A few months ago I had been to New Delhi to attend to my personal work at New Zealand embassy. Instead of wasting money on expensive hotel rooms in Chanakyapuri, I stayed in a hotel in Connaught Place. In the evening I decided to go to Palika Bazaar and buy some cotton dresses for my wife and daughter. When I came out of my room I saw a young man who was reading my article in the lounge. The next moment I forgot my family and Palika Bazaar.

After introducing myself I eagerly asked Guru, “Do you read Money Spinners articles? Are they useful?” After a brief silence Guru replied, “Please don’t mistake me. I like your articles. But, well, even before I started reading your articles, I have been making money through self-employment.”

I grinned sheepishly and digressed, “Income opportunities are everywhere and any resourceful and hard working person can become successful by making use of them. What do you do for a living?” Guru replied, “I work from home. I run a small scale BPO Company.”

“How did you get into BPO business?” I asked him. Guru replied, “As soon as I came out of college, I learnt how to use accounting software programs such as Tally and EX. Then I bought a computer on credit and started working as a freelance accountant. I would go to my clients’ offices, bring their records to my place, update accounts and then return the books. Though I worked for long hours, I made only Rs.6,000 a month. I always felt that I was wasting my energy and time on low paying projects. But I did not know what else to do. One day I read about call centers and BPO work and the earnings of these companies in a magazine. It struck me that I was also doing BPO work for local clients and if I did the same work for overseas clients my income would easily cross five digits.”

“It’s a resourceful thought. How did you manage to get overseas clients?” I asked Guru. He replied, “I borrowed Rs.1,00,000 for high interest and paid a BPO consultant as advance payment for getting BPO work. He gave me some work. When I submitted the completed documents, he rejected my work saying that it did not meet his standards! On enquiry, I found out that he was a conman and that was how he would cheat innocent people legally.”

“What a shame! A few black sheep kill the aspiration of millions of hard working entrepreneurs,” I told Guru who continued to tell his story, “One day, by Divine Grace, I met a businessperson in a Sales Tax office. He was being grilled by the Officer when I went to submit my client’s returns. He had just then returned from the United States and was maintaining his accounts in an accounting program called QuickBooks. It is a great tool in the US but it did not satisfy the requirements of Indian government departments. I offered to covert the data from QuickBooks to Tally in three days. It took only a day for me to learn how to use QuickBooks and another day to convert the data. The businessperson and I became good friends. He told me about the plight of small overseas eCommerce vendors. Their records exist online and entering the data into accounting program is a manual process that they hate to do. Big companies have expensive automation programs and not these small companies. He suggested that I could receive these financial records through email, update accounts in QuickBooks and send the accounting data by email on daily or weekly basis. Through his help, I got two clients. What I was seeking for months came on its own through unexpected source. I began to do exactly the same work that I had been doing for local clients and I was paid well.”

“How much do you earn?” I asked him. Guru said, “Local clients used to pay me Rs. 600 per month. The overseas clients paid me $3.75 (Rs.150) per hour. They gave me work for 3 hours a day and within two moths I was making Rs.10,000 a month. In the following months, I got five overseas clients through the reference of satisfied American clients. I advertised on Google and also on work agency websites. Through them I got ten overseas clients. Now I employ three B.Com, graduates and pay Rs.4,000 each a month. I earn more than Rs.20,000 a month.”
“Wonderful!” I exclaimed and asked Guru, “Please tell me who maintains your personal accounts.” Guru laughed merrily but did not reply.