India is a country of MSMEs, with entrepreneurs working on different scales in different geographical dimensions. While all of them want to scale up their businesses and become big, not many have access to professional business training and education.
Bada Business is a tech enabled training company that provides affordable, available and accessible business training programs to Indian MSME Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Wantrepreneurs and Students in vernacular language. It aims to revolutionize the idea of business training by making it accessible and affordable to all.
It has been a first mover and a category creator in the Education Technology space. India is a country of MSMEs, with entrepreneurs working on different scales in different geographical dimensions. While all of them want to scale up their businesses and become big, not many have access to professional business training and education.
Most of our existing entrepreneurs or wantrepreneurs also do not have access to formal business management programs either due to financial or time related constraints. At Bada Business, we have created an alternative business education system to fill this void and teach best management practices to them in partnership with top business leaders.
We are the first such enterprise that equips small businesses with required skills and approaches to scale up their business. We train and educate in vernacular languages at a very affordable model, making our courses accessible to even small family-run businesses in the remotest towns of the country.
Interestingly, Harvard Business Review is writing a case study on our alternative business education model. Our journey has been very rewarding. In just a year of starting up, we have 75,000 registered users on board. We have a viewership of 40 crore per month on our FB page.
My YouTube channel that started in 2016 is among the country’s most popular YouTube channels with over 13 million subscribers. We are now planning to significantly expand our presence across the country as well as establishing offices in Bangladesh and Nepal.
Our first year saw Bada Business reach a revenue of Rs 60 crore. However, the COVID 19 crisis has accelerated our growth significantly and we are expected to touch a revue of Rs 200 crore in 2020. As the COVID 19 induced lock-down wreaked havoc on the economy, Bada Business launched a major exercise to train and up-skill small businesses to reinvent themselves for the new normal.
Our first year saw Bada Business reach a revenue of Rs 60 crore. However, the COVID 19 crisis has accelerated our growth significantly and we are expected to touch a revue of Rs 200 crore in 2020. As the COVID 19 induced lock-down wreaked havoc on the economy, Bada Business launched a major exercise to train and up-skill small businesses to reinvent themselves for the new normal.
Under our 'India Revival Mission' we conducted a series of business training workshops and online lessons that trained over 1.5 crore small entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs in business skills needed for this difficult time.
Such was the response to this exercise, that each of our sessions became World Records for the largest online business training lessons in their respective categories. We are the first organization in the world to hold 5 Guinness World Record achievements.
2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?
As a corporate trainer I spent several years training top business leaders in the corporate world. I also started a leadership funnel programme to train entrepreneurs and improve their business skills. After training corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, our objective was to be able to reach the bottom of the pyramid as far as entrepreneurial education is concerned.
2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?
As a corporate trainer I spent several years training top business leaders in the corporate world. I also started a leadership funnel programme to train entrepreneurs and improve their business skills. After training corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, our objective was to be able to reach the bottom of the pyramid as far as entrepreneurial education is concerned.
Bada Business was born out of this quest to fill the business skill training void for small entrepreneurs and MSME owners. The idea was to condense the business education knowledge provided in formal MBA programs and offer it to a large number of people in a form that they could easily consume.
We first crafted our flagship program Everything About Entrepreneurship (EAE). This was essentially a gist of the course taught in leading Management schools condensed into a 264 chapter course. We made sure it is delivered in a language and terminology that is palatable to the masses.
It can be in a way regarded as the world’s cheapest MBA program. Gradually, we also came up with a series of other courses ranging from 2 months to 2 years to address multiple business training requirements of different people.
We brought some of the country’s leading business leaders onboard to become our partner ‘Professors’ and deliver lectures to students based on their first hand experiences. Though Bada Business is still just a year old organization, we have established 75 branch offices across India and are planning to double the same by end of the year. We are also working on a model to add 1,000,00 Independent Business Consultants to our organization across the country. We mentor and support these self employed individuals to become our distribution partners.
3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?
Being a category creating company, we enjoyed a huge first mover advantage but this also presented before us several challenges associated with an unchartered territory. We had no pre-existing example or model to look up to and learn from. We learn every day through our own journey.
3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?
Being a category creating company, we enjoyed a huge first mover advantage but this also presented before us several challenges associated with an unchartered territory. We had no pre-existing example or model to look up to and learn from. We learn every day through our own journey.
Another major challenge was to craft a program for the last common denominator. Since our program doesn’t mandate a qualifying degree, a high school pass out can also enroll and study our curriculum. It had to be in a language and terminology that could be easily understood. Preparing the Entrepreneurship Development Program in Hindi language was a content related challenge.
4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?
Learning from failures is a very important quality. Failures are a part of life, but the ability to learn from them and bounce back is what separates successful entrepreneurs from mediocre ones.
5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?
For me there are 3 very important factors that help in running a successful business:
6. What are your tips for the first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Concentrate on creating solutions to solve the problems of the customer. Once you start doing that, the business will take care of itself.
7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?
It has to be done through multiple ways. Start on a small scale and grow your business gradually in response to increasing revenue. Use the digital space and digital business tools more actively to reduce costs.
4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?
Learning from failures is a very important quality. Failures are a part of life, but the ability to learn from them and bounce back is what separates successful entrepreneurs from mediocre ones.
5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?
For me there are 3 very important factors that help in running a successful business:
- Having a long term vision,
- A product or service that solves a burning problem of the people, and
- An effective and a dedicated team.
6. What are your tips for the first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Concentrate on creating solutions to solve the problems of the customer. Once you start doing that, the business will take care of itself.
7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?
It has to be done through multiple ways. Start on a small scale and grow your business gradually in response to increasing revenue. Use the digital space and digital business tools more actively to reduce costs.
Keep the operating costs to a minimum by having a remote workforce in the first year of operation. This will help in minimizing your need for extra funds during your starting up phase.
Interview by - Chamanth Krishna
Interview by - Chamanth Krishna
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