After completing my graduation in Electrical Engineering in 2016, I started a LLP firm catering to the needs of the end users of EHV Switchgear products in my local region. Much oblivious and high on hubris due to the same, I started telling my circle that I had started a bussiness. It took me a while to realize how wrong I was.

But before we move into all that, let us come to the question that made me realize the error of my ways in the first place. What exactly is a bussiness? In this age of materialism and entreprenneuship, the word ‘bussiness’ comes into our life almost everyday. We read about it in newspapers, we see it on social media, we even learn about it in our collegges. But do we really understand its meaning?

Wikipedia defines ‘Bussiness’ as an organizational entity involved in the provision ofgoods and services to consumers for the purpose of generating a profit. The bulk of our understanding of this word is based around this very definition. But in the modern age of innovation and Technology, this conventional definition has ceased to give the meaning that must really be associated with the word.

Coming back to my own story, After telling everyone that I had started a bussiness, I set about starting the key activities that would generate a profit for me. What I had planned to do was provide a service to end users of a certain product. So the first step was to obtain the associated technology (read equipments & tools) and the expertise(Read Know-how) to be able to deliever the service which I had planned. So I ended up partnering with an experienced individual, 20 years older to me who was well-versed in the workings of this product and brought both of the above necessary things to the table.

The next step was searching for customers who would be willing to pay me for the services I was proposing to offer. So I set out on a statewide tour, sort of cold-visiting to my potential clients, (Read cemement plants, Steel plants, Textile parks) telling them about the services I could offer, The machinery I had for the same and the fees I was willing to charge.

Luckily, soon enough, orders started pouring in. The only competitors present were the actual manifacturers of these products whose attitude towards after sales servcie was charge more-and be assholes. I started executing thsoe orders and moey started coming in. And one again, i stated telling my circle that I now had a successful bussiness.

But did I really have one?

My ususal routine for each bussiness transaction used to be like the following. First, I would visit a customer & give him an offer ( Read works offer.) If the coustomer was convinced, He would assign the wok to me. I would take my equipments & my bussiness partner, go to the site where the poduct was lrocated, camp there for two days and provide the service (Read Repairing & Overhauling of EHV Switchgears, with replacement of spares) After the work was complete, I would get a promise from the customer of payment within the next 30 days, and move on with the same cycle.

And Beleive me or not, I was earning a profit margin of upto 20% after taxes and interest for the same. It was a very good margin, conisdering that bank interest rates itself are 16%. and that is why it had gone to my head that I was running a great bussiness.

But the whole sand castle came tumbling down when I sat down with one of my role models and mentors whom I had met early in collegge. After listening to my story, he smiled and told me that i was wrong.

And just like that, I realized that I was not running a bussiness.

Untill that point, I was treating the word ‘bussienss’ the same way wikipedia treats it, which is not a way it should be treated. I was considering myself a bussienssman, when all i was doing was being an individual who had actively taken charge of his own income.

I was trading my time for money and misunderstanding it as running a bussiness. It was the same as working in a job, or being a pofessional like a individual practising doctor, Lawyer or Chartered Acountant.

That was whn I realized that I had to change my working model. And convert it into what would be an actual bussiness model.

Immediately, I reacted by contacting liasoning agents in various towns who could generate orders for me by meeting new customers and take a slice of percentage on the top for the same. With the help of my much experienced partner, I found technicians willing to conduct works of oevrhauling and repairing on behalf of us in return for fixed fees, but could not run an enterpise like us either because they were in a job somewhere else or because they didnt have the gumption or the credit for it. After doing this, I reduced the work on my head to just two simple things: 1]Managing the technicians on pay per job basis and coordinating with the liasions 2] Purchasing the required spares for each job from vendors and delievering it to the technicians. I put two salaried employees (Read freshers), trained them for the same and then let them do their job.

After doing all this, my profit margin dropped substantially, almost to 5% after taxes. But now, what I had created was an automated system which was totally independent of me, which could go on working without even an ounce of my involvement and still generate money for me and my partner.

“Now, you’re a bussinessman.” My mentor shook hands with me next time we met. “Tell me what are you going to do next.”

And then, I started looking for opportunities to start another venture, one an allied bussiness supporting the first one, and the other, a traffic generating online blog. I also started getting free evenings to complete the manuscripts for my next books (Yeah, I’m also an author :p Google me)

And now, when i will tell my friends that I am running a bussiness the next time we meet, I would actually be speaking the truth.

Jay Hind & Goodbye.