Blog
Guidance on funding schemes, GST/compliance, and running a small business in India.
How much money you actually need to start — and the number nobody budgets for
Most first budgets are a setup cost with a cushion added. The business that runs out of money usually had its setup cost exactly right — and no idea that growing would consume cash faster than standing still.
How to read a city before you open in it
Population and “it's growing fast” are the two facts that tell you least. What decides whether a location works is who pays the salaries there, how far people will travel to you, and a licence list that changes at the municipal boundary.
The bank wants collateral you don't have. Here is what should happen next.
“Collateral-free” does not mean the risk left the room — it means it left the bank. Two things decide whether you get the loan, and most owners have been told about neither.
Proprietorship, LLP or Private Limited: the choice you make once and pay for every year
Almost everyone picks the structure that sounds most serious. The tax code disagrees — and one rule quietly closes the simplest filing regime in Indian tax law to anyone who incorporates.
Why an AI business partner has to remember your business
A general assistant answers your question from training data and forgets who you are. Neither half of that is acceptable when the answer decides where your money goes. What we built instead.
How to test a business idea in 14 days for under ₹10,000
Most first businesses fail at a question that could have been answered in a fortnight for the price of a weekend. Here is the test, in order, and the point at which you are allowed to stop.
The compliance staircase: what switches on at 1, 10, 20 and 50 employees
Nobody tells you that hiring your tenth employee changes your legal obligations. It does — and so does the twentieth. A map of the steps, so the surprise arrives before the notice does.
Udyam registration takes ten minutes. Here is what it actually unlocks.
It is free, it is self-declared, and it is the single precondition sitting behind most MSME benefits — including one rule that changes how fast your corporate customers have to pay you.
The GST registration threshold isn't one number
₹40 lakh is the figure everyone quotes. It is the right answer for a shrinking minority of businesses — and there are half a dozen situations where turnover doesn't matter at all.
MUDRA, PMEGP or a plain term loan: which one you're actually eligible for
Three funding routes get recommended to every small business owner in India, and at least one of them is almost certainly closed to you. Here is how to tell which — before you fill in a single form.