Another Cool Low Cost Startup idea for Pakistani Entrepreneurs

If you are wondering about some really cool super easy low cost business ideas then you have hit the right page, I have already shared tons of business ideas (for Pakistani entrepreneurs), check this post out, in that post you will get around thirty business ideas along with all the essential, important details like initial investment required, ROI, HR requirements etc.

Now this doesn’t mean, this post is only for Pakistani entrepreneur, if you are one of my international subscriber, reader of this website then you should too get through this post as you will also learn many things about startup that I may have not shared in my previous articles, posts or may have not explained good enough.

Startup Idea: Spicy Dry Fried Green Peas!

You can launch this startup in with as little as 200K Pkr (2000 USD). Yep that's true!

Things you would need to successfully launch this business (step by step easy approach)

1. Raw materials, Storage
2. Labor
3. Setting up price, product packing size, weight, profit etc.
4. Packing Boxes
5. Brand Name, Logo, Registration, License etc
6. Single Seal Machine
7. Business Strategy

So let’s start with the first one!

Raw Materials:

Although you can make dry fried green peas at your own home with investing a little more but it is always a good idea to start it initially by buying it in bulk from some dealer that is already selling it.

Buying in bulk gives you around 40% in profit and comes a lot cheaper than the retail, in Pakistan you can buy it from any of sweet, nimco dealers while in foreign you will have to research the market to find out the dealers.

So once you have bought that second thing is you need storage to store it in a dry warm place away from moisture as such things make life of such products really short and plus your product looses all that crisp, crunch.

Once you have the raw materials stored in, time for the next step.

Labor:

You will need at least couple of guys along with you to take care of packing the whole thing, although it is likely that you along with these guys may not know about packing, using machines etc.

For that I suggests you to spend some time with someone who is already using the same machine for packing products etc, spending one month will be enough and to do that you will have to make relationship or use someone else relationship; who knows people in the industry to get their help, to teach you how to use machine, how to pack stuff and all that.

Even if you don’t find anyone, learning these things isn’t as hard as it might seem, you can learn quite a bit from the machine dealer too and even from the internet, so it’s not that hard!

Setting up price, product packing size, weight, profit etc:

Once you learn about packing, about machine etc next step is to set your product price, setting up price is a difficult process and even more challenging in startup situations.

My experience suggests that you should go with the market practice, if they are selling 5 rupees packet then you should too target five rupee market, if their packet weight is 20 grams then yours should also be the same.

If their packet size is so and so, you should follow that too, keep in mind your total profit should be above 40% of the raw materials price (dry fried green peas).

The reason I am suggesting following the market in price, weight, packet size etc is simply because they have done it successfully, making handsome money profit and so do as the Romans do!

And the reason for keeping your net profit above 40% is simply because that way you will earn quite good in net profit by keeping your labor happy by paying them handsomely, by keeping your wholesalers, retailers happy by giving them too healthy returns, so it will be a win win situation for everyone.

Packing Boxes:

Now once you have identified the packet size, weight, number of packets that should go in a box (by evaluating the market, your competitors etc), next step is to make the same boxes for your own product.

In Pakistan, it is either 12 packets or 24 packets in a single box, in foreign you should follow the norm whatever that may be.

In Pakistan the print service providers print no less than 3 thousand boxes, the price of the box vary depending on the quality, quantity, size, competition etc, normally a normal looking box like the following will cost around 5 rupees (0.05 USD).

Normal Box Picture

Brand Name, Logo/Trademark, Registration, License etc:

Your startup will need to have name, that will be called your business name or brand name, also you will need a logo that represents your business and then comes all the legal requirements that you will need to fulfill to legally run the business like having food license, product registration etc.

Single Seal Machine:

Now to make green peas packets of a specific width and height you will need a sealing machine, a normal sealing machine in Pakistan cost anywhere from 70 thousand Pkr to 150 thousand Pkr (700-1500K USD).

Such a machine uses normal voltage so you can install it even at your home, consumes little juice (electricity), have low maintenance costs, easy to operate, a single person can easily operate it.

The Machine can produce anywhere from 32-46 green peas packets per minute.

Watch the following videos on how such a machine is being used to pack different things.

You will also need plastic reels that are used in the machine to pack stuff, to make  these packs you will need to spend some money, as they will have your brand name, logo, license, ingredients etc information on it.

Again print service providers don’t print single reels, you will need to print at least 40 kg stuff, that will cost around 4.00 USD (400 Pkr) per kilogram.

The packing reel/roll looks like as follow:

Business Strategy:

Since you are starting low, with little investment thus you can’t afford pricey marketing like advertising, pamphlets, social media marketing, brand promotion and other marketing campaigns thus my suggestion would be to follow low price penetration strategy to capture market, to get a healthy foothold in the market.

Your competitors shouldn’t be the big brands rather those who are a little bigger than you, different than you, you should compete with them only because they are your real competitors.

Besides you can never compete with the big brands, never!

Your business focus should be on good quality at affordable price to your end consumer, retailer, wholesaler, distributor etc.

Your business success benchmark should be daily, weekly, monthly constantly increasing sales while at the same time keeping the net profit stable and minimizing the overall total costs.

Initially you will need at least one or two guys to do the sales, to penetrate market, to reach all potential buyers on daily basis, to make new clients.

After initial 8-10 months you may also need a vehicle to penetrate market further, to reach clients you or your sales team couldn’t reach easily so make sure you have money ready to make that vehicle available when needed.

Although in initial days of your startup you will be hard pushed to do multi tasking but my suggestion would be totally avoid it as much you can, learn to delegate, share your power with your team.

I have extensively written on business strategies, marketing, finance, advertising, branding, small business, startups, easy small business ideas so you should check out those articles and yeah those aren’t some boring impractical articles rather are otherwise, chockfull with actionable content, successful practical tips, suggestions.

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Over to you guys!