BIS hallmark : benefits & shortcomings

BIS hallmark, long slated as a saviour of customers when buying gold jewelry in India. Read the complete post to really grasp the point I am trying to put forward.

I think most of us know the benefits of the hallmark, from both the jeweler & the customer's point of view.

1. Assurance of gold purity.

Okay, so I cannot think of any other benefit, to be frank.

There are a lot of shortcomings that I can think of, though. 

1. Why does a jeweler need a license for getting a piece of jewelry hallmarked? The very point of hallmarking is that anyone should be able to go to the assaying centre & get a piece hallmarked. Not just a licensed jeweler.

2. The documentation required! There are so many documents required for the jeweler's license that it feels like one is applying for a personal arms license not a jeweler's license for getting a piece hallmarked.

3. The risk. This is one aspect that is most easily neglected by jewelers & consumers alike. To get a jewelry piece hallmarked, the Jewelry has to be left at the assaying centre for a few hours. Which is risky! Especially with high value items such as solitaire rings etc. 

4. The new proposed certificates are cumbersome! Recently bis proposed a certification for hallmarked pieces. This is absurd! It adds no value to the piece or the customer because it will say the same thing as the hallmark does but the certificates will occupy a lot of space & whenever a piece is sold a jeweler will have to through hundreds (or maybe thousands in case of even slightly large retailers) to find that one certificate! It is absolutely crazy! The hallmark is sufficient. The certificate is unnecessary.

5. The more things provided to a customer at the time of sale = the more things required at the time of return. Generally, everything, the certificate etc. given to a customer at the time of sale are required back at the time of return. Some corporate jewelers clearly state that a return will not be processed in case the original certificates & packing material are not returned. Which in simple terms means that if you lost that certificate you will lose the return policy! Which may sound absurd, but the Jeweler has spent time & money on getting those certificates made for customer satisfaction & it is a tedious process to get it done all over again.

So, actually hallmarking would be very simple if it was a more open & convenient process. Licensed hallmark centres where anyone can go & get a jewelry item hallmarked. 

Oh, & by the way, I have a jewelry store Suranas Jewelove (also, shop online at http://www.SuranasJewelove.com)

I think Hallmarking & assaying is a noble concept but the licensing etc. is just unnecessary.

Book review : Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach

Ok, so this book was recommended to me by my Uncle.
I just read Jonathan Livingston Gull yesterday & I am in awe of this amazing book. There are many books on philosophy, believe-in-yourself, set-yourself apart. But this one was different for me. This book (at least the Part 1) just strikes a chord. & the metaphors are so apt. 

I still feel like flying. The story is about a discoverer, later an outcast, further a student, then a teacher & finally the story of renaissance. Not among the humans, but among the seagulls.

The story gave me a third person (& first-hand) perspective of an outlier. Not someone who has achieved the ultimate peak of the society but someone who has broken away from the society & gone on to achieve the peak of himself.

The story is about this red dot

& it resonates with me.

Even if you are not the outlier in your society, this book is a must-read for a fresh perspective, for the open-minded approach.

Oh, & here is the interesting part, the book is written in parts. It's a small book, yet is written as parts, very important, each one of them.

When I had gone through the first part, I thought the story was complete, although it felt tragic, for the loss of the other gulls, but that is the most beautiful thing about this book, the story does not end at your first peak, it goes on. There is so much more that I want to write but alas it will spoil the fun for the first-time reader.

Go ahead & read it, it is worth it. 

P.S. : You can purchase Jonathan Livingston Gull by Richard Bach at Amazon. The link is my first referral link. 

It is important to add extra revenue streams as an entrepreneur

One resource that every entrepreneur is always short on is, TIME. They is always so much going on in the mind, there are so many ideas, so many things that need to be tried but where do you find the time to try them out?
However in my experience as an startup, I have figured out one thing, it is very important to have an extra revenue stream, something that keeps you afloat when business is slow. It could be something related to what you are doing in the venture or something completely different that you enjoy.
As for the time part, an hour every day or set a schedule to do that part time, for that little extra revenue, sometimes it helps a lot.

Google Apps no longer free!

Google Apps, that awesome service by Google, specially for small businesses where you could get your own email domain (eg. WeCare@Jewelove.in ) for free, is no longer free. Of course, the free version was restricted, but it was free! Any entrepreneur knows how useful free stuff is in the initial phase of a start up.

I can't help but think of the mem, 'Why you no free, Google Apps?'

Send a greeting card to the Soldiers on the Border

www.21fools.com - Send a greeting card to Soldiers on the border

Books at their Cheapest!

Besides getting them for free as a gift or taking from a friend for a read, the best way to buy cheap books is to check across multiple websites or bookstores & then buy.

Now, you can do it from one place, KBookSearch a comparison shopping engine for books.

Here, you can find & compare prices of books across various websites, including Flipkart, Bookadda, Crossword & several others.

This book comparison shopping engine has been created by Kaipa Karthik, a senior from IIT Kanpur, who earlier launched QuickIPLStats.

Track everything IPL from one place - Quick IPL Stats - Symbolic Entrepreneurship

DLF IPL - Follow all scores & statistics at Quick IPL Stats

Iphone app sold for 1 Billion Dollars!

