How to Do Business in India
The diversity of India is so vast that explaining them in details to help you understand the business environment in the culturally varied set up is quite a difficult task. However if you wish to start small business in India you need to have a vague if not complete idea of India’s region, language, religion, caste and market and the impact of all this in doing business in India.
You must be wondering how you can do business in a set which is so varied in the complete sense of the term. You need not worry unduly over this. Most business in India is done in cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Here you have to work with a particular socio-economic class all of whom are bound together in some way or the other.
How to Do Small Business in India/Things to Take Care
Keep certain facts about Indian culture in mind. This will help you mingle with the local populace with great ease.
- Indian counterparts can be addressed by titles like “Professor” or “Doctor”. For those not having the high sounding titles you can use “Mr”, “Mrs”, or “Miss”
- Traditionally ‘namaste’ is the most accepted norm of greeting
- Don’t refuse any food or drink offered to you during business meetings. Remember most Indians are vegetarians and are teetotalers.
- Avoid being aggressive
- Make sure you receive gifts with your right hand.
Hierarchy
Do not forget to pay importance to hierarchy. It would be treated as disrespect. Hierarchy plays a key role in Indian business culture. Due importance is given to positions. For instance manual labor of companies is carried out only by the “peon”. So matters get delayed for long for others do not care to do it if the peon isn’t there.
Doing Business – Meetings and Negotiations
If you wish to hold meetings, arrange them well in advance. Issue instructions or invite people in writing and confirm it over the phone. Do not hold meetings on national holidays like Independence Day and during festive periods.
Punctuality is appreciated but they are not stickler for it. You need to be prepared for last minute cancellations if required.
If you are in a meeting room greet the senior most figure first. Avoid talking about personal matters and, if new to India, avoid matters like slum, politics, poverty or beggars.
Be prepared for slow business negotiations. To build trust you need to build rapport. Statistics and empirical data do matter to Indians but not much. They are primarily guided by feeling, intuition, and faith to guide them. You will have to keep patience. Successfully negotiations are celebrated with a dinner.
Start Small Business in India
In order to do business in India, you need to find good partners who have knowledge of the local market and rules and procedures. These apart you need good planning and follow up and truckloads of patience and commitment. Market entry options in India include a joint venture with an Indian partner, subsidiary relationship, or using a liaison project, or branch office.
- Here are some ways of operation.
- Define your core. Never hand over the core functions of your business.
- Know more about your service provider like you hire a full-time employee:
- Define the scope and schedule of your project in no uncertain terms. Be very strict with your project requirements.
- Never choose a vendor just on price. Review portfolios and samples minutely
- Relate compensation to clearly defined project milestones
- Negotiate very clearly on the ownership of the work up front
- Always have a written record of goals, pay schedules and changes if any.
When you take care of all these India specific issues, you can look forward to start a small business in India.
Respected Mr.Scott,
I read many articles on this website. It is quite interesting and very useful. You are doing very great job by informing people like us. I want to start something related to textile industries. I don’t know much about this field and i need your guidance. Can I meet you? I really need your help so please help me. Can you please provide me your e-mail id or phone no.? i will be greatful to you my e mail address is sanju_rs2005@yahoo.com.
I am eagerly waiting 4 your reply so please guide me. Thanx in advance.
Sanjay.
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Scott Wilson Reply:
April 23rd, 2010 at 9:27 am
Mr. Sanjay,
Thanks for the appreciation and we love to guide people.
For you, I would suggest you to visit the main textile markrt of the city near by your area which is the comercial hub. First you visit that and then you will get some information about the basics of this business. Then you need to analyse the market. It depends upon your choice that you want to start only in house or export as well? You follow these steps and still you have any question, you can surely ask as many questions as you want.
We are always here to guide you. All the best.
Thank you.
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Respected,sir
I read your many reply which u did for other people it is realy very helpful.i also want to start my small production company in india but i am not able to find out which product would be more successful in the indian market as well as for export.please send my u r precious reply thank u
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Scott Wilson Reply:
April 24th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Mr. Praveen,
Thanks for the appreciation, It is my moral duty to guide you all. See, production may fall in various categories. To classify it we can take
FMCG,
Machinery,
Foodstuffs,
Business oriented production,
Electronics, Garments,
Textile,
Jewelery,
Computer parts and accessories,
Health care products,
Personal care products,
Mass products,
Capital products etc.
So you need to check, what is your interest and in which field you have experience. Capital, interest, experience, links etc. are other factors to take care of.
So you think on this and reply.
Thank you.
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sir i have planned to start a cafe called “print on demand” where people can come n print any slogan, pics, any kind of painting on their t-shirts and shirts or any cloth compatiable to printing machine. well can u plz tell me how is this idea. as i am assiting my father in his business so i decided to this job only on weekends. i can establish a stall anywhere in running malls so that i get crowd. plz analyse my plan i live in surat
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Scott Wilson Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Mr. Ravi,
That’s a brilliant idea. But you shoud kep it for entire week so that you can get some big business contracts as well.
Thank you.
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ravi Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
plz tell me how to start. i dont know anything about technical aspects related to machinery. could u plz give some information about the printing machine, which company should be approached, i dont know anything about the machine, investments. plz tell how i do research
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Scott Wilson Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Mr. Ravi,
As you will go on the field and meet different people, you will get idea of all these things.
Or you can collect their contact details from the networking medias and yellow pages.
See, it takes some time to get started and there is no need to worry, you just concentrate on your work and if you have any doubt, you can surely ask questions.
Thank you.
Hello sir,
I read many articles on this website. It is quite interesting and very useful. You are doing very great job by informing people like us. I would like to start a multi chain medical shop or pharma distributor. I need some suggestions like how to start and how to manage….
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Scott Wilson Reply:
May 4th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Mr. Vijay,
Fundamental principles don’t change at any level of business. As you start the small business, this is the same way. You need to have the required degree in pharmacy and you need to get the license from the jurisdictional office and you can establish your medical stores chain.
That is a very good idea. And take care, if possible keep your medical stores open for 24 hours. Because in India, it is in a huge demand.
The best example of such medical chain is “Nobel Medical stores”.
If you need any further information, you can surely ask your questions.
Thank you.
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Sir, thanks for providing useful information to us. I have just completed my bachelor’s in business administration and I am planning to start a wedding planning service (wedding consultant) soon. So would like to know what are the licenses and other legal formalities I have to keep in mind.
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