How to start a Laundry business?

When I was in Mysore Infy, I found the coin operated washing machines so useful. Back then I was too lazy to wash clothes myself. But as the family expanded, it became more economical to wash clothes at home. Even now, I hate the laundry work for it requires utmost care.  For a countless times, I have turned Veeran's white classic formal shirts to pinks!

Often, at home we buy clothes of different fabric, yet unable to find the best way to maintain the newness of the clothes. How much ever mild detergent or fabric conditioner or whitener or whatever I put, clothes become life less after a few washes. It is definitely a tedious task to sort out different fabric and follow different laundry instructions by ourselves.

I'm sure 100% of Indian household feels the same. And this feeling paves the way for a successful laundry business.

So, How to start a laundry business?

A laundry business involves collecting clothes from customers, washing, drying, ironing  and folding them, and return it back to collect money for the service. Yes it is that easy to say. But the actual business involves more steps. Let me explain it with a proper business planning.

Make arrangements for Capital:

Setting up laundry business is a capital intensive task. You have to first analyse how much capital will be required. Depending on the amount you can think of a partnership model to raise the funds.

Decide on the operation model:

Before the work of setting up proceeds, you have to finalise on the operation model of your laundry.
(a) Coin operated - Ideal for locations populated by people who are ready to visit your laundry and do it by themselves.
(b) Classic - Ideal for locations where people prefer to outsource the entire laundry work. Here, you will have to look for facilities for pick up and drop of clothes.

Work on infrastructure requirement:

Once you have decided the operation model, you can zero in on the number of machines required. Washing machines, Dryers, Rollers and what all. Electronic companies like Electrolux provide provide commercial laundry set up solutions. (You can check out here: http://professional.electrolux.co.uk/Solutions/Investors1/Commercial/ )

Look out for laundry set up space:

Laundry business requires huge space. So when finalising on the space, keep in mind about the volumes clothes and machines will cover. Think of having a front office space that can be the welcome and payment counter.

Pick up and Delivery options:

Most of the households, offices, hotels and restaurants would prefer pick up and drop facility. You have to arrange for a separate staff  and commuting options for the same.

Manpower Requirement:

Laundry cannot be done by one person alone if you are thinking of a big business. You need to invest huge on hiring good talent and training them. Apart from the know how of operating the machines and fabric knowledge, they should be customer friendly. Even one mistake from your employee, can affect your reputation badly. So hire with care.

Decide on the service portfolio:

A laundry business in India, involves washing of soiled clothes, drying them thoroughly, ironing with perfection and folding nicely. Apart from these dyeing, darning, dry washing etc can also be added to the service portfolio. Before you commence the operations you have to decide on the services you can offer.  For example you can offer two services like washing plus folding or washing plus ironing at two different rates per piece of cloth. Choose the offers after analysing customer needs and your monitory benefit.

Pricing:

Once all the overhead costs are known you can decide on your profit share and fix the pricing accordingly. The pricing can be per piece or per kilogram or per load. Also it can vary depending on the care required for the fabric.

Advertising and Marketing:

Laundry business is very competitive. Market your laundry business in such a way that it is different from the rest. You can think of options are: bulk pricing, 10+2 free,  offer for initial 100 customers, pay back guarantee etc.

For every enterprise you have to invest huge on marketing to get regular business. In case of laundry business you can work on creating a good customer base who could be your loyal customers for lifelong. You can really contact big or small housing societies in your shop's neighborhood for regular laundry work. Similarly, restaurants and hotels also have regular laundry jobs. You can talk to them and come up with an agreement. Similar is the case with corporate offices, the best thing about offices is that for neat work you can get paid higher while availing regular work.

Decide on Store details:

Once you have decided everything else about your laundry business, you should now decide on the store details. Things like working hours per day, how many days a week, leave policies and other HR related matters. You should also have a  dedicated phone line to answer the customers. Have visiting cards also printed so that people can visit your store directly.

Does it look too much of effort? There is a Plan B for you then!

Setting up any business is a Herculean task. And all the more, the worry of if it will be successful keeps haunting every aspiring entrepreneur. You can get rid of these worries by going for a Franchise model. The franchise businesses are already established business units who will help you to set up your store and teach you how to run it well to make profit. The bad side of franchise is that initial set up cost is much higher then doing it all by yourselves. So it is up to you to choose from benefits over cost. But one thing is sure, the number of franchise offerings are also too many these days which shows the potential of laundry business. (The franchise model itself is too vast and will come as another post. Please wait for a while till I am ready with the study of that. Will share the link here once I am done.)

One good thing I would like to add here before concluding. I read a post about a stay at home mom on how she started her laundry business at home. She became successful and she started helping others as well. Now she has set up a proper business model all by herself that operates at homes of people. You can read it here: http://www.laundrycare.biz/6-steps-starting-laundry-business-home/ . This proves that if there is a will there is a BIG way! Now what is your excuse for not getting started?

Food, Clothing and Shelter are the three basic requirements for human existence. So whatever business you start in any of the three vertical, there is a high chance of success. Coming down specifically to clothing, buying clothes is easy compared to maintaining them. In most of the households, laundry is the key area that needs some helping hand! So how about you being that Helping Hand?

How to become an Image Consultant?

I guess it was 3 or 4 months back that I heard (or saw) about image consulting. One of my friends in Facebook had shared about image consulting. I didn't bother to look into the link , as it appeared something technical like image processing (or like photoshop).

But, later on, I happened to see a video of a lady entrepreneur (Forgot her name). She was talking about her life to a crowd.

According to her, after having a successful corporate career, she was looking for something more. And she found her passion in image consulting. Right now, she enjoys helping people like her to be self employed through image consulting.

That video opened up my mind to a new world of a wonderful career called image consultant!!

I am sure that you must have watched some program on TV in which a stylist decks up a person resulting in a complete makeover. New hairstyle, Brand new clothes, Colours and cosmetics that lifts up her body contours perfectly and what all. The new look gives the person superb confidence and we feel - WOW!

It really looks like a great art work. But, have you ever wondered what happens to the person once the program is over? Now she has to do the styling herself and so she will go back to her normal grooming. And so the new look will be lost sooner or later.

How wonderful will it be if the makeover lasts for the entire life time? That is what image consulting is!

