Start a Small Business

You are already running a business

• ·Tiffins, tailoring, bangles, papads, tuitions
• ·What is missing is not skill — it is a price and a register

Count every cost, including yourself

• ·Materials per unit
• ·Your labour at an hourly rate
• ·Overheads: gas, electricity, transport, phone
• ·Wastage: 5–10% of material, always

Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin)

• ·₹42 cost at a 30% margin → ₹60, not ₹52
• ·Adding 'a little extra' is how busy months make no profit

Note: At our exhibitions most first-time sellers were priced 15–40% below true cost.

Two tins, two accounts

• ·Business money never enters the household purse
• ·Pay yourself a fixed monthly salary
• ·Whatever remains is the business's money for stock and repairs

Date · In · Out

• ·One line per transaction, totalled monthly
• ·This register is also your loan application

Cheapest source first

• ·SHG internal lending
• ·Mudra Shishu loan up to ₹50,000, collateral-free
• ·Bank business loan with statements and register
• ·Never a moneylender at 5–10% per month or an instant loan app

Does the asset pay its own EMI?

• ·A ₹25,000 machine costing ₹900/month must add more than ₹900 of profit
• ·If it cannot, the answer is no — for now

Beyond your street

• ·One daylight photo, plain background
• ·WhatsApp Business catalogue with names and prices
• ·A laminated UPI QR and a receipt every time
• ·Delivery cost stated before the order

Ten repeat customers beat a hundred strangers

• ·Note name, item and date in the register
• ·One message before a festival is a whole marketing plan