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.

Monday, December 21, 2009

A new enterprise - part II

The bank account.

With all the KYC norms that exist, opening up a bank account wasn't the easiest thing in the world with the newly formed entity. Among other documents submitted, the key documents were:
1. Copy of the partnership deed
2. Letter from my existing company NII saying that I allow IIS (Institute of Information Security) to function from this office
3. An Airtel bill on my personal name as address proof
4. Copy of the receipt of BMC for registration under Shops & Establishment Act. The actual certificate is another story and will take a week or so (check my next blog post on BMC and Bribery)
5. A couple of other letters that the Bank gave me the format of
6. PAN card copies of both directors
7. Form saying PAN card has been applied for - and the PAN card has also been applied
8. Photos, filled up forms, etc.

The main challenge was with the address proof - since there is no bill or government receipt with the IIS name and my office address. And I couldn't wait for the Shops and Establishment Act certificate to come through.

Anyways, it took a week or so, but it's been done now. And this is a bank I've been banking with for over a decade now. But this laborious process of opening up an account is largely due to the RBI's stress on reducing NPAs, controlling benami accounts, and other anti-money laundering provisions. So well, it's all for a good cause!