Rashmi Bansal's new book is based on small town entrepreneurs. She told Iknoor Kaur about economical and smart options to start a business
There was a time when being in a small town was thought of as a hurdle to being an entrepreneur. People would move to big towns to start businesses that mostly failed. However, today those people who left their hometowns in search of a better life, education and career are heading back to their motherland only to start fresh business ventures. In yet another book based on entrepreneurship, Take Me Home (Westland), Rashmi Bansal sheds some light on 20 such individuals who left their jobs and metro life to start their own businesses in their hometowns. “I feel there are bright people in every city and they get educated and migrate to big cities in search of jobs. What if we had big companies in their hometownsIJ That is why this time I have focussed on entrepreneurs from smaller towns of India. The idea being that today you don’t have to be in a city like Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru to have a business that can make an impact outside your city or region. I think because of Internet, mobiles and increased air connectivity the location of the business is not a constraint on growth. Earlier you would want to be in a good city near a good airport or seaport to start a new venture. But now you can be in areas that are more secluded and do things that normally people would not expect to be happening there. This is the future of business and our country,” said the author who titled her book after John Denver’s famous melody Country Roads. “Through this book I am addressing people who left their hometowns, settled elsewhere and somewhere deep down they do want to return. I want to convey a message to those people that you can think about going back and making a difference. That is why: Country Roads, Take Me Home To The Place I Belong,” she added.
Rashmi got the idea for this book after meeting a few entrepreneurs from small towns. She explained, “A lot of colleges invite me for lectures. So on one such trip I happened to visit a college in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh and then I went to cities like Belgaum and Rajkot. When I used to go and speak to students there I felt that they have a lot of interest in entrepreneurship. Consequently I happened to meet people who were running interesting businesses there. This happened in almost every small town I visited and I realised that this is something that is happening and is not being talked about much.”
Rashmi referred to these entrepreneurs as the new breed. She said, “Just because I’m sitting in Nagpur doesn’t mean I am a small businesswoman. I may be in any city but when I think business I think in a global way. A lot of these companies set up by these small town entrepreneurs are big in the export sector too. So they are not thinking small. They are the people who are new in their thinking and that is something we have not seen before.”
According to her, entrepreneurship has become an acceptable and durable career option. She elaborated, “There is so much exposure today. People have some idea of what entrepreneurship is and there are many sectors that you can step into.” On the flipside, “there is a lot of competition. So you need to keep innovating,” she shared.
Rashmi feels that small town businesses are flourishing because the cost incurred in setting those ventures is less. “It is much cheaper to work in a small city. A lot of factories are set up in small towns because they are affordable. Even the employees are loyal,” she said.
At present Rashmi is working on her next book. “It is currently in progress and is based on student entrepreneurs,” she informed.