A few tips to change your life

1. Learn to plan for everything in life from a very early age. It could be your career choices, financial objectives, marriage preference, food choice or for that matter anything that will have impact your life in a big way, plan and go with it and don’t fall for your instincts
2. Learn to spend wisely right from the day you start earning. Make saving a vital part of your future planning. This will help you to take risks when opportunities come your way through the mid-career phase. You don’t have to play it safe if you have decent bank balance to take care of the immediate expenses
3. Learn to say “No” for unwanted loans, friendships, habits and for things that would destroy your life and personality
4. Learn to treat your parents with dignity and respect as they get older. Your love and respect for them should not come down even when it comes to a point that they just exist and are of not much use to you!
5. Don’t have unnecessary curiosity on the lives of others. Let their “Personal” stuff be private to them
6. Don’t expect everyone to behave the way you expect. After all, each one have their own “Personality” which is unique and special to them
7. Don’t allow your body to pile up weight. Always be conscious of weight gain and address it by taking enough precautions. Once you become severely obese, it is very difficult to bring it down.
8. Develop network and friendship with intelligent and hard working people who are upto something in life. Don’t while away time in useless pursuits

Enjoy every moment, make memories and have a great life!

What is that you have learnt too late in your life?

1. You should have “mastery” in one thing that can help you to earn for your living even during trying circumstances. This could be your culinary skills, public speaking, writing, researching, reasoning, driving or for that matter, anything through which you can earn money “independently” throughout your life.
2. Dreams and wishes are fine, but what you do in reality is what matters at the end! You may be chasing thousands of dreams and fantasies, but they are just a vanity that would give you only a temporary high!
3. Do not spend lavishly in food, clothing, appliances and gadgets. They will wipe your earning!
4. You must definitely have a solid investment when you reach your mid-life career phase or else, you will regret for not being able to take advantage of the opportunities in front of you
5. Slowing down and focusing on a few high priority things is better than chasing many of your fantasies and vain pursuits
6. In the workplace, nothing matters than your “problem solving” skills. People respect you only for your ability to solve their problems
7. Nobody owes you anything, not even your parents and siblings and you “must” come out of that self pity mode or else the world is going to kick you hard!
8. Learning to be patient and persevering is the best ability that one can develop for a satisfactory and happy life
9. Don’t try to get too close with anyone. If you want to have your own boundaries, they are entitled for theirs too!
10. Style, fashion, flamboyant lifestyle, social media postings etc are just a way to express your “inner” loneliness and insecurities

Having said that, even now, one can start a new life by giving up on the negative traits and developing positive ones! Human beings are awesome creations who have the power to change the course of their lives anytime they “decide” to do!

All you need to know about Salon franchising Business Model

The rise and rise of salons and spas

Salons and Spas are found everywhere these days and all of us like to have a good haircut, a nice shave, a mesmerizing facial or a pampering massage, isn’t it? Though the services come at a very high cost, we don’t mind too much about it and happily avail them. Let us take a look at the salon franchising business model in detail today.

In India, there are several salons and spas across various tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Some of the big brands in this space are Naturals, Javed Habib, Green Trends, Toni & Guy etc. Working professionals especially from the IT industry frequent to these places to rejuvenate themselves from their tiring week long work.

My aim of this post is to take a look at this salon industry from a business perspective. I am planning to cover things like how much investment is needed to setup a salon cum spa, operating costs, risks and earning potential. I have gathered this information from various sources when I visited these places for availing their services.

First and foremost, these premium salons and spas operate on a franchising model which means that you will have to be bound under the franchising agreement. Now, let us do some math and see how much it takes to start the franchise of a successfully operating salon chain.

Fixed Costs

1. Franchise Fee – 3 lakhs
2. Infrastructure including interiors, chairs, AC’s etc – 15 to 20 lakhs
3. Advance for a 1200 sqft space in a posh area – 15 to 25 lakhs
4. Marketing cost – 2 to 4 lakhs

Total upfront investment cost : 40 to 50 lakhs approx

Now, let us take a look at the month on month operating cost

1. Salary for 6 to 7 professionals (20,000 Rs each)
2. Rent – 50 to 60 thousand rupees
3. Electricity charges – 5,000 Rs
4. Maintanence – 5,000 Rs
5. Misc – 10,000 Rs

Total : 2 to 3 lakhs per month

Note : In some cases, monthly revenue sharing may have to be done with the franchiser and that needs to be added.