Still wondering what image consulting actually is? Here it goes:

What is image consulting?

Image consulting basically means helping  a person to improve the appearance. To make a long lasting effect, an image consultant evaluates the client and understand her lifestyle, social circle, professional goals and almost everything.

This involves spending time with the person, understand her personal and professional life. Also, analyse her skin tone and body shape to decide on what appearance will suit her the best. Once the evaluation is done, now it is shopping time. Most of the time the image consultant accompanies the client for shopping. Usually cluster shopping is done so that, the client has a clear idea what to wear when.

By enhancing the appearance or image, the client will be more confident and will do better in her life.

Image is much more than mere physical appearance. The way she talks and behaves also leaves an image about her. An image consultant also helps to improve her body language like posture, handshakes and eye contact.

Image consultant also works on her vocal communication by reinforcing her vocabulary, grammar and voice. All the more, client will be perfected in her etiquette, so that the new image helps her to leave a better impression on the people she deal with.

The image consultant enables the client to carry her self image high in every walk of her life. In a nutshell, an image consultant empowers the client to get out of the rut and live a life that she urges to.

Isn't that a very good profession to be in? You get to work on people, spend time with them, understand them and help them in all ways you could to give her a better life. And how wonderful it will be to receive appreciation from them for changing their life!

Okay, that sounds fascinating! So how to be one?

How to become an image consultant?

Image consultant is a field that doesn't require any academic degree requirement as such. People from different backgrounds like IT, Banking, Aviation, beauty, fashion or housewife have become successful image consultants. Yet, I must say that if you have a flair for fashion, grooming and love helping people grow, this profession will work magic for you.

To start off you can attend an Image Consultant training offered by different institutions. The training involves understanding of fashion,  body types, colours and cues as the basics.  The image consulting course can be in anyone or mix of these: styling, wardrobe consultation, wardrobe management or soft skills.

What are the image consultant courses?

Image consultant course are offered online as well as classroom training.

Many online image consultant training are found on the web. As a sample, you can check out: http://studioforimageprofessionals.com/

In India, ICBI (Image Consulting Business Institute) is the pioneer in giving image consulting industry a breakthrough. I guess, the video I mentioned earlier in this article is by its co-founder Suman Agarwal.

You can check out the courses offered at ICBI :http://www.imageconsultinginstitute.com/courses/
The course fee ranges from 90,000 to 7 Lakhs in ICBI.

Before embarking on the course, to have a know how of the course you can try attending workshops conducted by the institutions or individual image consultants.

How much does an image consultant earn?

An image consultant in India charges anywhere between 1500 to 10000 per hour for individual consultation. For corporate group consultation the charges could be anywhere between 15000 to 50000 per day. Isn't that a good earning for you?

In fact the earning of an image consultant depends on her market and experience. Which means that if your clients are the people in glamour industry or high end corporate people looking to boost their career, you can bill them heavily. On the other hand, if your clients are college students hunting for a job or somebody looking for a makeover, your earning will be less.

As you keep working, you will discover your niche of clients and that will be your market. There is actually no limit for the earning if you love your work and put your heart and soul to help your clients. It is all a matter of dedication and perseverance.

I read in a survey that grooming and training industry will be the most opted out profession by 2020. Image Consulting is surely in its nascent stage in India and if you get established in next 2-3 years, your life will have the Midas touch! Can you see that this is the thing that will make all your dreams come true? That too at the comfort of working from home!

So, just get started! Look out for the image consulting workshop nearby and get a fairer understanding to launch your career in this!

If you have any queries or feedback do post it as a comment below. I will help you with my understanding of the industry :-)!

How to become a Zumba instructor?

For 3 months I joined Zumba to open up to the world of dancing and weight loss with fun. I had no idea about Zumba till I joined. Thanks to Yashu, my Zumba instructor who told us that I don't need to worry about the dance steps as such. But just need to keep moving with the rhythm.

As an intro, she talked about herself. She was working as a software engineer and quit job once she started with family. She was sharing that motherhood is fun, enjoyable and fulfilling. But less creativity and minimal appreciation turn women after motherhood low on confidence. Ultimately, we need a push to do simple things which was easy earlier. This very much echoed with me. 

And the extra kilograms make matter even worse, For her, she had put on weight massively and tried out different things to get back to shape. And, she being a good dancer fell in love with Zumba! And soon became a Zumba instructor - teaching people like me, boosting our confidence and much more. 

When I heard her story, I felt if you love dancing and likes being fit, you can be a Zumba instructor! Yes, it is a fun way to earn good money, help many people and enjoy the independence.

How to become a Zumba instructor?

Life of Zumba instructor is like having party everyday. And you lead the party :-).

Zumba is a high energy dance-workout originated in South America. This trade marked dance fitness program was founded by Colombian dancer Alberto Beto Perez.

Basically, Zumba is an aerobic fitness workout featuring Latin American music. Zumba incorporates the flavours of various dance forms like salsa, samba, tango, soca, belly dance, flamenco and bollywood and much more.

To become a Zumba instructor you have to receive training under certified Zumba Education Specialists (ZES). ZES are very specific people (chosen by Beto Perez himself) to train the Zumba teachers and duplicate Zumba culture perfectly across the world.

You can sign up for a training in your locality at the Zumba official website. (Put the location option as "India" and you can see the upcoming training session in major cities of India.)

To start off you need to sign up for the basic Zumba level or B1 training.

So is there anything required from your side to attend the Zumba training and be a Zumba instructor?

There is no qualifying criteria to attend a  Zumba training. But having the following qualities will make it easy for you to be a successful Zumba instructor after your training program:

1. Love for dance: Yes, this is all about mixing and matching various dance forms and choreography. So if you love dance, you will love Zumba too. 
2. Basic know how of Healthy body: As a Zumba instructor, you should be able to estimate the effect of different dance moves on human body. This will help in choreographing specific work outs and managing clients with different physical health. 
3. Good communication skills: Talking to clients in a friendly manner, clearing their doubts and being there for them always will gain you trust. This bonding will exist for post Zumba time too, thus helping you to make new friends. 
4. Confidence: Clients will always look up to you for inspiration. Confidence always shows on your face and your moves. Always let it be on the high.
5. Energy: You have to be high on energy all the time to keep your class moving with you. And when you give energy you get energy as well. It is always wonderful to be surrounded in a positive energetic environment. 
6. Smile: A smile is the easiest thing to connect with people. When you teach with a happy smile on your face, it will reflect on your class as well :-).

