Category — Entrepreneurship

You may be surprised to see me writing about Free CNA training. However I have been working on the topic for quite some time now and I have been really impressed with the concept of free cna training in the USA and I thought it will be nice to share the concept on this blog as well.

What is Free CNA Training

CNA training is a training program that prepares people to become a certified nursing assistant. However because of the recent slowdown in the USA many aspirants have been finding it difficult to affors the cost of the CNA Training. The Free CNA Training  is a really intelligent solution to this problem. Free CNA Training programs are offered by nursing homes and old age care homes. The candidate is allowed to attend the CNA classes for free, however he is expected to pay the organization in kind either in the form of free service during the course or by agreeing to work with the organization after completing the CNA certification.

Are free CNA Training courses a fraud?

Some organizations have brought bad name to free cna training courses by promising a free training to candidates while they actually charge an exorbiant fee later. However according to me such people are few and you need not worry about them. Do your homework and basic background check well before joining any free cna training course and you shall not have to worry.

How do I get a Free Red Cross CNA training?

Looks like you are confusing two of the most popular forms of CNA training. Red Cross CNA Training is a CNA training offered by the red cross and it is NOT free. While free cna training are offered by a number of nursing homes and hospitals in America. Many people get both these concepts mixed up and try to look for free red cross cna training. To the best of my knowledge there is nothing like a free red cross cna training though.

I hope you found the information provided above useful. Let me know if any clarification is required and I shall help you out.

I had recently written about most viewed video on youtube. Related research shows that there is a massive demand for free bollywood movies onine. There are many websites that allow users to download free bollywood movies. There is also no dearth of websites to watch online bollywood movies. I have been trying to figure out a feasible business model for starting a website where users can watch free movies. I am not able to find much content related to the legal aspects of the topic. If any of you happen to have any experience in the topic, then please drop me a mail.

Also do you know if working on a seo project for a website which may be illegal is legal or not. My previous posts about romantic hindi songs and romantic hindi movie may get me a project from a site about bollywood hindi movies. I am not sure if it is legal though. What should I do?

My project for second hand mobiles is doing quite well. I have got more than 70 second hand mobile phones for sale already. While I await the second hand mobiles market to pick up, I am starting work on a price comparison site for mobiles.

As the first step of this new project, I was researching about online stores for buying mobile phones. Thought I shall just share the list with you.

1. http://www.themobilestore.in
2. http://www.gadgetsguru.com
3.  http://www.futurebazaar.com
4. http://www.9tech9.com
5. http://cafegadgets.com
6. http://www.homeshop18.com
7. http://www.shopmania.in/
8. http://shop.in.com/

I am looking at traditional sites like rediff and indiatimes as well. Though have not quite figured them out yet.

Please let me know if you are aware of any other online shopping site or any other site where I can find information about offers, discounts etc for mobile phones.

By the ways there are more than 70 second hand mobiles available for sale at contacthello.com. Do give it a visit to see if you may be interested in any of them.

I have been working on contacthello for the last 1 month. The basic idea of contacthello is very simple. It will allow people to  sell second hand mobiles   and  buy second hand mobiles online.

contacthello was very simple to build. Actually this consists of hardly 3 php pages only. The main challenge will be getting users to the site. I was confident that it will be easy as the quality of result on google for second hand mobiles is quite bad. But now looks like it is going to be a difficult task. Because people do not seem to be searching for second hand mobiles on google

I shall have to start the process from zero without the help of my good freind google. But then what is the fun without challenge?  And I am ready for the challenge. It is going to be exciting to start from ground zero all over again. Anyways I am in a better position since we started mywalkin I have the traffic of mywalkin and I have made some good freinds with many really good bloggers in the meantime. I will keep all of you updated on my progress with contacthello. Happy selling your second hand mobile phone.

You might have noticed that this blog has not been updated in quite sometime. That is because I have been busy with developing my new website that will allow users to buy or sell used mobile phones in India.

I always refer to the used goods as second hand goods. Most of the people I know also use similar terms. So I was confident that people must be searching for second hand mobile. However as a good webmaster I like to rely on data. So I went to google insight for search and compared 2 terms i.e second hand mobile and Used mobile.

Which one do you think won? (Hint: I was absolutely wrong, as usual ) You can see the result on Google

India searches for Used Mobile Phone and Not Second hand Mobile Phone. However I have still not understood why it is so? Is it really that indians use the term used mobile phone or is it something else? Please let me your view as I am starting work on my new site and this is critical to the success of the site.

I am not sure if Techies in India have realized the oppurtunity that the iphone store presents to us. I think this is one ares that is begging to be dominated by us. Surprisingly I have not seen much enthusiasm about the same in the Indian blogosphere.

