Want Your Valuable Suggestions....

Hello All,
I Want To Start A Small Company To Sell Automation Products And Drives Of Siemens.For Doing This I Need Your Smart Opinions And Suggestions About Following :
1.How Should I Proceed?
2.How Much Will Be The Investment?
3.What Necessary Steps Should I Take In First Phase ?

Please Add You Extra Opinions Also Apart The Above Three.

Thanks A Lot
:site:

Hi Rahil
First of all you needs to approch Siemens to get dealership. or you can contact existing Siemens system houses to tie up with them in diffrent city.
if you are talking abt investment, you shold have a office as well as a shop to store the material. also you need good trasport system.

Extra opinion below:

Wow! Just..., wow!

I want to start a restaurant but have no knowledge. Anyone out there care to tell me how to do it? I'll be expecting feasibility studies, business plans, funding. I'm not even sure what all I'd need so if someone could tell me that too that would be great.

And here I thought that on this site I'd only find requests for people to do homework assignments...


ps: Does. Anyone. Else. Find. Reading. Text. Where. Someone. Has. Used. Capital. Letters. On. The. Start. Of. Every. Word. A. Bit. Like. Trying. To. Read. This?

grs said:

Extra opinion below:


And here I thought that on this site I'd only find requests for people to do homework assignments...

Click to expand...

Apparently, this a graduate who found other people to do his homework that now wants to apply the same methods to business.

C'mon guys, that's a little ruthless...

My wife had it in mind a year ago to open a cupcake shop, and we finally gave up the idea, mainly because we had no idea whatsoever where to start. I'm an engineer, not an accountant. I could get online and find a million tips on everything from batter mixing to liability insurance - the general stuff was too general and the specific stuff was way to specific.

Take a class? Good grief, I barely have time to blow my nose much less attend a small business seminar. And what level of learning might I require? MBA in SBA? I want to run a cupcake shop, not a fortune 500 company.

Lastly, throw in the horror stories - losing your shirt to failing business, losing your home to the IRS over missing some obscure regulation in an 8000 page tax code, losing everything over some slip-and-fall con artist.

No %#$^ thanks.

So please be a little kinder to our guest, he seems to me to be asking which way is "north". I wish him luck. And while you're at it, feel a little pity for yourselves - my wife makes fantastic cupcakes, and they're all mine.

TM

I own a motion control company and we are always looking for good distributors. Here is a list of things I think about.
1. Is the distributor financially stable. We have had distributors go out of business owing us lots of money.
2. Are there other distributors in the area. Some distributors demand exclusive rights to an area. We have found this is not a good thing to do but having too many distributors is bad do. One or two in an area is good. The distributors don't like having the customer play one off against the other. Motion controllers are a commodity product in many ways. It is the technical distributor that will make the difference. Our better distributors frequently ask us questions BEFORE starting or quoting a project.
3. Is the distributor in the area technically competent. Many aren't. When we see a good technical distributor we will pursue them for years if necessary.

So if you don't have money, don't have motion control experience or don't have business skill then forget it because there are people that do. It helps to have ready customers with projects.

I never fault a young person for ambition. And I certainly didn't know all the answers (or even the questions) when I started my business!

The first thing, Rahil, is to get experience in the business you want to go into. So the first step is to get a job in the type of business you want to get into. Keep your eyes and ears open, and learn all you can while both taking care of your responsibilities to your employer and establishing relationships with customers and suppliers. Don't be too self serving - you need to do a good job and establish a reputation for good ethics and good service.

In the US establishing a distributorship is tough. Most principals expect a distributor to make an investment in inventory and training and to have established a customer base in a related industry. They aren't going to go out of their way to establish a new distributor when there are a lot of existing ones out there.

Going on your own is much easier as a manufacturer's representative. Then you only need contacts, a good reputation, salesmanship, and technical expertise. You get paid on commission only for what the prinicipal or their distributors sell in your territory. The only investment is office equipment and enough bankroll to support yourself for the first year or two until the commissions start coming in.

A few general pointers. The number one reason for new business failure is lack of good records. Establish an accounting system and record keeping procedures from the first day. Technical expertise is important, but it isn't the only thing that you need for success. Sales drives revenue, so you need to understand how to solve customer's problems - even if it doesn't make money for you right away. Don't be afraid to recommend a competitor if they have a better solution - it pays in the long run with trust from your contacts.

Finally, establish a business philosophy. One of the posters here has a tag line that says something like "Low price, good service, high quality - pick two." That is absolutely correct - you can't successfully have all three all the time. You need to know which two you are going to use to grow your business. (I personally picked good service and high quality.)

I don't know your background or the business structure in India, so I can't help much there. I hope this helps. Good luck!

rahilansari said:

Hello All,
I Want To Start A Small Company To Sell Automation Products And Drives Of Siemens.For Doing This I Need Your Smart Opinions And Suggestions About Following :
1.How Should I Proceed?
2.How Much Will Be The Investment?
3.What Necessary Steps Should I Take In First Phase ?

Please Add You Extra Opinions Also Apart The Above Three.

Click to expand...

OK in addition to all the technical issues
1. Keep your day job for a while - you are more than likely going to finance this out of your pocket. Keep track of how much you spend. You need to know your investment so you can pay yourself back ie be your own banker if you can.

2. NEVER finance your house or other personal property - if the business does not work out then you can keep your house. Consult a lawyer to see how to best separate your personal life and finances from your business

3. Write a business plan - royal pain I know - I hate em
BUT consider this - plan in haste and repent at leisure.

Dan Bentler

Ruthless? That's how the business world is going to treat someone that starts a business with no background in it whatsoever. Or someone who relies on business advice gleaned from a post or posts in a discussion forum.

My read of the original post gave me the impression of someone that just had a lightbulb turn on in their head thinking 'This sounds like a good idea' and didn't want to do any further research on the idea.

So my suggestion:

Start writing a business plan. As you go through that exercise you'll find all the areas that you'll need to investigate and learn. There's plenty of websites and business plan examples out there on the internet. Start with the mission statement and go from there. Example:

Mission statement - To be the best Siemens distributor in India. What questions arise? Maybe, how do I become a Siemens distributor? Check out www.Siemens.com for the answer to that and you'll probably find someone to talk to in India's corporate headquarters that will be able to fill you in on the requirements, or if they're looking for additional distributors at all.

As you write the business plan you'll deal with all the business topics and should research each one - things like insurance, marketing, competitive analysis, pro formas, etc.

After a year or two when your business plan is complete you'll have the plan of action. Of course, you'll have a plan but from my interpretation of the original post you won't have any background or experience in the business, which may not be helpful in raising the capital required.

My apologies for being blunt and straightforward. Starting a distributorship is something that is a fairly large undertaking, in my opinion, and not something that should be decided on a whim. If the OP just wants to start a company to resell Siemens equipment with a value added service like, say, engineering and automation design, then in Canada it would be as simple as doing business under the name 'John Doe Company', buying a laptop and other small office supplies, and establishing a relationship with the local Siemens distributor. Oh yeah, then you'd need to get customers...and while investigating the 'how to start a business' section of the provincial website you'd find that the liability of a sole proprietorship stinks so you may want a corporation...then your first client asks about insurance and WSIB...

So my suggestion still stands - research business planning and start one. One of the first steps/questions will be something like 'is there a need for the product or service'. This will probably make you think of some more specific questions than "1. How Should I Proceed?"