Well, these were more of the soft skill requirement. Apart from these, you should be ready with the training cost of $250-$300.

What happens after the Zumba Basic 1 training?

Once done, you will be ready to take Zumba classes on your own. You will be a licensed instructor authorised to take Zumba classes. You will also receive DVDs that will help you to recall music and practice the dance moves learnt.

The Zumba training equips you to identify parts of song and choreograph them resulting in effective dance-fitness workout. This is the much needed skill to be a successful Zumba instructor.

Once you are done with your training you are eligible to sign up for ZIN or Zumba Instructor Network. ZIN is provided by the Zumba company to ensure that Zumba fitness is standardised across the globe. With ZIN, you will always be updated with latest skill moves and new choreographies that you can straight away teach your class.

The ZIN account comes with a monthly cost of $30 which also retains your Zumba teaching licence, which otherwise has to be renewed at $200 every year. ZIN also qualifies you to attend advanced level training and buy Zumba gears at discounted costs. (You can read about advanced Zumba training in the official Zumba website.)

How much money can you earn being a Zumba instructor?

The earnings from Zumba classes is completely upto you. Zumba gives you the freedom to choose your own rates and classes. The average monthly earnings for a Zumba fitness instructor can be anywhere from Rs.15000 to few lakh rupees.

Isn't that a good way to earn quite a good money along with keeping yourself fit? Some of the leading women Zumba instructors in India are Sucheta Pal and Swetha Jairam. They are already very well recognised and are big fitness experts for Bollywood actors too!

Zumba is easy and fun! Because of which people of every background are opting it for healthy living. To become a successful Zumba instructor, you have to be up to date with your skills and invest time and energy for self learning too.

So have you decided to give your life nitro boost with Zumba? Rock On! Life is all yours!!!

How to start a Virgin Coconut Oil Business?

For the past couple of years, coconut oil has been in the headlines for all good reasons. The good cholesterol that it contain and the benefits of consuming it daily has classified it as a power food by the western world.

Being a 'Malayalee', coconut oil is everything in our household. Be it cooking, applying on hair, body, wounds, oiling the creaky window or the cycle chain and what not all.

But since the advent of 'Mallu' trend, coconut oil has been replaced by sunflower oil and olive oil.

The talk of the town on the goodness of coconut oil is really making a great way for royal comeback. To see if the hype is true, I did a research about coconut oil on the web. Here goes my finding:

Health benefits of virgin coconut oil that I never knew existed!

In my home my mom used to make virgin coconut oil exclusively for my sons (when they were infants) to give them a nice body massage. And touch wood, they don't have any skin ailments so far. Thank you Amme!

Coconut oil is good for hair and is used by almost everybody in Indian subcontinent through out. Apart from that, many of the Ayurvedic oils use coconut oil as a base. For small wounds, bruises and minor allergies, coconut oil is the first aid.

Apart from these generic uses, specifically virgin coconut oil is all packed with tonnes of health benefits. Here are some of them:

1. On Heart: Oil is never a good friend of heart. Surprisingly, Virgin coconut oil contains good fat which is not absorbed in the blood stream, but converted directly into energy by liver. Hence unlike other oils, coconut oil consumption is good for your heart. It reduces the total cholesterol and increases good cholesterol in the body.
2. On Brain: Many prolonged experiments with coconut oil has shown to improve the brain performance on epileptic and Alzheimer patients. Medium Chain Triglyceride Fatty Acid contained in coconut oil gets converted to ketones in the blood stream. Ketones boost brain cells functions. Because of which epileptic people have had less seizures when followed diet rich in coconut oil. Similarly, better brain cell functioning positively impacts alzheimers patients.
3. On Digestive system: Virgin Coconut oil has medium chain fatty acids that improves metabolism, imparting more energy for daily chores.
4. On Immunity: Coconut oil contains Lauric acid, which kills certain bacteria, fungi and viruses. You know what, Lauric acid is also present in mother's milk and is the key nutrient building immunity for babies. Just like mother's milk, coconut oil also helps in preventing infections.
5. On Weight Loss: This is my favorite! The fat in coconut oil doesn't get stored as fat in the body instead is converted as energy. More energy means more activities and more calorie burn - easy to lose weight :-).
6. On Diabetes: I hope you know that in diabetes, less insulin production results in lower conversion of glucose to energy for body cells. Instead of glucose energy, body cells can function perfectly with fatty acids. Virgin coconut oil has a surplus supply of fatty acids that can fuel body cells and hence restoring perfect metabolism in the body without insulin. That is how coconut oil is better than medicine for diabetic people.

If there is so much benefit in coconut oil, why can't we become a global player in exporting it? A business that is so eco-friendly and so much helpful for the mankind!


I believe that 'be organic' and ‘be healthy’ is the thing of this decade. And a virgin coconut oil business is perfect to make huge money along with creating a positive impact on the society.

Right now the packed oils available in market are all adulterated and ‘direct from the manufacturer’ concept can guarantee the quality of the oil. It looked so simple yet impactful, that since then I have added this to my - ‘to be done business list’. Definitely, this is a low-medium capital business and can be started with one or two helps.

So, how to start virgin coconut oil business?

Quite some time back I had read an article on paper about a group of ladies running an extremely pure edible coconut oil mill in Calicut in Kerala. They pick up the finest coconuts, process them and extract coconut oil. The customers queue up in their shop there to buy it in desired quantities.

To start off, you have to do some ground work:

Find a Coconut Supplier:

You will need tonnes of coconut for this venture. So have good number of coconut suppliers ready to work with you before you commence the operations.

Rent a Mechanical Grinding mill or setup a factory:

In a small scale setup, you can look for a grinding mill and rent it out. If you are planning for big scale that has exporting capacity, you will need to look for the machineries and set up a factory.

Hire Employees:

This business requires labour force. Even a small scale mill setup will require atleast 2 employees.

Unless you are planning for an automated factory, you will need fairly good number of employees at every stage of operation. Right from the start- handling coconuts, processing them, extracting oil, packing and distributing.