Think about it. The apps store has sold apps worth more than 30 million $ in 1 month alone. Even after taking apple’s cut from this the developers have made 21 million $ or 80 crore rupees in 1 month!!!! source

Why do I say this domain is begging to be dominated by us? Because of the long tail phenomenon. The top 10 apps accounted for only 9 million or just 30% of the total.

It means that there are lot of apps that made small amount of money. What is one strength that is required to win a fragmented market like this?? It is the ability to be the low cost producer. Which country has that capacity in abundance?? That is the logic for my conclusion that the iphone apps market shall be completely dominated by Indian techies.

Only if we wake up to the oppurtunity fast enough. The window of oppurtunity remains open till the apps market gets its dominant player.

SMS prices might have dropped. However who does not like an option to send free sms messages? Here we profile some websites that allow you to send free sms in india. Bookmark this page now. You will need more than 1 of these sites as they have a restriction on number of free sms you can send daily.

way2sms.com: This is one of the earliest players amongst the free sms service providers. The best part is it allows you to send messages upto 110 characters long. Really hassle free registration.

160by2.com: This is one of the newest players amongst the free sms service providers. However it allows you to send messages upto 80 characters long. However they are getting a lot of traction among new users.

www.jaxtr.com Jaxtr provides many more solutions apart from free sms. It is functional in countries outside india as well. However it works quite well in India. It even gives 50 free credits to make free calls.

www.spicesms.com: They support a imited number of service providers. As a matter of fact they do not support any of the 3 mowas using to check out the free sms services in india.

Google adsense is a boon for many webmasters and bloggers like me. It allows us to monetize small, niche websites like this. I have previously talked about people who have earned million dollars through adsense. However I was really worried after seeing this post as it seems to suggest that making money through adsense is easy. Let me make myself very clear, making money with adsense is NOT at all easy.

I am not saying that you can not make money with adsense. However for that you need some idea, some skill or something else that will set you apart from the othen zillion blogs that are trying the same. Most importantly you will need time. That is what I am trying to do with binarday. That is what tarun, abhishek and madhur are trying to do. So please try to build a good website with some really good content before yo go ahead and leave that job.

There are many more risks associated with adsense. Many webmasters have been thrown out of the programme in the past. Google says that they were thrown out because of wrongdoings. However the webmasters plead guilty. No one knows the truth.

Adsense earnings are known to be highly volatile. I have personally seen my earnings go upto 2000$ in a month and then come down all the way to 1200$.

If you depend on google for your traffic, then the traffic may go away anytime. Google for “google dance” to see what I mean.

Finally I am not saying that you should not take risk. Take risk by all means. However be aware of what you are getting into. The aim of this post is to make you aware of the risk you are taking up.

Have you ever thought that you need to be in a particular sector to get venture funding? If yes then take a look at the list below.

Instablogs is a network of blogs. It has been funded from Vishal Gondal, the Founder and CEO of Indiagames. Instablogs is the first blog network to get funding. It was founded by Ankit Maheshwari,based in simla. His team is distributed all over the country.

Ozone Media is an online advertisement platform. It aggregates small and medium sized publishers who do not have their own sales force and sell the inventory to advertisers. It has got a funding from IDG Ventures India.

SMSGupShup is a free group messaging service. They got a 40 crore funding in the first week of july.

mKhoj.com initially started as a mobile search engine. Later it relaunched as a mobile ad publishing network platform and they have recieved their A series funding from Sherpalo and KPCB .

FutureBazaar.com, Future Group’s e-commerce venture raised funding from Sherpalo Ventures and KPCB.

iXiGO is a travel metasearch engine, got their first round of financing from BAF Spectrum, Singapore.

123Greetings a online greetings site that has been on the scene since the late nineties. Intel Capital has invested in 123greeting.com.

Druvaa is a data backup service provider. The Indian Angel Network has funded druvaa January 23rd, 2008

Komli is one more online advertising network that got funded in 2008.

This newyork times article compares mukesh ambani to mahtma gandhi. The comparison may be a little far fetched. However I recommend this article as it gives a really detailed view into the life of mr ambani and had a highly inspiring effect on me.

Negative questions are too powerful.

What if people upload porn? Youtube dies there
Why will people submit links and vote for them when they don’t get anything in return? death of digg
How will you ever monetize search while microsoft and yahoo have not managed it? google dies there
Do you think there is a market for maybe 10 people for PC? death of microsoft

You see the power of negative questions. It is too easy to think of 10 reasons why a startup will fail. Invariably while starting up, you have not figured out answers to all the questions. That is why you need years to grow up, to solve those questions, to improve your product.

Shoul I avoid discussing an idea with the team at the initial stage?
Not at all. Discussion will help you to look at the ideas from various angles and bring out enhancements. You will need the support of your partners to implement the idea as well.

What is the way out then?
Make the team understand that you have not found answers to all possible questions. There will be questions that will remain unanswered at the end of the discussion. The list above may be helpful as well

Start with few basic questions only. Do people need the product. Keep the detailed questions for later, once they have reached a certain stage.

