Category: Business

How CCS evolved…


Cogzidel Consultancy Services (CCS) was born to help startups overcome the difficulties I personally faced as a startup… I still can remember the days where I was taken for granted by bankers, vendors and bureaucrats… First I was ignorant, second I looked stupid to them and I more importantly was small… I felt many times that I lacked proper mentoring and I didn’t have any bootstrappers to knock at their doors… Also those were the days where startups were not taken seriously… There are some incidents which pester me even today…

  • My first company incorporation was a mess… My company secretary had some dummy company registered 5 years before and was not functional… When we approached him to incorporate our company he just changed the name of that company, instead of forming a new one… We were not informed of this and this lead to lots of complications… For any inspection by statutory bodies they demand all information starting from the day company was incorporated…
  • Then after creating the company I ran to bank and my office for at least 50 times without exaggeration and this happened with a private bank, which was more irony… Even the entry level sales guy didn’t bother to come to office to collect all documents and verify documents from my office… They found something missing every time I resubmit the documents and I’ve to run back to office and bank to get a bank a/c…
  • In my early days even vendors didn’t bother me much… I ordered for 10 PC’s one shot and made upfront payment… Vendor said he can’t deliver and asked me to take delivery… I was totally ignorant about competition in this space, because of my ignorance I was taken for a toss from that particular vendor…
  • Then I was not aware of any bureaucratic obligations and statutory compliances to be done to the company… Every time I get caught by inspectors and then I comply with them by paying a penalty… I had to do this in spite of having an auditor… Auditor’s job is easy; customer ends up paying them even for their mistakes…
  • Over a point we started growing more than 100% YoY on turnover, but our profits always remained less… We didn’t have proper account practices… Since we didn’t have account’s background we had to hire someone… Even they they lacked many information because of lack of experience… A company needs accounting reports to review their performance time on time… There are companies which have been closed because they failed to manage their accounts well… This is very important functions which is taken easily by many founders…
  • Then we had a need to register with STPI to get income tax benefit… Our company secretary did this for us… He used our resource, manpower and also this being his first initiative he learned from this experience… I’m not worried about his experiment with us… But when he learns something using us and using our resource and manpower we expect some benefit out of it… He charged us an exorbitant sum as professional charges… I wonder many times if they are professional charges or charges for their unprofessionalism…
  • Then there were employee issues… We didn’t do any tax planning for them, what ever their salary is we cut TDS and deposited in bank… When job market was so high, people started quitting company just for these benefits… Initially I thought they were quitting for silly reason, but when I hired a CFO and when he worked out and showed my the difference in my own salary, I felt how I was throwing away my hard earned salary and my employees salary…

All these are only some of the challenges I faces, I can keep listing more, but the point is when I see startups they also over come same challenges… There no use is overcoming touch cycles for all business… There are lots of business incubators, business mentors and bootstrappers… I personally started a company called CCS for bootstrapping startups and help them to in

  • Company incorporation
  • All post incorporation needs like opening bank account and many more…
  • Managing accounts process and give them timely accounts reports to take que…
  • Taking care of HR process other than recruitment…
  • Managing statutory compliances…

For any information please send an email to info@cogzidel.in…

Agriculture as Corporate Business


Agriculture in India is considered to be the backbone of our economy, but not considered as a potential job/business… I don’t know if I can get married if I were a farmer… But the reality is other wise… Agriculture is a great potential business and we can help create lots of jobs with the help of it…

It is true that agriculture in India is becoming a challenge and we keep hearing/reading  lots of news about farmer deaths… Currently I’m working on a project with my friend Vijay Krishna… We are planning to venture in large scale agriculture & benefit from economies of scale…

There are two types of farmers; one is farmer with big farm land & money and one with small land & less money… Farmer with small land has bigger challenges and there are challenges for some well to do farmers too…

Let me start by telling the challenges & simultaneously solutions too…

Fertilizers and Seeds: This has been a challenge for small farmers and for many big farmers (cash rich) to source these products on time & end up procuring them when prices are high…

Solution: When we have a huge land bank our consumption will be more and we can gain better discounts and can work out credit terms for purchase of huge volumes… Also we can have the luxury to procure them when they are cheap and stock them…

Sourcing of Manpower: This is one big challenge for Big Time farmers and to some extent for small farmers too… Agri products are time borne and harvesting has to be done on time else it will result in huge loss… It is big challenge to source people because everyone will need people at the same time as harvesting time is common & since the demand is high the wage also increases because of our urgency…

Solution: There are machineries which can help harvest huge acres of lands within days… But these machines are expensive which farmers can’t afford to buy… Again when we have huge land bank we can buy these machineries and improve efficiency doing right things at right time…

