take the advantage of new technology and automation.

The initiatives taken from these well-established entrepreneurs for having

interaction with such upcoming women entrepreneurs can be proved to be
beneficial in terms of boosting their morale and confidence. The established and
successful women entrepreneurs can act as advisors for the upcoming women
entrepreneurs. It may result in more active involvement of women entrepreneurs in
their enterprises. Infrastructure set up plays a vital role for any enterprise.
Government can set some priorities for women entrepreneurs for allocation of
industrial plots, sheds and other amenities. However, precautionary measures
should be undertaken to avoid the misuse of such facility by the men in the name
of the women. Even in todays’ era of modernization the women entrepreneurs
depend on males of their family for marketing activities. This is simply because
they lack the skill and confidence for undertaking such activities. Women
development corporations should come forward to help the women entrepreneurs
in arranging frequent exhibitions and setting up marketing outlets to provide space
for the display of products or advertisement about services made by women

78
5.3 Conclusion:
 Start-ups are the future growth engines of our country and government
should do all it can to foster the growth of entrepreneurship culture in India.
 Already Facebook, Google and Yahoo have acquired start-ups based in
India and the likes of Flipkart, Inmobi, MuSigma show us that world class
companies can have origins in India also. It just needs a little push in right
direction.
 Government initiatives like the $1.68bn funds for the ‘Make in India’ and
the new company law are a step-in right direction.

“The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you will find new cheese”
-Spencer Johnson

79
6.1 Article

80
81
Mr. K chartered
accountant by profession
and technocrat by heart,
has
attempted to bridge the
gap in eLearning space
with his platform-based
solution. The serial
entrepreneur at the age of
43, with 20+ years of
industrial
experience and the
expertise of founding
three startups earlier, has
embarked

82
on the new journey with
two more partners who are
technically savvy.
1.1 Product
The startup chose to work
on the emerging
technology, Platform as a
Service
(PaaS), and planned for a
grand product. It took 30
months for the startup to
build the product
resulting in additional
cost leading to the
realization that
“Plan for MVP (minimum
viable product) with
83
product roadmap and do
not

Case 1: Failed Startup

in B2C Sector
Mr. K chartered
accountant by profession
and technocrat by heart,
has
attempted to bridge the
gap in eLearning space
with his platform-based
solution. The serial
entrepreneur at the age of
43, with 20+ years of
industrial

84
experience and the
expertise of founding
three startups earlier, has
embarked
on the new journey with
two more partners who are
technically savvy.
1.1 Product
The startup chose to work
on the emerging
technology, Platform as a
Service
(PaaS), and planned for a
grand product. It took 30
months for the startup to
build the product
resulting in additional
85
cost leading to the
realization that
“Plan for MVP (minimum
viable product) with
product roadmap and do
not
Case 1: Failed Startup
in B2C Sector
Mr. K chartered
accountant by profession
and technocrat by heart,
has
attempted to bridge the
gap in eLearning space
with his platform-based
solution. The serial
entrepreneur at the age of
86
43, with 20+ years of
industrial
experience and the
expertise of founding
three startups earlier, has
embarked
on the new journey with
two more partners who are
technically savvy.
1.1 Product
The startup chose to work
on the emerging
technology, Platform as a
Service
(PaaS), and planned for a
grand product. It took 30
months for the startup to
87
build the product
resulting in additional
cost leading to the
realization that
“Plan for MVP (minimum
viable product) with
product roadmap and do
not
Case 1: Failed Startup
in B2C Sector
Mr. K chartered
accountant by profession
and technocrat by heart,
has
attempted to bridge the
gap in eLearning space
with his platform-based
88
solution. The serial
entrepreneur at the age of
43, with 20+ years of
industrial
experience and the
expertise of founding
three startups earlier, has
embarked
on the new journey with
two more partners who are
technically savvy.
1.1 Product
The startup chose to work
on the emerging
technology, Platform as a
Service

89
(PaaS), and planned for a
grand product. It took 30
months for the startup to
build the product
resulting in additional
cost leading to the
realization that
“Plan for MVP (minimum
viable product) with
product roadmap and do
not
6.2 CASE STUDIES

(A)Cheez-burger:

90
Entrepreneur: Ben Huh, founder of Seattle-based Cheez-burger, which owns the
websites Fail Blog and I Can Has Cheez-burger (home of the LOLcat).

