In 2009, Radhika Gupta left a job in finance in the United States, moved to India at 25, and started an asset management firm with two others.
They began with Rs 25 lakh. Not because that was a sensible amount, but because, in her words, it was literally the minimum you can start an asset management business at. The money came from friends, family and fools.
None of the three had lived in India before. They worked out the regulatory setup as they went. The whole thing, she has said, was an experiment.
Within a year it had grown roughly ten times. In 2014 Edelweiss bought the firm.
Here is what that means for you today:
Find out the smallest amount your business can legally start with. Then start there.
Most of us are waiting for a number we made up. Enough stock to look serious. Enough for a shop, a machine, a proper setup. And so the saving stretches into its third year while nothing gets tested.
Your category has an actual floor. One licence fee. One batch of material. One month's rent on something small. Find out what it really is.
Because everything you are saving towards assumes you already know what customers want, and you do not, not yet. The first year's job is to find out, and that is much cheaper than the business you are imagining.
She did not start at Rs 25 lakh because it was enough. She started because it was the least that was allowed, and the rest had to be learned by trading.
#WomenInBusiness #SmallBusinessIndia #WomenEntrepreneurs #StartingUp #LudhianaBusiness #PunjabBusiness #SakhiSangini #HerBuildingHer
