Market – Dutch Uncles

Tapping Time-starved Consumers, Growing the Retail E-commerce Model

Aakash Sharma — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 06:35:08 +0000

People today are busier than ever, and their active lifestyles are creating fundamental changes in buyer behaviour, almost forcing businesses to transform. The term “Time-starved Consumers” has gained significant ground in the retail and e-commerce space.

Short-on-time consumers are the main driving force for e-commerce companies that provide high-quality services and fast delivery. Not only has the time factor changed and influenced buying behaviour, but it has also changed business models for start-ups and businesses of all sizes.

Time-starved consumers and their shopping behaviour

The time crunch and associated social changes have undoubtedly affected the way time-starved consumers shop. Convenience is the top concern for these shoppers, and they are more focused on shopping remotely to save time. This trend has provided a solid boost to the retail and e-commerce market.

Supermarkets, small Kirana stores, and even newly emerging e-medical stores, among others, are becoming technologically advanced to offer consumers the highest quality products fast. Convenience and lack of time are the reasons for the rise of e-commerce companies Amazon and Flipkart in India over the last decade.

Businesses are also delving deep into the realm of hyperlocal deliveries and models where there is no need to stop and check out products physically. These are all aimed at easing consumer’s journey in a retail store and making products available to them as fast as possible while reducing their time in the store for their convenience.

How to tap this time-starved consumers segment?

To capture the attention of time-starved customers, companies need to act instantly and use precise means of communication. To communicate with the target group, they must develop marketing strategies to disseminate an enormous amount of information.

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Factors like information, colour schemes, design elements, and others, have the most significant effect as quickly as possible on buyers and give insights into the consumer segment's needs.

Adopting omnichannel strategies is also very important for catering to the new segment of fast-paced customers. By staying mobile, businesses can give shoppers round-the-clock access to their products and services.

Retail-E-commerce boom and rapid real-time delivery

Today, the growth in e-commerce and retail is mainly due to the fast delivery and click-and-buy features that companies offer. When convenience is critical, it’s essential to allow customers to customise their experience, especially in the way they shop. If a company provides delivery the same day, has weekend or after-hours delivery, it becomes a good shopping destination for time-starved consumers.

Future hopes for the time-starved consumers segment

Buyer behaviour is dynamic, and it keeps changing every now and then. It is wrong to make assumptions instead of taking the time to understand their needs. The busy shopper is starved for time, no matter what the industry is. Consumers want and expect companies to develop easy to use products and rapid delivery services for them. These are, therefore, going to be the driving forces behind the strategy of the future and will also help the companies succeed.

Companies need to explore new models to build and deepen customer relationships and develop products and services that provide enough value to keep consumers in touch with their needs. Conducting regular market research can help businesses keep their sales and marketing teams ahead of the competition to capture the time-starved consumers’ segment while growing their retail e-commerce model.

The post Tapping Time-starved Consumers, Growing the Retail E-commerce Model appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Marketing Mis-steps that Entrepreneurs Should Watch Out For

Saurabh Bajaj — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:35:12 +0000

The term unicorn was coined in 2013, by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, to refer to technology start-ups with valuations over US $1 billion. At that time there were 39 unicorns in the US and none in India. India today has a total of 50 plus unicorns, the third largest number in the world after the US and China. However, firms like Ola, Flipkart, Lenskart, Nykaa, UrbanClap, Paytm and Zomoto make the journey look easy. There are a number of firms that have struggled to scale-up the founder’s visions or the market’s expectations.

Let’s study the journey of some of these companies, each of which have done many things right, but have taken a few marketing missteps that they have then had to pivot to recover. As we investigate these stories, perhaps there are learnings for other entrepreneurs to learn as they navigate their own passion projects.

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The legend goes that the inspiration for Paper Boat came from the flask of Aam Panna, Suhas Misra's mother would pack for him every day.

Hector Beverages

Paper boat is one of the companies that have caught the imagination of consumers and investors alike. They have had years that have been extremely successful and a few in which the market questioned if the growth story has come to an end.

Hector Beverages was founded in 2009 by Neeraj Kakkar, Suhas Misra, Neeraj Biyani and James Nuttall. Today Neeraj Kakkar and Neeraj Biyani run the show after Suhas and James decide to exit the company.

The company started operations with Frissia (protein water) and later Tzinga (energy drinks) but later smartly pivoted to their third venture Paper Boat. The legend goes that the inspiration for Paper Boat came from the flask of Aam Panna, Suhas Misra’s mother would pack for him every day.

The company started its operations through the Manesar Plant and subsequently roped in its first investors in 2011 including Catamaran and Foot print. The next reached out to Elephant Design that helped them both with the naming as well as pack design leading to the launch of ‘Paper Boat’ in 2013.