Good Packing:

Think of a good brandable name and go for leak proof packing. It could be double sealed plastic pouches, plastic bottles or plastic containers. It could be of variable volumes like 200 ml, 250 ml, 500 ml, 1 L or 2L. Ensure that the aroma and flavour of coconut oil is locked to make it retain freshness.

Decide on Pricing

Once you are aware of the set up cost and running cost, decide on your profit margin and fix the price of the oil. Also look at the market rate to be the competitive player in the virgin coconut oil segment.

Marketing your branded virgin coconut oil:

Yes, now you have it all ready, but how to get it to customers? If you are planning to supply it locally, put up local advertisements and talk to shop keepers. You can also use social media and viral marketing to increase the popularity of your brand. If you are planning to export the oil, you need to follow the exporting guidelines.


Isn’t this a fantastic business opportunity? To make things extra clear, let me share the process of making coconut oil.

How to make virgin coconut oil?

It is evident that mature coconut is the basic raw material to make coconut oil. Normal coconut oil is made from dried coconut or copra. On the other hand, virgin coconut oil is made from mature coconut kernels, which are fresh (non-copra) and procedure is a bit different.

As mentioned earlier, in my home my mom usually makes it in 4 steps:

1. Break open the coconut. Discard coconut water
2. Grate the coconut
3. Squeeze the milk out of grated coconut
4. Boil it in a kadai till oil seperates (this is similar to making ghee from milk cream/butter)

The oil can be directly consumed or used for topical applications. This is the purest form of coconut oil. When I checked on the internet, I found that this is the wet milling method of making virgin coconut oil. This is ideal for low volume virgin coconut oil manufacturing business.

Apart from the wet method, quick dry pressing method is also used for making virgin coconut oil. This method has 4 steps:

1. Break open the coconut. Discard coconut water
2. Grate or cut coconut flesh to remove it from shell
3. Quick dry this coconut
4. Use mechanical pressing to extract oil 

Please note that Virgin coconut oil production uses fresh coconut and does not use any chemicals or high heating. Once it is made, it is directly vacuum packed to retain freshness.

Along with the oil, there comes a lot of waste. Be it the coconut shell or the extract waste.

Coconut shells forms a good fuel. You may sell it off to factories. The coconut waste is a good manure as well as an important component in cattle feed. So the waste from coconut oil business will also fetch you some additional income. Isn’t it the best environment friendly business? All set to venture into virgin coconut oil manufacturing business?

Before you jump from your seat, be aware of the legal formalities to start this virgin coconut oil business!

What are the formalities required for Virgin coconut oil (VCO) Manufacturing business?

India government is supporting coconut based industries. You can check out Official Site for Coconut Board by Indian Government to get answers for your queries on formalities related to virgin coconut oil manufacturing.

If you are really keen on setting up a commercial unit of Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO), you can check out the government link for all data on VCO Business Legalities.

Coconut tree is called Kalpavruksha because every part of it is useful. Similarly a coconut oil business is an ideal business because it can give you lots of opportunities to do side business as well. Be it coconut water, cattle feed, collectibles using coconut shell and what all.

Indian company called Marico started with coconut oil business, under the brand name Parachute. It is one of the most successful entrepreneurial venture and employs talent pool from top business schools. A home grown company is the best that will boost Indian economy.

Parachute has really become a synonym for hair oil. What will be your brand?

Why women should do something more than just being a home maker?

Yesterday I was traveling back in train from Kerala to Chennai. A middle aged lady boarded from Erode. I was half asleep in the cozy AC compartment. My kids were also sleeping. So I hardly noticed the lady in a pale yellow cotton saree.

Later on, the TTE came in to check for her tickets. She did have the ticket but she did not have the id proof. She had a  copy of Aadhar card though. TTE was not happy with her id proof and asked her to move to general compartment.

With the disturbance I woke up and saw her getting ready to move to the general compartment. I asked her what the matter is. She said:"I am traveling to Chennai as my daughter is not well. My son-in-law booked the tickets. But since it was in a hurry I did not take any id proof. And this is the first time that I am traveling alone and I thought the photo copy would be good enough."


I felt that something wrong is happening with her. She had that twinkle in her eyes, her shiny nose ring was complimenting her solid black complexion. I felt that she is saying the truth. Why even with a proper ticket and a decent id proof, TTE is asking her to move to general compartment.

To help her out, I went through her ticket and id proof, it was all real. Then why is she moving to the general coach? I asked her to wait. Let us wait for TTE to come back and clarify. I saw the helplessness in her face. I thought for a moment, it could happen to my mom as well.

I wondered, what exactly happened to her?

And then we started talking. She was talking about her life. She did a course in nutrition in the year 1985. Since the government was supporting nurtition related projects she got a very good job and worked for 4 years. But then she got married to a businessman and had kids. Bringing up kids took up the highest priority, so resigned from job and became a full time home maker.

She has 3 kids- 2 sons and a daughter. One son is an electronic engineer and the other one works with Amazon. Daughter is married of and she has a son. Daughter has done her clinical assistant course (something related to hospital, I did not get this completely) and worked with a renowned hospital for 5 years. But after kid, for the last one year she is not working.

She said she keeps advising her daughter: "Get back to job or else you will be like me."

She then added: "If I was with the service I would have been in a great post by now. Look at me now, I can't even speak in English. I don't know how to travel alone. I don't want the same to happen with my daughter."

She kept saying:" I even feel why should girls be taught such professional courses? To sit at home? Husbands feel that we want to work to make some money. It is not money that we look for in a job. It is just the pleasure of doing something more. The independence. To have a small world for ourselves that gives us fullfillment."

She is now in her late 50s or early 60s. She very frustratingly told that her husband keeps asking her: "What have you done so far with life? Other than bringing up kids. Why you don't know anything about the world?"


I just felt may be my life would be similar to her's after 15 more years if I don't do anything now - Low on confidence, scared to talk even if I am right, always dependent on somebody and easy target to blame for everything.

I really want to be the best of me! And ready to do whatever it takes!

Why women should do something more than just being a home maker?

I always feel, being born as a girl gives us equal opportunity to do anything like men. But when we have kids, our brain stops working and heart takes over. Which is very natural. And it should be that way too. Kids are the future. And nobody can replace mother to give them the best upbringing. 

