If you are one among the prospective entrepreneurs interested in starting your new business, then you should first look at the following things.

Which Business Model is Best?

There are several business models, and the amount of investment varies depending on the level of startup and the nature of the business. I make some efforts to sort out business models that can be opted for.

1. Franchise Business – Franchising is one of the successful business models if you are too lazy to think of a new business idea and spend more time making your business profitable. You can take a franchise of business already having good client feedback and strong marketing support. Investment and manpower are the most important factors to decide on starting your franchise model business. It will be better if you find a franchise business in which you have considerable experience, experienced persons always shine in business.

2. Investment in Partnership – This method has been growing in recent years because of profit prospects and if you have the amount to invest, you can find the right people to invest your money if you can get good returns. This method is the best suitable for both investors and persons executing the business ideas, one person gets interest-free funds until the business picks up, and the other one gets good returns after the business picks up.

3. Completely Own Business – If you are deciding to start your own business with your investment, and you have the experience to do the business, you can go with it.

Which Business to Start?

1. High Investment –  If you have a good amount to invest then it is recommended to start a franchise-type business or F.M.C.G., find a good franchise business provider, or start a supermarket in a prime location.
2. Low Investment –   Service Sector Business e.g. – General Insurance, Direct Selling Agents for telecom companies and other companies.

If you don’t have any experience and low investment then it is recommended to go for a franchise model business, there are a lot of small franchise businesses e.g.: coffee kiosks.

Once you decide on the above points, decide on the following aspects.

1. Nature of ownership. – Decide whether you are going to do business alone or you’re going to join someone else.
2 How to register your business – There are three forms of business registration, a proprietary form of the business, partnership business, and private limited company registration, choose the most suitable business registration.

Every business is profitable to start anywhere in the world, and starting a new business in Chennai is easy compared to other parts of India.

Top 5 Reasons to Start a Business in Chennai.

1. Low entry barriers – As a metropolitan city Chennai emerged as a very good location to start any business at any scale due to acceptability, and healthy competitors, there is almost no requirement to worry about setting up a new business in Chennai, you can rent an office, complete the registration required to start a new business in Chennai, hire staffs, etc.

2. Wide options –  You can start any business in Chennai, and success depends on how fast you reach your customers and retain customers, in today’s scenario integrators like Urban Clap, just dial providing leads, so you don’t need to worry a lot about finding your clients. Some of the best small-scale businesses to start in Chennai are restaurant businesses, any kind of home services, trading in garments, etc.

3. Manpower –  It is the best city in India in terms of availability of any kind of employees, Chennai is the city with the best sources of manpower of all types such as, skilled, unskilled, technically qualified, etc.

4. Level and nature of Competition  –  Competition is a major challenge in a city like Chennai for starting a new business, competitors won’t spoil your business in an unethical way, it is up to you, how you should beat your competitors in terms of pricing and quality. This is one of the main advantages and also a disadvantage, this can flourish your business or ruin your business, it is up to you to decide on a successful business strategy.

5. Price flexibility  –  Pricing is key for profitability for any business, and the city has a mixed population of price preferences, you can charge any price to your customers until you can provide value to the price you charge, there is always a customer looking for some preferences, quality, etc. So decide on what kind of customer you are targeting and decide on your product, which caters to the class of customers selected by you. There is a large difference between starting a business in Chennai and suburban parts, in places other than Chennai you cannot make profits if your price is too high and there will be only a few customers looking for your products.

Some of the small business ideas to start in Chennai.

1. Custom tailoring for women.
2. Breakfast kiosks.
3 Takeaway restaurants.
4. Online food order and delivery.
5. Organic food products.
6. Coaching centres.
7. Western food kiosks etc.
8. Travel agency.
9. Event management services.
10. Sports Academy.
11. Traditional snack kiosks.
12. CSC along with mobile recharges, courier agency, etc.
13. Juice shop along with ICE cream parlor
14. Traditional breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.
15. Hostels.

How to make your business successful

There is no secret method to make your business successful. It’s all about the timing of business decisions,  & the interval between we make the expansion, product differentiation, etc.

To make it simple, I can say a business will be successful if it is backed by a successful businessman. Apart from economic conditions & business conditions, some businesses will be stable despite other competitors losing, this is due to the positioning of products or services among customers.