The Brand saw strong initial success and they quickly expanded to a second factory in 2014, which was their Mysore plant with a speed of 380 bottles/minute versus 80 bottles/minute in the Manesar Plant, along with the capabilities for coconut water and sugar cane juice.

From 15-16 to 17-18 the Brand kept its focus on three key levers of growth:

Brand Building: They launched Paper Boat with a novel purpose of trying to preserve traditional recipes that go back thousands of years, and were handed down from one generation to another, in a modern form. On this Brand core they invested aggressively in digital engagement and also launched a TVC on main line television.
Innovation: They launched a slew of products including more than 11 types of ethnic drinks and juices: Jal jeera, aam panna, aam ras, alphonso aam, jamun kala khatta, chilli guava, nimbu pani, kokum, neer more, kanji, sugarcane juice, lychee ras, apple and orange.
Distribution Expansion: They also partnered with the Japanese food giant Indo Nissan Foods to strengthen its distribution and brand presence in tier II cities and rural markets.

However, while all three strategies are based on sound business fundamentals, their premium pricing of Rs 30 for 200 ml proved to be an impediment to scale growth and their turnover appeared to stagnate at under 100 Cr.

As a result, the analysis, started to question if the product and packaging novelty has worn off and has the impact of competition in the form of Daburs Hajmola Yoodley, B Naturals Zero Concentrate Promise and the entry of Coke and Pepsi into healthier beverages started to make its impact on the major.

The company pivoted smartly again and has launched a mega push in the last couple of years into several mainstream categories:

Paper Boat Swing at much affordable prices of Rs 10 for 150 ml
Juices in Tetra Pack at Rs 130 for 1 Ltr
Dairy Beverages like Lassi, Thandai etc

Their largest gamble to date is the entry into traditional Indian snack-based products like Peanut Chikki, Banana chips, Aam papad, Bakarwadi, Namak para, Gur para and Shakar para.

The key challenge that the expansion of such a wide portfolio would be Brand stretch. However, what appears to be helping the majority is the fact that the Brand has been based on an emotional promise of ‘nostalgia’, rather than a functional promise and that appears to be assisting them, despite sharp reduction in advertising investments every subsequent year. And the second is distribution expansion where the partnership with Indo Nissan foods only took them to 100,000 outlets. They have now started investing in their own field force to expand to 250,000 outlets and are now targeting 350,000 outlets.

The key thing on the mind of the founders now appears to be an IPO to continue to fund their expansion as they make steady steps towards profitability.

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Mounting losses, restless investors and the pandemic eventually led to the firm being acquired by Wingreens Farms. Raw Pressery business has picked up substantially post the acquisition by Wingreens Farms.

Raw Pressery

Raw Pressery and Wingreens Farms are two Sequoia Capital backed food start-ups which have boasted of innovative food products capturing the imagination of the growing millennial audience. Interestingly the learnings that we take from the challenges these firms have faced very closely mirror what Paper Boat taught us. Let’s now investigate their journey.

Raw Pressery was founded by Anuj Rakyan in 2013-14, with the dream of preparing cold pressed juices at a shared kitchen in Mumbai. He wanted to deliver these juices directly to the customer daily, by utilizing spare time of Mumbai’s daddawalas.

The original insight for the Brand emerged when Anuj Rakyan suffered a back injury playing football. He wanted to heal himself naturally without surgery through rest and nutrition. He made juices at home, but realised that something equally good was not available on shelves. He realised that there was an opportunity for a clean label product with only goodness inside and nothing else.

It was indeed an inspiring vision, and enabled him to take the brand across 15 cities in the country.

This allowed the brand to scale-up to a business of 65 Cr 2020 however they retained very high operational expenses and hence a loss of almost 60 Cr. In chasing their vision, the company made several logical pivots. The first was the realisation that while a few core consumers may take subscriptions, a large part of the business is going to remain offline. So, despite a very premium product, the online share of the business in 19-20 was only 10%, however the bulk of their business came from airports (30-35%) and organized modern trade stores like Food Hall and Reliance (50%).

Next, the group believed that the product should do the talking for them and they kept their advertising expenses persistently low at 30% in the initial years and under 10-15% by 2020. Their biggest challenge with the low shelf life of the products and the very expensive cost of refrigerated logistics. Though investments in technology were able to expand their shelf life quite substantially, logistics remained a persistent challenge. The softer challenge that the organization was not able to solve was the high cost of employees which accounted for as much as 40% of their top line. The equivalent numbers in scale firms are between 4-5%. These challenges could only be solved by expanding their range into products with a more affordable entry price and a range which holds its core promise of goodness but can move into the non-refrigerated aisle. And hence in Oct’18 the company expanded into Almond Milk at a pricing of Rs 80 – Rs 200. By Nov’19 they launched Coconut water with a pricing of Rs 50- Rs 60 and by Dec’20 into High Protein Smoothie.