Having said all these, I feel there should be something more than this. Just imagine that your kids have all grown up and started a family of their own. Except for yearly visits, you don't even get to meet them. Husbands will as usual be busy with their job, business or whatever. 

I as a woman foresee such a future; With lots of time, but no creative work. Low confidence and having no idea of where life is heading. Mega serials, spiritual books, illnesses will become best friends as we don't know what to do with so much of time. 

I really feel that to avoid such a future, I have to start doing something now. It could be big or small. It could happen hand in hand with household chores. But I can slowly keep working on it, so that my mind is always positive and happy till I die. 

By the way, to end the story, TTE came again but we (other co passengers) stood with her and she did not move to the general coach. 

How I got the Confidence to start business after reading these 5 powerful books on entrepreneurship

I always wanted to do something big in life. But it looked easy to live the life that I am leading now. To do that 'something big' I had to get out of my comfy couch and work hard till it happen. And being a procrastination expert I kept saying when we move to another city I will start, or something like when my son becomes a bit bigger I will start and silly reasons like winter is not energetic - this summer I will start.

The excuses were many. And you know what, after a point of time, I felt that nothing is going to change. I don't have the potential to do anything big in life. The coward in me started taking over the control of my life and I became fearful about everything. 

I kind of accepted that now this is life. Nothing will change. Just keep going with the flow to be happy. Keep doing the routines. Find joy in shopping, cooking, gossipping. I tried to enter into many gossipping gangs, but never got accomodated there.

Down under I was seeking something else, something far more creative and giving me freedom from everything.  A life full of happiness, spreading happiness to everyone whom I come across. 

How the twist happened!

It was then that Veeran declared, "enough of job, let me do something on my own". I supported him, because I feel a bit of support can push anyone to work on their dreams than working for someone else's dreams.

Life became exciting as we got off the routine and started on something out of the box. That time it looked like jumping off the cliff. 

Then comes the billion dollar question. What to do? 

The intention was clear to start a business and work on it for a long term and live happily ever after. But where to start? Which domain to choose? We had no perfect idea for our venture.

That is the time when we started following already existing entrepreneurs. And read a few books that inspired us to go with our heart.

Veeran served his notice period in the company for 3 months, at the same time started working on building a mindset of entrepreneurs. Yes, by reading the following books and meeting or talking to entrepreneurs in his circle. 

Here is the list of books that we read before we started:

1. Dandha: How Gujaratis do business by Shobha Bondre.

This is the book I loved the most. Because it kind of reinforced in me the fact that big business men

find out opportunities, believe in themselves, work hard as they could and is always wanting more and more. Dhandha focuses on the attitude on business by Gujarati community. This inspired me to look at business as something beyond just making more money or better lifestyle. It is all about the mindset of people who make it big.

All the businesses mentioned are traditional ones. But equally applicable to contemporary ones focusing on internet revolution. 

2. How I braved Anu aunty and co-founded a billion dollar company by Varun Agarwal.

This book is simply awesome with the way things are explained. It just felt like reading a story. The books is very much contemporary and talks about how Alma Mater Store (http://www.almamaterstore.in/) happened. 

Very good read to know how a simple idea can be brought in to action and soon made to a million dollar venture. I could also feel the transformation of Varun as a collge graduate to a full fledged entrepreneur. 

3. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal

Herself being an IIM graduate, Rashmi talks about 25 IIM graduates who became successful entrepreneurs. The stories are a mix of people who jumped into entrepreneurship right after the course, those who waited for the right opportunity and those who wanted to give it back to the society. The success story of naukri.com, makemytrip.com, subhiksha were very enlightening.

Interesting read, as it shows MBA-doesn't mean you can start a business and make it run without any roadblock. This book boosted my confidence,  knowing that after all MBA is not a must have thing to venture into entrepreneurship. 

4. Poor Little Rich Slum by Rashmi Bansal

Rashmi Bansal in her debut book, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish was all about the b-school people doing business. And Poor Little Rich Slum is all about how people in Dharavi are running their businesses. This book proves that it doesn't require IIM MBA to do a business successfully, but only the right mindset. 

Very good read as it opened up various unexplored domains that have great potential to launch a business. 

5. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Well, this book I had read earlier as planting seeds of entrepreneurship in me. This book actually changed the way I looked at earning money - from a employee perspective to a businessman perspective. This is indeed a must read book before you jump in to entrepreneurship. It is all about creating assets and getting out of the rat race.

I would say that these books gave the picture of what entrepreneurship is all about. It is all about a strong mindset, winning attitude, dynamism in grabbing opportunities and above all persistence and perseverance. It is not a life full of roses, but to enjoy the fragrance and beauty of roses we have to bear the pain of thorns. 

What is your take on life? Do you want to do something big in life? If this post has helped you in someway please take a moment to comment. It will really motivate me. If you like my posts you can subscribe on email. 

40 short term courses that can launch you on a steady career even if you have never worked before

When I see working women talking about their work, I feel like rejoining for a job. Quite many times I have asked my 7 year old son:” Shall I go to office like papa?” And the response is always spontaneous:”NO! Then who will cook food for us? Then who will look after me and my little brother?” or sometimes sadly “Then nobody will be there when I come back from school if you also come home late like papa.”

It is a fact that if my family members are not happy I cannot be happy at work either. Especially when kids fall sick, nursing them takes the priority No.1. Even working may not be as exciting as it feels now if things go for a toss at home. I’m sure there are many like me in such a dilemma. How glad will it be if we can take care of both with ease!  Say something like a part-time job or an opportunity to work from home.

How to get started with a work from home opportunity or a part time job?

And the good news is that I can very well have a happy family and a successful career side by side. Thanks to the handful of part time courses that enable me to re-launch my career without hurting my family responsibilities.  The courses range from Montessori training, medical transcription to more technical ones like animation and search engine optimisation. If you are also looking for training courses that enable you to relaunch your career, please read on.

The best part of these courses is that you don’t require any qualification like graduation or post graduation to join any of them. Following is an exhaustive list of such courses that equip you to have a career either at home or by sparing two-four hours away from home.  