Let us see how much money can be made through this salon. But before that, let us take a look at some of the major services offered by them

1. Hair cut – 200 to 300 rs
2. Shave – 100 to 150 rs
3. Hair dying – 300 rs
4. Hair treatments – 500 to 2000 rs
5. Facials – 600 to 4000 rs
6. Massage – 1000 to 4000
7. Bride and Bridegroom packages – 5000 to 15000 rs

According to the sources that I spoke, per day revenue during weekends is around 45,000 to 50,000 in normal areas and touches 1 lakh and above in posh areas. On a week day, it could be anywhere between 10,000 to 20,000 Rs.

So, doing a rough math, the per month revenue could be around 5 to 10 lakhs.

Now, assuming a net profit of 30%, it works out to 2 to 5 lakhs approx.

Risks

1. Lot of competition these days as number of salons and spas are on the rise
2. Labour management – Very difficult to manage and retain the professionals

Disclaimer : This estimation is not a guarantee that things would work out the same way it is explained.There could be other unforeseen risks and challenges too that may come your way. But, as an entrepreneur, it is your smartness and presence of mind that should help you to overcome the challenges.

The Doc apps in India – A look at Indian healthcare startups

All of us are concerned about the basic essentials of life and they are food, shelter, clothing and the most important one of all..”Our health”.

With all the advancements in the technology, diseases are still looming large, one after another discovered every day. The importance that we give to our health is on the increase. I am sure you want to have a healthy weight, a nicer look and potentially eliminate all the lifestyle related health diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cardiac irregularities etc.

The next difficult thing on the earth is to find a good doctor and even if you manage to fine one, the wait time in the clinic or the hospital is something that all of us would like to forget. Is technology helping to alleviate these problems? After all, technology should be used to improve our lives, isn’t it?

I am sure the case is different in western countries, but India has always been a little to slow when it comes to technology adoption. The problem for it is too deep and I am not going to get into that today. But, on the brighter side, people are happy to use technology in the metros and tier 1 cities in India. The reason is simple, all of us want to get things done quickly and without much pain.

There are certain health issues that we hesitate to talk openly, even if it means meeting up with a doctor in person, and there are those that are very common where you can get medicines from a pharmacy. Now, how many of us would be happy to consult a doctor online? You just download a mobile app, sign in with your details, search for what you are looking for, get a doctor and bang on..you go ahead and present your medical case.

The doctor understands your condition, asks you to upload a few test reports, and prescribes you medicines and schedules a follow up consultation. This is for a routine case and not for any medical emergency.

Now, applying some innovation, the app can partner with diagnostic labs and pharmacies to connect everything together. So, you have the doctor, the pharmacy, clinical and diagnostic labs connected together in one place. What is more important? Your health records are online and you will never again lose the paper prescriptions which you often misplace.

Exciting, huh? Let’s go through a few of such apps that are in India and see if they would benefit us.

Docs App

https://www.docsapp.in/

This one claims that they have 500+ verified doctors signed up with them, 2500+ labs under their blanket and have treated more than 8 lakhs patients. They also promise to connect you with a doctor in 30 minutes time.

Lybrate

https://www.lybrate.com/

They are similar to Docs App, but a little bigger. They have more than 90,000 verified doctors and have collaboration with top labs. They also have ventured into the other areas of medicine like homeopathy and ayurveda. Lybrate offers online consultations and you can also get connected with your doctor offline.

Practo 

https://www.practo.com/

They are a well known platform who have signed up with lot of doctors and clinics across India. When you search for any doctors or specialists, you could see Practo right up there in the search results. They help in scheduling appointments, managing appointments, sending out alerts, helping to manage medical records online etc. They also have tie ups with lots of diagnostic labs, fitness centers, spas and salons etc

Netmeds 

http://www.netmeds.com/

They are an online pharmacy platform and you can order medicines online and get them delivered at your door steps. They provide you many offers that is displayed on the home page. If you are busy to venture out to purchase your medicines, you can give a shot with Netmeds.

Portea

http://www.portea.com/

They operate on a home service based model. You can schedule a doctor visit to your home, order for physiotherapy at home etc. If you need attendants to take care of your loved ones who are ill, you can get them from Portea. They also provide elderly care, home visits for lab tests and many other services that you can check out in their website.

