Ppl with limited time can browse thru the blue lines for a quick gist.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************** Adding some more scrambled thoughts: Some qns for Suresh Adina & Suri in particular, others who know abt it or are interested to research for me are welcome too ofcourse :) SWAYAM UPAADHI SAMSTHA etc.. - Does Mr. Paparao qualify under selfemployment scheme?? I think no reference the age, he has to be sixty plus I think, but given his economic status, a big yes. Can we knock on this door?? I think he will surely qualify for those local call booth, if not STD/ISD thing. Local call system is more safe though :) if one runs off without paying the bill, this old man cannot chase him surely :D Are there anything like CM/PM fund quotas for ppl such as these??? - Nachaki...u researched more on this topic, can u find out more on this, may be Suri has something to add?? More thoughts on how/why I think this Project will survive thru the market: Schools are an on-going year around customers for Stationery Market. To add more to my already said ideas, whenever I visit India I get some small amounts of stationery for all the kids in my inlaws place. They simply luv some of them we get here....like for example, a product called PAPER-MATE Eraser (?? someother name aswell). This is liquid paper tht comes out more so like some tape. Supereasy to apply, just drag it touching its nose on paper, more or less like a pen. Kids luv this product, specially during exam times. The liquid paper dries out, adds itself on the existing notes and the sheet is clean again like a new paper again. Bottom line, there are many products such as these, and they hardly are expensive compared to wht you pay in India. Stationery is pretty expensive in India. If we buy in bulk here, it will hardly cost us much, taking overall shipping too. Donot imagine a shipload here becos I said shipping, it tht turns out to be a fact, at that point it will mean tht our little project has grown into an Industry of its own :) For concerns on wht happns if schools donot give us orders (cannot really happen, I know many stores tht survive just on regular student purchases and no orders, getting to a break-even on accounts): Ur first targets will be ur offices. Contact ur HR departments. Offices buy loads of stationery on a very regular basis. Start with simple stationery that we can provide within our selected range. God willing & our efforts working, we can expand the line into printing office stationery like letter heads, Inter office mail pads, Vouchers and so on. We can just give orders outisde to printing stores, and just act as middleman making a rupee. More thoughts on this when the situation arises. Our little soldier Kowtilya can be put to some work here on this project. To start with he can talk to his frnds and get us those initial order, including his own. Talk to Mr. Rajarao couple and ask them to spread the word in their senior circles. I have often noticed that these ppl have diff groups like morn walk groups or evening tea time chat groups, or health conscious groups, or retired employee associations types. Housewives can be involved in this project too, whoever is interested, like my Mom, who will be excited to pull out sometime every day for this. Once a week on weekends wud suffice aswell, but weekends are when Moms are utmost busy with family around. More helpless women, like I once mentioned about my Servants' mother, and others like that can be involved in it at a later point. Project ideas will flow in accordingly I am sure, if we brainstorm. Bangalore Chapter can get involved in this aswell I am sure. We have to work out on how. Overall : Schools will have exams next month and will restart for the new academic year in couple of months. If we get the ball rolling by then, nothing like it. Starting this on a small limited set budget will save us the hiccups (though I am pretty sure we will break even easily, if not profit from it). I will be more than happy to work more on this in my next India trip. For those who are concerned if this project will effect our other projects or flexibility on other cases, the right solution will be to deal with this project on a seperate file. Keep the accounts & fund flows totally apart from our regular projects, so tht we donot disturb our main stream activities in anyway. Wild thought: Thr has to be one ofcourse, when its so exciting to think all this. So here it goes... Can by anychance we donate our Penny Drive amount into the ribbon cutting of this project??? ( Given member approval ofcourse - both on the project go , and donating the pennys).... We should ofcourse name the store on our group name....wht a kewl name for a stationery store....and I wud luv to add the punchline beneath ....Ur pennys at work..... (??!!!....$$) For Ratan to answer: Here is one other imp thing tht comes up....if we are registered as an NGO, life wud be soo easy this way. Registering it under a business as a sole entity, from something tht is connected to an NGO, will have different effects I think. For the first time, I think we have a good cause to be a registered NGO :), from my end ofcourse. If thr goes a major diff, then perhaps we can think (???) of using Shift's NGO status, but still go with TMAD name on the board?? To add more, if our budget permits, or in future, buying a XEROX machine will be a big bonus here. Regular source of income from schools or offices. If we put up the store close to a good business point, nothing like it. -Divya
