SUMMARY

An organization comes into existence only because of the efforts put in by an individual, who
would be prepared to assume responsibility of leading the enterprise with him. For that, the
individual must have special quality that is known as entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship as an economic activity emerges and functions in sociological and cultural
environment. It could be conceived as an individuals free choice activity or a social groups
occupation or profession.
The entrepreneurs perform vital function in economic development of a nation. They have been
referred to as the human agents needed to mobilize capital, to exploit natural resources, too often
develop innovative products or concepts, to create markets and to carry on business. It may be
construed that the entrepreneurial contribution spells the difference between prosperity and
poverty among nations.
A successful entrepreneur is always aware of the new developments and changes that take place
around him in the society and is prepared to adapt to the changing needs of the society. He is the
central point, around whom all other factors of production, productive resources and techniques
shall revolve. He integrates talent, abilities and drives to transform the resources into profitable
ventures.
Studies on entrepreneurs have revealed that personality and cultural or social factors are related
to entrepreneurial behavior. Traits such as self-confidence, creativity, persistence, calculated risk
taking capacity,
Determination, need for achievement, individuality, leadership, versatility, optimism and liking
for challenges characterize the entrepreneurial person.
A person who has a business of his own is called an entrepreneur. But what differentiate an
entrepreneur from a successful entrepreneur are his achievements in the field of his business.

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching and
running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company,
offering a product, process or service for sale or hire. It has been defined as the "...capacity and
willingness to develop, organize, and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in
order to make a profit."] While definitions of entrepreneurship typically focus on the launching
and running of businesses, due to the high risks involved in launching a start-up, a significant
proportion of businesses have to close, due to a "...lack of funding, bad business decisions, an
economic crisis -- or a combination of all of these" or due to lack of market demand. In the
2000s, the definition of "entrepreneurship" has been expanded to explain how and why some
individuals (or teams) identify opportunities, evaluate them as viable, and then decide to exploit
them, whereas others do not, and, in turn, how entrepreneurs use these opportunities to develop
new products or services, launch new firms or even new industries and create wealth.

WHO IS AN ENTREPRENUER
Traditionally, an entrepreneur has been defined as "a person who organizes and manages any
enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk". Rather than
working as an employee, an entrepreneur runs a small business and assumes all the risk and
reward of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is
commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes.
Entrepreneurs tend to be good at perceiving new business opportunities and they often exhibit
positive biases in their perception (i.e., a bias towards finding new possibilities and seeing unmet
market needs) and a pro-risk-taking attitude that makes them more likely to exploit the
opportunity "Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-taking. While
entrepreneurship is often associated with new, small, for-profit start-ups, entrepreneurial
behavior can be seen in small-, medium- and large-sized firms, new and established firms and in
for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, including voluntary sector groups, charitable
organizations and government.]For example, in the 2000s, the field of social entrepreneurship has
been identified; in which entrepreneurs combine business activities with humanitarian,
environmental or community goals.
An entrepreneur is typically in control of a commercial undertaking, directing the factorsof
productionthe human, financial and material resourcesthat are required to exploit a business
opportunity. They act as the manager and oversee the launch and growth of an enterprise.

CHARACTERSTICS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENUER

Do what you enjoy.

What you get out of your business in the form of personal satisfaction, financial gain, stability
and enjoyment will be the sum of what you put into your business. So if you don't enjoy what
you're doing, in all likelihood it's safe to assume that will be reflected in the success of your
business--or subsequent lack of success. In fact, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, chances
are you won't succeed.

Take what you do seriously.

You cannot expect to be effective and successful in business unless you truly believe in your
business and in the goods and services that you sell. Far too many home business owners fail to
take their own businesses seriously enough, getting easily sidetracked and not staying motivated
and keeping their noses to the grindstone. They also fall prey to naysayers who don't take them
seriously because they don't work from an office building, office park, storefront, or factory.

Plan everything.
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Planning every aspect of your home business is not only a must, but also builds habits that every
home business owner should develop, implement, and maintain. The act of business planning is
so important because it requires you to analyze each business situation, research and compile
data, and make conclusions based mainly on the facts as revealed through the research. A
business plan also serves a second function, which is having your goals and how you will
achieve them, on paper. You can use the plan that you create both as map to take you from point
A to Z and as a yardstick to measure the success of each individual plan or segment within the
plan.

Manage money wisely.

The lifeblood of any business enterprise is cash flow. You need it to buy inventory, pay for
services, promote and market your business, repair and replace tools and equipment, and pay
yourself so that you can continue to work. Therefore, all home business owners must become
wise money managers to ensure that the cash keeps flowing and the bills get paid. There are two
aspects to wise money management.

Remember it's all about the customer.

Your home business is not about the products or services that you sell. Your home business is not
about the prices that you charge for your goods and services. Your home business is not about
your competition and how to beat them. Your business is all about your customers, or clients,
period. After all, your customers are the people that will ultimately decide if your business goes
boom or bust. Everything you do in business must be customer focused, including your policies,
warranties, payment options, operating hours, presentations, advertising and promotional
campaigns and website. In addition, you must know who your customers are inside out and
upside down.

Project a positive business image.

You have but a passing moment to make a positive and memorable impression on people with
whom you intend to do business. Home business owners must go out of their way and make a
conscious effort to always project the most professional business image possible. The majority of
home business owners do not have the advantage of elaborate offices or elegant storefronts and
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showrooms to wow prospects and impress customers. Instead, they must rely on imagination,
creativity and attention to the smallest detail when creating and maintaining a professional image
for their home business.

Get to know your customers.

One of the biggest features and often the most significant competitive edge the home based
entrepreneur has over the larger competitors is the he can offer personalized attention. Call it
high-tech backlash if you will, but customers are sick and tired of hearing that their information
is somewhere in the computer and must be retrieved, or told to push a dozen digits to finally get
to the right department only to end up with voice mail--from which they never receive a return
phone call.

Level the playing field with technology.

You should avoid getting overly caught up in the high-tech world, but you should also know how
to take advantage of using it. One of the most amazing aspects of the internet is that a one or two
person business operating from a basement can have a superior website to a $50 million
company, and nobody knows the difference. Make sure you're keeping up with the high-tech
world as it suits your needs.. The best technology is that which helps you, not that which
impresses your neighbors.

Build a top-notch business team.

No one person can build a successful business alone. It's a task that requires a team that is as
committed as you to the business and its success. Your business team may include family
members, friends, suppliers, business alliances, employees, sub-contractors, industry and
business associations, local government and the community. Of course the most important team
members will be your customers or clients. Any or all may have a say in how your business will
function and a stake in your business future.

