Starting a IT Start-up in Sri Lanka : Part 2

Since I have written about basics that you have to cover when starting a IT Start-up, this article will cover about initial expenses that you have to face when you are starting.

Since, now you have place for your own to start your startup, there are different kinds of initial expenses that you have to consider when you are staring up. Buying furnitures, office and household item for your place is the start of that. Since you are going with the low cost strategy, you should always consider about alternatives and try to find the best out of that before do any purchase on anything at this stage. Since you are staying at the same place where you do your works, you have to buy items like metres, beds, towel racks etc. Other than that you need tables and chairs to do your office works. So, one of best place to buy all items at one place is “Moratuwa” since you can save lot of money from metres and furniture items if you buy from there. It OK to buy office chairs and tables at the beginning if you have enough money. But if you don’t, since this is the start, you can always go with normal wood chairs and tables. Interior should not be a main concern at this stage.

Less you spend, more you save for the future 😉

Next main thing is “How to get daily foods”? Since I have mentioned in my last article, it’s a must that you consider about small restaurants which you can get foods for average prices. It’s the main expenses you have to bare in any stage of your startup.

You have to eat well to do well, right 😉

Apart from that, you can always prepare your own meal in house. It’s more cost effective and healthy. So, if you want to go with that, buying necessary items can add some cost to your list. But it’s okay since you can save lots of money by this.

That’s pretty much about purchasing items for your newly rented place. I may have missed lot of things. But this is just a basic guide and you can always go with your list of items and purchase its with the best option that you can think of that time.

Basics about starting your IT Start-up in Sri Lanka has covered with this article and next article will be base on about Company Registration Process in Sri Lanka and what you have to know before you directly jump into register your IT Start-up.

If you don’t have fail at least once in your life, you don’t have try to do at least one new thing in your life

Starting a IT Startup in Sri Lanka : Part 1

Here’s to that kind of crazy people in Sri Lanka, who really have gut to be different from others and chase their own dreams for the rest of their life. We are innoWIDE, also a IT start-up who are still trying to climb the ladder of success by putting everything in line. So I thought to share our experience through couple of posts on starting our own IT Company in Sri Lanka and give some guidance on ground basics that you have to cover. These are real world experiences that we came cross when we firstly starting innoWIDE. Let’s hear “Less about theory, more about actions”

When we were discussing about the idea of creating our own company and change the world, we had to think about several aspects real world scenarios. So the first thing was about getting our own place. There were two options.

1. Rent a office space directly and start from there. (So we had to find a place to stay as well)
2. Find a place, that we can use as a office space while we stay at the same place

So, if we go with the first option, we have to find another place to stay as well. You have to pay 2 rents in each month. So even though you can afford that much of money in the beginning, I strongly advice “Don’t do that”. You have to save money as much as you can at the beginning of your company. It’s is really important to think twice before you spend your money on something at the start. So we went with 2nd option which is low cost when comparing to first option. So if you don’t have that much of money in your pocket, like us at that time, 2nd one is the best option you can follow. Find a good place where you can stay as well as work for at least first year.

Finding a GOOD place is much harder than even you imagine. We wanted to find a place where near to Gall Road. So every day we gave almost dozens of call for house owners about asking their house and prices. Then we visited each place that we confirmed through the phone. But by the time we went there, most of houses were already rented by paying a advance by previous visitors. My friend and I travel almost every area of Colombo to find a GOOD place which could go with our budget. So remember as a fact that, keep advance money with your while you do the house hunting. So when you see a good place, you can reserve that right away until you do the full payment of key money. There are some factors that you have to keep in your mind when you try to find a good place to establish your start-up

1. If you call in the morning about asking a place, you have to visit that place that day itself. If you stay one more day to visit that place, forget about it 🙂
2. Always try to keep some amount of money (Rs 5000 – Rs 10000) where you can pay advance payment right away if you find a good place.
3. Try to find place which have less distractions. You need a place where you can keep your head straight and work all day long
4. Check whether there are places to buy foods and other necessary thing. Otherwise you will spend half of your day for finding foods.
5. Check whether you have mobile signal with 3G or 4G connectivity since you are going to live in the internet
6. Check about traveling facilities

These are pretty much basics that you have to cover when you are finding a place to start your own company. There are lot that I would have missed. You can add that on comments.

This is about finding a good place to start. Next post will cover about buying household items and other necessary things to your new place.

“Don’t fall into the rat race, follow your dreams” – Rich Dad, Poor Dad

5 Things To Learn in College That Will Prepare You To Start Your Own Company

We are not saying that these are the exact 5 things that you have to learn to start a company. But these 5 will guide you..!!

1. Always try to turn real world into business.

Yes. We know,First of all  you should have to have awesome idea which is going to be a killer product in near future. You may have 100 of crazy ideas which you thing those are bullshit. But never think like that. Who knows that one of that idea will make you one a Bill Gate or Steve Job 🙂 You never know.

So when you got an idea, keep practice to write down every single idea in a notebook. It doesn’t matter the size of it. Keep write..!!!

Brainstorming is a great way to get your ideas flowing, and getting your ideas down on paper will give you an idea of how close or far away you are from being ready to start your own company.

College is the ideal place to practice and learn how to write a formal business plan, and you may be surprised at how many steps are involved before a final draft is ready. So start now..!!!

An another important thing is. It’s doesn’t matter what awesome idea you have if you can sell that in the market..!! So be practical..!!!