Can Chartered Accountants begin startups and create successful companies?

Can a Chartered Accountant begin a startup? A question I think each one of us would have asked ourselves. I think there is no degree or course which can guarantee that your startup would be successful. There are no set patterns, no fixed formulas to business. So the question is what does it take to build a startup? Is it technique, patience, or simply guts? If you have an idea, then I would request you to give it a try atleast because the value of idea lies in using it. 

I personally feel, CA's and CA students have created a mindset and a wall around themselves making them believe that they have only two options - either job or practise?

"Go the extra mile, its never crowded. Remember, it's not in the dreaming, it's in the doing"

Well! I think there are many startups by CA's and are doing reasonably well which includes the following,

1. ChuChu TV, Founded by CA B.M. Krishnan is one of the largest YouTube Channels in India and its online audience is larger than that of Colors or Star Plus.
2. Dream Wallets, Founded by CA Nikhil Gupta is an Online Crowd Funding Platform and Website in India through which funds can be raised for Social Work, Sports, Charity, Music etc.
3. Wicked Ride (Zoomcar of bikes), Founded by CA Vivekananda Halleker is India’s first premium motorcycle rental company which offers bikes like Harley Davidson, Ducati, Kawasaki, Triumph and Royal Enfield on rent in various cities like Jaipur, Bangalore, Udaipur, Mysuru etc.
4. Tpot, Founded by Robin Jha a Chai selling company, which serves more than 100 arrays of half a dozen classified teas - Black, Oolong, Green, White, Herbal and Flavoured has a monthly turnover of around 50 lakh rupees.  

The above are just a few examples of some startups founded by CA’s. Remember it's not about ideas, its about making ideas happen. 

What's your excuse? What is stopping you? Enough complaining. Its time to start doing. If you are passionate enough, the doors will open , all you need to do is just take the first step.

Now, the real question is how to start a business? I am going to explain you few basic steps which might help you to start your business,

Step 1: Have an idea: Decide what kind of business you would like to start and choose a name. After deciding the name understand the following things,

• What your products/services are intented for? How will you get your products/services in front of ideal clients? Determine the most efficient way to run your business. Remember, business is not about you, or what you want, or how fast you want. It's about customers: what they need, and when they need it.
• Who are the competitors ? Their strength+weaknesses. Analyse what is your USP. Understand what makes you different from the crowd. Know your audience. 
• Financial projections - Understand how much money do you need to start/run the business and plan accordingly. 

Step 2: Get registered: Obtain proper permits and business licenses.

Step 3: Get Technical: Invest in website and get connected with social media. Networking is not collecting contacts, its about planting relations. Analyse how to grow your business and work accordingly.

Step 4: Get Branded: You have to build a brand and not just business. Building a brand is not something that will happen overnight. It will evolve over time and will continue to evolve as your business grows. Invest in logo, business cards and other promotional items such as banners, using SEO/SEM , social media etc. Keep in mind, quality is the best business plan. The best advertising you can have is a LOYAL customer spreading the word about how incredible your service/business is. You don't build a business. You build people and they inturn build the business.

Step 5: Most Important - Get to work: Become the hardest and smartest working person you know. Allow your self to be a beginner, no one starts off being excellent. Believe in yourself and remember one day, all of your hard work will pay off.

At last I would like to say "Think big, Believe Big, Act big, And the results will be big."

Happy Reading !

Disclaimer : Images are taken from Google.

CA Guddia Prajapat

About the Author : 
She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a passionate learner. Her passion towards finance and taxation makes her articles more interesting. She personally believes that knowledge increases by sharing and not by saving.

How to Invest your hard earned money!!??? By CA Aasia Ishrat

Nothing makes a man happy until he has a good bank balance.Earlier in life you start investing,greater will be the wealth you create Let me share some of the artistic ways of Investment that I know-

Happy reading!!!!

Return vary with investment.there is a universal theory of investment that everyone knows i.e risk is directly proportional to return.so if you are investing in a highly risky area chances of getting return are very less but if it starts generating return then it will be much higher than expected as

“Taking risk won’t be easy as having risk”

                                 Image source:Google

Let’s start

First of all 40% of your income should be invested in Nationalised Banks where risk factor is low.Although return will be less but your 💰 will be safe.Keeping Fixed deposit with the bank which will fetch an interest rate of around 8.5 % or keeping PPF is safe for reasonable better gains.Best advice to you would be to start SIP in balance fund with time hotizon of 3-5 years.you can expect return of around 10-12%.

“SIP” means investing with a fixed income regularly regardless of NAV or market level.You can even start with as less as ₹ 500 or ₹ 1000.

Next 30% of your income should be invested in land,property,gold etc.If you invest your money in this area your money will be safe and it will fetch a long term asset for you as well.

