Things that affect business

"Every moment your business isn't being attended to your competitors are gaining an advantage."
- Drake Morton

This is so true. I have not been well for couple of days and could not get online, you know what happened - work got delayed, deadlines not met. This did not affect my business nor my clients, but things were a little messed up, I got them straight in a day but the guilt feeling that I was not able to deliver the work on time kept me thinking so much that I did not accept a new project from a new client... why? just to make sure the current customers are attended and until I come up with a strategy to attend my customers 24/7 irrespective of I get ill or go on a trip or what ever it is. Question is, how do I do it? So, basically if you don't attend your business even for a day you will lose business directly or indirectly...

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Technical problems. Internet connection, I use BSNL, they are good but the problem is, when there is a problem no one knows how to fix it. You know how to but, they don't want to listen to you as they recently got trained and think they are the only people who can find a solution , but they don't know how. This kept me out of connection for more than 16 hours... 16hours sure is a problem for business ... I could not upload files , could not talk to the clients, could not send mails... What did I realize? have 2 internet connections, if possible have one more and let it be a wireless one... who will pay for all this, your customers... charge them an extra buck, they will not mind if you provide them better service and are accessible 24/7.

Micro-financing in India

Have you read about 'Muhammad Yunus' and his idea of micro-financing? Though micro-financing has been there for ages... It is fascinating to know that he has 6.6 million borrowers of whom 97% are women, that's a huge number for someone who is into micro-financing. I started reading more about micro-financing and came across a article by an advertising agency which talks about 'Seventy Things to Watch in 2007' and interestingly of one them is 'Web-based Micro Financing'.. I googled around and found this website 'kiva.org' it is quite a successful business today. 'Web-based Micro Financing' is a wonderful idea.. I am curious to know how much would these micro-lenders earn, like what would be the percentage of profit...? and would you invest in such ventures to get good returns...? How much do you think the website owners(kiva.org) are making money..?

I think you just need 3 things to build a company like Kiva.. 1, Technical skill to build a website. 2, Build contacts with local micro-financiers 3, Most importantly you need to have financial (banking/micro-financing) background to understand and run this business or may be degree in finance. I can build such a website with in a week and build contacts with micro-financiers - So, if anyone wants to start something similar to kiva then I would be interested to become a partner but your business plan should interest me.. I see a great opportunity in micro-financing esp India .