Become known as an expert.

When you have a problem that needs to be solved, do you seek just anyone's advice or do you
seek an expert in the field to help solve your particular problem? Obviously, you want the most
accurate information and assistance that you can get. You naturally seek an expert to help solve
your problem. You call a plumber when the hot water tank leaks, a real estate agent when it's
time to sell your home or a dentist when you have a toothache. Therefore, it only stands to reason
that the more you become known for your expertise in your business, the more people will seek
you out to tap into your expertise, creating more selling and referral opportunities. In effect,
becoming known as an expert is another style of prospecting for new business, just in reverse.
Instead of finding new and qualified people to sell to, these people seek you out for your
expertise.

Be accessible.

We're living in a time when we all expect our fast food lunch at the drive-thru window to be
ready in mere minutes, our dry cleaning to be ready for pick-up on the same day, our money to
be available at the cash machine and our pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it's free. You see the
pattern developing--you must make it as easy as you can for people to do business with you,
regardless of the home business you operate.

Build a rock-solid reputation.

A good reputation is unquestionably one of the home business owner's most tangible and
marketable assets. You can't simply buy a good reputation; it's something that you earn by
honoring your promises. If you promise to have the merchandise in the customer's hands by
Wednesday, you have no excuse not to have it there. If you offer to repair something, you need to
make good on your offer. Consistency in what you offer is the other key factor. If you cannot
come through with the same level of service (and products) for clients on a regular basis, they
have no reason to trust you . . . and without trust, you won't have a good reputation.

Grab attention.

Small-business owners cannot waste time, money and energy on promotional activities aimed at
building awareness solely through long-term, repeated exposure. If you do, chances are you will
go broke long before this goal is accomplished. Instead, every promotional activity you engage
in, must put money back in your pocket so that you can continue to grab more attention and grow
your business.

Design your workspace for success.

Carefully plan and design your home office workspace to ensure maximum personal
performance and productivity and, if necessary, to project professionalism for visiting clients. If
at all possible, resist the temptation to turn a corner of the living room or your bedroom into your
office. Ideally, you'll want a separate room with a door that closes to keep business activities in
and family members out, at least during prime business and revenue generating hours of the day.
A den, spare bedroom, basement or converted garage are all ideal candidates for your new home
office. If this is not possible, you'll have to find a means of converting a room with a partition or
simply find hours to do the bulk of your work when nobody else is home.

TYPES OF ENTREPREURS
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 The copycat entrepreneur

This entrepreneur sees the success of others and tries to copy them exactly. Their website is the
same, their business cards are the same, and the way they present themself is the carbon copy of
a leader in their industry. Take Pat Flynn of the popular blog Smart Passive Income. Since Pat
became popular, there has been a whole wave of people that copy him line-for-line.
There is nothing wrong with modeling successits actually very smart. There is a fine line,
however, between modeling and copying. Modeling success means you see what works and
figure out how to make it relevant to your business, and who you are as a person. If you have
been copying, get honest and switch from copying to modeling.

The research entrepreneur

This entrepreneur loves to learn. They research every possible scenario and outcome for
strategies to start or grow a business. There is nothing wrong with learning, but when thats all
you do, it becomes a problem. The research ends up becoming an excuse for not taking action.
While you should always strive to learn what works, and what could help your business, you
have to implement. Most entrepreneurs know more than they think; too many entrepreneurs fall
victim to information overload. The key to success is learning and then implementing. The
implementing has to happen.

The determined entrepreneur

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This entrepreneur hasnt made it but they will, no matter what. They see the value in
entrepreneurship, they see that success is possible without copying, and they do everything they
can to start or grow their business.
Starting and growing a business is hard, and it takes time, but there is proof that its possible to
thrive. To get there, you need change your mindset from focusing on what too many people
consider reality to what you know your reality can be. Successful entrepreneurs have
determination as their backstory.

The accomplished entrepreneur

This entrepreneur has gone through all the stages of entrepreneurship and building a business,
and has reached success. They are now focused on scaling their business and leaving a legacy
that extends beyond their lifetime.
The accomplished entrepreneur has figured out the things that will help you reach success. They
have figured out how to connect with their customer and how to solve their biggest struggles.
They will never make it but they are experiencing true freedom. They understand their time is
their most valuable resource so they use it wisely.
What type of entrepreneur are you? Face the truth and make a change if it needs to be made.
Success will be different for each of us, but if youre stuck, it could be because youre not the
type of entrepreneur you should and want to be.
Success takes time. Growing a business could take a lot of your life, but the freedom
entrepreneurship provides is worth the wait. It all starts with deciding what your goals are.
Decide what you want from your business and how that fits into your life.

Trading Entrepreneur:
As the name itself suggests, the trading entrepreneur undertake the trading activities. They
procure the finished products from the manufacturers and sell these to the customers directly or

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through a retailer. These serve as the middlemen as wholesalers, dealers, and retailers between
the manufacturers and customers.

Manufacturing Entrepreneur:
The manufacturing entrepreneurs manufacture products. They identify the needs of the
customers and, then, explore the resources and technology to be used to manufacture the
products to satisfy the customers needs. In other words, the manufacturing entrepreneurs convert
raw materials into finished products.

Innovating Entrepreneurs:
Innovating entrepreneurs are one who introduce new goods, inaugurate new method of
production, discover new market and reorganise the enterprise. It is important to note that such
entrepreneurs can work only when a certain level of development is already achieved, and people
look forward to change and improvement.

Technical Entrepreneur:
The entrepreneurs who establish and run science and technology-based industries are called
technical entrepreneurs. Speaking alternatively, these are the entrepreneurs who make use of
science and technology in their enterprises. Expectedly, they use new and innovative methods of
production in their enterprises.

ROLE OF AN ENTREPRENEUR IN EONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The entrepreneur who is a business leader looks for ideas and puts them into effect in fostering
economic growth and development. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important input in the
economic development of a country. The entrepreneur acts as a trigger head to give spark to
economic activities by his entrepreneurial decisions. He plays a pivotal role not only in the
development of industrial sector of a country but also in the development of farm and service
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sector. The major roles played by an entrepreneur in the economic development of an economy is
discussed in a systematic and orderly manner as follows.