List of 40 courses offering part-time job opportunities for women: 

To make things easy, I have classified the jobs based on the place of work – at home or outside home. Please check out the course information below.

Part time job courses with work place outside home:

1.       Montessori training : 

Montessori teacher training gives you all the skills to work as a pre-school teacher. There are many montessori teacher training courses available in each city. Check out on internet for the ones in your locality. The training course span for a year maximum. The course fee ranges from 10000 to 20000 depending on the quality of training. And once completed you can start working at the nearest montessori or school.

2.       Foreign or Local Language coaching:

My friend Saro, is pursuing Japanese lessons and she intends to be a Japanese tutor in some more time. Learning a foreign language will equip you to pursue a career as language translator or tutor once the course is finished. To master a foreign language you can enroll yourself at a language coaching center in your city. French, Japanese and German are the most sought out foreign languages. You will start at a beginner level and will get upgraded to further levels after clearing the assessments.

3.       Interior designing courses:

The short term interior designing courses enable you to launch an interior designing service. The course will teach you the about aesthetically designing a house or any space as such in a professional manner. You will also be familiarised with the softwares used to do interior designing. Once completed, you could very well be doing the interiors of a brand new house or a commercial space like restaurant or hotel or office. 

4.       Dubbing courses or voice over artists

Dubbing is a part time job that pays handsomely for your hardwork. Dubbing courses are usually offered in film schools and specialised dubbing institutes. Once you finish the dubbing course, you can apply for different sort of dubbing jobs.

5.       Subtitling courses

Subtitling is a good part time job. This involves adding subtitles to movies, videos or documentaries. You can enroll for a subtitling course online. Good course will charge for a fees of around 20000 INR. 

6.       Radio Jockey Training

FM stations have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. And getting a job as a radio jockey would be the easiest thing. Join a radio jockey training course and secure the most enthusiastic part time job ever. Radio jockey training courses are offered at different  radio broadcasting institutes.

7.       Magician course

If you love Magic, you can learn more tricks and make a career out of it. You could very well find job during kids birthday party or any such energetic events. 

8.       Library assistant coaching

If you are a bookworm, you can think of a career as a library assistant. The library assistant training involves the basics of book keeping. 

9.       Photography Training

If there is a photographer in you, professionalise it by attending good photography courses. This course will turn your photographs professional as well as you will get connected to a good network of professional photographers. You can attend events and get leads to photography assignments. Ultimately, build your career from your hobby.

10.   Beautician course

If you like grooming up a lot and love trying it on others, you can go for a beautician course. Once certified, you can start off your own beauty parlour at home or at a commercial space. 

11.   Pharmacy assistant courses

Pharmacy assisstant course teaches you the in depth details of medicine names and general know how of medicines. Once completed, you can start working in any pharmacy. Or in diagnostic centres to check ECG, take X-Rays and the likes.

12. Stenography course

Stenography training will give you all the skills to type faster. You will find jobs in book publishing houses and corporate offices who required skilled typers.

Part time job courses with work place at home:

13.   Candle making Craft courses

Once you learn the basics of candle making through a course, you can work on improvising it to make different varieties of candles. You can start off a candle selling business or start offering similar course once you master the art.

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14.   Glass painting courses

If you have an artistic hand, you can start with glass painting. The course will help you to know the basics of how to get started and avoiding the common mistakes. You can sell off your art works online or nearby art and craft shops. Also you can think of taking classes to people who want to learn it. 

15.   Leaf painting training

Everybody love handmade things and leaf paintings are very much in demand as unique gift items. A leaf painting course will teach you how to choose the leaf, what are the processes involved, what paint to use and everything related to leaf painting. On finishing the course you can start a small scale business with your talent. Start posting about it in FB and soon doors will open to you.

16.   Gift Wrapping training

Gift wrapping is relatively new but tremendously growing industry. You can enroll for a gift wrapping course that teaches you how to wrap different types of gifts. You could find jobs in corporate gift wrapping, hotel presentations, festivals, wedding, baby shower and other ceremonies. The course fee depends on who is offering the course. This could be any where from 2500 to 66000 depending on the depth of the course. 

17.   Jewellery Making workshops

Jewellery is something that is always in demand. By attending a jewellery making course, you can get started with many at home and showcase your talent at exhibitions or sales. This will give you that independence and happiness that you are looking for.

18.   Chocolate Making courses

Hand made chocolates are uber gifts these days. Everyone prefers them over packed chocolates loaded with preservatives. Chocolate making is an easy process and you can master it very fast. Once mastered you can start selling your delicious hand made chocolates to your near and dear ones. You can also expand sales by selling it in bakeries and other food joints.

19.   Jam and Jelly making courses

You can attend a jam and jelly making course and learn all about food processing there. You can make jams and jellys of every seasonal fruit. People will be ready to buy the home made jams as they come with hardly any preservative. 

20.   Baking courses

You can join a baking class and learn the basics of baking. Once you learn it, you can start baking for your near and dear ones. As you keep practising it, you will learn about more complicated cakes or bakes and soon you will master it to start off a bakery on your own. You can also supply to the various restaurants or food joints in your locality. 

21.   Share trading course

Share trading is an easy way to make money from home. Though easy it is a bit risky too. You can learn about how to do share trading by attending a short course on the same. Once done, you can start trading shares online or over phone. What a better way to make money?

22.   Stitching or fashion designing courses

If you love stichting, you can join a stitching or embroidery course and expand your skills. You can start taking orders from your near and dear ones. And thus get started with your fashion designing career.

23. Jute Craft courses

You can enroll for a Jute Craft course and start making unique jute items that sell like hotcakes. Be bags, purses, mats or other gift items. If are a bit more innovative kind, you will find a good bunch of opportunities once the course is over.

24. Knitting Courses

Knitting was considered as grandma's best past time. But now with people opting for hand made wonders, knitting is back to business. You can do a knitting course to learn the basics of creating different artifacts. Later on you can use your creativity to create your own niche market.  Learning crochets along with this will give you more space to work on. You can be innovative and make laptop sleeves, mobile pouches, newborn booties and what all!

25. Lampshade Making courses

With more and more importance on interiors, lamps with shade are in high demand. A lampshade making course will teach you all about the different designs and materials used in lampshade making. You can very well launch your own unique collection of lampshades and lead the niche market.