As this article should focus on small startups, I will start from the initial phase before setting up the business, you can also surf through another article on business discipline for startups

Initial phase:

While starting a new business, most of them look only at the industry perspective & prospects.  The main thing I should consider is who are my customers ?, how I am going to satisfy them ?, and how I am going to differentiate my products/services from others.

Just because I have money I am not going to start a new business without interest, basic business knowledge is essential.

Example:  If your target customers are quality-oriented, then the first step would be knowing how to differentiate quality products from substandard products.  You can go one step before knowing how your product is processed in both cases.

Changes:

Don’t change anything until you are facing any major issues, try to sort out minor issues

For example: If you are getting a quality product from one of the dealers for an affordable price you should not change him/her for improper delivery, here the customer is not affected until stock is out so try to maintain buffer stock always to overcome delayed delivery.

Don’t change anything that does not affect customers permanently & allows competitors.

Top 3 Pricing Strategy :

1. Quality Oriented:

If you’re selling quality products compared to your competitors, you should prove your superior quality to customers. Provide at the same price or reduced price of competitors

2. Offers:

Don’t run offers all over the year

1. Selling price:

If you are selling some products cheaper than your competitors, just add two prices “selling price” (Price of a competitor)& another one as “our price”.

Consolidating:

At the initial stage, there will be many problems that require experience & time to solve, so make decisions patiently after analyzing all effects for minor problems you can find consolidated solutions once all linking problems appear

Growth phase:

At this stage, branding is important for making your business stable, and creating brand value without expanding or adding more products, once you realize your business is growing you should understand that it is because of your existing products so don’t try to change or innovate your existing products. In this phase, it is the Right Time to go for a change in Business structure if your existing business structure lacks financial credibility. You may register a private limited company with the help of the company registration service consultants for added advantage.

This phase is critical in terms of business stability & financial stability at this stage you need to be ready to arrange all building blocks for the next step i.e.; finance, maintaining proper books of accounts  & maintaining your bank account properly  & filing your income tax business return properly on time.

Top 3 Expansion suggestions :

My suggestions are for initial expansion after the existing business stabilizes

1. Working capital:

One has to look at the working capital requirement for expansion, it should not affect the running of the existing business. Draw a budget and plan accordingly, don’t devote your attention completely to the expanded business you may lose the stability of the existing business

2. Micromanagement:

Don’t dry to manage all activities by yourself for other outlets also delegate to staff through proper reporting or rework the organization hierarchy and Hire new employees to bridge the functionalities

3. Reporting:

Till expansion, you may carry your business without reporting while your business is small, but while your business has grown you should concentrate on the highest level of activities & monitor lower-level activities by reports and other mechanisms, this helps you to devote your valuable time to the most important aspects.

How can you start selling goods online?

With the improvement in logistics services & low cost of shipping, selling goods from any corner of the country has become easy. With the development of internet usage and awareness of online purchases, customers prefer to purchase standard goods online, and in some cases, e-commerce platform also offers other kinds of products that are available only in a certain location.

Traditional and handcrafted items are available only on certain mediums & it will be very hard for a customer to reach the seller and vice versa, but with the development of e-commerce selling and buying these kinds of goods become easy.

We recommend you add your business to top e-commerce portals in India like Snap Deal, Flipkart, and Amazon. Shipping will be the main problem at the initial stage if you start your portal, another problem is establishing an e-commerce site is not that easy, you need to spend more than & 1 lakh for a simple E-commerce selling Portal, before setting up an e-commerce business you need to register a company and follow gst registration requirements for e-commerce business.

How can I sell products online through Amazon, Flipkart, Snap deal and other mediums:

For selling on third-party e-commerce sites you need business proofs and sales tax registration details & other basic details, once you become a seller on the e-commerce sites you will be able to list your product at your preferred price you should upload product description warranty details along with product images.

What are the charges of Flipkart and other sites for selling?

The E-commerce service providers will deduct fees as a percentage of the selling price and shipping charges, you will receive your payout periodically after the deduction of all charges.

How can I expand?

Once you have enough sales & profits earned, you can go to your e-commerce website, advertise through Facebook, etc, and use other internet marketing techniques. By this time you can choose your own logistics service, to ship your goods on your own at reduced costs, having your e-commerce website will help you to earn more profits.