“Life is too short for working for someone else’s dream”
“Freedom” is a wonderful word that plays a pivotal role in our lives. It could be financial freedom or freedom of thought. Humans crave the feeling of freedom in their lives. Starting a business of our means freedom in many ways.
However, the process of starting a new business is not clear to most people. According to a survey, 19 documents are required to buy a gun in India whereas starting a restaurant requires 45. Hence, starting a business in India might sound difficult but don’t stop dreaming. Let’s start by understanding the steps/tips to start a new business in 2025.
Construct Like the Romans
Think of a business that has the potential to survive and thrive in the long run just like the Roman architecture revered by people around the world.
You Should Know Everything About Your Business Idea
You should have complete knowledge about the business that you want to start. You should focus on and draw inspiration from your interests and passions with your business Ideas. You should have a basic idea about how to sell your services and products. You can follow and study similar businesses to understand their mechanism and learn from them.
Create a Year Business Plan
After choosing the business idea, you need to start planning your business. Make a plan for a year and start making a budget report. Figure out the capital, investment amount, expenses, and profit.
Choose an Investor
Find a suitable investor for your business. It could be your family, one of your friends, or even a bank. Getting a personal loan in India will be much easier if you have a crisp business plan with you that the investor will understand and believe.
The Indian government offers many business funding options for start-ups and MSMEs to choose from as an entrepreneur.
- Bank Credit Facilitation Scheme – This scheme provides loans to the MSME units in India. The tenure of repayment starts from 5 to 7 years. However, it can be extended up to 11 years.
- Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) – This scheme offers loans for all types of manufacturing, trading, and service sector activities. There are 3 categories under this scheme- Shishu Loans (up to Rs 50,000), Kishor Loans (up to Rs 5,00,000), and Tarun Loans (up to Rs 10,00,000).
- Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS)– This scheme offers loans to new and existing MSMEs that are associated with the service or manufacturing activities but excludes educational institutions, agriculture, retail trade, Self Help Groups (SHGs), etc.
- Sustainable Finance Scheme – This scheme offers loans to industries that deal with green energy, renewable energy, technology hardware, and non-renewable energy.
- MSME Business Loans in 59 Minutes – This is among the most talked about business funding options launched in 2018. The approval or disapproval is announced within 59 minutes of the application. However, the whole process takes 8-12 days to complete. Financial support of up to 1 crore can be provided under this scheme.
Register Your Business in India
There are 4 major ways to register your business in India. Let’s explore them!
- Sole Proprietorship- A sole proprietorship is a business entity where a single person is the owner of the business and is liable for all the debts and liabilities of the business. This is for small companies The number of employees must be between 5-10.
- One Person Company (OPC) –This is a business entity that has a single shareholder and offers limited liability to the shareholder.
- Private Limited Company – This is the most popular and reputable business entity with 2 shareholders and 2 directors as a minimum. Start-ups prefer this option as it becomes much easier to raise venture capital funding and provides stock options to employees. If you want to deal with big companies, then a Private Limited Company is the best option to choose from.
- Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) – This business entity is preferred by professionals such as architects, chartered accountants, designers, etc. It is a combination of a partnership, a simple partnership, and a private limited company which means that it has partners to share in the profits and losses.
Tax Registration
Tax registration is the next step after company registration-
- GST Registration – If your company’s annual turnover is more than 20 lacs, in some of the North Indian states the amount is 10 lacs.
- Import Export Code Registration – In the case of import export-related businesses.
- Employee State Insurance Registration – In the case of more than 10 employees.
- Provident Fund Registration – In case of more than 20 employees in your business.
Income Tax Saving Options
Understanding income tax saving options is very important for building your business at its early stage and improving it. There are 2 important income tax saving options that you must know about.
- MSME (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) Registration – MSME registration is very useful. It makes it much easier to get a loan. A 50% subsidy on patent registration and tax exemption schemes can be accessible by registering here.
- Start-Up India Scheme– You will get recognized by DPIIT (Department For Promotion Of Industry And Internal Trade) under this scheme. One can also get tax benefits (deduction under 80 IAC), easier compliance, IPR fast-tracking, etc.
Understand your business, understand how you can serve the people for their betterment and your business will surely thrive.