Business Is In Their Veins

Title: Rokda: How Baniyas Do Business

Author: Nikhil Inamdar

Pages: 242

Price: Rs. 199

Published by: Random House, India

“The companies I have chosen not only represent different sectors of the Indian economy, but also the changing landscape of doing business in India.” Nikhil Inamdar, Author

Whenever we hear the term ‘Baniya’, we are conditioned to think that the person being referred to as Baniya (the term comes from the Sanskrit word Vanij, which is synonymous with India’s trader class) has a business of his own. Historically, too, the Baniya cast has been known to be moneylenders and merchants. Written by a senior journalist in Mumbai, Nikhil Inamdar, who is currently a special correspondent with the Business Standard, Rokda: How Baniyas Do Business tries to talk about the business acumen the popular Indian trader class has in abundance. It does so by not only interviewing the entrepreneurs themselves – from the Agarwals of Emami to Rohit Bansal of Snapdeal, to the Guptas of Meru cabs, to RK Somany of Hindware – but their families and friends too, which takes the readers a little closer to their private lives. Most importantly, the interviews help us understand the qualities which make these highly motivated individuals running multi-million dollar companies so successful. Published by Random House India, it takes six such Baniya entrepreneurs and talks about their exceptionally successful ventures.

The book starts with demystifying the perception everybody seemed to have formed of this caste over the years. It says that Baniya is a loosely used expression. It helps further the belief that they are a community that only knows money making. Although when the current business ecosystem is talked about and discussed, the organisations run by their clan, ranging from internet enabled retail, mobile telephone, and oil and gas exploration, form the core of the modern economy.

The interviews are extensive and the book inspires and gives business insights in equal measure. One inspiring story in Rokda is that of Radheyshyam Agarwal and Radhyshyam Goenka, founders of the cosmetic company Emami, of how they started the company in just twenty thousand rupees and turned it into a conglomerate worth Rs. 8,000 crore. The writing connects the early days of these businesses with their present, the conditions that prevailed then and now, the opportunities and pitfalls, and many more of such themes. The book can be of interest to anyone from budding entrepreneurs to business journalists, to anyone who is interested in business and entrepreneurship.

The Morning Quietude – Why Rising Up Early is Important

A hectic day in the life of an entrepreneur calls for a good night sleep. For lesser mortals, however, knowing the sleep patterns of successful entrepreneurs doesn’t count for much apart from learning how disciplined their lives are. As studies on successful entrepreneurs have covered everything right from their protein intake to music preferences, how could these not conclude the time of day most want to wake up, making most of the available hours in a day? Going by what these studies suggest, it can actually teach us one thing: it is far more productive to get up in the morning than to sleep late in the night. In addition, the number of hours spent sleeping is way less than the standard 8-hour sleep.

After all, who would want to spend their special and exciting lives sleeping? Lot of articles on popular entrepreneur-focused forums too suggest the same. So, what must be reasons these successful barons of huge companies want to maximise the morning time instead of night. Let’s learn them like the back of our hands.

Saying No To Distraction: At 5 or 6 in the morning, the distractions are less likely to happen than in the mid of the night. So, all the personal time they want to spend in leisure and hobby pursuing, it can best happen during the wee hours. Taking up hobbies after a long day at work is unpractical.

They Have All the Good Reasons: If you do not have a good reason to get up and start working, you probably wouldn’t get around to getting up early. All entrepreneurs have good reasons to compromise on their sleep.

Taking Advantage of the Extra Time: The earlier the better. The entrepreneurs make most of the early morning time (from 4 am to 7 am) because that is the time one is most efficient, active and lively.

The Experience: The experience of seeing and feeling the daylight taking over the darkness of the night is most fulfilling and wonderful. It is the experience the morning peace and the quietude provides, away from all the madness that surrounds one through the day, that can take away all the pressures which are so intrinsic of any entrepreneur’s life.