Reamaining 20% try to invest in share market.If you have knowledge relating to these sectors then manage it yourself otherwise invest in mutual funds

Lastly 10% which we can opt for risky investments.If someone is ready to give you double the value of bank interest then either it will be a super fraud or a very high risky venture

Remember  movie Hera Pheri!!..... you may end up like “Babu Rao”...

Currency trading,daily sale and resale of shares i.e futures and options etc can be opted for as a risk not involving your great share of money.you can also invest 1-2 % in lotteries,casino  and try your luck.But never get trapped in Lottery mails from internet.It will be very dumb and foolish to try luck in that.

if you start finding good return in 10% sector,don’t start breaking your FD’s or selling land,properties to invest more in that as being greedy doesn’t serve good.

My golden rule:

Invest in yourself - Extra course or a certification to develop your skills and personality is priceless that will give you multiple times return.I am pretty sure that my decision to opt for Chartered Accountant profession along with graduation has moulded me toward different ways of career option.

Thankyou!...

How to prepare for PSU interview?? by CA Amit Kumar

Are you going to appear for an interview of a PSU ??

If Yes! then you landed up at the right place. Often candidates get nervous when it comes to appearing for an interview and its quite obvious too since its an one time opportunity to prove that you are a perfect fit for your dream company. Your one mistake can shatter your dreams , your plans and your future. Then why not prepare in advance ?

Let me take you through the process one step at a time :

Ques 1 : Where to apply ?

Every PSU publish its vacancies in employment newspaper and also in their official website
(eg. BHEL will mention the vacancy details in their website under career tab). If you meet the eligibility criteria (educational qualification, experience & age) then you can apply for the relevant post , since the blog is for finance background people, the explanation will relate to finance related profile.

Ques 2 : Once Applied then what next ?

PSUs has its recruitment process designed in 3 stages :

Step 1 : Computer Based Test (CBT) : The first milestone to overcome is to crack the CBT , it consists of 50% subjects related questions and 50% from reasoning, quantitative aptitude, english and general awareness.

Key to clear CBT is subject related portion and english which can actually be scored with least efforts.

CBT is multiple choice exam and also it carries negative marks, thus do not take it lightly.

Step 2 : Document Verification : Is that an important step to be worried about ?
 Not really but yes ! If you don`t carry the documents and its xerox on the date of document verification then you ll not be entertained for interview.

Worried !!!

Step 3 : Interview : This is the last stage of selection and probably the most difficult one ! So let`s discuss it in detail.

Interview Panel will be having some 7-8 members consists of male members and definitely 1 female member among them, now how is that important is the next question popping up in your mind i guess. The interview panel is a mix of subject experts, psychologist, observer, department head, etc. and women are very keen observers so be very watchful of  your actions in the interview.

what to prepare for interview ?

• Read the recent financial report issued by the company, 
• Be prepared with the finance budget summary,
• Read all the recent news about the PSU in last 6 months.
• Know the competitors and their comparison with PSU (in which you are getting interviewed)
• Brush up subject knowledge.
• If you are experienced then be ready to answer everything about what you do in your present company, what value you add to the company?

If you prepare all the topics mentioned above then their is nothing which can stop you from getting you placed in your dreams PSU.

Happy Reading !

Disclaimer : Images are taken from Google

CA Amit Kumar

About the Author :
He is a qualified Chartered Accountant ,Company Secretary and also a commerce graduate. He has audit and assurance experience of over 6+ years including Big 4 experience namely Deloitte. At present he is devoting his time to teach CA students, also loves to share his knowledge and industry experience with the larger public and thus started to blog.

How to become rich and wealthy? - by CA Guddia Prajapat

We have been taught our whole life that money begets money. I personally believe that it depends on habits & behaviors to get rich and grow wealthly. If you don`t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die. It`s not an overnight process. 

Rememeber, there aren't any get rich quick schemes here. In this article, let us learn how to create wealth using few steps illustrated below,

Save, Save and Save: 
The first step is to save money. Stop spending for unnecessary things. Stop buying products which you don`t need. Remember, you goal is not to look rich, but be rich. Use your cards right, so that you can earn a lot of freebies, earn rewards, get free hotel stays and complimentary flight tickets and so on. Be smart and save money. Try to save 40% of your income. Sounds difficult but not impossible.

Pro tips: 

1. Open three savings account.One for meeting regular expenses, second for emergency and third for savings. 
2. Now the trick is, as soon as You get your salary,transfer the money to these accounts. 
3. Please dont apply for debit card or net banking for third account. 
4. This will stop your spending temptation because you may feel lazy to go to bank and withdraw money. 

Understanding the benefit of compounding: 

As per Albert Einstein "Compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it and he who doesn't, pays it." 