Promotes Capital Formation:

Entrepreneurs promote capital formation by mobilising the idle savings of public. They employ
their own as well as borrowed resources for setting up their enterprises. Such type of
entrepreneurial activities lead to value addition and creation of wealth, which is very essential for
the industrial and economic development of the country.

Creates Large-Scale Employment Opportunities:

Entrepreneurs provide immediate large-scale employment to the unemployed which is a chronic

problem of underdeveloped nations. With the setting up.of more and more units by
entrepreneurs, both on small and large-scale numerous job opportunities are created for others.
As time passes, these enterprises grow, providing direct and indirect employment opportunities
to many more. In this way, entrepreneurs play an effective role in reducing the problem of
unemployment in the country which in turn clears the path towards economic development of the
nation.

Promotes Balanced Regional Development:

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Entrepreneurs help to remove regional disparities through setting up of industries in less

developed and backward areas. The growth of industries and business in these areas lead to a
large number of public benefits like road transport, health, education, entertainment, etc. Setting
up of more industries lead to more development of backward regions and thereby promotes
balanced regional development.

Reduces Concentration of Economic Power:

Economic power is the natural outcome of industrial and business activity. Industrial
development normally leads to concentration of economic power in the hands of a few
individuals which results in the growth of monopolies. In order to redress this problem a large
number of entrepreneurs need to be developed, which will help reduce the concentration of
economic power amongst the population.

Wealth Creation and Distribution:

It stimulates equitable redistribution of wealth and income in the interest of the country to more
people and geographic areas, thus giving benefit to larger sections of the society. Entrepreneurial
activities also generate more activities and give a multiplier effect in the economy.

Increasing Gross National Product and Per Capita Income:

Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for opportunities. They explore and exploit
opportunities,, encourage effective resource mobilization of capital and skill, bring in new
products and services and develops markets for growth of the economy. In this way, they help
increasing gross national product as well as per capita income of the people in a country.
Increase in gross national product and per capita income of the people in a country, is a sign of
economic growth.

Improvement in the Standard of Living:

Increase in the standard of living of the people is a characteristic feature of economic

development of the country. Entrepreneurs play a key role in increasing the standard of living of
the people by adopting latest innovations in the production of wide variety of goods and services

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in large scale that too at a lower cost. This enables the people to avail better quality goods at
lower prices which results in the improvement of their standard of living.

Promotes Country's Export Trade:

Entrepreneurs help in promoting a country's export-trade, which is an important ingredient of

economic development. They produce goods and services in large scale for the purpose earning
huge amount of foreign exchange from export in order to combat the import dues requirement.
Hence import substitution and export promotion ensure economic independence and
development.

Induces Backward and Forward Linkages:

Entrepreneurs like to work in an environment of change and try to maximise profits by

innovation. When an enterprise is established in accordance with the changing technology, it
induces backward and forward linkages which stimulate the process of economic development in
the country.

Facilitates Overall Development:

Entrepreneurs act as catalytic agent for change which results in chain reaction. Once an
enterprise is established, the process of industrialization is set in motion. This unit will generate
demand for various types of units required by it and there will be so many other units which
require the output of this unit. This leads to overall development of an area due to increase in
demand and setting up of more and more units.

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15

JOURNEY OF TWO SUCESSFUL

ENTERPRENEURS
(Sachin Bansal AND Binny Bansal)

Sachin Bansal
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Sachin Bansal (born August 5, 1981) is an Indian Software engineer and Internet entrepreneur,
known for co-founding India's largest e-commerce platform Flipkart. Sachin is from Chandigarh
and has graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi with a degree in computer
engineering.

Binny Bansal
Binny Bansal is an Indian Software engineer and Internet entrepreneur, known for co- founding
India's largest e-commerce platform Flipkart along with Sachin Bansal in 2007. He serves as the
Chief Operating Officer at Flipkart. Binny is from Chandigarh and has graduated from the Indian
Institute of Technology Delhi with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Before cofounding Flipkart, Binny was previously employed with Amazon for 9 months. Binny currently
resides in Bangalore, the IT hub of India, overseeing Flipkart operations. Binny's father retired as
chief manager at a bank.

JOURNEY OF TWO
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Two young entrepreneurs who gained reputation for transforming India's e-commerce industry
as the founders of the biggest online shopping website in the country: Flipkart. It has been a
brave journey from launching the site from their two-bedroom apartment to building a $1 billion
worth business that inspired a generation of startuppers.
Contrary to their name, the two businessmen are not related, but they had a shared destiny even
before Flipkart was born. Both grew up in Chandigarh and later studied at IIT of Delhi, one of
the best graduate schools of the country. After working in different companies for a year they
both ended up at Amazon, one of the biggest e-commerce sites of the world, and that is when the
idea was born to establish their own.
They raised Rs 2 lakh investment each from their family and kicked off a website in October
2007, which sold only books from retailers in the beginning. It was a time when software was on
a boom, but it was a brave attempt to be a pioneer in India's e-commerce industry, as customers
were not used to shopping online that time. They had to build trust as well as a culture of
browsing goods online and tackle the challenges that the nature of this business brought to them.
Their success was largely dependent on the delivery time of the products, so they decided to
launch their own supply chain management system to make sure the orders arrive to people's
doorstep on time. They were also the first ones in India to provide the option of 'Cash on
Delivery' which is widely used today among other online businesses. Their hard work and
persistence led to covering 60% of the domestic e-commerce market, and to 50 million
customers buying everything from mobile phones to jewelry every day.
Their complementary personalities and high expectations had helped them to the honor of
owning India's number one online shopping platform today. Communication was essential for
their success, and when the Economic Times asked Binny how they got through the ups and
downs in the last 8 years, he said: "By fighting every day".
Sachin hopes to see Flipkart as a $100 billion company in the near future gaining a user base in
small towns and villages as well. His goal doesn't seem farfetched having multiple
acknowledgements behind his back: Sachin was honored with the Best Entrepreneur award in
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2010 by Ernst and Young and became the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012.
With the arrival of the new year of 2016, Sachin decided to step down and become the Executive
Chairman of the company providing strategic direction. Binny, his co-founder from the very
beginning will take on the role of CEO and will aim to make Flipkart a world class internet
company. Breaking the norms in business and transforming their industry forever was a good
reason to present them in the For the Brave series, and we are sure they will continue to inspire
us bringing the company further.