Well, my intention is not to review these platforms but just to shout out that they are there for your benefit. I have personally used Practo many times and found it very helpful to schedule appointments. I am going to try out the other platforms as well and will definitely review them as soon as I get a first hand look at them.

Well, let us pray God that we are off from diseases, but just to make our lives easier in the event of a health problem, let us see if we can use technology for the better.

Your comments and experiences are welcome!

Luxury in work place – Is it necessary?

I was reading through an article in a news paper on how companies pamper their staff with exotic furniture, interiors, free food and other flamboyant stuff. They had also published a few photos where the employees are seen relaxing in bean bags, rope chairs, playing indoor games and relaxing with a head massage done by a professional massageur. It was an exciting sight to watch and this might be the dream of every employee who works for an organization.

Everything looks good but the question to ponder over is this “Is it worth to splurge millions of dollars into getting this kind of infrastructure being set up?” and not every organization can afford it. Is productivity in any way linked with this sort of indulgence? We need to think deep to find an answer to this intriguing question.

These days, many companies take investor money to build their superior infrastructure. I am sure a huge chunk of the money that is being raised is being spent on infrastructure especially interiors than what is being paid to the employees. Many companies that start with grandoise and splendor in the beginning fail to last long because they did not focus much on growth and quality. All that they try is to become big too soon, attracting smart talents within a short time through their mind boggling interiors and facilities.

But the impending danger of going broke too soon is shrugged by everyone, both the promoters and employees. There are many such organizations that have not paid salaries to their employees regularly. There have been mass layoffs and firings as well. Why does all this happen? The reason is simple, everyone focusses on the short term and are looking for some quick bucks starting with investors, promoters and finally the employees.

All of them seem to forget the golden rule in business which is “If you are not providing value and great service to your customers, you will run out of business”. It doesn’t matter if you have the biggest building or the finest interiors, the customers will just walk away if you provide them shabby service.

Finally, those who get affected are the employees who are left in the cross roads, and they can only dream about those times that they indulged in pomp and splendour when their companies played high with the investor money. They keep hoping for the good times to return in their lives infinitely. Isn’t it wise to play it safe focussing on the long term? It is time to think as we see signs of a huge investment bubble that is waiting to be ripped apart.

Will Online food ordering platforms survive?

These days, online food ordering platforms mushroom everywhere. What is even more surprising is the fact that they are able to raise some serious funding from the investors. Let’s look into three such major applications in India and analyze their business model.

Zomato – It started as a restaurant review application providing user curated reviews on the food they cherished at their favorite restaurant along with rating, menu and photos. It thrived and thrived before evolving into a food ordering platform. Infact, Zomato’s presence is enviable not only in India but across the globe. Their USP is review+food ordering. They leave the food delivery to the individual restaurants to be taken care.

FoodPanda – The king of offers, I should say and they can afford it as their parent company Rocket internet is an E-Commerce biggie and is behind some of the huge brands in the sector. They are a food ordering platform that makes restaurants and customers use their platform. They provide you with a good mobile app which lets you order food easily. But, the killer shot is the seemingly insane offers which Foodpanda comes up with very frequently. I am sure they have blown investor money in a big way. Their USP is offers+food ordering. Again, the delivery is left to the individual restaurants to be taken care.

Swiggy – The new kid on the block that has bitten some serious investor money in a very short duration and in quick succession went in for more than one round of funding. These guys are very similar to Food panda except for the fact that they do the delivery themselves. Their USP is food order+delivery. I have been using Swiggy quite regularly and they look very promising. The best thing that I have experienced in Swiggy is that you can actually track their delivery boy in a map right from the moment you place the order. This is quite interesting and vanishes quite a lot of anxiety in you.

Now, tinyowl looked promising but vanished. It wasn’t a bad platform either. You may be wondering what the future holds for these maverick food ordering platforms and how they are going to make profits, which seems a really distant dream for them at the moment.

They have to compete against the individual online ordering apps that is being released by restaurant biggies these days combined with their efficient delivery mechanism. Another factor to consider is that Indian customers are comfortable picking up their phone for ordering and making cash payments as they consider online payments to be unsafe, though the trend is changing slowly with the introduction of technology like mobile wallets etc. There are also some small time players in the online food ordering space and their scope is restricted to the city which they exist.