By 2020, the contribution of these businesses was 40% for Cold Pressed Juice, 10% for Dairy, 35% for Coconut Water & 15% for Almond Milk. However, these initiatives only increased the dependence of the company towards offline channels and as the pandemic hit the company could only increase their business contribution from D2C to 15% and modern retail then accounted for 80% of their business. The lucrative Airport channel which was the backbone of their business could only account for 5% of their business. Mounting losses, restless investors and the pandemic eventually led to the firm being acquired by Wingreens Farms. Raw Pressery business has picked up substantially post the acquisition by Wingreens Farms. Let’s understand Wingreens business model a bit more to understand the synergies that have kicked in for both the companies.

Wingreen Farms

Wingreens Farms was incorporated in 2011 by Anju Srivastava and Arjun Srivastava. The products of the firm include dips, spreads, sauces and bakery products. The couple was working in the US for several years advertising and marketing and decided to return to India. They were taken aback by the condition of farmers in the country and the company was originally christened as WIN (Women Initiative Network) in Gurugram in 2008 with a capital of Rs 10 Lakh.

The initial idea was to work with farmers who had land but no money. The business model was to rent out land and pay the farmers the same both for renting the land and also as salaries for the women working in the company. In 2008, Anju started growing potted herbs in a half acre of farmland that she rented from the farmers in Tauru village, Haryana. She grew varieties of basil, thyme, oregano, peppermint, and other herbs for sale. However, she struggled in the initial years due to the extreme weather conditions in northern India.

She finally tasted some success in 2011, when Anju made pesto out of the basil she grew, and approached Spencer’s in MGF Megacity Mall, in Gurugram. The plan was to allow customers to taste the pesto, however they didn’t have any pasta and hence used chips. To their surprise customers showed good acceptance for the product as a dip. Following the successful launch of pesto as a dip, WIN was rebranded as Wingreens Farms, and the company then went on to launch 150 variants in 50 SKUs including, chipotle sauce, fiery desert mustard dip, dill tzatziki, peri peri hummus, rosemary hummus, peppermint with green tea leaves dip, etc.

Within a span of 8 years, the brand has built a presence in 1300 Modern trade stores and 9,000 general trade stores across 140 cities across India. The company has plans to expand its distribution network to over 200 cities, over 2000 modern trade stores and over 1 lakh general trade stores over the next year. They also plan to extend their portfolio to 220 products across the range of dips, spreads, sauces and bakery products.

Despite accessing good funding from the market Wingreens has managed to deliver a far more sustainable business model. The pandemic has been an issue and an opportunity for the company. At one end the cost of business escalated, on the other the consumer was actually drawn to better cooking because of the rise of in-home dining.

However, all in all the acquisition of Raw Pressery has been a big opportunity towards the sustainability of both companies due to the following reasons:

Raw Pressery and Wingreens Farms have a complimentary set of products with little overlaps giving the combined entity the right to build a Holistic Food and Beverage company that is structured as a House of Brands.
Both company portfolios have a presence in the refrigerated isle and the sampling and activation infrastructure of both companies can be synergized.
Further promoters believe that combining both portfolios should help them reduce their logistics and transportation costs by half.
Also, with the enviable portfolios of both companies there is an opportunity to negotiate better with retailers when it comes to shelf space and commissions.
And finally, most importantly, a strong portfolio combined with significant distribution heft is the magic formula for success in the Indian landscape.

There is a lot to learn from the three Brands that we have investigated, Paper Boat, Raw Pressery and Wingreens Farms. However, the key learnings can be gleaned in the form of the following steps and missteps that entrepreneurs should factor in their plans.

First, as entrepreneurs seek to launch innovative offerings in the Indian market, there remains a large role for storytelling and Brand building. This is something Paper Boat did very well. A large part of the allure of their 3rd product after Frissia (protein water) and Tzinga (energy drinks) was Paper Boat. And the platform of Drinks and Memories allowed them an opportunity to charge a premium and hence build a product that can be fuelled with advertising to command a premium. Perhaps this is where Raw Pressery missed a trick. While a clean label positioning is strong. It would have taken a while to catch up with the consumer.

Secondly, entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted and business pivots are a part and parcel of the game. Hector beverages showed their resilience in reinventing themselves time and time again. This was perhaps something Raw Pressery took a little longer to do.