EARLY LIFE
Sachin Bansal is originally from Chandigarh, the capital city of Punjab and Haryana. His
business partner, Binny Bansal, is also from Chandigarh. Although they share the same last
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name, they are not related. They both were students of computer science engineering at Indian
Institute of Technology Delhi. Before the tremendous success of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal wanted
to become a professional gamer His father has been in business and mother a homemaker, his
brother runs a consumer goods company, he's married to Priya, who is a dentist and has a fouryear old child.
Career

After completion of degree Sachin Bansal joined Techspan company where he served for few
months. In 2006, he joined Amazon.com India as Senior Software Engineer. Then he got Binny
Bansal into the Amazon.com and after 6 months they both decided to leave Amazon.They
initially thought of starting a comparison search engine, but realized that the market for Ecommerce in India was very small. Hence, after leaving Amazon in 2007, they founded Flipkart
as an E-commerce company.
Sachin Bansal and his business partner Binny Bansal launched Flipkart from an apartment in
Bangalore with 400,000 rupees ($6,500) cash. In 2007 during the early days of Flipkart Sachin
Bansal and his business partner Binny Bansal used to deliver books across Bengaluru on their
scooters and in October 2015 they showed up at the doorsteps of some customers, personally
delivering goods in order to gain insights from the online buyers.
Awards and recognition

In November 2015, Sachin Bansal along with the co-founder of Flipkart, Binny Bansal,
was named the 86th richest person in India with a net worth of $1.3 billion by Forbes
India Rich List.

Entrepreneur of the year ET Awards (20122013) .He also became richest person in
Forbes World magazine 2016.

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Founders

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who were working for Amazon.com had an idea to start an ecommerce company in India. Both of them are alumni of IIT, Delhi and are native of
Chandigarh, India. They left their jobs in Amazon to start their own business.
One can easily call that a risky move. In a country where people have various tastes and
preferences, an ecommerce start-up will always have enormous challenges. In India, people often
prefer to shop in person and buy goods they see and like. Today, thanks to Flipkart, e-commerce
has become one of the fastest growing sectors in India.

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Flipkart began selling books to begin with. It soon expanded and began offering a wide variety of
goods. Innovating right from the start, Flipkart has been home to few of the striking features of
Indian e-commerce.
Evolution

Back at the time when Flipkart was launched, any e-commerce company faced two major
difficulties. One was the problem of online payment gateways. Not many people preferred online
payment and the gateways were not easy to set up. Flipkart tackled this problem by introducing
cash on delivery and payment by card on delivery in addition to others. Flipkart was the first to
implement the popular Cash on Delivery facility, which every online shopping website in India
offers as an option today.

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History of Flipkart

Flipkart, a company which started with a mere investment of Rs. 4, 00,000 to develop its
website, has undoubtedly grown up to be one of the biggest e-commerce players in the Indian
peninsula. In this fast pacing world, shortage of time is big crisis and acts as a big push for
consumers to shop online. In this article, we will venture into how the company grew in such a
short span of time. Also, Techstory would give you insights into history and future prospects of
the company.
Flipkart was founded by Mr. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, alumni of Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi, in October 2007. In its initial phase of operation, Flipkart was registered as
Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd and sold only books. Co-Founder of Flipkart and achiever of
Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012-2013 from Economic Times, Mr. Sachin in an interview
acknowledged that how he thought founding the company was most ridiculous thing he has ever
done and how others around him thought he was insane doing so. Soon, the company grew
bigger and ventured into selling other products such as electronic goods, e-books, stationery
supplies, fashion and life style products as well.
As more and more consumers turned to Flipkart for shopping, investors turned to Flipkart to
support the companys future strategy. The company raised US$1 million in 2009 from venture
capital funds Accel India, and later on US$10 million in 2010 and US$20 million in June 2011
from Tiger Global. But company took everyone by surprise when it announced that it raised $1
billion from already existing investors including Tiger Global Management LLC, Accel Partners,
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and Morgan Stanley Investment Management and a new investor Singapore sovereign-wealth
fund GIC.
New York-based private equity company Tiger Global Management LLC is the largest investor
in the company today. Till today, the company has privately raised about $2.7 billion in multiple
rounds of funding.
Flipkart also grew via acquisition. The company acquired many firms such as WeRead in 2010,
Mime360 and Chakpak.com in 2011, Letsbuy.com in 2012 and then myntra.com ( Indias largest
online apparel store) in 2014
However, the idea of Flipkart (online retailer) was not something unique as e-commerce was
booming everywhere and there were several companies operating in this domain. Then what
pegs Flipkart above other firms? Well! Sachin believes that quality of the service provided is
what sets Flipkart apart from other ventures like theirs. What differentiates them and paves their
way to success is excellent quality of service being provided by them at which their competitors
have lagged behind. To add to list, availability of all sorts of goods of various categories,
enhanced online shopping experience, pre as well as post sales experience, are the companys
key differentiators.
The bigger you grow, tougher the challenges you face and harder it becomes to overcome them.
The same falls in line for Flipkart. In its early stage, two major challenge encountered were to
get book vendors on board with Flipkart as it didnt have a book store and then to obtain the
approval for an online based credit card payment gateway. The founders however faced every
challenge headon ! Sachin recalls how he and Binny used to stand outside Gangaram Book
Stores, Banglore and hand over Flipkart bookmarks to only those who were coming out with
books in hands; to ensure that their target was correct. They had to make several assumptions and
start slowly by building good business relations with consumers and suppliers. Sometimes these
assumptions would turn out to be wrong and they would need to change the direction. But every
time they committed a mistake, it taught them a lesson

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Flipkart hit GVM of $1 billion in March 2014. GVM is the value of good sold or gross
merchandise value and is calculated on monthly average sales. Currently the value of good sold
or gross merchandise value (GMV) on Flipkart is $4 billion.
The company has set the target to reach a GVM of $8 billion, add 100,000 sellers on its platform
and sell 25 million products per month by the end of this year.The company is also said to have
set a target of selling 1 billion goods in a year by the end of 2017.
In 2014, the company reported that it had 15,000 employees working for them.
Currently with massive increase in Flipkarts user base, maintaining a good user experience is a
major challenged posed to company. Flipkart has adopted the strategy to invest a significant
portion of its raised fund into supply chain efficiency, building a better talent pool and
technology innovation. Moreover, taking logistics to all terrains within country including towns
and villages, making payment gateway options secure and easy for the consumers are other
major challenges.
By mid 2016, Flipkart is planning to raise a minimum of USD 5 billion through an Initial Public
Offering (IPO) listing in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This will be the largest public offer
by any Indian business till date and will value the company at over USD 30 billion.
Be it selling products worth Rs. 650 Crore on The Big Billion Day or exclusive tie-ups with
companies such as Motorola Mobility and Xiaomi Tech, the company stands for converting
every challenge into an opportunity. On the brighter aspect, with such a huge amount of raised
funds and consumer base, there lies a potential of India producing a $100 billion company, one
of the most difficult task ever but possible. Sachin wants Flipkart to be that company. The aim is
set and next step is to deploy strategies to achieve the same.