My personal take is that it looks very bleak for these applications to really make big profits in the short run as they have to first recover the cost they have spent to acquire the customers. The loyalty of Indian customers to a particular platform is questionable as we give more importance to the current offers and value for money deals. Hence, the huge customer acqusition cost upfront also doesn’t seem to be a good strategy either.

It is really tough time ahead for these folks, but who knows they may be the next “big thing” in the E-commerce space. For this to happen, the online app usage habits of the Indian customers should change and internet penetration should happen across tier 2 cities in India.

Here’s how you validate your awesome startup idea

An idea alone cannot make you an overnight startup success. The key thing is that your idea should solve a particular problem that people are facing in their day to day life. There are millions of ideas zipping through the thoughts of entrepreneurs and innovators across the globe every moment. But, only a very few ideas take off as they have the necessary thrust and impetus to soar high.

Lets say you have an idea now and want to go ahead with it. The next step is to validate before launching out on it. Validation of idea is the process in which you put your idea through others on the need for it and see if they would be willing to pay for it. This happens when your idea is still evolving and it has not fully materialized it. You can consider this as an exploration of the market and customer fit of your idea. You can do it in two efficient ways as below.

1. You can talk with at least 5 strangers on the gist of the idea for the next 30 days. This way, you get 150 strangers without any bias or prejudice provide you their inputs which will most of the times be right
2. Create a landing page by providing details on your product and see how many customers are willing to sign up 3 Steps to Validate Your Business Idea For FREE…almost – StartupBros

If you are able to convince at least 100 people with your idea (60% conversion) during idea validation phase, then you need to go for idea enhancement.

Idea enhancement is nothing but you identify a few stake holders who would be your future customers, discuss the idea with them, understand their needs and include it as part of your solution. The iteration keeps going till your idea gets into a solid shape. Now, you are ready to go for a minimum viable product (MVP).

Once people buy into your idea, you can then come up with a precise plan and go ahead with your startup. Don’t be in a haste as things don’t happen just like that. You need to understand what the customer and market wants rather than just thrusting your ideas across everywhere. Don’t shoot aimlessly and waste your hard earned resources!

How to scale up your startup?

Scaling up is the key word these days in the startup arena. Everyone wants to start with something, look for funding and then scale up and make it big. Yes, business needs to grow! But, stats show that 8 out of 10 startups wind down within 1 year of starting out. This is not good news as what it conveys is an alarming fact that 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs either plunge into debt or lose their hard earned savings.

B-Schools, startup conferences, books etc teach you many concepts, but they are no match to practical exposure. I want to give you an example of how a business can be started and scaled up, from what I have observed from a road side buttermilk seller.

A year ago, this lady started her business with a pot, a stool and couple of cups. She was selling buttermilk in that earthern pot, all alone and on the road. I used to pass along that road everyday and used to see her selling buttermilk in a cheerful way. She continued selling buttermilk for the next 10 months and all of a sudden her one pot buttermilk startup has become big. Now, she has a glass display unit with at least 10 types of juices. What is even more interesting is that she has employed a person in her shop and there you go..a buttermilk pot turned into a variety juice bar!

Isn’t this entrepreneurship is all about? starting small, sustaining it for a while and then growing it up by employing people. If the basics are so simple, why do few people go crazy about it and make a complete mess with their startups. I want to provide you with two secrets that will help you to decide on how to launch and sustain your business first and then scale up.

1. When you are starting a venture for the very first time, you don’t have any brand value. You are just throwing your dice in the already crowded marketplace that is dominated by lot of big players. In this context, you will do well if you start your business in a very small way without losing much investment in infrastructre, staffing etc. You need money to run your business for at least 6 months without expecting profits. If you run it for 6 months by providing quality service to your customers, then you will never fail. Don’t get too carried away by those big brands setting up one branch after another in a huge way. The can afford to do it because they have the needed capital and won’t need to convince people to come their way as they have already built up their brand presence.
2. During the early days of your business, you need to learn each and everything related to it. There is no substitute to it and you should not expect an employee to do everything for you. You are the captain of your ship and it is in your very hands to steer it to safety before expanding out and employing people for management. Your presence during the initial days of starting up is the most vital cog for the success of your business.
3. Once you have come to a point where your business generates money month on month and cannot satisfy your customer base with the present setup, you are forced to scale up. This is the real use case to scale up, customer should force you to expand and not the other way around wherein you establish something big and expect customers to reciprocate.