Forget about diamonds, rubies & fine jewelry, mobile apps is where the money is! Instagram, the sensational fastest growing iPhone app was acquired by facebook today for 1 Billion Dollars!

Introvert Leadership

Awesome! 

Business and Busy-ness

Lately, I have been very busy. I have never been Vella (idle) for most of my life anyway, but lately its been just too hectic. Waking up at 6, going to Office, coming back around, working on the website, that it really made me think, is it just me or there is a reason why

Business sounds so much like Busy-ness?

What is your opinion?

Norm Brodsky : Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century

Norm Brodsky on the New Breed of Entrepreneur

If nine out of 10 entrepreneurs are starting Web-based businesses. Is that trouble?

Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur.I spend a lot of time traveling and talking to aspiring entrepreneurs. And I'd estimate that nine out of 10 of them are starting Web-based businesses.

They're launching websites because they think it's easier, less expensive, and less risky than starting a traditional business—by which I mean one that requires direct physical contact with customers. What's more, most of these would-be entrepreneurs have full-time jobs and are pursuing their new ventures on the side. The start-up capital comes out of their savings. They figure that if they fail, they'll be out a few bucks, but their main source of income will be safe.

The Best Startup to intern with

YOUR OWN STARTUP!

Seriously, the best startup to intern with is your own, none other can teach you as much as that.

Startup America : Promoting entrepreneurship & the American Dream

I just red this press release from the White House. I find it very interesting, especially some of the ways they are trying to promote entrepreneurship & small businesses & helping them achieve their American Dream.

On One-Year Anniversary of Startup America Initiative President Obama Sends Startup America Legislative Agenda to Congress

Paypal is such a nightmare for Indian businesses

Paypal I used to love it. It was such a convenient way to accept payments from my international customers. They could pay me without disclosing their credit card details, they were comfortable with it & I could auto withdraw funds to my bank account in India, without any hassle.

That was a long time ago.

Now, the scenario is completely different. Now, Paypal tells me my PAN No. is invalid! The same PAN No. which can be verified on the Income Tax Department website, the same PAN that I have used for over 4 years to pay my taxes & as an photo ID for numerous train journeys & many other purposes, Paypal refuses to accept it.
That is sad, because Customers still ask me if they can pay via Paypal, but now I cannot accept their payments, because of no fault of mine or theirs, but a fault of Paypal in their PAN verification.

Moreover the issue is not simply just with me but numerous businesses in the country. If you google Paypal says Invalid Pan, you see a lot of search results.

One big reason for this could be, sole proprietorship businesses in India, no sole proprietorship businesses in India have a separate PAN, they work under the PAN of their proprietor but they may have a separate name (eg. my company name is Jewelove but my name is Sambhav Karnawat) & it might be so, that Paypal is trying to verify the name of the company with the name of the PAN Card. Whatever the issue, Paypal should try to rectify it so that it can earn from Indian businesses again & so that Indian e-commerce business can receive payments from their international customers peacefully once again.

Mera ek Sapna hai

I'm a dreamer & I love to dream. As is said by Kahil Gibran,  

“I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.”

I have a dream, that I live in all day & night. It is a beautiful dream with a beautiful world. It is this dream, & this dream alone that keeps me plugged into life & keeps me going.


A beautiful dream it is.


I live to make that dream a reality someday.

Few words...: A Candle in the Dark, a poem by my friend Devanshu

Few words...: A Candle in the Dark: The white burning candle, Standing in the dark.. on its own, trying to illuminate everything around...

My friend, Devanshu composed this wonderful poem, strikes a chord with this excellent piece.

Recommend a read!

Why you SHOULD sweat the small stuff

"Our own sense of self-aggrandizement feels that big, important problems need to have big, important, and above all expensive solutions attached to them," he argues. But in our perpetual egotism and haste to manage the humongous project, we often miss the small, cheap and completely effective solution. What companies need, he concludes, is a Chief Detail Officer with lots of power and very little money.

Pretty much what I am in my company, owner with no money! Teaches you how to survive on less!

Here's the talk by Rory Sutherland, reblogged via TED

Overcoming Choice Overload - Key to Success?

 

Video by TED

Venture Capitalists Investments soar to $28.4 Billion!

VC Investing Soars 22 Percent To $28.4B In 2011, Internet Sector Reaches Highest Levels In A Decade

Double-digit increases in investment dollars in 2011 were spread across a number of industries, including the Clean Technology and Internet sectors. Investment dollars also increased across every stage of investment categories, with the exception of a 48 percent decrease in seed stage investments.

Tracy T. Lefteroff, global managing partner of the venture capital practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers observes that investors “are acting prudently and not chasing excessive valuations” and we’re “unlikely to see these sectors overheat like we saw in the 1999 to 2000 era.”