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Why Flipkart

An attractive neutral name is what we looked for. Good domain names were hard to get. We were
looking at names that did not just speak of books alone, but one that could suit any category of
products that we may add in future. Also, we wanted to have a catchy name with high recall
potential. Flipkart could in simple terms mean Flipping things into your Kart

What sets you apart from other ventures like yours?

The process involved in online shopping for books has gone through drastic changes and is more
secure right now. A customer could use our user-friendly web page to place an order, once the
order is placed online the book is taken off the online inventory. In case of unavailability it
will be purchased from a supplier. The Book will then get packed and couriered on the same day.
Flipkart is currently tied up with around 12 courier service providers. We also use Indian Postal
services to reach areas without courier providers. Logistics play an important role in our
business. Our key differentiators are Availability of variety of goods of various categories, online
shopping experience on the site and post sales experience.

Why did you choose to be an entrepreneur?

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We saw a good opportunity in the market around e-commerce. Also, a regular job was not as
challenging. The excitement and satisfaction that comes with building something of a long
lasting value is addictive enough for us to continue this.

How has this journey been?

The journey was quite challenging. Getting customers, suppliers, etc to trust has been a
challenge. We overcame it by persevering in the face of challenges. We started by identifying
people who could trust us initially and slowly built upon our good business relations with them.
We had assumed a lot of things, especially around marketing. When those assumptions turned
out to be incorrect our business model had to be changed. We have changed directions multiple
times and have taken each mistake as a learning experience.

What has been the growth trajectory of Flipkart?

We started off in 2007 by setting up three centers across India without funding. Six months ago,
we reached number one status. We are also four times bigger than our nearest competitor. We
started off small; today we have grown ten times over the last one year and aim to touch the Rs
100 crore mark by March 2011. We currently have hundred and twenty employees across three
centres New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. We have plans to expand to at least two other
cities this year.

Where do you see Flipkart in the coming future?

We aim to reach the Rs. 100 crore mark and hope to expand our operations to many more cities,
by 2011. We are planning to enter into sales of products such as DVDs, Electronic gadgets and
mobile phones in the near future.

Tell us something about your achievements?

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We have been featured in Business Today as one of the top 25 startups of 2009. We were also
nominated for Ernst and Young award for the best entrepreneur of 2010. Apart from that we have
been featured multiple times in startup news as well as mainstream news. Today, we are
recognized as number one in the industry. As a testimony to the superior customer experience,
the company has consistently recorded repeat purchase rates of more than 50%. We have also
managed to get a registered buyer in every small town and city. We hope to constantly improve
our service standards.

Any tips for the coming entrepreneurs?

Don't start out alone, it helps to have a co-founder when things are not going your
way.Perseverance and hard work is very important. The core of any business is to earn money.
You have not done your job well until you find a stranger who is willing to open his/her wallet to
give you money for the services/products that you a offering. The next step after that is to focus
on scaling it up well.
In 2007, two twenty something IIT, Delhi graduates quit their cushy jobs at Amazon to turn
entrepreneurs. Backed only by their passion, Sachin and Binny Bansal were determined to start
an e-commerce company in India. As expected, the news of them quitting their job to become
entrepreneurs did not receive a warm welcome by their parents, who reacted fiercely to their
outrageously impractical idea of leaving their jobs and risking their future.
Back in 2007, companies were struggling with poor internet penetration, limited engineering
skills and scratchy customer experience. After weeks of planning and rethinking their plan, they
started Flipkart in a two-bedroom apartment in a residential locality in Koramangala, Bangalore.
They spent several sleepless nights but were persistent in their decision as they envisioned the
flourishing opportunity in e-commerce in India. Like Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, they
started off with selling books and eventually, by the end of 2008, they started receiving more
than a thousand orders a day. Flipkart has been on the rise since then and has raised over $1
billion in funding.

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In September 2015, Sachin Bansal along with the co-founder of Flipkart, Binny Bansal, was
named the 86th richest person in India with a net worth of $1.3 billion by Forbes India Rich List.
The Bansals have fought hard to raise the bar of e-commerce buying experience in India.
Here are seven lessons we can learn from the duo responsible for the creation of one of Indias
largest e-commerce companies.

Finance

Initially, they had spent 400,000 (US$5,900) only for making the website to set up the business.
Flipkart has later raised funding from venture capital funds Accel India ($1 million in 2009) and
Tiger Global ($10 million in 2010 and $20 million in June 2011). On 24 August 2012, Flipkart
announced the completion of its 4th round of $150 million funding from MIH (part of Naspers
Group) and ICONIQ Capital. The company announced, on 10 July 2013, that it has raised an
additional $200 million from existing investors including Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners
and Iconiq Capital.
Flipkart's reported sales were 40 million (US$590,000) in FY 20082009, 200 million
(US$3.0 million) in FY 20092010 and 750 million (US$11 million) for FY 20102011. In FY
20112012, Flipkart is set to cross the 5 billion (US$74 million) mark as Internet usage in the
country increases and people get accustomed to making purchases online. Flipkart projects its
sales to reach 10 billion (US$150 million) by year 2014. On average, Flipkart sells nearly 10
products per minute and is aiming at generating a revenue of 50 billion (US$740 million) by
2015.