HR in Agriculture: Agriculture jobs are unprofessional, unorganized and are disjoint units which makes sourcing & coordinating with people to get work done very challenging… Also we need to source different people for different skills, which results in time loss and productivity loss…

Solution: We need to train people in Agriculture and help them to gain a steady source on income and make the sector organized, by giving them frequent training and improving their standard of living… Currently people work on daily wage basis… We must train them on different skills so that we can hire them and pay them on a monthly basis…

We are working ways to coordinate with HR professionals and train them in agriculture and in turn make them interact & collaborate with Agri universities to train and mould people with the type of skills we need…

Risk from Cattle & Theft: We have to keep a vigil on the crops from being destroyed from cattle and from thief’s… This brings down yield of the crop…

Solution: We must fence the field and work with security agencies to guard the fields… Also this can be done only when we have big land base which can be added in our ROI…

Selling of commodities: Once the harvesting is done we have the yield, we make money by selling the commodity… Most farmers don’t get information on price and they sell it for lesser price or they will be compelled to sell to meet their ends or to their repay debts… Even if they have information they might not have the facility to stock the commodity…

Solution: We can have a separate team to get information on commodity prices, fluctuation and we can build warehouse to stock the commodities and we can sell it when the prices are high…

Also there are many more challenges like excess water or deficit water supply… We can over come this by storing excess water and work on efficient supply chain methods to carry the surplus to water to draught farms…

Over all this one is very big and challenging project, we are planning to bring in professionalism by bringing HR, Finance, Admin, Marketing, Accounts and Operational functions and improve efficiency & productivity…

We are currently working on the project report as we need huge funding to make this a reality… We are planning to take debt and equity route to meet our needs…

There are lots of advantages to convince investors like

  • There are lots of government subsidy
  • No income tax on income from agriculture
  • Growth in consumption/demand on food products
  • Returns on Investment are high…
  • Also we have a contention that we have fulfilled our Social Responsibility…

We don’t want to wait till we finish the project report… We are planning to start this in a phased manner and start with a small module which will help us to build a brand and reputation…

To start with we are planning to start with paddy, by procuring the yield from different farmers, stock them and sell them when the price of paddy is high… To start his we need an initial investment of Rs.20 lakh or 2 million INR… Though we can raise this capital ourselves we are planning to form a consortium of people and take investment from them and start it… As this will help us to learn how to manage investors and we have an opportunity to create & develop relationship and build a trust… Also with this experience & credibility we can approach Banks, VC’s, PE’s for investment…

You can be a part of this initiative by making a small investment… We are planning to collect Rs.50,000/- per head ($1100 USD)… You can also help us by promoting this post by sending email forwards, by posting it in your blog and through other social media initiatives… Please email me to get more information about this project…

Biography – eight years of entrepreneurial ride


I’m one of the most blessed ones by almighty! He gave me an opportunity to become an entrepreneur & I gracefully accepted it & utilized it in the right way. I must also take some credits for my perseverance. It all happened because of my cousin brother who still desires to be an entrepreneur but lacks perseverance. It all started with a desire to make money where in I started doing some part time freelance jobs like data entry, web design etc. which gave opening bells to my entrepreneurial desire.

I was doing all amateur jobs until I finished my graduation & that is when the opening bells rang & I made my formal entrepreneurial debut. An out of college kid, no specialization, no competence, no exposure, no experience overall I didn’t posses any entrepreneurial qualities but what all I was dream, desire & passion to be an entrepreneur. Even my parents & friends made fun of me & were not confident about by success, but today I can take pride in being one of their role models.

Early days as an entrepreneur were not an easy ride. I was not aware of any business functions, no idea about business & didn’t even know how to present myself, most of the times I stood like a joker in front of anyone I saw/met, but still I rowed against the tide, kept meeting people in spite of humiliations. But what I didn’t understand at that time was; I’m a entrepreneur in the making & all the humiliation & struggles were to give me more experience, expertise & shape me as an entrepreneur. Yes I know it is very very hard to over come such turbulent times when we startup, but we have to understand that there are no outside force that can motivate an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a self made man and he has to be motivated and often it would be self motivation. What kept me moving was word of encouragement from some well-wishers and one of the words my friend Aravind use to tell “You can be fool for 5 min. not for ever” & dalai lama’s sayings “When you lose, don’t loose your lesions” with those two phrases I over came lots of challenges and over a period of time I got more experience than people of my own age group.

I started meeting more and more people every day with different faces like a sales man for pitching projects, as a finance head with bankers/financers to raise capital, as a HR interviewed lots of candidates. With every person I met I gained some knowledge which helped me to put it to some other person, with which I was able to gain some respect. Over a point of time I was in a position to talk to anyone at any time and talk any topic. Day by day I started learning new things, understands different functions in business, my networks grew along with all those my confidence grew as well as gained confidence of other people.

