Every week hundreds of readers send me emails with general and personal questions. One of the most frequently asked questions is: 'I am fully inspired by the useful articles in the New Indian Express and want to become self-employed. You give only brief information about different types of projects. Can you help us by giving complete profile of each project?'
Earning money through self-employment is a process. If you understand the process, you will be able to take up any project and be successful. In elite business management schools, you are taught how to manage a business. Then case studies from different industries are presented to you to make you understand various business principles. A good school will never teach you how to manage just one particular project. If it does, it is severely restricting the growth and creativity of the student.
Self-employment process consists of the following steps: (1) understanding your qualifications and true personality, (2) eliminating your negative points, (3) developing your positive points, (4) identifying the opportunities that are in harmony with your nature and circumstances, (5) acquiring skills and resources that are necessary to work on the opportunities and (6) actual hard work.
Last week I received a mail from a housewife who has understood the spirit and essence of the process and developed her own home based business from scratch. She neither met any self-improvement consultant nor received any help from me in developing her business. Her only sources of help are the New Indian Express and our website.
What are her qualifications? 'I completed my plus two course ten years ago. Even before I could complete my BA degree course, my parents made me marry my cousin at the age of 18. I don't have any great formal educational qualification. My aspiration to be financially independent and be on my own is the only qualification I have and I believe in myself.' That shows her true personality.
What are her weaknesses? 'I used to waste a lot of time on meaningless Television programs and chat. After I put an end to these time wasters, I started to read good books on computer and software to improve my computer and the Internet skills.'
What are her strengths? 'My first thought was I did not have any positive points. However, an objective analysis brought some light. I realized that I knew a lot about cartoons and games for kids thanks to my young children among a few other strengths. There would be millions of kids that are fascinated by these cartoons such as Winnie the Pooh just like my kids. I know that Disney owns Winnie the Pooh and makes billions from cartoon merchandise. I am an expert in my knowledge on many copyright free cartoon characters. So, I decided to use this knowledge somehow and make money.'
What were the opportunities that made sense to her? 'Children - why, even teenage girls - love soft comfort toys. Though the market is flooded with such toys, the market is an ever expanding one. I could make new types of soft toys like Winnie the Pooh and sell them both online and offline. If I made Rs.100 per big toy, all I need to earn Rs,3,000 a month was to sell just one toy a day. My income projection was humble and expectation was realistic and reasonable.'
How did she procure required resources? 'When I realized I may need a few thousand rupees to start my soft toy business, I skipped a holiday trip to my parents' place, avoided buying sarees for Diwali and Pongal and I had enough capital. I learnt everything about making soft toys through the Internet free of cost. Once I was good in making soft toys, I trained two women in the art and agreed to pay them on per piece basis. One of my cousins agreed to visit various shops in the city and market my toys on commission basis. In a matter of a few weeks, I was ready to launch my business.'
How did things go? 'I never thought things would go so well when I started to market my toys through the online auction website Ebay. It is easy, fun and profitable. I get immediate payment. My profit margin is high as I directly sell to the customers. At the same time, I don't neglect offline market. Even though profit margin is low, the delivery of toys is cumbersome and collection of money from shop owners is difficult, I do sell through shops. I don't want to miss even small profits. I earn a net profit of above Rs.10,000 a month working from home.'