Setup: Huh was a 22-year-old journalism major when he moved to Chicago and
founded software analytics firm Raydium in January 2000. He'd worked at startups
but didn't have much experience or a network to raise money easily. Still, he
cobbled together $750,000 over two rounds.

"Uh-oh" moment: Eighteen months later, he hit a wall. "You're hopeful to the
end, but we were flat out of money and couldn't meet payroll," he says. Huh tried
raising more money, but the dot-com crash was in full effect, and there was none to
be had. For two weeks, he says, he could barely leave his room. "These investors
had put a fortune on their faith in me, and you feel like you should have rewarded
their faith," he recalls. "You feel like you can't do another company again."

The way out: Six years passed before Huh decided to buy I Can Haz Cheezburger
and begin building his funny-blog empire. During that time, he came to terms with
the fact that investors understood the risks, and that Raydium might not have
worked even if he'd raised enough money. He compares the process of starting
over to getting back on a bicycle: "You know how painful it can be, but you do it
anyway," he says. "I think you are better prepared, mentally and financially, but
you never know if it's going to be successful. That's called maturity."

91
Success: Huh took over Cheez-burger in September 2007. The blog network now
receives 25 million unique visitors and half a billion-page views per month, and
has raised more than $32 million to jump-start a platform that will allow anyone to
create memes. Cheez-burger boasts 90 employees, a handful of whom star on the
Bravo reality TV show LOLwork.

Take-away: Draw some kind of line between business and personal life, especially
when it comes to finances. Huh mixed his credit cards and ended up shouldering
company debt when Raydium folded. "But once you realize those limits, go for
them," he says. "Think of it as the best education money can't buy."

(B) The Muse:

Entrepreneur: Kathryn Minshew, CEO and co-founder of New York-based The

Muse, a career-development platform with original content, interactive job boards
and comprehensive company profiles.

Setup: In December 2010 Minshew quit her job at the Clinton Health Access
Initiative to run Pretty Young Professionals (PYP), a women's networking site she
had started with three co-workers a couple of months before. She bootstrapped the
company and guaranteed a small payroll with personal savings, working as an
unpaid CEO and editor in chief. By spring 2011 she'd managed to attract only

92
9,000 users. Then, a redesign increased user to 20,000, and the other members of
the founding team began to get more involved.

"Uh-oh" moment: The group splintered in half after an argument about how best
to run the company, and the threat of a lawsuit loomed. "We split our equity on a
piece of notebook paper. We didn't have lawyers; I didn't think we needed them,"
Minshew recalls. "I spent three weeks alternating between the fetal position and
the whiteboard trying to figure out how strongly I wanted to fight for the existing
company vs. how prepared I was to strike out and do it over."

The way out: Minshew decided on a do-over, watching PYP's rebranding from the
sidelines. In September 2011 she launched The Daily Muse (now called The
Muse), and PYP's entire staff, plus another co-founder, joined her. The Huffington
Post and TechCrunch covered the launch; the site drew more visitors in its first
month than PYP had in its best. "The community knew what happened and stood
behind us with tweets and shares," Minshew says. "It was painful, but being forced
to start over was a unique sort of gift, because having been through a lot together,
the team comes out of it with the confidence that nothing is going to stop us."

In November, she was accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator

program. She added mobile, local and social media functionality to her platform to
look more like a "billion-dollar" startup.

Success: She's still out $20,000 in savings, but by the end of 2012 the website had
nearly 2 million users in more than 160 countries, increasing at a rate of 30 percent
every month. The Muse, now with eight employees, has partnerships with 60-plus
companies, including Intel, Sephora, NPR, Pinterest, Twitter and foursquare.

Take-away: In a business partnership, formalize the process and paperwork, and

hire a lawyer who can spot problems you never dreamed would arise--just in case
things get personal. And of course, choose your partners wisely. "It's so important

93
to find people who share your values and ethics," she says. "There are a lot of
things you can paper over, and having different sets of opinions is valuable, but not
when it comes down to code of conduct."

WEBLIOGRAPHY

 Sharifi, Omid, PhD Scholar, Aligarh University, Understanding the

financing challenges faced by start-ups in India-Research Paper.
 Study on Women Entrepreneurship in India-
https://www.researchgate.net.

94
 Start-up India-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup India.
 Economic Times Website-Challenges and Opportunities
 Case Studies-www.entrepreneur.com

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Mascarenhas, Romeo S, Business Planning and Entrepreneurship

Management, Published by-Vipul Prakashan ,2017.
 Article-The Economic Times News Paper

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