So to get all ingredients of business one invest more time than money. I’m writing this blogs only by investing that much of time (8 years). If I’m able to achieve something with all the limitations I had, I think anyone can become a successful entrepreneur. So if you have the desire & fire to be an entrepreneur never think, just act immediately, because “It takes a lot to be a doer, than a thinker”. There is no starting point to become an entrepreneur or there wont be right times or platform to start your entrepreneurial journey. Once you start it and have never say die attitude you are definitely going to be a winner. I wish this post must have kindled the fire and helped someone in some part of the world and have become an entrepreneur. If you had become one please shoot and email to anand@anandnataraj.com.

Creating Private Limited Company In India


Pre-requisites to incorporate a private limited Company in India by foreign citizens:

Step-1:
i) Obtaining Director Identification Number (DIN-1) for all the Directors of the proposed company.

Documents required – Passport of the applicant containing address of the applicant and passport size photograph.

If all the particulars are given, DIN-1 provisional number can be generated in half a day’s time.

DIN-1 application for foreign citizens require attestation by Notary of the country concerned.

Once the signed copy of physical form attested by notary of foreign country is sent to MCA Office, Noida, it will take a week’s time approx to get the number approved. Once approved by the MCA authority, provisional DIN-1 which has already been generated will be final.

ii) Obtaining Digital Signature for at least one Director of the proposed company.

It requires ID Proof, Address Proof and the applicant’s signature on the application form. It will take 2 to 3 days once the application is received duly filled in all respects.

Step-2:

Making online application to ROC for availability of Name in Form 1A.
The particulars required for making this application are:

-Name of the proposed company
-State in which the registered office of the proposed company will be situated
-Main Objects, in brief
-Names of Subscribers to the Memorandum of Association (it is nothing but, first shareholders of the company, who should sing MOA & AOA)
-Proposed Authorized Share Capital of the Company

This process will take 3 to 5 days approx.

Step-3:
Once the name is approved by ROC, then preparation of MOA, AOA, other forms & documents viz., Form 1, Form 18 & Form 32 along with other documents have to be done and filed with ROC.

Approximately it will take a week’s time to complete incorporation formalities.

Q : How many days we have to wait for this getting Name approval and registering ROC

Ans:- Name approval process will take 3 to 5 days. Entire Registration process will take Minimum 15 to 20 days provided all the information has been furnished promptly.

Q: If the director is registering for first Time can we apply without DIN? Or should we apply for DIN first?

Ans:- Applying for DIN is prerequisite before proceeding for registration of the Company

Q: What is “Subscribers to MOA”?

And:- It is nothing but, first shareholders (also known as promoters) of the Company, who should sign the Memorandum & Articles of Association.

Q: Can registration be done in any part of India?

And:- Place of registered office can be in any part of India. Depending upon place of registered office, registration has to be done in the respective State.

Q: Need details about all the forms

Ans:- These are Statutory forms which have to be filed for registration of the Company.
Form 1 – Contains details of promoters of the Company
Form 18 – About the place of registered office of the Company
Form 32 – About Directors of the Company

Q: Suppose 2 directors are non india citizens can they start the company?

Ans:- There is no objection for non Indian citizens to start a company in India and to act as Directors. But they have to appoint Alternate Directors representing them, to comply with the statutory requirement of convening quarterly Board Meetings and to take day to day decisions to run the company, signing other documents and forms for getting various registrations as applicable to the company. It is recommended to allot atleast 1 share each to 2 Indian citizens to comply with the statutory requirement of convening Annual General Meeting every year & EGM as and when required.

Q: Can we register the company without the directors coming to india?

Ans:-This is possible provided foreign citizens execute power of attorney in favor of Indian citizen attested by Notary/Magistrate in the Foreign Country. Then the authorized person can sign in the Memorandum & Articles of Association on behalf of foreign citizens.
More clarification on this point will be sent soon.

Q: Need more specific Breakup time frames like how long for name checkup, then the time for next process, also define total process involved like submitting forms to different departments etc?

Ans:- Entire incorporation process will take 15 to 20 days appox provided all the information has been provided immediately.

Subsequent to formation of the Company generally the following formalities have to be complied with:
a) Applying for PAN (Permanent Account Number) & TAN (Tax Deduction Account Number)
b) Opening of Bank Account
c) VAT & CST Registration, if applicable
d) Preparation of Common Seal & Share Certificates
e) Appointment of Auditors
f) PF Registration (applicable only if 20 or more employees are there)
g) Professional Tax Registration
h) Other Registrations & Licenses, such as Excise, Customs, STPI as applicable to the company