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On November 2012, Flipkart became one of the companies being probed for alleged violations
of FDI regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999
Flipkart reported a loss of 2.81 billion (US$42 million) for the FY 2012-13. In July 2013,
Flipkart raised $160 million from private equity investors.
In October 2013, it was reported that Flipkart had raised an additional $160 million from new
investors Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sofina SA and
Vulcan Inc. with participation from existing investor Tiger Global.
On 26 May 2014, Flipkart announced that it has raised $210 million from Yuri Milners DST
Global and its existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers and Iconiq Capital. In early July 2014, it
was also highly speculated that Flipkart was in negotiations to raise at least $500 million, for a
likely listing in the US for 2016.
On 29 July 2014, Flipkart announced that it raised $1 billion from Tiger Global Management
LLC, Accel Partners, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management and a new investor
Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC.
On 6 October 2014, Flipkart sold products worth 6.5 billion (US$97 million) in 10 hours in a
special one-day event - "The Big Billion Day", claiming they had created e-commerce history,
but their hard-won reputation for good customer service suffered because of technical problems,
and angry reactions on social media from buyers disappointed with the pricing and availability of
products. It claimed to sell a whopping 500,000 mobile handsets, 500,000 clothes and shoes and
25,000 television sets within hours of opening its discounted sale at 8 AM. In December 2014,
After it received $700 million from another funding, Flipkart had a market cap of $11 billion In
May 2015 Flipkart has raised $550 million from some of its existing investors, in a deal that
raises the valuation of the privately held Indian startup to about $15 billion.
On 20 December 2014, Flipkart announced filing application with Singapore-based companies'
regulator ACRA to become a public company after raising $700 million for long term strategic
investments in India following which its number of investors exceeded 50. The $700 million
fund raised by Flipkart added new investorsBaillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview
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Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment Authorityon company's board.Its
existing investors DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global also participated in this
latest financing round.
By August 2015, after raising $700 million, Flipkart had already raised a total of $3 billion, over
12 rounds and 16 investors.

Acquisitions

2010: WeRead, a social book discovery tool.

2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.

2011: Chakpak.com, a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and videos.
Flipkart acquired the rights to Chakpak's digital catalogue which includes 40,000
filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart has categorically said
that it will not be involved with the original site and will not use the brand name.

2012: Letsbuy.com, an Indian e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought the company
for an estimated US$25 million.[24][25] Letsbuy.com was closed down and all traffic to
Letsbuy has been diverted to Flipkart.

2014: Acquired Myntra.com in an estimated 20 billion (US$300 million) deal.

2015: Flipkart acquired a mobile marketing start-up Appiterate as to strengthen its mobile
platform. 2016: Flipkarts Myntra acquires rival fashion shopping site Jabong for $70
million.

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2016: In April, Flipkart acquired payment start-up PhonePe.

Awards and recognition

In April 2016, Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal were named in 100 most influential people
by TIME

In September 2015, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal entered Forbes India Rich List
debuting at the 86th position with a net worth of $1.3 billion each

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Co-Founder of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal, got Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012-2013
from Economic Times, leading Indian Economic Daily

Flipkart.com was awarded Young Turk of the Year at CNBC TV 18's 'India Business
Leader Awards 2012' (IBLA).

Flipkart.com- got Nominated for IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow Awards 2011.

Lessons we learn from these Two Entrepreneurs

Your business should delight your customer
When the Bansals began their e-commerce journey in India in 2007, customer experience was
poor. E-commerce was just beginning to bloom with travel sites such as IRCTC and makemytrip
gaining traction. Flipkart wasnt the first in the business but they definitely were the first to focus
on customer service as their core theme. They knew that building trust would take them a long in
the e-commerce game.

Diversify where you need to

During their initial years, Sachin and Binny struggled with logistics, relying on creaky logistics
of India Posts and private courier companies. But things began to go sideways with Flipkarts
foray into electronics. They realised that they could not depend on third party logistics partners if
they wanted to do diversify their product range. So they built their own logistics network called
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ekart which enabled them to add a lot of value added services like cash on delivery, returns
management, try-and-buy in fashion.

Always experiment
The Bansals, since the very beginning, believed that focusing on customer experience will
differentiate them from the clutter and help them capture a larger market share. They used the
Flipkart platform as their playground and didnt hesitate to experiment. They did small changes
in design and UI, sometimes every couple of hours, to see how it impacted consumer behaviour.
Being an online portal, they would get instant feedback which they used to better their customers
buying experience.

Start with building depth

For the first three years, Flipkart was known as an online books vendor. Before they expanded
into other product segments, the Bansals wanted to ensure they could provide the best customer
experience, management bandwidth, and capital and infrastructure. They only sold 100 books in
2007 and on December 31, 2007 they even had a zero order day. However, by end of 2008,
Flipkart had crossed over a thousand orders a day and in 2009, they started getting noticed in the
Books business.

Expansion will take a toll, but learn to adapt

When Sachin and Binny took the big leap and diversified into electronics, their customer service
experience dropped sharply. When buying a relatively low-value item like a book, one can
deliver it to a neighbour or the watchman of the building. The same wouldnt work for expensive
electronics. The Bansals had to completely re-engineer their business model which took a years
worth of work on technology, supply chain, logistics and marketing.

Shift quickly from execution to ideation and strategy

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Initially, as a small company selling books, both Sachin and Binny would be involved with daytoday execution. They even handled customer support. They admit that they never had a forecast
of the business for over two or three months at any given point in time. They realized their
shortcomings in 2008 when they were trying to raise funds and were rejected by several
prospective investors. This experience led them to divert their focus from execution to strategy.

Work with people who believe in your vision

The Bansals faced a lot of rejection from the investor community when they were looking for
funding. Tiger Global, a global investment firm, was much more entrepreneur friendly than most
other VCs and believed in the Bansals vision for Flipkart. Sachin and Binny said in an interview
that Tiger brought a long-term thought process to the table, rather than accounting for every
dollar spent. When Tiger Global invested in Flipkart, investors woke up to the potential in this
sector.

Here is a timeline of the Bansal Brothers' journey:

2007: Alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal founded
Flipkart in October 2007. Initially, the e-tailer sold only books. Before starting the company the
duo worked in Amazon.com.
2008: The portal went online and started selling books online. Now, Flipkart is India's largest
online bookstore selling more than five lakh books since its inception, according to media
reports. Bansal said, "We sell a book a minute."
2009: Flipkart raised funds worth $1 million from venture capital funds Accel India.
2010-2011: The e-tailer raised funds worth $10 million and $20 million from Tiger Global in the
year 2010 and 2011 respectively.
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2011: Flipkart launched pre-paid wallet to store money online. This feature allows shoppers to
shop online and store money on the site and use it to purchase items without using their credit or
debit cards for transactions.
It was an initiative to make online payments easier and more secure for customers.
2012: The portal raised around $150 million which was its fourth round of funding from MIH
which is a part of Naspers Group and ICONIQ Capital.
2012: The company launched Flyte, an online digital music store. Flyte was a one-stop shop for
all kinds of music in all languages. Music was available at a price ranging from Rs 6 to Rs 15 per
song on the platform.
2013: The company raised around $200 million on July 2013 from its existing investors which
includes Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners and ICONIQ capital.
2013: Flipkart launched seller marketplace which is essentially a virtual mall where shoppers
get access to all the brands at one place. Reports say that customers even got to compare sellers
and get the best prices for various products.
2013: Flipkart shuts Flyte-- This move raised a lot of questions to which Flipkart said that the
company shut Flyte because it was running at a loss and when music was available for free,
people didn't want to pay for it.
2013: Launched PayZippy, an online payment solution for its Indian merchants. With PayZippy,
online and mobile payments became easy and handy without entering card details, name or
billing address every time.
2013: Flipkart raised $360 million from its existing investors.
2013: Flipkart launched an Android app for its customers which offered them with an ability to
browse and purchase products from their smartphones. It allowed them to navigate through
different products and departments from books, entertainment, accessories and more.

