Byapaar.com – The Indian Business Blog

Business or enterprise is an organization where buying or selling of goods takes place. It is a place where trading of goods and services takes place. Over the years India has been a hunting ground for many personalities to set up a business in that country. India is quite famous in the global market for its business. Their export quality has also been very good. Many companies import wheat and rice in India as India produces bulk of rice and wheat do its good agricultural condition. India is also doing well in cotton, silk, leather business and many more. Seeing with many companies around the world has shown interest to do business in India, as they know once they have habituated the traditions and the customs over there and winning the people’s heart by satisfying them, it will be difficult for them to get insolvent or not to do business there.
In India doing business is just not enough. In this part of the world people are very emotional and sensitive so to do business you have earn your respect, the loyalty and maintain a healthy relationship with the people so that they come again and do trading with you. Customer satisfaction is the key formula to do business in any part of the world. Many foreign companies have opened their branches in India like Nike, Adidas, Puma and many more. Over the years they have successfully won the hearts of million people especially the young generation. This happens because of the quality of their product; forcing the people to buy this product and making them come again and again. Due to this change in time people of India have slightly inclined towards the Western culture and so with the change of fashion people who are doing business have to change their business strategies too. The foreign companies which struggled to make a name in the ‘70s are now ruling India. The domestic companies are also doing well by increasing their quality of their product and giving a tough competition to the foreign companies which are doing business here.
In recent years Indian markets have been very competitive. Everybody is trying to prove among the people that they are the best. But nowadays people’s mentality has changed a lot. Now they don’t buy stuffs which they find attractive. Nowadays they follow brands; it may be an Indian brand or a foreign brand. Nowadays they go by quality and not attractive features. Some brands have made a name in India by winning people’s heart and the customer likes to buy only those brands which are famous in India and also outside.
This is what Indian business is all about.

Happy Diwali Greetings – 2009 to all my readers and visitors and to All of India.

It has been a long time that I published a post on this blog – I am sorry for that. But today, on this auspicious occassion – I feel responsible to my readers again and I’ll be discussing some news as well as business opportunities.

During this time last year, the Indian economy – along with the world economy has been in doldrums and people started to compare it with the great depression of the 30′s. But there have been some good news coming around the world about the economies recovering – slowly and surely and Diwali being the festival of light, the forecast that Indian economy has every possibility to top 6% growth has been a boon for all Indians. The stock market has also recovered very well with the benchmark indice the Sensex topping 17,000 over the last couple of weeks.

There are also good news on the international front – the US un-employment rate has come-down by  good numbers, Chinese economic growth might touch 8% for the current fiscal and other major economies too showing sings of positive economic out-llok.

Under these circumstances, I must say that Indian retailing industry has a long way to go to match the international standard of delivering the products they sell. I am specially referring to small-sized businesses who operate single-handedly and not about big organized retailers like BigBazaar or Future Bazzar or Shoppers Stop  for that matter. But I am talking about those retailers who are the real players in India.

The other day – I was looking to buy online for a SLR digital camera at discount price and FutureBazaar came in the search. When I choose my price range and model – I found that the product was not on their stock. This way I tried for some-time and then got tired.

Being online for 3 years now have gained me lots of experience about online and how small businesses are profitting by using the internet world.

Here is an example of a small retailer dealing in embroidery supplies . It sells lots of tools at discounted price such as embroidery needles , embroidery bobbins and so on which are very much essential for making embroidery products, a renowned Indian industry. One just has to order it online and the goods are delivered at your doorstep. No-one has to go to the market and find them painfully.

So, my confusion or to say the truth – dilemma is why are not Indian businesses not taking the online advantage of increasing their sales and reaching out to more clients through e-commerce? It is a custom to send gifts to relatives, friends during the many festivals held all around the year who live far- away. Suppose, I have some relatives in Mumbai and I want to send some good chocolates to them. I can’t do it from where I live due to the time it would take. But if i find a chocolate shop taking bookings online and offering home-delivery services, I can easily fulfill my wishes.

True, the Internet penetration is still low in India, but the latest data ( 81,000,000 Internet users Nov/08 ) is still very very high and a gold-mine of sorts. Hopefully, the concerned business personalities will read this post and make people aware of the endless opportunities that e-commerce will open to increase their reach and thus sales.

Finally the turbulence of politics is over with the UPA led by the Indian National Congress withstanding a tight no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha on 22^nd July. The Left Front has been blocking almost all major reforms which are so badly needed to push the economy to the next level. It has been frustrating 4 years for both pro-reform Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh and also the business community. Now that all is over, the UPA government is determined to push through reforms in many fields like insurance, telecom etc. despite the alarmingly high rate of inflation that stands @ 11.98% today!

High rate of inflation has also made the apex bank (Reserve bank of India) to raise interest and thereby make bank deposit attractive. On the other hand, the long bull run of the stock market also ended with the start of the turbulence of government instability and skyrocketing international fuel price.

So as an individual – where do I put my money? Most banks are offering an attractive 10% annual interest rate. But is it long lasting? Despite forecast of an economic slowdown, businesses remain upbeat on long-term economic prospect of the country.

So the ideal way to invest your money is to divide your funds and put them into both the markets. While it is not guaranteed that bank rates will always remain the same, one can not also say for sure when the equity/stock market is going to recover! (continue reading…)

My exam is over- but my PCP (Personal Contact Program) for second year will start tomorrow and will continue till 27th. Still I’ll keep blogging regularly here.So no problem.

The other day I was browsing the net and chanced upon a site called UK Business For Sale. To be frank I have never heard of the word business sales as I live in a remote place in India. I do frequent to big cities for this or that reason but still have never came across it.

Let me be more forthcoming! I believe this is a totally new concept in India.

So what is this concept?

Simple! There are some agencies that broker between buyer and sellers of start-ups or established businesses. The agencies have people as members from both groups – buyers and sellers. To be more precise, suppose I own an established business that is making reasonable profit. But there is something I found which seems more interesting and appealing to me. In this situation I want to sell my current business so that I can venture into the new domain of my interest and also can fully concentrate on it. Instead of finding the suitable buyer myself, I can hire an agency that will do the needful for me for a specific amount of fee. This will save me lots of time, energy not to mention the convenience factor. In India, I saw this in real estate rector but not in business establishment sector.

(continue reading…)