Maybe as a child you were told that if you had one penny and doubled it in a year, you would have two pennies. Now, if you had two pennies in Year 2 and you doubled that amount, you would have four pennies. If you kept this process up for a period of twenty-seven years—.01, .02, .04, .08, .16, .32, .64, 1.28—you would increase your $.01 from Year 1 to $1.3 million in the twenty-seventh year. Sounds financially magical, doesn’t it? This is the magic of compounding. You are seeing money compounding at a rate of 100% a year in our example whereas in practical scenario average interest rate is around 8-12% per annum. 

Invest in yourself/Knowledge : 

Investing in knowledge is the best investment. Read, read and read books on the greatest people! Self educate yourself! Learn something new daily. Invest in education. Be a life long learner. For me, getting my Chartered Accountancy certificate has yielded a lot of revenue over the years. 

Stay ahead of competition. While people are busy watching netflix, be busy improving yourself and working on your skills. Stop wasting time on T.V, games & dumb stuffs. Try to stay healthy.  Stop eating bad food! Eat organic. Believe me bad food changes your mind chemistry. 

Invest in appreciating assets:  

There's this famous saying " The wealthy buy assets first and the assets buy other luxuries." Invest in assets which will appreciate in future and start generating passive income. 
For example- Invest in house and rent it out. Property value will appreciate over the years and you will be getting regular rental passive income also. Make money work for you. 

Develop 3 or more income streams:

Never depend on single income. Make investments, to create second one. Take up part time jobs, learn to blog, create affiliates, try freelancing, lend money and earn interest, earning dividends from owning stocks.

Review all your investments: 

Before the end of the year, make sure you take a look at all the investments that you have made and see how they are performing. If some of your investments are not doing well, put them out and reinvest in better performing holdings.

So guys please remember creating wealth isn't about how much you make, it's about how much you save. 

Happy Reading !

Disclaimer : Images are taken from Google

CA Guddia Prajapat

About the Author : 
She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a passionate learner. Her passion towards finance and taxation makes her articles more interesting. She personally believes that knowledge increases by sharing and not by saving.

Tax saving options " Paisa bachao, Paisa Kamao" - by CA Guddia Prajapat

When someone says tax returns, our brain switch just turns off, thinking who will do those complicated calculations. But just think about it. We are already paying so much taxes on food, travel, entertainment and what not .  So when there is an option to save your hard earned money, why not research a little bit and save your money . It's not salary that makes you rich, it's your saving habits.

Money speaks only one language - "If you save me today, I will save you tomorrow. " So save your money with better tax planning.

So let us quickly understand what is tax?

In simple words , its tax on your income. The rate of tax depends on your slab of income, residential status and your age. Tax rates also varies depending upon whether the assessee is individual,  HUF , company or other entity.

Now, after knowing what is income tax, let's understand what are the various options to reduce your tax liability,

1. House rent allowance (HRA) 

Its basically declaring rental expense and reducing your income . The rent which is paid can be reduced from your salary component, thereby reducing your tax. HRA is calculated on least of the following :

• HRA from employer (Allowance in your salary slip)

• 50% of your salary* (40% in case of non- metro city)

• Actual Rent paid to landlord (less) 10% of your salary*

*Salary means Basic + Dearness allowance forming part of retirement + sales commission, if any

2. Home loan : 

So if u have taken housing loan, congrats you can save further taxes through proper planning. Interest paid upto rupees 2 lakhs is allowed to reduce from your salary and principal payment is allowed under section 80C of Chapter VI-A deductions which are discussed below.

3. Deductions 

Part I : 80C Deductions:

So there are various deductions under section 80C to reduce your taxability by either of the below options :

1. NPS- National Pension Scheme
2. LIC Premium
3. Tution Fees
4. Housing loan principle
5. PPF
6. Tax Saving FD of 5 years
7. Provident fund and,
8. Equity linked savings scheme so on...

You might feel so many options with questions in your mind like where to invest, which is better, what return you will be getting and so on. Don't worry, I have discussed in detail about all these options in another article by comparing returns, liquidity and tax on maturity

Part II : Other than 80C Deductions:

80D - One can claim deductions for health insurance for self , spouse, parents and dependent children's. Maximum deduction of Rs. 25000 is allowed for other than parents  whereas for parents separate deduction of Rs. 25000  is allowed. The limit is increased to Rs. 50000 for senior citizen for both the above options for FY 2019-20.

80E - The interest paid (not principal) on education loan can be claimed as deduction under this section for 8 years provided the loan was taken for HIGHER education for self, spouse, children or any student for whom assessee is legal guardian.

80G - Deduction can be claimed on donations made to various institutes provided certain conditions are satisfied.

80TTA - Interest on savings account held in bank/post office or with cooperative society to the extent of Rs.10000 for FY 2019-20.

These are some of the few ways to save your money. Keep in mind "Financial planning is most important for your success towards health and wealth."

Happy Reading !

Disclaimer : Images are taken from Google

CA Guddia Prajapat

About the Author : 

She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a passionate learner. Her passion towards finance and taxation makes her articles more interesting. She personally believes that knowledge increases by sharing and not by saving.