Thirdly, distribution expansion alone doesn’t ensure top line growth as Hector Beverages learnt the hard way in the period between 15-16 and 17-18. It has to be complimented with an accessible portfolio and the right branding strategy.

Fourthly, it’s critical to marry your business opportunity with consumer expectations, as Wingreens Farms learnt to their delight, almost by accident when they uncovered the opportunity for a dips market.

Fifth, as one discovers a significant business opportunity, it’s critical to make infrastructure investments to improve technology and set up factories; however it’s critical to keep a keen eye on cash burn and operational profitability. Solving for the right supply and logistics costs, employment costs and marketing spends is critical to build confidence with investors as Raw Pressery learnt to their peril.

Lastly, it’s important to start one’s business through a pilot mode across limited markets or channels, however the final path towards profitability in a market such as India, depends on building a robust distribution infrastructure for expansion.

The post Marketing Mis-steps that Entrepreneurs Should Watch Out For appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

It’s Tea Time, Budding Tea Startups of India

Vaishali Das — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 12:27:46 +0000

Tea being the most consumed beverage after water, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, has a very progressive market in India and across the globe. In the past, tea consumption was majorly limited to the household drink and restricted mostly to street vendors with few outlets serving quality tea.

However, with the upcoming tea startups, we see a major shift. From street stalls to fancy Tea Cafes, the industry is transforming for millennial and Gen Z.

When we look at India, it is the second largest producer of tea after China where the international market demand for Assam tea and Darjeeling tea is increasing exponentially.

Tea Startups in India

Looking into the blooming market of tea and understanding that ‘The Chai’ has got no replacement, many aspiring entrepreneurs bagged the opportunity to start a business under this sector.

Chai Point

One of the first tea startups in India, Chai Point, a Bengaluru-based startup came into being in 2010. With over 100 plus offline stores, the startup majorly targets the office goers and working professionals.

It became popular with its service of delivering hot tea within 30 minutes through its online platform.

Chaayos

One of the quickly blooming tea startups in the country, Chaayos is a Delhi-based startup. It was founded in 2012 by the IIT alumni Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma.

As their tag line mentions “experimenting with Chai”, they provide their customers with more than 25 varieties of tea with 12 add-ons, giving its customers 12000 ways of making their own tea. Through its online platform it engages with more customers.

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Given the current health crisis, tea serves as the healthiest beverage in the market.

Karma Kettle

A Kolkata-based startup, established in 2015, it is India’s finest artisanal tea blenders with 60 plus tea varieties. It is an extension of Kurseong valley of Darjeeling region. What makes this startup interesting is its theme of ‘Voyages in a teacup’- teas inspired by travel destinations across the globe.

Their USP is their wellness tea, not indulging in the artificial flavouring and colouring, and providing premium tea. Their pyramidal teabags are very famous among their customers as it allows space for the tea brew to infuse properly.

Udyan Tea

Based out in Siliguri, the startup was founded in 2012 and has
expanded to 40 countries. It offers premium teas, teaware, customized gifting solutions and B2B tea consultancy.

The startup aims to change the perception of tea consumption by providing some premium varieties of tea. With its web store, the startup is delivering unique concoctions of teas along with some rare varieties to the customer’s doorstep.

Forest Pick

This Manipur-based startup specializes in wild tea straight from the mountainous forests of Manipur. The tea is sourced from the nearby forests and not from any tea plantation.

This small startup aims to commercialize the native tea in order to uplift the local economy. The specialty of these tea leaves is that it can live for hundreds of years unlike the usual plantations.

The startup is engaged with B2B businesses with tea sellers from the US, Canada and a few European Countries. It caters through online mode via Amazon and its own website as offline business is too expensive for them as of now.

Why Tea Startup is Evolving Now

Because of the lockdown and weather conditions recently the tea industry has faced declination. However, the industry crawled back up again as tea is proven to be the healthiest beverage. Because of its antiviral properties, calming properties and other health benefits, the beverage industry managed to survive through the pandemic.

The Gen Z and Millennial have started investing in a healthy lifestyle which has increased the demands of green tea, black tea, chamomile tea, etc. This has resulted in a hike in the domestic demand and in startups like Teabox and Teaorb.

Learning and Insights For Tea Startups

Given the current health crisis, tea serves as the healthiest beverage in the market. Looking at the consumption level and never ending love for ‘Chai’, many startups are leveraging the opportunity.

Selling tea online and educating people about India’s indigenous tea sector is a good marketing strategy for upcoming startups.

The post It’s Tea Time, Budding Tea Startups of India appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

What to learn from the financial statements of your competitors?