The Software industry brought the most VC dollars by sector for the year, with the amount raised up 38 percent over 2010 to $6.7 billion in 2011. VCs invested into 1,004 software deals, a 7 percent rise in volume over the prior year. Reflecting the fourth quarter decline, software investing was down in the last quarter of 2011 with $1.8 billion going into 238 deals. Despite this decrease, software was also the number one sector for dollars invested and total number of deals in Q4 and counted more than double the number of deals during the quarter than the second largest sector, Biotechnology.
Internet companies also saw a significant increase in investing in 2011 with $6.9 billion going into 997 deals. That’s a 68 percent increase in dollars and 24 percent increase in deals from 2010 when $4.1 billion went into 807 deals. In fact, 2011 marked the highest level of Internet investment over the past decade.


Early Stage investments experienced double-digit increases, rising 47 percent in terms of dollars and 16 percent in terms of deals in 2011 to $8.3 billion in 1,414 deals. For the fourth quarter, Early Stage investments increased, with $2.3 billion going into 364 deals, an 11 percent increase in dollars in Q3 while the number of deals was flat. Early Stage companies attracted 29 percent of dollars and 38 percent of deals in 2011 compared to 24 percent of dollars and 35 percent of deals in 2010.
Expansion Stage investments increased in 2011 by 9 percent in dollars and dropped 8 percent in deals with $9.7 billion going into 999 deals. Expansion funding dropped in the fourth quarter, dipping 9 percent from the prior quarter to $2.4 billion. The number of deals also decreased during the quarter, falling 21 percent to 222. Expansion Stage companies attracted 34 percent of dollars and 27 percent of deals in 2011 compared to 38 percent of dollars and 31 percent of deals in 2010.
In 2011, $9.5 billion was invested into 864 Later Stage deals, a 37 percent increase in dollars and a 5 percent increase in deals for the year. For the fourth quarter, $1.8 billion went into 178 deals, which represents a 26 percent decrease in terms of dollars and a 9 percent decline in terms of deals from the third quarter of 2011. Later Stage companies attracted 33 percent of dollars and 24 percent of deals in 2011 compared to 30 percent of dollars and 23 percent of deals in 2010.






Reblogged via Techcrunch

Cost of Failure - Good Reason to Start Early!

This post is a prelude to an upcoming post on 'Failure Funds - Way to
spur Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Indian Universities'
Cost of Failure
One of those weird terms that I very often come up with. When I say
cost of failure, I mean the loss you have incurred, because you tried
something (usually new) & it was unsuccessful, in terms of lost money,
time & peace of mind (aka financial & other security)
Why is it important?
Lot of IITians (in particular because I've had interactions with quite
a few of them) think the cost of failure is high when they are just
around graduation.
The general consensus amongst most IITians is that if they do not take
up a corporate job (I am not talking about the almighty researchers
that we nurture because they are (few) gods walking amongst us humble
men), & start something new aka startup & they 'FAIL!' they would have
screwed up their life & (dramatically) 'Condemned their souls to the
raging fires to hell for all eternity'
Now my point (scientifically speaking, hypothesis) is, that it is
quite not true, rather if at all, it is quite the opposite. i.e. The
cost of failure is VERY LOW early on & there is a very good chance it
might be very high by the time you are in your late thirties & early
forties (mark important, will explain why, in next post)
Proof : (my favorite part, #MTH101)
Consider a (read daring) IITian who starts a company (or at least
starts working on an idea) early, let's say his sophomore year or
maybe third year. He works on it for a month or two, but does not
achieve success.
(sad story) & he 'quits'. (he stops working on that idea & starts
working on another idea)
Now, consider what people think he has he 'lost' :
1. 3 months of time.
2. Some peace of mind (maybe)
3. Some parties
4. Some money (maybe)
5. Grades (maybe)
6. Confidence - you might lose a little confidence, but dude, get over
it & work on the next big idea that will change the world.
Now, let me explain what he has gained :
1. 3 months of work experience. These 3 months would have otherwise
been wasted boozing around & in hangovers.
2. In 3 months, he would have had at least 6 surprise quizzes & a
midsem, so I don't think he'd have had a peaceful mind all the time
anyway.
3. 3 months of internship in working hard & trying to make an idea work.
4. He may lost some money, eg. Booking a domain, travel expenses etc.
but otherwise it would have been spent on Domino's pizza etc.
5. You may have a lower grade on your transcript but definitely a
much-more-important self-motivated work experience which would help
you throughout your life.
6. Confidence - You will gain a lot of confidence in the long run
(with the help of your friends & mentor maybe) because you dared to
venture into an unknown territory. It will help you in the long run
because life belongs to those who dare to venture into unchartered
territories. (reference - Han Solo, Star Wars)
So, overall I don't think you lost a lot.
Living Example - Me & my initially successful idea. I started working
on an in idea in the 4th semester which was initially a decent
success, but as times changed, it sort of 'died'. In the business
terms, you'd call it a failure, but for me it was a success! I was
able to pay my mess & canteen bills independently. It gave me such a
boost of confidence that even today when I am raising capital for
Jewelove & trying to venture into a relatively unknown territory I
feel confident. I know that, God Forbid, but if I do not succeed, I
can make my living independently doing something that I love to do.
For me, that is life.
More on the cost of failure in the next post, 'Failure Funds - Way to
Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Indian Universities'
Stay Tuned!