Power electronics appliance service and repairs. This is a continually growing business opportunity with the increasing number of electronic appliances in homes. These appliances are expensive, and have to be constantly serviced or repaired before they reach their end of life.
Electronic products and components supply chain management. With the wholesale purchase of electronic products and their service components, and their distribution to retail suppliers, you can make good money with less investment, as no expensive infrastructure is required.
Building or installation of home solar power generation equipment. You can learn the basics of solar power systems and how to install them, and then start winning contracts with just an installation tool-kit.
Research and development. Use your advanced knowledge in circuitry to test and create products that you can sell with your own research and development firm, or that companies can hire for unbiased test results and consultations. You could work with green building products, machinery controls, navigation systems, communication systems, wiring systems and lighting products.
Maintenance and repair. Electrical and electronics engineers develop the circuitry inside electronic equipment and vehicles, and this knowledge can serve others who require maintenance and repairs. For example, if you specialise in the electrical components in automobiles, you can contract your services to a car manufacturer that wants to fix a never-before-seen sound system that is not performing well in its latest line of cars.
Printed circuit boards. One of the most important components within an electronic product is the circuit board. Using your skills, you can design and sell printed circuit boards to manufacturing companies, construction firms and engineering firms that do not specialise in electrical engineering. By purchasing special automated equipment, you can design and print a large number of circuit boards for clients who require such boards.
(Courtesy: www.electronicsbus.com & http://smallbusiness.chron.com)
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According to an online study, over 75 per cent of respondents believe it is important to look for information about people and their organisation before doing business with them. So it would not be wrong to say that an online presence must be considered whilst setting up a start-up. Chaddha believes it is a must. He says, “There is no way anyone can do business without having an online presence. If someone has to find out anything about you the first thing that he or she will do is to look up the Internet.”
Sunder says, “If you are not easily found on the Internet, your customers will never find you.” Subramaniam adds, “Branding is definitely very important. Unless your company is on the stealth mode, in which case one does not want to reveal too many details about an idea or product, I would say an online presence is very important.”
Talking about government help for start-ups, Chaddha elaborates, “There is a government entity called NIESBUD in Noida, where I have been invited a few times to speak about entrepreneurship to students of several colleges. The government of India is anchoring and mentoring students to start their own businesses and it has continuously been conducting courses for them. There are plenty of (business) incubators coming up. I’m sure there are quite a few in Bengaluru also, although I don’t have a clear idea about them. But in Delhi, there are colleges with incubators where their students, as well as students from different colleges, are encouraged to work together. There are some schemes available where the government lends a small amount of money, though there is a lot of bureaucracy with respect to this.”
This information is just the tip of the iceberg with regard to all that entrepreneurs need to know about getting a business off the ground, so break out of your comfort zone and learn as much as you can about the field you are getting into. Believing that nothing can prepare young people better for success than a strong math and science background, President Obama also noted that “…the most common course of study for S&P’s (Standard & Poor) 500 CEOs was not business, finance or economics, but engineering.”
The author is a tech correspondent at EFY Bengaluru
