About Me

My photo
Mumbai, India
I run an IT Security consulting firm based out of India. We started off from scratch in 2001 when I was 21, and have offices in Mumbai, Bahrain, and UAE. The idea behind the blog is to share the stories of how we run the business, the deals we make, the deals that break, the heartburn, and the sheer joy.

The Ultimate Startup Guide

The Ultimate Startup Guide is an e-book that provides answers to all your questions related to starting and growing a business in India. Everything you wanted to know about entrepreneurship in India from ideation to registration to marketing to hiring. The book contains a large number of practical examples, anecdotes, interviews, and motivational material to help you get started, and to grow rapidly in a booming Indian economy. If you've got the idea, this book will help you through with the execution and realize your dreams. Here are some of the key questions you will find answered in this book:
  • When starting a business, what are the legal issues involved?
  • What form of incorporation is better suited to which type of business?
  • What tax issues are involved?
  • How do I start a business and what are the pitfalls?
  • How do I market my business in the absence of significant funding?
  • How do I get funded?
  • What are the basic accounting concepts I should be aware of?
  • What is a business plan and how should I build one?
The brief table of contents of the book is as follows:
  1. Getting started
  2. Ideation
  3. Forms of Enterprises
  4. Funding
  5. Basic Accounting and Taxation
  6. Import and Export Licensing
  7. Trademark and Patenting
  8. Rules for NRIs and Foreigners
  9. Building a Business Plan
  10. Marketing on a Shoestring
  11. Website and Branding
  12. Women Entrepreneurs
  13. Templates
To order the Ultimate Startup Guide - email me at kkmookhey@gmail.com.

Details of the book are:
Title: The Ultimate Startup Guide
Author: Kanwal Mookhey
Pages: 150
Additional: Companion CD contains numerous templates for building your business plan, calculating cashflow, preparing profit and loss, and balance sheets, preparing invoices, your resume and profile, marketing material, websites, contracts, and many other useful and motivational material.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

5 Reasons not to be an entrepreneur

If you don't know what you're getting into, here's why you should think again:
1. It's sheer agony. If you think love is agony, try running your own business. There are days when you feel like the skin of your back is being torn away.
2. They just don't get it. Don't even try explaining to your family and the rest of your social circle, why you're doing what you're doing. The only proof they'll ever accept is when you finally make it. So save your energy.
3. You could fail. Statistics say only 1% of all entrepreneurs actually succeed. And when you've put almost everything on the line, failure can be a very scary option. Even more scary - you could succeed, and then fail spectacularly!
4. You'll have to live with uncertainty - daily. No matter how well one succeeds, you never actually know what your Inbox may bring tomorrow. Most people can't live with that kind of uncertainty.
5. Your faith will be severely tested. And I don't mean just theosophically. Your faith in yourself will be severely tested, when you're staring down the barrel, or when you don't have the money to pay next month's bills, or when a large deal falls through.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello there..

I must congratulate you for this highly informative blog of yours. Makes a very gainful read. Read your post about 5 reasons for not being an entrepreneur. Though all the stuff written is true to the core, at this moment, I personally need some good reasons to continue as an entrepreneur. That's because I really want to. I believe you'll have enough stuff to write in "Reasons for going for it" too. I would wait. :) Either here or in my mailbox i.e. sarthakkumar@sarthakkumar.com

Kanwal K Mookhey said...

Thanks, Sarthak. Also, I have been meaning to get around to writing the post you mention - on good reasons to become an entrepreneur. There are so many of them. Just keep the faith, and read the post on The flywheel effect.

Frustoo said...

I'll add another one - you'll become constitutionally unemployable. After being an entrepreneur could you ever go back to work for someone else?

Kanwal K Mookhey said...

Or maybe it's the other way around? Maybe one is already constitutionally unemployable, and therefore becomes an entrepreneur!

Himanshu Sheth said...

Hey,
Good things to learn from your blog.Especially for young and bugging entrepreneurs like me and others.

Sometimes,I feel Entrepreneur is sometimes treated like a fashion statement,but it should be like that!!!

What do you feel about this?

I am planning to write about "IIT V/S Normal guyz" since we feel only IITs can become entrepreneurs.....

Do visit my blog http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com , a small effort to bring more entrepreneurs and to share some knowldege that I have gained!!

Thanks,
Himanshu
(http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com)

Himanshu Sheth said...

Hi,
I just made a bad mistake in typing...I meant budding and not bugging.

-Himanshu
(http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com)

Kanwal K Mookhey said...

Hey Himanshu, thanks for the positive feedback, and glad to know you found the stuff useful. Liked some of your blog postings too - the good thing is that you write far more regularly than I do! :) Keep it going, and mail me sometime...