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2014: Flipkart hits $1 billion in annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). The company
reportedly reached this goal which was supposed to be achieved by 2015.
2014: In its strategic investment, Flipkart shuts PayZippy and invests in Ngpay.
2014: Flipkart acquires Myntra in an estimated $300 million deal. This deal was marked as its
biggest consolidation in the e-commerce space.
2014: Big Billion Sale-- Flipkart started Big Billion sale for its customers where mobile phones
and tablets were sold at its lowest prices available. Although there were some glitches reported
with the website, the company managed to sell products worth Rs 650 crore in 10 hours.
2014: Flipkart raised a total of $1.91 billion funding form its investors.
2015: The company claimed 150% sale growth on August 10. The company said that it has sold
150 million products till date.
2015: Flipkart launched Ping on August 15, which lets people chat with their friends using the
app. It even lets people share photos, wishlists and products in the cart with friends.
2015: E-commerce major Flipkart's co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, along with
some others investors, invested $3,50,000 in real estate start-up 'Plabro Networks'.
2015: On September 22, Flipkart appoints Dan Rawson from Amazon, Ravi Byakod from
Google and Anand Lakshminarayanan from Microsoft.
2015: Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal made it to the Forbes list of top Indian billionaires.
The company has set the target to reach a GVM of $8 billion, add 100,000 sellers on its platform
and sell 25 million products per month by the end of 2015.The company is also said to have set a
target of selling 1 billion goods in a year by the end of 2017.

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Challenges faced by Entrepreners

Cash flow management

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The challenge: Cash flow is essential to small business survival, yet many entrepreneurs
struggle to pay the bills (let alone themselves) while theyre waiting for checks to arrive. Part of
the problem stems from delayed invoicing, which is common in the entrepreneurial world. You
perform a job, send an invoice, then get paid (hopefully) 30 days later. In the meantime, you
have to pay everything from your employees or contractors to your mortgage to your grocery
bill. Waiting to get paid can make it difficult to get by and when a customer doesnt pay, you
can risk everything.
The solution: Proper budgeting and planning are critical to maintaining cash flow, but even
these wont always save you from stressing over bills. One way to improve cash flow is to
require a down payment for your products and services. Your down payment should cover all
expenses associated with a given project or sale as well as some profit for you. By requiring a
down payment, you can at least rest assured you wont be left paying others bills; by padding
the down payment with some profit, you can rest assured you can pay your own.
Another strategy for improving cash flow is to require faster invoice payments. I invoice most of
my clients at 15 days, for example, which is half the typical invoice period. This means if a
customer is late on payment I have two weeks to address it and get paid before the next months
bills are due. In addition, more and more companies are requiring immediate payment upon
project completion and in our digital age when customers can pay invoices right from their
mobile phones, its not a stretch to request immediate payment.
You can also address cash flow management from the other side of the equation by asking your
own vendors to invoice you at 45, 60, or even 90 days to allow ample times for your payments to
arrive and checks to clear. If you can establish a good relationship with vendors and are a good
customer, theyll be willing to work with you once you explain your strategy.

Hiring employees
The challenge: Do you know who dreads job interviews the most? Its not prospective
candidates its entrepreneurs. The hiring process can take several days of your time: reviewing
resumes, sitting through interviews, sifting through so many unqualified candidates to find the
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diamonds in the rough. Then, you only hope you can offer an attractive package to get the best
people on board and retain them long-term.
The solution: Be exclusive. Far too many help wanted ads are incredibly vague in terms of what
qualifications candidates must have, what the job duties are, what days and hours will be worked,
and what wages and benefits will be paid. You can save yourself a ton of time by pre-qualifying
candidates through exclusive help wanted ads that are ultra-specific in what it takes to be hired at
your firm, as well as what the day-to-day work entails. Approach your employee hunt the same
way you would approach a customer-centric marketing campaign: through excellent targeting.
Once you have a pool of prospects, arrange for a walking interview in which you take
candidates on a tour of their working environments. Ask questions relevant to the job and to
candidates experiences, expectations, dedication, and long-term goals. Dont act like an overlord
determining which minion gets to live another day; rather, behave as though youre seeking a
partner to help you operate and grow your business.
Take the time to seek real references: not the neighbor lady your candidates grew up with, but
people who can honestly attest to their work ethic and potential. Once youve picked a candidate
and before youve made a job offer, ask them specifically what it will take to keep them
employed with you long-term. Tell them to be honest with their expectations. Provided they do a
good job for you, youll know what kind of rewards theyre seeking and you can make
adjustments accordingly: do they want more vacation? The opportunity for advancement? More
pay? Freedom from micromanagement?
This isnt to say you have to bend backwards for your employees; however, it stands to reason
that if you make expectations clear for both parties you can lay the foundation for a long-term,
mutually-rewarding client-boss relationship.

Time management
The challenge: Time management might be the biggest problem faced by entrepreneurs, who
wear many (and all) hats. If you only had more time, you could accomplish so much more!

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The solution: Make time. Like money, it doesnt grow on trees, of course, so you have to be
smart about how youre spending it. Heres how:

Create goal lists: You should have a list of lifetime goals, broken down into annual goals,
broken down into monthly goals, then broken down into weekly goals. Your weekly goals
then will be broken down into specific tasks by day. In this manner, what is on your task
list in any given day is all you need to do to stay on track with your lifetime goals

If any tasks do not mesh with your goals, eliminate it or delegate them

If any tasks do not absolutely have to be completed by you, delegate them

Consistently ask yourself: Is what Im doing right now the absolute best use of my
time?