Have you ever seen road side vendors or small shop merchants fail in their business? It is very rare because they know the fundamentals of their business very well and they never learnt it in an organized way. It is all through experience. I was observing a gas welder go about his business from a hole in the wall setup, a very small place where raw materials were dumped inside and he was sitting on the steps with his welding kit. All the time, he is surrounded by customers waiting with their stuff to be welded. They know that this guy would provide a perfect service as he is highly skilled. This is what success in business is all about, customers coming to you for the value that you provide. No flashing boards, no big advertisements and no endorsements, it is all about customer satisfaction which comes from your knowledge of the trade and the attitude you possess!

How to monetize your dream and make a living?

We often hear terms like “pursuing dreams”, “landing into a new job”, “launching out”, “starting up” etc. While these are very exciting stuff to think, how do they stack up in reality? is the major question running through most of our minds.

Suddenly, in a fascinating burst of imagination, we start living in our dreams. We dream about doing this, doing that and changing the world. For a moment, we get a euphoric feeling of owning the world and we can do anything we want, only to be struck down by the next wave of thoughts accusing us that dreams are only meant to be squashed down and reality is very different.

I am sure most of you could relate to what I am trying to convey. We need to have dreams as Eleanor Roosevelt rightly said “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”, what a powerful statement it is and let it always resonate in our minds.

We have discussed about dreams, but excuse me “dream job”? what is it? I want to be very clear about one thing, “One need to keep their dreams and jobs separate”. You may say that musicians, writers, athletes and artists have converted their dreams and passions into a career which pays and supports their livelihood. Yes, it is very much true and they are the fortunate ones. But, never forget the fact that they had paid a huge price for it in terms of sacrificing most of their life’s time into it. Hours of practice, toil, sleeplessness and loneliness. They had a dream, followed it up with a vision to accomplish their mission. It is not easy and not everybody can afford to do it. If you really have it in you to take that up and your situation supports it, I am not going to stop you.

I know a rich youngster who quit his high paying job to join a music school to pursue a career in music. But how many can afford it? This is a luxury for the majority in the world. I am going to spend the rest of the article on helping those who have a need to stick to their current job and at the same time pursue their dreams with a hope that they would make money out of it at some point of time. I am going to give you three very important steps to follow and these are life changers

1. Acceptance – We all need money to run our life, don’t we?. We should always be grateful to the current job that pays for our living. When you consider the millions of people around the world who are unemployed and are ready to do anything for a living, you should consider yourself fortunate that you get a pay check every month. If you have 100 reasons to hate your job, just have this one reason to love it “It pays you to live”. Acceptance of your current situation will take most of your frustration away. Don’t compare yourself with others as you are unique!
2. Reflect – As you have accepted your current position, reflect upon your life. Think about what gives you the highest satisfaction, about your passions and the things that you love to do. Also, analyze the reasons that prevent you from accomplishing them. Think about your childhood, about the appreciations that you got from your friends, teachers etc. Prepare a list of items that you enjoy doing. Don’t think about making money through them. Your attitude should be that by doing these things, you are going to just enjoy your life
3. Monetize – As you are enjoying doing the things you like, you have the desire and temperament to practice them more and more. Now a magic happens, without your knowledge you are becoming an expert in your chosen area and this is the first step of making people pay for your services. Yes, people will pay you when you offer them your valuable service which comes with mastery over the craft. Don’t think that thousands should become your fans and pay you immediately. Start with satisfying one soul and try to make them pay for your service. This the flood gate that would open up the money chain for you.
4. Change – As you have monetized your passion, it is time to take the full leap of faith. At this stage, the money that you make by indulging in your passion should be able to support your basic livelihood. If not, don’t ever dare to make the transition. It is better to be in a job and be happy than to beg someone to make the ends meet. Be very cautious and never let your emotions misguide you!

Let me wrap up this article with a beautiful quote from Jon Acuff in his book Quitter

“Hustle isn’t just doing the things you love all the time. Hustle is doing the things you don’t enjoy sometimes to earn the right to do the things you love.”

I think this statement by Jon sums it all. Folks, the world is beautiful ripe with loads of opportunities. Go ahead and harvest it, but with caution!

