For industrialists or entrepreneurs, any business is about stability. They also give equal importance to profit but it only comes when markets are consistent; where the leaders can strategize a working model for future before-hand.
However, the world does not work that way and if anything, change is the only constant. Markets have become rapidly volatile and if any of the business depends on the marketplace then one must be aware of the risks inherent in trying to stay on a straight path across a rapidly changing landscape. Thus, to stay abreast of the changes, businesses need to become agile and adapt to the changes quickly.
Today, any business that survives and thrives has one thing in common: the ability to be nimble. As the wise adage about the blade of grass that bends in the wind, a successful business knows when to pivot, bend, adopt change, and continue its voyage to success. However, to stay agile these businesses are in constant need of tools that empower managers, or executives to help them identify the best way to guide their organization’s growth.
This calls for the need of consultants or experts who act as an extension to your business and help in finding ways to stand out, tighten business operations, and increase revenues while also keeping the expenses low. These consultants could range from certified financial advisors, attorneys, or both who are skilled in various aspects of corporate or business law and finance.
In our attempt to better understand how such experts help businesses to grow, we approached Jayant Kadge & Nikee Sheth, Directors of CA BIZNet. The philosophy, “helping business and professionals grow with better connections and better compliance,” is central to CA BIZNet. The below conversation will empower one into why businesses need aid from external sources and how CA BIZNet is achieving a business’ desired growth rate.
What is your vision behind your startup? Tell us how the idea came about.
At CA BIZNet, Our vision is to assist MSMEs and corporates in India to grow by way of lowering their tax and legal compliance costs and time. India still ranks 63rd among 190 countries in the World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business ranking. Indian businesses struggle with more than 9,000 compliances and 600+ filings and there have been more than 600 updates over the past year. Compliance costs are killing businesses. GST is causing a lot of hardships to MSME Businesses.
Compliance costs can be reduced by connecting businesses to the right professionals who can deliver a better level of service at lower costs. One of the solutions is professionals specializing in select areas rather than trying to get every work coming their way.
There is a disparity in opportunities for professionals in the metro and non-metro cities. Professionals in non-metro cities don’t get access to better work as most of the corporates and industries are concentrated in metro cities.
We want to connect professionals in non-metro cities to businesses in metro cities and make good opportunities available to professionals. Since right now in metro cities, a lesser number of professionals are handling more work, the quality of work is lower and costs are more. Once we start shifting some of this work to other cities, costs for businesses will come down and quality will go up.
What services and solutions do you offer?
CA BIZNet has three main segments – 1. Connect and 2. Compliance and 3. Products.
CA BIZNet Connect is an online portal that connects business owners to most suitable professionals like CA, CS, Lawyers, Loan and Insurance Agents, and other financial services providers. Here the aim is to make such services available at best prices and as per the specific needs of the business. We make options available to businesses to choose from, based on their specific needs. The process is automatic, simple, fast, and convenient for business owners.
In CA BIZNet compliance, users can monitor their entire compliances on a single dashboard. This will reduce delays, late fees, and penalties and interest payments. CBN Compliance gives a completely exhaustive list of compliance applicable to a business unit based on its profile like the size of the business, type of business, capital, and employee strength. It helps businesses to monitor professionals’ work closely from the software itself. Business owners can focus more on their core business as compliance complexities are reduced.
We have standardized few Professional services into products. Doing this is very complex but considering common requirements, we have productized such services. This is easy and fast to deliver and avail. Customers find it convenient as prices are optimized and delivery is fast with not much discussion.
What were the challenges you came across during the inception of your startup?
Business owners need to develop trust in online services. They need to understand technology makes things fast. The best option in terms which professional to work with; can be selected if information can be made available. This is not possible in the physical world. In the physical market, you cannot find and interact with more professionals. It is not an efficient system.
Users are hesitant of making payments online. They prefer face to face meetings and payment by cheques. As we go on to work with more businesses and create a brand, trust levels will go up.
Is your company bootstrapped or have you received funding or do you plan on approaching investors?
Right now we are bootstrapped and actively looking for funding so that we can spread our wings to more cities in India. Right now we are focused on Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. We need funding to put more resources into building team and marketing. We need to make people aware and for that, we need to run a lot of campaigns in social media and attend a lot of events. These things need capital.
What is your opinion on the current landscape of startup culture in India?
Startups in India are booming and they need to be supported further by government agencies and other infrastructure. Right startups must be identified and funded which can improve things and make a difference to the world. India is quickly becoming a hub for world-leading startups. There are rising numbers of entrepreneurs, incubators, international and local VCs. A large majority of startups fail, in such scenario India should be tolerant towards founders’ missteps and encourage the knowledge gained from failed startups to be utilized for future success.
Startups are usually funded only after they have a working product and a proven business model, with revenue. Indian investors are only going to give you money if you’ve already shown you can make money for them. This should change. Money should be available at an early stage startup for controlled experiments. More risks need to be taken by Funds.
When it comes to startups, however, Indian companies should focus to improve client satisfaction and improve retention rates.
According to you, how important is it to be updated with technology as per your industry sector?
Technology can add real value to efficiency in business. B2B Ecommerce has made some progress but many challenges need to be tackled. It has not yet achieved its full potential. If the challenges are handled well, we will see a huge surge in the online market for B2B financial services. It has become somewhat difficult for businesses offering services online to keep up with the competition, speed of innovation, and needs of contemporary business buyers. Professional service providers are facing many challenges in doing so like Complex implementations, the requirement of change in Mind-set of buyers; more focus on Clients, and change in the role of Marketing.
How do you strategize on scaling your company in the future?
We are planning to create strategic partnerships with influencers in our area of operations. There are many players in the market with whom we can have synergy. Also, we want to improve awareness amongst businesses and professionals about why compliance costs increase and how to decrease it with technology. We want to improve collaboration between professionals. Right now we are focusing on 3 cities, as we get the funding we are planning to capture more cities in India.