Chayanika Sen — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 15:02:33 +0000

It’s great that you want to grow your business. But how do you ensure you are on the right path? Probably you have heard the phrase “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” Well, it holds true for businesses too. And hence you need to know and learn from your competitor’s financial statements for your own financial benchmarking. As a business, you need to understand where you stand in terms of finances with respect to your competitors. Financial benchmarking can help you set internal goals, find new market opportunities, identify your strength and your competitor’s weakness to shine through. Financial benchmarking has many other benefits too.

Where do you find the financial statements of your competitors?

If you were a large enterprise, it would have been easy and fairly simple. You would hire a consulting firm, subscribe to a huge database, and ask the consulting firm to find the problem, analyse them, and send you a solution.

But as a new business or as a start-up, this is out of the question. It is expensive and most likely out of your budget. So how can you go about digging in such information? Thankfully, there are few inexpensive ways to find this information.

Identify your competitions and gather data. Try to identify companies that are of your size and preferably in your geography.
Choose the right industry that closely represents your business.
Choose the source carefully so that there is a lot of data and not a skew done by a handful of companies.
For sources, check out your industry association. They are the best source for the information you are looking for.
The annual report is another source to dig in information for public companies.
If you have an established banking relationship, your banker can be an invaluable resource to gather inputs about your competitors. A banker looks at ratio analysis data all the time, so they can always share some noteworthy inputs with you.
You may also gather financial statements from companies like Dun & Bradstreet. This company offers individual company data on sales, nature of financing, creditworthiness, balance sheet, income statement, public filings, lawsuits, etc.
You may also seek inputs from your management accountant. They are specialised in this area and are professionally equipped to guide you on improving your ratios and how you can make your business more profitable.

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If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.

Become familiar with reading financial statements

Now that you have gathered the information about your competitors’ financial statements, it is important to learn how to read them. Only when you can make meaningful interpretations and analyse the balance sheets can you significantly learn from it.

However, financial reporting is a complex matter and diverse too. So, here are some tips to get started.

Financial statements are filled with financial jargon. It can be overwhelming to understand everything, but an excellent financial dictionary can help you a lot.
Read the accompanying notes. Every financial statement is provided with some accompanying notes. Pay attention to them to understand the financial statement properly.
The financial statement of a company reflects the company’s financial stability. However, these numbers become easier to understand and more meaningful when you can understand the underlying realities and fundamentals. For example, it is important to understand what the company does, its products, and its business model before you delve into the numbers.
Know that no financial statements are made in a single mold. There are different reporting patterns that each company follows. Also, know that the diverse nature of business activities leads to a diverse set of financial statements. So don’t feel overwhelmed with a diverse reporting structure. Instead, take your time to get familiarized with it.
A financial statement also has several nonfinancial information. For example, you may find information on the state of the economy, competitive considerations, market forces, introduction of new technologies, workforce, etc. Although these are not directly reflected in a company’s financial statements, they play a larger role in how those financial statements look. How do you compare the competitor’s data with yours?
You may come across something called a consolidated statement while studying the financial statements of your competitors. A consolidated statement of a parent company and its subsidiaries means it represents its separate legal entities. You may consider a consolidated statement as one entity rather than considering separate statements for different entities.

So, you have the data, and you have learned how to read them. The next step is to determine how you can compare the competitors’ data with yours? For example, if you have a 15 percent net profit, is that good or bad? How would you determine that? It depends on a lot of things like the history of your business and the industry you are in, and how your competitors are doing. To evaluate your business against your competitors, you would need data like gross profit ratio, current ratio, net profit ratio, etc. Although there is much other data to consider, it is always good to begin it simple and not make it too overwhelming.

Here are some of the key ones

Net profit ratio: You need to calculate this by taking your gross profit less your overhead expenses to arrive at the net profit value. Now divide this amount by your sales income to give you your net profit ratio.

Current ratio: Take your current assets and divide them with your current debt. This will help you determine if your business is liquid. For example, are your liquid assets enough to pay your short-term obligations?

Gross profit ratio: You calculate your gross profit ratio by taking your income less your direct materials and costs of goods sold. You then need to divide it by your total sales to get your gross profit ratio.

Three important financial ratios that every founder should know

A financial ratio is an important marker for qualitative analysis of your business. It also helps you to do an accurate comparative analysis with your competitors. Here are three important financial ratios that you should know.

Profitability

Profitability is another ratio that calculates how much profit the competitors are making by selling their services or products. The most common profitability ratio is the gross profit margin calculation. So, what is the gross profit margin? You can calculate gross profit margin by subtracting the cost of goods sold from sales and dividing by sales. The profitability ratio is a good indicator for businesses to understand their income on aggregated sales of a particular product line. While a high percentage ratio indicates that companies are making good money, a low percentage means they are not making enough.