Improving Productivity

It is common to feel unsatisfied when a work day ends, due to non-completion of work. It is difficult to stay productive and feel satisfied at the end of each work day. Productivity helps you add hours to your work schedule and here are some ways to increase your productivity:

1. Complete the most difficult tasks in the morning, while starting your day at work. Do not leave them for the last. Leaving them for later would simply drive your intent from pursuing them. Always take up the difficult, lengthy tasks in the morning and the shorter, simpler ones in the evening.
2. One of the most important factors behind not feeling productive is lack of love for one’s work. If you do not love what you do, chances are you will never feel charged up and inspired to do it. Always choose a profile of your liking.
3. Don’t think too much about the tasks given to you. Just start the work without giving it much thought, or without getting dreaded to complete a certain task.
4. There will be times when you wouldn’t be as productive and efficient as other days. Think of it as normal and don’t get too worked up thinking about it.
5. Try to stay away from the Internet. Of all things leading you to an unproductive day, the Internet is one of the biggest culprits.
6. By making a list and prioritising your tasks, you would be much better off in handling them than going ahead without any written plan. Feel in control of your work and don’t fret.
7. Half of the generation today is sleep deprived. Make sure you get enough sleep before starting your day. Sleep away to glory on weekends and make do for the time lost on the weekdays.
8. Find time to exercise daily, even if that means spending ten minutes stretching your muscles at home. After a eight- or nine-hour shift, our bodies need oxygen. And only a good night sleep and exercise can guarantee that. Stay in shape and say bye-bye to lethargy.

These are some of the suggestions that can make your life sorted and work easier. Follow these on a daily basis to increase your productivity at work and also at home. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to write and add on to the list.

Returning to Work

Although breaking from work for a significant time period can make you feel refreshed, it is daunting to join back with the same motivation and excitement. It is a common notion that a break helps put things into perspective, but it is far from reality. The longer the duration of staying away from work, the more difficult it gets to resume. The worst part is that the pending assignments that need immediate attention are pushed into further delay. It gets even worse when one is looking for a new job.

The reasons for taking a sabbatical from work could be many, like wanting time to recover from an illness, taking a break after having worked for a number of years, changing jobs, maternity leave, contemplating a change in the industry, getting married or settling down, or simply taking a break from work for the sake of it. Once you decide to work again, you will be asked a number of questions during the interviews: Why did you decide to take a break from work? What took you so long to decide to join back? What did you do while on a sabbatical? Are you sure you will be able to deliver and take on the pressures involved in the job work?

If you join back the company you were working for before deciding to take a break, things will be as difficult. You will have lost touch with the right people in the company. You may not realise it, but with a little bit of exploring, you can ease out the nervous anticipation and start like you had never left. Take up a part-time option before taking up a full-fledged job. It does not necessarily have to involve going from one place to another. You can work sitting indoors, by exploring an opportunity to work online. If you are a fresher with some experience, you have options like marketing, business and content development, HR, teaching, marketing communication, etc.

You should keep in mind that all of this may not guarantee recruitment, let alone starting a level lower than where you had left. The employers would always want to hire people who have on-job experience than the ones who don’t. These days many people are taking the franchise route too. It is a good option considering the initial hand-holding the franchisors provide, aside from lowering the risk involved owing to successful business models. The only dampener could be the initial investment that one is required to make. So, weigh these options carefully before taking on the mantle of starting work after an extended break. All the best!

Income Projections (Restaurants)

Your income statements are also called profit and loss statements or operating statements. These are forecasting and budgeting tools that can be used for estimating income and anticipating expenses in the near-to-middle range future. For most restaurants, income projections covering the first three years are adequate.

Estimating income is an important aspect of the business plan. If you do not know how much you will be taking in, you do not know how much you can spend. Forecast your sales before you forecast your expenses. It could be calculated by figuring how many guests your restaurant has during a meal period, also known as covers, and multiplying that by the check average or the average amount that each guest will spend.

While anticipating expenses we need to understand that even before our restaurant’s doors open we incur expenses. In case you are not paying an rent, you bought the fridge, gas, papers, computers, so on and so forth. You invest even before you realise a single rupee in income, let alone profit. When forecasting expenses, you will anticipate every single thing that you spend on: cost of sales, salaries/wages, employee benefits, operating expenses, music/entertainment, marketing, utilities, general/administrative, repair/maintenance, occupancy, state and other income taxes.