Headstart Chennai – An experience to remember

I have been passionate about startups for a while now and the reason being that I have always been this “Idea guy”, who gets bombarded with lots of ideas but it just stops there. I have silently witnessed many of my ideas taking shape and becoming huge ventures in the hands of others. While I was remnicising about the reasons that prevented me from moving ahead with ideas, it was clear that I lacked an “energetic group of people” around me who would help to ideate, validate and move forward. Yes folks, it is all about networking which makes the difference.

From being a solo-ideator, I started to read articles on startups from blogs like Yourstory and INC42. The inspiring stories on entrepreunership along with real life examples of successful entrepreuners who made it big from the scratch started to excite me and gave me hope that with focussed and targetted effort, anyone can become a hit in the startup arena but only with the help, guidance and support of those who have walked the path themselves.

It is in this context that I was looking for some startup groups in Chennai to start networking. I am a shy guy who takes a while to get going, but one the ice is  broken, my ideas and knowledge sharing gets on the flow. I started following “Headstart Chennai” through their facebook page and started to get notification on the events. One such event was the “Accelerators and Incubators – Fueling Entrepreunership” @Theworks, Ascendas, the super special IT park where I worked more than 6 years earlier.

I registered through Meraevents website for the event scheduled for Saturday (20 Feb) and was all set go but then you know, on a saturday afternoon, you get all sorts of distractions. But, I reasoned that what sets enterprising people apart from others is the drive to move ahead irrespective of the feelings. I want to be one such and thus arrived @The works in Ascendas. The folks from Headstart were waiting at the entrance, gave me a badge and ushered me inside. It was around 2 pm and the place was full. I scanned through my eyes for a seat at the back, as this is our usual mindset but found none. I found a seat on the second row from the front and the “ice breaker” was going on. Luckily, it started from the back and when it reached the row behind where I was sitting, the announcer called it time and showed his willingness to get started. Whah, I escaped from blurbing out something naive in front of all the entrepreuners who had gathered.

I understood that people had come for some tid bits on entrepreunership, some were looking for co-founders and a few others were interested in finding some bright minds for programming. It was a mixed crowd and the event started with Sathish Vaidhyanathan from Paypal Start tank delivering his keynote address. He stressed the point on the importance of a “startup ecosystem” and touched upon these three jargons “Accelerators, Incubators and co-working spaces”, all greek and latin to me. These were later explained in detail during the panel discussion which included eminent startup entrepreuners.

The crux of this meetup was a session by Mr. Ganapathy Venugopal, CEO of Axilor ventures. He stressed on three very vital points which each entrepreuner should ask themselves before even sharing the idea with others. Here they go, the golden words

1. Does people want your product?
2. In what form they can consume your product?
3. Will they pay to use it?

I straight away liked it as these words reflected his experience and knowledge on entrepreunership. He also asked the wannabe entrepreuners to be frugal with spending money in things like extravagant infrastructure, marketing campaign etc. The key is to have cash up in the wallet to run the course. The longer you stay in the game, the greater are your odds to succeed. He also suggested people to fill up the forms for applying for accelerator program with Axilor, which will help them to ask the right questions to themselves. A very valid point indeed. Another important point that he covered was to evaluate the market and customer fit of the product without spending much money.

After this was a session on the legal formalities needed for startups by Hrishikesh Dattar, founder of Vakilsearch. He stressed on the need to understand the legal systems of the land so that you don’t get into trouble at any point in time and most importantly while raising money for expansion in the future.

This was followed by a panel discussion comprising of Shrikrishnan Ganesan from Konotor, Kevin William David from Walletkit, Ashwin Shankar from The works, Pradeep from Paypal Start tank and moderated by Selvam from Selvam and Selvam. All of these folks discussed some very important points on their journey and shared their experiences as tid bits for which most of the audience had turned up.

The key point is to make use of the Twitter lists in an efficient way by providing efficient feedback on products to the founders. Only an entrepreuner can know the heart beat of another, how true this statement is! The panel also explained that an incubator is the place where you go with an idea along with your passion to make it big. Accelerator is to provide you the thrust once you have started up in a reasonable way and co-working spaces is a hybrid of both. You get a working space in a swanky office location and get to work with like minded people who are running the race along with you; mind you, the race is a marathon and you need a lot of support!

Thats it folks. I learned a lot from this session and already looking forward for the next one! I made it a point to add a few of these guys onto my twitter list. I also resolved within myself that I will use this blog to write on startups and reviews on new products that are launched at a blitzkirg pace.