This essay is derived from a talk at the 2006 startup school at Stanford by Ycombinator.

Nice and inspiring lessons if you are serious for starting a startup.

Came across this wonderful interview (on Guy Kawasaki’s blog) with Darren Rowse who talks about making money with blogging.
I am sure you gonna get something out of it….

My friend Yathindran came across these links which keep a track of latest postings on some of the famous blogs related to startups and venture capital.
For startup news checkout
http://startups.alltop.com/
and for venture capital news checkout
http://venturecapital.alltop.com/

Even if you are not interested in this stuff, do give it a shot. You will sure find something of interest.

I have learned a lot in the last 2 days at Barcamp Bangalore. The most shocking revelation was the fact that twitter is hot in India. I have been aware of the popularity of twitter in US. However somehow I have been 100% confident that people in India do not use twitter that much.

Just in case you have not heard of the service, twitter is a service that allows you to register and create your channel. Then you can send a message from your cell phone or IM or web to that channel. Your friends can subscribe to the channel and will get the updates from you.

I was absolutely surprised by the percentage of people using twitter at Barcamp Bangalore. I have already created a twitter account. Planning to impress my peers with my coolness

I have been researching about twitter for quite sometime now. I have found loads of impressive stuff about it. Here are some of the more interesting stuff about twitter.

Blog on the go Publish an event as soon as you hear about it. No need to wait till you start your laptop and manage to write an insightful lengthy post. You can always follow up your twitter post with a detailed post later on.

Twitter can save lives Just imagine you are stuck somewhere or you are in some trouble. Send a sms to twitter and 100s of people can get your message.

Group Chat It is a great way for a group of people to stay in touch with each other.

I am back from my first Barcamp. I had flown from Mumbai to attend the barcamp at bangalore and obviously I had high expectations. I was not disappointed at all as I met some fantabulous people.

However I was really disappointed to see a lot of sessions on trivial issues like Kamasutra, dating and Palmistry happening at the Barcamp. I totally agree with Mohan that these sessions lead to a degeneration of the idea of Barcamp. Many people were of the view that they allowed people to get a break from the serious sessions. Entrepreneurs are like soldiers. One mistake and you are dead. And barcamps are for entrepreneurs, what military exercises are for soldiers. And the last time I checked there were no entertainment sessions in the middle of military exercise.

The organizers have done a great job. But I request them to take note of the fact that these sessions are trivializing the concept of barcamp and I hope they will something to solve this problem.

Many a times I feel like an alien in the normal world. I am sure it will be the same for most of other entrepreneurs as well. Hardly anyone understands our thought process. However at Barcamp Bangalore I realized that, I am not the only alien around. There is a world of aliens. The last 2 days at Barcamp bangalore was simply awesome. Talking to the people there, some entrepreneurs and many aspiring entrepreneurs, it felt like entrepreneurship is the normal way of life.

I have hardly ever met so many awesome people in 2 days even during my IIM Days. I shall be writing detailed posts about many of these startups in the coming days. But here is a short description of some of the people who simply amazed me by their courage to put everything at stake to follow the idea that they believe in..

When I talk about entrepreneurship and leaving my job to start something new, nobody seems to understand me. Everyone keeps wondering why the hell I want to leave a secure job and bright future to run after a stupid idea. Hence I could tatally relate to the following para on a blog

“…no matter what your age or experience, entrepreneurship involves such things as obsession, compulsion, creative surges, and a roller coster of emotional highs and lows. All of this can make you appear mad, whether or not it’s true.

The life of an entrepreneur does not resemble normal behavior by most people’s standards. This may explain why many of your friends give you a blank stare when you tell them you’re starting a company, or why you get the sense that family members are talking about you behind your back. Go easy on them. Few of us are fated to be entrepreneurs, or even to understand why anyone else would want to subject himself to all of the risks and hard work. It’s difficult for many people to appreciate the appeal of entrepreneurship versus the perception of stability and a regular paycheck that comes with a “real job.” The best suggestion is to swallow your pride and concentrate on building your new venture. Ultimately, there is nothing more convincing than success.”

The toughest part in a startup is building the prototype of your idea to prove that it works. You will need angel investment to keep the startup going at this phase. If you have a great idea, and you will like to get some early stage funding, then you should try your luck with mumbai angels

By their own admission, they are focused on seed stage and early stage companies with strong teams, defensible technologies or services and well defined product to market plans.

Mumbai angels has many members with prior Silicon Valley experience. So you can expect some really useful advice and handholding as well. More importantly they invest in indivdual capacity and not as a fund.

mKhoj, a mumbai based startup, specializing in mobile advertising has secured $7.1 million funding from Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures

mKhoj allows publishers to monetize their mobile traffic. Considering the rapid growth of mobiles in india, this company seems to be moving in the right direction.