We need to see expenses in terms of two components: fixed and variable costs. Expenses that we incur regardless of sale are fixed costs. Expenses that can be directly attributed to a particular sale are variable costs. We can work out income forecasts by projecting sales and reducing sales revenue by anticipated expenses.

Let us know in the comments’ section what you think about income projections.

Promoting Your Restaurant.

In a franchise situation, the brand owner will take a lot of the responsibility of the promotion, including the creating of marketing collaterals, general advertising and a degree of local advertising specific to your location. However, as a business owner it is always important to ensure that promotion for your restaurant is being done adequately.

Promotion can start anytime, but it should begin in earnest and in a planned manner with scheduled activities from the date the final launch has been planned.

Your promotion strategy depends on the type of restaurant you will be running and the catchment area for your customers. As mentioned earlier, QSR and cafes have more of a local clientele – customers who are already in the area. Casual and fine dining restaurants attract customers from further afield. Naturally, the promotion efforts for the first two formats need to be more locally focused and the promotion efforts for the other two formats should have a wider spread.

Localised efforts are cheaper to promote and restaurants that have a wider appeal would attract the lifestyle writers of city-based and national publications and hence, knowing your targeted clientele and choosing the right promotion strategy is very important.

A web presence is extremely important too. You need to have a dedicated website, and presence in all popular social networking sites. The Internet is the best way that customers can easily find all the important information regarding your restaurant, including operating hours, exact location and the menu. In the era of smart mobiles, access to people on the move is equally important.

Getting yourself talked about is the most important objective. The appeal of the concept and the experience of your restaurant is the only way you can ensure that you are talked about in pleasant terms. That is the challenge of word-of-mouth marketing.

It would be best to work out your promotion campaign through a thorough marketing plan. The following points need to be kept in mind while preparing it:

1. Design Fresh and Consistent Communication
2. Build a Public Relations Strategy
3. Do Effective Advertising
4. Drive Social Media Conversations

You can add to the list by writing in to us.

Launching Your Restaurant.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle in his classic book Politics quoted a proverb – “Well begun is half done.” The launch of operations in the restaurant business epitomises this saying. Reputation matters more than anything else in the restaurant business. Reputation is built on how past performance is perceived by people. The success of your restaurant greatly depends on how the experience of your early customers makes them into your strong supporters and advocates. Today, the power of word of mouth has been multiplied many times through social media networks – be it restaurant review sites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter.

A useful analogy is to look at your restaurant launch as the staging of a theatre performance that is scheduled to run for years. Staging a theatrical performance calls for intensive preparation so that the opening day performance is perfect. Think of the Republic Day Parade held every year since 1950 on 26^th January. Has there ever been a less-than-perfect performance? Your launch has to be well planned and well prepared.

In terms of a broad checklist your launch plans should not be finalised until you have the big three elements of your restaurant in place – great concept, great location and great food. To this add sufficient financial resources to run operations till break-even point is met. Finally, it is recommended that the main team should be in place at least 4 to 6 weeks before the launch date so that the team can be trained in all operations. All menu items should be tested out. Systems and processes for all customer-dealing situations need to be worked out and drilled. Think of this in terms of conducting rehearsals before the opening day.

It would be useful to think of launching your restaurant operations as a project. The final objective of the project is to create stable operations generating enough revenues, which will help you meet the break-even point on schedule.

The first project task would be to start promotions as soon as you can lock onto a final launch date. Training schedules need to culminate into a soft launch that can be viewed like a final dress rehearsal. Invited non-paying guests should be welcomed to your restaurant for a full service meal.

The launch project should look beyond the launch date and design a process of getting the house in order by ironing out the minor issues that will emerge in the early days of operations. Finally, you should target on ways to increase revenues to ensure you meet your financial targets.

After operations and revenue flows stabilise at acceptable levels, you can explore how to maintain the excitement in your restaurant by building novelty, innovation and improvement.

What do you think about the launch of the restaurants? Write in to Quitters and share your views.