Liquidity

If you are keen to learn your competitor’s ability to meet their short-term financial obligations, liquidity ratios would be the ones that you need to check out. This is a great indicator to determine how well a company is performing under its short-term economic conditions. Liquidity ratio analysis includes the current and quick ratios.

To get the current ratio, you need to divide current assets by current liabilities. If you find the ratio high, you need to understand that the business finances with its cash. It also indicates that the company can withstand short-term economic downturns.

On the other hand, to determine the quick ratio, you need to subtract between the current assets and inventory divided by current liabilities. This ratio is an indicator of how a competitor is doing to pay current liabilities without selling its inventory. A high quick ratio is always preferable by businesses, just like the current ratio.

Financial leverage

This ratio can help you calculate the company’s long-term solvency. This ratio can help you gauge and understand how well your competitors are using debt and equity financing for business operations. Know that the debt ratio and debt to equity ratio are the two most popular financial leverage ratios that you should be knowing.

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While checking the financial statements of your competition, pay special attention to essential numbers like gross margins, operating and net profit margins, etc.

Debt ratio

When you divide the total debt by your total assets, you get your debt ratio. A debt ratio empowers you with vital information like how much debt your competitors are investing in acquiring business assets. It is usually calculated as a percentage where a low percentage means the company is financing its business operations with cash rather than debt. A higher debt ratio means it’s the other way.

On the other hand, a debt-to-equity ratio is the value of total debt divided by total equity. This ratio helps you determine how much money your competitors are receiving from private investors or the founder’s investment. It is usually expressed in a percentage.

Price Strategy Matters

You may be tempted to compare your price strategy with your competitor’s while doing a financial statement analysis. But know that competitor-based pricing works well only when the market is saturated, and it is a well-researched market. Often competitors overstate their pricing abilities. Thus only 8-15% of all businesses can do value-based pricing based on customer’s ability and willingness to pay. If you are doing strategic pricing (pricing based on a competitor’s pricing model), know that you can risk a price war that can lead to a huge loss for everyone. Ultimately a business has to be profitable, and you should not compromise on that.

What to learn from the competitor’s finances?

Understanding your competition is the first step that every business should take to strengthen its foothold in the market. While there are several benefits of understanding the competitors, checking up on the financial statement of the competition is probably the best way to benchmark your strategy. While checking the financial statements of your competition, pay special attention to essential numbers like gross margins, operating and net profit margins, etc. Also, check the salaries and compensations the competitor is offering to its employees. This is another important parameter to keep a tab on. Don’t miss to check out their sales and profitability trends too. This is a significant indicator to help you understand how your competitors are doing. Check on their marketing trends and marketing budgets too. It is essential to check their marketing expenses as a percentage of their revenue and note the differences in your financials. Try to understand what are the factors that are causing this discrepancy. Do the discrepancies need your attention? Is there anything you can do about it?

Another aspect that you need to check is how your competition is using the money. Are they using it more effectively than yours? What can you do to turn the tables?

The key takeaways

There is a lot to learn from the financial statements of your competitors. And when you implement the positives of the findings in your business, you are better positioned to turn the table and set a stronger foothold in the market.

Expert Connect

Chinmay Ananda
Business Storyteller, Financial Educator Finance Academy
Connect with our expert to analyse your financial statements and evaluate the risks and potential of your business

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For 2021, These are the New Entrants in Fintech

Anju Nambiar — Sat, 29 May 2021 11:35:04 +0000

Fintech is one of the hot Indian sectors of 2021. It has survived the first wave of Covid last year successfully with just a few minor speed bumps. This year too, the Fintech industry looks promising. Zeta is the 14th latest entrant from Fintech to India’s unicorn league of start-ups. Some of the biggest names like CRED and Bharath Pe together with other Indian start-ups have managed to raise a total of $22.8 B for the first quarter of 2021 which is the highest for the industry. New Fintech start-ups have been incorporated this year as per the official data records of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA). Here are some of the new entrants in fintech for 2021

Singhvi Fintech Private Limited

Registered on the 14th of April 2021, Singhvi Fintech is a new entrant in financial intermediation. The company is based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and is incorporated as a Private Limited firm. The company has declared a paid-up capital of INR 100,000 and Authorised capital of INR 10,00,000.

Kwik Fintech Private Limited

The next new entrant to Fintech in 2021 is a start-up from Uttar Pradesh called Kwik Fintech. Incorporated on the 13th of April 2021, Kwik Fintech’s paid up capital and authorised capital both stand at INR 100,000. The directors of Kwik Fintech are Srijan Mittal and Deepak Chaudhary.