26. Lamasa Art Courses

Lamasa or clay art courses teaches you all about creating different shapes using clay. You will learn about how to colour them and paint and what not to do with the clay art. Once done you can launch your own creative section of artifacts - anything from fridge magnet to miniature sculptures.

27. Mehndi Design courses

Mehndi design courses will run you through different intricate mehndi designs. You can work as a Mehndi artist after completing the course.

28. Mosaic work courses

Mosaic work is an art on its own. This course teaches you how to cut, glue and apply your instinct to come up with mind blowing mosaic arts. Once completed you can set up your own small art shop that sells different sort of mosaic arts on coasters, photo frames, wall arts and much more. If you are really serious about it, you will find professional jobs like furnishing the interiors of a hotel or house using mosaic art.

Computer and Internet based courses:

29.   Medical transcription courses

Medical transcription is an easy way to make money from home. The busy doctors will orally prescribe the medicines to patients and you as a medical transcriptioner has to write down the entire prescription. The training teaches you how to do this perfectly. The courses are available online as well as offline. Once completed, you can work from the comfort of your home and earn 5 digit salary.

30.   Web designing courses –HTML, PHP, XML

You can launch your own web designing company if you are fluent with the common web designing languages like HTML, PHP and XML. A course on any of these will help you work either as a freelancer or as a web designer for some body. 

31.   Graphic designing courses

Graphics are used more than ever these days. Be it company logo, photo editing or fonts. You can enroll for a graphic designing course and get started with your freelance designing career simultaneously. 

32.    Blog setup – Wordpress online courses

There could be many who needs help in setting up a blog. You can do a course on blog set up and get certified as a professional blog designer. You can help others in setting up their first blog, product blog or company blog. 

33.   SEO certified courses

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the most sought out people in the internet. You can do a certified course on SEO and launch your own SEO consultancy service. This will give you the platform to embark on the most amazing career ever.

34.   Data entry training

You can complete a data entry basic course and get started with data entry jobs available online. What can be an easier way than simply entering data as prescribed and earn good money as reward.

35.   Animation courses

If you like creating short animated movies and is looking for a career in the same, then you should try out a course on computer animation, Animation course will familiarise you with the latest animation software and how to go about a project in whole. Once finished you can work for gaming companies, cartoon animations, 3D animation and other graphic rich jobs. 

36. Digital Marketing courses

Nowadays every company is turning to a digital marketing expert to improve their presence on the web and social media. This is the most exciting career opportunity of this age. You can finish an internet marketing course and launch your own internet marketing service on the web. Amazing business it is!

37.   Software testing training

The software companies require people to test the fresh softwares at every stage of production. By finishing a short term course that teaches you what software testing is all about you can get started with a decent job in the same field. Mostly, if you come across any job opportunity in software testing, the company itself will provide you with the training. 

38.   Instructional Design courses

Instructional Design is the trending job these days. Educators in school, with digital teaching methodologies need more friendly ways to present the information. An instructional design course will teach you how to put a piece of information in the best way - including images, written content and much more. 

39.   Image Editing/photo editing courses

Photo editing courses teach you all about enhancing the quality of images. Once finished you can look for photo editor job openings in media companies. Or you can start off as a freelancer from home providing image editing services on the web. 

40. Content Writing Course

The content writing course differs on what exactly you want to specialise in - be a web content writer, magazine content writer or a technical writer. Choose a writing course that you love to do and you will easily find career in the same. Writing doesn't come easy to everyone. With social media marketing on the boom all needs good quality content.

The good part of attending such a course is that once completed, you can straight away get started with your part time job in the same.  Thus you will earn for your work and enjoy a feel good time. You will need to spare only a few hours of your day to get things turn the way you want them to.

Wait! Check out in detail about the course before you sign up for one.

Before joining any of these courses do some ground work to assess who offers the course best. Go through the details of course curriculum. Have a fair idea of the fees charged. Talk to people who have already completed the course and get their views on the same.  Here is a snippet of the heads that need some thorough checking:

• Who is offering the course?: Go for an established or government institution for the course than a newbie.
• What is the Course curriculum?: Have a thorough know how of what all is covered. Analyse it to see if it will really help you out when you start a career in that.
• What is the Course span?: Have a clear picture of how long is the course and when will get the certificate of completion so that you can start with a job in the same field. 
• What is the course Fees?: Check out the fees of similar courses offered from different institutions. Who wants to pay extra bucks for the same stuff? 
• What are the Job opportunities?: Always check for the available job openings or career options once you finish the course.
• What is the possible return per month? Have a fair idea of the possible remuneration for someone in the same field. You can approach anyone in the same field to have a better idea of how much worth it is. 
• What is the Timing of the course?: You plan to take up a part time job or work from home career. So ensure that the course timing also fits your daily schedule. If you have a toddler at home look for flexible training times if possible. 

A part time job is a real blessing for women who have sacrificed their career for the upbringing of their family. Most of them offer you flexibility so that the family responsibilities are taken care of too. There are many non-trained billionaires who made it out with their passion. With a little bit of help from outside you can turn the world the way you want.

How to get rid of the distractions while working from home?

I have been working from home since 2006. Having worked in a corporate sector the idea of being my own boss thrilled me. Even better, working with my pyjamas on excited me.  But once I started the so called ‘working from home’ things were not looking easy.

Some relative or long lost friend would call at the time of their convenience.  Plumber, carpenter, gas guy, or somebody for that matter would come and eat up atleast half an hour of time. Moreover, that will be the time when my neighbour wants to ask ‘how are you doing’. Then the conversation can last for an hour more.

Or a relative would be visiting our city and would want to have lunch with us – it will start with a tea plus lunch plus again evening tea so on and so forth.  And when family expanded, getting quality time seemed next to impossible.

Like these, the reasons for getting away from my work were always a lot many more. And it seemed like work turned to be of the least priority –which I never wanted to be. I started thinking on how to change this, so that I can be a home maker at the same time be independent and enjoy healthy working hours as well.

In that thought process, one thing that I realised is that, time is the only thing that is shared equally between all of us – be it me ‘a work from home mom’ or my friend who is still working with infy, or the Infy founder Mr. Narayanamurthy! So if I manage my time effectively I can manage everything under the sun.  