Delegating tasks

The challenge: You know you need to delegate or outsource tasks, but it seems every time you
do something gets messed up and you have to redo it anyway.
The solution: Find good employees (see above) and good outsourced contract help, for starters.
You might have to pay a little more for it, but the savings in time (and the resulting earning
potential) more than make up for it.
Next, be ultra-specific as to what you want done. It will take a little more time at first, but write
down detailed steps listing exactly what you want your help to do. Dont make assumptions, and
dont assume your help will be able to think for themselves (they can, but they will complete the
job verbatim because thats what theyre trained to do). So, dont say list stats in a spreadsheet
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when you can say alphabetically list XYZ in the right spreadsheet column, then list statistic A in
the next column. It might seem like overkill, but take the time to be specific once and your help
will get it right every time thereafter.

Choosing what to sell

The challenge: You know you could make a mint if you just knew what products and services to
sell. Youre just unsure how to pick a niche.
The solution: Admit that youre weak in identifying prosperous niches, and delegate the task to
someone who is strong in this area. You dont have to hire a huge, expensive marketing firm;
rather, recruit a freelance researcher who has experience in whatever type of field youre
considering entering (retail ecommerce, service industry, publishing, etc.). Have them conduct
market research and create a report with suggested niches, backed by potential profit margins and
a complete SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
This isnt to say you should have someone else decide for you; however, if youre not good at
identifying niches its a good idea to have someone who is make suggestions. You can then
analyze the suggestions for yourself to determine if you agree. Taking this step now can save you
a lot of time, money, and hassles later and it can save your entire business and livelihood.

Marketing strategy
The challenge: You dont know the best way to market your products and services: print,
online, mobile, advertising, etc. You want to maximize your return on investment with efficient,
targeted marketing that gets results.
The solution: Again, if youre not adept at creating marketing plans and placing ads, its a good
idea to outsource your marketing strategy to someone who is. At this point, all you need is a core
marketing plan: what marketing activities will you undertake to motivate purchases? Give your
planner a budget and tell them to craft a plan that efficiently uses that budget to produce profits.
This is not the time for experimentation. You can do that later, on your own or with the advice of
your marketing strategist, after youve established a baseline that works.
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 Capital
The challenge: You want to start or grow your business, but you have little capital to do it with.
The solution: There are many ways to earn funding, from traditional bank loans to family and
friends to Kickstarter campaigns. You can choose these routes, certainly, but I prefer the selffueled growth model in which you fund your own business endeavors.
Instead of trying to launch a multi-million dollar corporation overnight, focus on your initial core
customers. Continually work to find new customers, of course, but consistently strive to be
remarkable to those customers you already serve. Word-of-mouth will spread, and more
customers will come looking for you. As they do, develop systems and business processes that
allow you to delegate tasks without sacrificing quality. Your business will grow slow and steady,
and youll be able to solve problems while theyre small.
Think about where you want to be five years from now. Can you get there without help, even if
you have to delay growth a bit while youre doing it? This is the best strategy to adopt for small
business entrepreneurs. If you do feel you need funding, however, be sure to consult an attorney
to make sure youre not giving up too much of your business to get it.

Strapped

budget

The challenge: Even though cash flow is fine, it seems you never have enough in your budget to
market your company to its full potential.
The solution: Unless youre one of the Fortune 500 (and even if you are), every entrepreneur
struggles with their budget. The key is to prioritize your marketing efforts with efficiency in
mind spend your money where it works and reserve the rest for operating expenses and
experimenting with other marketing methods.
Keep a close eye on your money, too: chances are, there are areas you can skim to free up more
funds. Unless an expense is absolutely critical to your business and/or represents an investment
with an expected return, cut it. In fact, do this exercise: see how lean you can run your business.

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You dont have to actually do it, but cut everything you can and see if you still feel you can run
your business (save for what you have to delegate and market with). Somewhere in between your
leanest figure and your current budget is a sweet spot that will allow you to be just as effective
and leave funds leftover to fuel growth.

Business growth
The challenge: Were assuming you are growing, not that you cant grow, and youve come to
the point at which you cant take on any more work in your current structure.
The solution: Create new processes that focus on task delegation. Many entrepreneurs, used to
wearing all the hats, find themselves in this position once theyve achieved a modicum of
success. Because youre doing everything, your growth halters to as top when it hits a selfimposed ceiling. The only way to break through is to delegate tasks to others and take yourself
out of the production end and segue into management and, finally, pure ownership.

Self-doubt
The challenge: An entrepreneurs life is not enviable, at least in the beginning. Its extremely
easy to get discouraged when something goes wrong or when youre not growing as fast as youd
like. Self-doubt creeps in, and you feel like giving up.
The solution: Being able to overcome self-doubt is a necessary trait for entrepreneurs. Having a
good support system will help: family and friends who know your goals and support your plight,
as well as an advisory board of other entrepreneurs who can objectively opine as to the direction
of your business.
One of the best ways to deal with self-doubt is to work your goals and tasks lists. When youre
down and lack motivation, look at your lists and know that the tasks you do today are

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contributing to your lifetime goals. By doing them, youre one step closer, and you can rest
assured that you are, indeed, on the path to business success.
Entrepreneurs face many challenges, and volumes have been written about how to overcome
them. Perseverance and intelligence are your allies; use them to your advantage keep working
toward your goals. Understand that youre not the first to struggle, and because of that there are
many resources available to help you get through your darkest days as an entrepreneur so you
can reap the immeasurable rewards that come with building your own successful business.

Conclusion
The Indian entrepreneurs selected for study are based on the conditions that they have started
their career either as low level employees of some organizations or started their venture with
their own meagre investments. They are their own masters, in the sense that they did not have
back up from their family members either in the form of financial support or inheritance of
family wealth. They started their own enterprise with a humble beginning, and slowly and
steadily picked up their business purely due to their entrepreneurship qualities. They faced
hardships in course of their growth, but never gave up. The ingenuity and the spirit of
entrepreneurship always kept up their hopes and confidence and eventually proved to be
successful entrepreneurs.
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So here I want to conclude that Sachin and Binny saw a good opportunity in the market around
E-commerce. Also, regular job was not challenging. The excitement and satisfaction that comes
with building something of a long lasting value is addictive enough for them to continue this.
They started Flipkart.com because they themselves felt the need for a good online book store. ECommerce sector is one of the toughest to get into India.Flipkart has grown into a online retail
giant in just five years. They believe that they can make a difference here. They wanted to create
something which has a long lasting value and which can be proud of. According to Sachin(CEO
of Flipkart.com) at this point in our life we can devote our entire time and energy to Flipkart
which is very important for any start up.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Bansal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce_in_India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipkart
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance

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http://techstory.in/flipkart-story
www.google.com

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