IDB Fintech Private Limited

Another start-up from Uttar Pradesh, IDB Fintech was registered with MoCA on the 9th of January 2021. IDB Fintech’s paid-up capital is INR 10,000 and authorized capital declared is INR 100,000. The leadership team of IDB include Abhinav Sharma and Saroj Sharma.

YT Revenue Fintech Private Limited

YT Revenue is a fintech start-up based in Maharashtra. It was incorporated on the 6th of January 2021. It has declared authorised share capital and paid-up capital of INR 100,000 each. The start-up is aimed at helping customers take profitable business decisions. They also have a Chartered Accountancy wing which undertakes Accounting, Audit, and Assurance services. YT Revenue provides financial consultations and offers a wide range of finance products and services like Insurance, Mutual Funds, and Education Planning.

Visionnxt Fintech Private Limited

Visionnxt is a Delhi based fintech start-up incorporated on the 6th of January 2021. They are involved in financial intermediation services and have declared Authorised and Paid-up capital of INR 15,00,000 and 5,00,000 respectively. Jayant Vittal Kaup and Urvashi Gandotra are registered as the directors of the company on MoCA.

Singhvi Fintech Private Limited

Singhvi Fintech was registered on the 14th of April 2021 and is a start-up based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The company’s authorised capital is INR 10,00,000 and paid-up capital is INR 1,00,000. The leadership team of SInghvi Fintech include Dharmichand Singhvi and Rishab Singhvi.

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New Fintech start-ups have been incorporated this year as per the official data records of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA).

What’s in it for me?

Industry players need to be aware of yearly new entrants. This is from a threat perspective as well as from a need for general awareness regarding competition, new products and services. If direct competition has sprung up, you can tweak and differentiate your products. When new start-ups enter the market, you can expect price fluctuations from suppliers due to higher demand. You can also prevent your market share from being usurped by the new entrant by changing your strategy at the opportune time.

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How Will the Delay in China Products Lead to a Growth in India-Based Smartphones Businesses?

Anju Nambiar — Thu, 13 May 2021 03:35:06 +0000

The first wave of the covid-19 pandemic in India led to the banning of Chinese apps and FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) by the Indian government. And now the second wave of the globally covered covid-19 crisis in India is once again brewing trouble for Chinese businesses, this time consumer tech companies and smartphones.

Which companies are most affected?

The hostility against China has led to the Wireless Planning & Co-ordination (WPC) wing of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications withholding the approval of Wi-Fi modules imported from China. In a bid to block electronics like smartphones, smartwatches, and laptops from being imported from China, Wi-Fi modules are stuck at Indian ministries for quite some time now.

This has now impacted the timely launch of consumer products and electronic devices like Bluetooth speakers, wireless earphones, and smartphones. The most affected Chinese companies are some of the biggest in India:

Xiaomi
Oppo
Vivo
Lenovo

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The Indian consumer tech industry is a key growth market and will open up avenues for domestic players now that big Chinese players have been kept out.

How will Consumer tech in India benefit?

The consumer technology sector in India is getting affected due to the geopolitical differences between India and China. The campaign against Chinese vendors and the push by the Indian government towards manufacturing of smartphones in India will create new opportunities in the domestic market.

The Indian consumer tech industry is a key growth market and will open up avenues for domestic players now that big Chinese players have been kept out.

Smartphone assembly has increased within the country and ‘Make in India’ smartphone manufacturers are being persuaded to produce electronic devices within India.

If the consumer tech market can pull off economic self-reliance, then domestic manufacturers of electronics will benefit immensely.

What should smartphone start-ups do?

The Indian government is cracking the whip on imports of Chinese made technology. Consumer tech start-ups in India who are planning to import Chinese devices need to anticipate this. This is mainly for devices that contain a Wi-Fi module.

As an Indian start-up, if you are trying to bring in products from China, then you can expect a delay from the WPC (Wireless Planning & Co-ordination commission). Sales of smartphones within India also require approvals from both BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) and WPC. BIS comes under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs whereas WPC comes under the Ministry of Communications.

India is the key consumer tech market and with Chinese giants like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Lenovo being side-lined, the market opportunity for smartphone and electronic device start-ups will be tremendous.

India is currently the world’s biggest mobile maker and consumer tech start-ups thinking about making an entry to the scene will see ample support for domestic manufacturing.

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Effect of COVID-19 on economy in India

DU Desk — Tue, 04 May 2021 09:35:03 +0000

The economic impact of COVID-19 is extraordinarily troubling on Indian economy. No one has been spared of its unwell effects. Economies regarding a hundred countries are destroyed amongst which few have asked for financial facilitation from the International Monetary Fund. Countries like the USA, Italy and many others are suffering the foremost since their value is extraordinarily high.

