Exciting world of entrepreneurship

Akhilesh Mishra


Lucknow

These entrepreneurs stroll the Web world. Trained in professions as varied as journalism, chartered accountancy or engineering, their love for computers do not constrain them. Instead, they decided to tap the Net to their advantage.


"Simply described, Web business is when buying and selling is done on the Net. However, there is more to it," says Anuj Kackar, CEO, Living Edge, Cyberhome Infozone. An MSc in tissue culture, Kacker started his own firm which offers multiple Net services and he takes his cut in the business.

"Innovativeness of idea is what makes any business click on the web," says 20-years-old Saurabh Kumar. Kumar has started www.cartoonindia.com website. An engineering student, his website provides cartoons to other websites, such as Thinkindia.com (Kumar gets $ 200 per month), DesiDemand.com and Funtoosh.com, according to their requirements and for which he is paid. And his is just one creative option.

A former journalist, Dilip Awasthi, started upportal.com. "On the portal, we offer complete information on UP. We have websites of various government departments also," he says. Awasthi hosts sites of UP state government departments and is paid for the site hosting. The portal also acts as a mediator, for which payments are made, between UP's handicraft manufacturers and their buyers.

Although Web development is a sunrise business in India and is just in infancy in Lucknow, things are changing there too. Web enterpreneurs are dependent on advertisers to run business. "The survival is dependent on advertisers. However, the demand is more as there is good customer response and supply is less.

And the rate at which Web entrepreneurship is expanding in Lucknow, competition is going to intensify, " said Anand Agrawal (on training to be a chartered accountant), of Avadh Online, who runs a portal Avadh.com and website 2cool2win.com. His portal offers complete information on Lucknow and till now they have averaged Rs 3 lakh in sales.

According to Agarwal, netpreneurs will have to come with alternative solutions if they have to sustain. "And as the future trends indicate, website creation will get more specialized idea-wise. And with the coming of leading ISP companies like Satyam in Lucknow, entrepreneurs will have to get more localized or they will need to ship out," said

Agarwal.

The losses can be quite high here despite the business requiring little monetary investment. The losses occur when the netpreneur does not upgrade himself technologically.

The business is reliant on the latest computer technology and it is imperative that the entrepreneur updates himself technologically. "If the netpreneur fails to keep himself updated, he will not survive. He may not lose financially, yet he'll remain out of business," said Kacker. Losses can also come via high phone bills.

On the flip side, domain name squandering is getting very pronounced. However, the awareness level about the Net is quite low. Thereby the business is not getting enough ground to expand.