So here goes the way I manage my work from home stuff:

How to work from home in the most professional way?

What follows below is how I started making more money from my work from home jobs just by following more discipline at work. These are the methods that worked the best for me, you can also work on this on a similar fashion to make it work better for you.

1) Time management: 

I started analysing my day – what all activities I am doing and how much time each is taking up.  I did this for around 3-4 days. This actually gave an idea of planning my day.  I got to know cooking takes up around 1 and half hours, washing takes another hour, cleaning takes another half an hour every morning.

What I also realised is that I can actually club a few of the activities to save time. For example, cooking can go hand in hand with washing (washing machine provided). Similarly calling home and talking to friends over phone can happen when I am dusting or cleaning. The power of multi tasking showed that I can devote some more good time for work then.

One more thing I realised is that I can finish off all the household stuff faster if there is no disturbance around. So I decided to wake up early and finish off all cooking before my kids and Veeran woke up. That actually ensured that I finish my cooking, starting from breakfast till lunch in one hour or one hour 15 minutes maximum. Had I not done this, something or other kept delaying cooking and I always ended up trapped in kitchen till lunch time.

Ironically, I would be doing this day in and out if I were working outside for somebody else. This in turn made me feel I should treat my work from home as good as or in fact better than working for some MNC.  I know down the line, I will be contributing a lot to the Indian economy when I become more successful entrepreneur.So I started following a daily plan like this:

This actually ensures that I finish up my work in allotted time itself and very rarely extending for half an hour, but definitely not beyond that.

2)      Plan my day everyday

Did you notice that I do some ‘plan my day’ in the early fresh morning hours? This is all regarding the work that I will do in my ‘working hours’.  This helps me to stick to my work schedule. This also helps me not forget the work that I intend to complete that day.

I use a notebook and a ball point pen to jot it down. And whenever I am done with a particular job, I tick it as done. This gives me a sense of satisfaction. And the urge to tick everything helps me focus on my tasks and finish them by end of day.

I ensure that the tasks are cut down in to small ones so that it is easy to do as well as the pleasure of completing it pumps me up. For example, if I think of updating my blog with an article, first I decide on the subject from the list I already made. So the first day my job list will look a bit like this:

Day 1:

1. Finalise the next topic
2. Do research on the web, note down good references
3. Create a skeleton of the article

The next day my plan would be like:

Day 2:

1. Write the intro and rearrange the skeleton of the article to give it a better flow
2. Expand the article with the re ferred content
3. Be ready with the draft

And the third day I would be doing this:

Day 3:

1. Edit the draft
2. Do styling
3. Add images
4. Upload it

So every single job makes me feel I have done something today. This indeed makes me feel good.

This example just covered updating my blog, but I am into some other ventures as well. So I do this sort of planning for all of them. This is something that helps me to have a healthy discipline at work.

3)      Review the day every night before I go to sleep

I review my day by looking at my ticked daily plan. I go to bed feeling happy that I have done so much today. Sometimes, some work get carry forwarded to next day and the review helps me to put that first in the next day’s plan.

Rarely, I end up choosing some wrong job, for example, an article which needs more research and cannot be done in 3 days. This review helps me to switch that job with something better so that I have some output at the end of the day.

4)      Do planning with household works as well

I usually check the veggies in the vegetable tray and mentally decide on what is the menu for next day. This indeed saves a lot of my time with cooking. When I know what to cook, cooking become easier and faster.  And food turns tastier too.

I also keep ready the dress to be worn next day. This I do for everyone in the family. This helps me save a good amount of time. By ensuring that all school stuff is ready the previous night, there is no hurry-burry in the morning while getting my son ready for school.

Similarly, I keep laundry stuff together the previous night so that I can give it to Dhobi when he appears in the morning. Earlier, I used to look out for more apparel when I see him. By keeping it all ready the previous day, a big headache is over, and gives me some extra time.

5)      Announce everyone that I am working from home and busy

I am still working on improving the habit of saying ‘NO’ when required. When somebody calls me even if I am in the middle of work I used to feel that I should attend the call because they might have something important to share. Or some emotional stuff like, ‘see she thought of me now and so I should speak to her’ and so and so.

But now I don’t entertain such ‘hello, how are you’ calls when I am at work.  I reply with a text saying: ‘I am busy right now, is there anything urgent? If not, I will call you at so and so time’. And I do call back at that time. They have started respecting me even more these days.

I started announcing all relatives and friends that I am working seriously from home. So they also don’t call me that frequently during my quality time nowadays.  No distraction means better focus at work and able to finish it fast.

I have told my friends also that I am busy at these times most of the day. You guys go ahead with shopping plans; I will join you guys some other day.

6)      Keep heavy shopping for weekends

I know it is fun to do shopping together with friends. But since I am serious about my work, I kind of restrict myself from that daily. I usually keep heavy shopping for weekends. I do the household shopping monthly so the major shopping list is over in one go. I do keep my weekends a bit light as I value spending time with my family. I make a special dish on weekends, go out for movie, or generally hang out to have fun.

7)      Hire an expert rather than learning it from scratch

Earlier I had a feeling that I should do everything- cooking, cleaning etc. I assumed that this will keep me fit and house will be super clean. But very often it ended up the other way. Fact is that, I don’t enjoy doing the household cleaning and stuff as much as I enjoy my work. So if I do everything one day, the next day I feel lazy and things start piling up. This in turn becomes a monstrous task the third day!

I know I am not an expert in many of the household stuff. So I delegate a major chunk of such jobs to an expert.  Keep a maid, I know it is a big nuisance waiting for them, but you are helping them earn their livelihood as well. Similarly, I hire people to clean ACs, chimneys, cleaning fans etc. I believe that I will enjoy ‘Do It Yourself’ stuff like this when I have lot more free time. Say once my company starts clocking a billion in revenue!

So these are the things that I do to make the best out of me. Do try something similar to chalk out more quality time for your work from home jobs. This is no rocket science, but adding a bit more of discipline to the lives.

When I started with my family life, I often wished to have 10 hands like Goddess Durga. But that is never possible, because I am a human. Over the years, after working on managing my day efficiently, I get the same result as having those 8 extra hands! This works big time. Start doing this if you plan to make it BIG in your life!