Different sports events like IPL and Olympics are delayed. Colleges, universities and schools are closed. The virus has additionally played a role in discontinued functioning of assorted online giants like Amazon. Businesses across the globe particularly amusement, aviation, hospitality, etc. have seen a huge negative impact.

Effects of second wave of Covid-19 on Economic Market

There is an enormous shift within the world economic market and also the share market has witnessed crashes day by day. The outbreak of coronavirus has once again restricted the movement of the people. Citizens weren’t even going outside to purchase the daily necessities and these all were somewhere impacting the economy of the globe as a whole.

Many Factories, Restaurants, Pubs, Markets, Flights, Super Markets, Malls, Universities and offices were cleaned up. Just to give an insight of the disastrous plight, as per reports:

There has been a down of 30-35% in restaurant business.
There has been a 20% reduction in domestic travel and about 75% of reduction in international travel bookings.
Hotel booking rates have also declined from 70% to 20%.

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India needs to desperately realize some way to comfort the demand side shocks born by potential lockdowns and currently alternative containment lifestyle.

Present Situation of Indian Economy

India faces a large decline in governmental revenues and growth of the financial gain because the coronavirus hits economic activity of the country as a full. Developing countries like India have a lot more fragile economic and social conditions and also the contemporary state of affairs can produce a lot of suffering for the unorganized sectors and migrant labour. A fall in capitalist sentiment impacts privatization plans, government and trade.

India is going to be one of the worst-affected among the world’s major economies even once the pandemic fades away. A global recession currently looks inevitable. However, how deep and long the downswings are depends on the success of precautions taken to stop the unfold of COVID-19, the results of governmental policies to alleviate liquidity issues in SMEs and to support families below money distress. It conjointly depends upon corporations’ reactions and hardening the economic activities again. And, above all, it depends on however long these lockdowns can last.

This economic uncertainty is unlikely to dissipate unless the COVID caseload begins to go down and disappear. Henceforth the first objective of government, in the slightest degree levels has to be the expanded relief; making sure the convenience of basic medical facilities and working towards a large boost of the vaccination programme.

Lockdown & Indian Economy

The Lockdown can have a major impact on the Indian economy principally on consumption that is the biggest part of GDP. Our country is facing a really difficult and horrendous time during this year in matters of finances. India needs to desperately realize some way to comfort the demand side shocks born by potential lockdowns and currently alternative containment lifestyle.

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Ease of Doing Business in Jammu and Kashmir

Smruthi Krishnan — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 08:35:04 +0000

In 2019, under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, the Government of India repealed the special status that was given to Jammu and Kashmir and passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act splitting it into two union territories namely Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The reorganisation has led to a lot of changes within the region, in terms or administration and the entrepreneurship market. Since the implementation of the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has been making slow progress in terms of ease of doing business. Jammu and Kashmir was ranked 21st amongst 36 states and union territories in the latest data of BRAP.

It is very important for governments to incentivise investors so they invest in businesses in their state. Several steps were taken by the central government to ease business within the union territory and to drive investments inflow in the market. Following changes have been implemented in Jammu and Kashmir:

Udyog Aadhar Memorandum

According to the Administrative Council (AC), there used to be prerequisites like ‘no objection certificates’ (NOC) or allowances that had to be obtained from the government. In order to increase business units in Jammu and Kashmir, these prerequisites have been relaxed. Now only the Udyog Aadhaar memorandum is the only requirement to set up a business unit as compared to 15 clearances which were needed before. The idea is, lesser the clearances, more hassle free it is to establish a business unit, thus increasing the incentive to set up a business.

New Industrial Developmental Scheme

Implemented in Jan 2021, the scheme plans to spend Rs 28,400 crore to instill employment opportunities and induce a driving force in Jammu and Kashmir’s economic region. It is a pioneer industrial incentive scheme by the government where a sustainable and balanced block level industrial growth will be encouraged in Jammu and Kashmir union territory.

The scheme also proposes to emphasise on the growth and development of local small-scale industries. It also makes it easier for such local businesses to set up and expand their businesses. A GST-linked incentive has been provided to encourage such local industries to flourish without compromising on the transparency, thus increasing compliance from the entrepreneurs. Smaller units with an investment in plant and machinery up to Rs 50 crore will get a capital incentive up to Rs 7.5 crore and a capital interest subvention at the rate of 6 per cent for a maximum of 7 years.

The region needs an impetus to survive and bloom which requires a heightened focus on creation of jobs, skill development for employees as well as attracting newer investments. The scheme plans to build on these areas to reduce unemployment and expand the business market. Such incentives take time to show results, but one can hope that the business landscape in the newly turned Union Territory will augment and diversify with time as investments start pouring in and new businesses establish it selves.

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