A little background is necessary to understand what & why I am saying this 👇
I conduct trainings for the bottled water entrepreneurs. ( no-no, this post is not to promote that😐 ). Point is something else. My trainings are for the business "owners". In trainings, I do talk about machines, however, I am strictly keeping myself away from suggesting suppliers, however, I do guide on what to look into appointing one. I also don't train on procedural part, focus on quality aspects rather than this.
My focus is more towards the ROI aspect. I do train people on designing their plant capacity propely, so that they choose right machines, at the right stages of their business venture.
For years togther ( before Covid ) I used to conduct physical trainings at PUNE, and other cities. These trainings, due to cost limitations, were for 1-2 days. However, post covid, I started offering the same training in half the price through internet, I settled on a 4-day training course through 90 min session each day.
Entrepreneurs did use to join, however, somehow I was never satisfied, feeling it's incomplete, I took a whole 1 year gap ( 2023 ). And restarted from April 2024, with a 2- Week, 10 session course, same cost course, in evening. Now this is having a good response & good satisfaction to me too.
Main reason : The subject lingers in the participant's mind for more time. In turn he/she has more queries. Further to this, I also offer them a 1:1 assesment in which they can ask me their very personal queries too.
Still, in each of my batches, I find at least 1-2 participants who join after ordering the plant & machinery. Most of them find that they have bought some machines under their emotional influence.
Why do we commit certain mistakes & how can we avoid them ?
- Many a times entrepreneurs prefer listening to the suppliers. I have found they even decide their plant capcities also on the basis of suggestions passed by the supplier. It's really important to know that the supplier's business is selling Machinery & NOT water.
- Entrepreneurs work on a Dead-line based approach. Deadlines are necessary, but after you properly appoint suppliers. No compromise on that.
- Entrepreneurs start over day-dreaming the project & loose sight of the logical steps, like financial projections, getting hands-on experience, doing a proper market survey, starting a distributor business first etc. Somehow they don't love this "distributor" idea & they want that production unit only, though it sounds expensive. They do not see much happening in that.
- Entrepreneurs don't love selling much, as well as accounting. They worry too much about marketing, after starting the plant process. Instead they should create their market in advance.
- We do cover many of these aspects in our course & we charge fees ( Rs. 5,900 presently ). Instead of taking this course, they go on buying machinery worth 50-70 lakhs.
Question is : Why it happens ?
- Over popularity of phrases like "I don't waste time thinking, I just do it"
- The deadline based approach as I mentioned above
- Push by intermediary institutions who distribute loans, funds
- Getting caught by Govt's special schemes who offer incentives to entrepreneurs without being trained for business
- Govt too has trainings, however, these trainings have not been observed to be upto the mark.
- Getting trapped in the FREE trainings, the suppliers offer. However, they are mainly created to sell their stuff.
How can this be avoided ?
- Believing firmly that, until my idea is not justified, validated through a Financial Document, I won't take a single step further.
- Once it's validated, I will try to get a hands-on experience if possible, may-be by payment or by working for free. ( I am trying to find a mid-way by creating a digital course for this purpose )
- Get an idea as to who will be buying your stuff actually. Do some marketing through distribution.
- Now, have a fresh look at your financials once more, make project plan. Check funding etc.
