The Ecommerce Raise
Money doesn’t go to the person who has more money. It goes to the person who knows how to handle money. Through smart and intelligent management of money, a rupee saved can be a rupee earned. And if one ties in a good ways to invest savings, earnings can be really enhanced! Here is a story of one family.
Sanjeev came home dejected as Reema sat there sipping her wine. “Whats up, Sanju?! Everything ok?” She gulped her red and sat up – “Wait! Today was your ‘Pow-wow’ session with Kiran. Right?”
“Yup.. ” Sanjeev said with a smirk and a sense of dismissiveness.
“And?” Reema asked in raised voice.
“Nothing.. same old..” as Sanjeev sat back with his head on the back of the black leather sofa seat letting his right hand through his hair and picking his glasses carefully while wiping his eyes.
“What the heck.. again? How can they just not give any raises?”
The raises hadn’t happened in Sanjeev’s consulting firm in Gurgaon for over 2 years now. Probably a sign of times. The Indian IT companies were feeling the squeeze as the visas had become dearer in the US, their largest geography and the old leadership couldn’t think of any new way to handle the changes in the world. They wanted to succeed in the new world with the same old ways.
Interestingly, Sanjeev – consultant in the digital marketing area – had taken a decision a year back with his wife, that as the ecommerce world was becoming more mature and even more prevalent. The number of website owners that were looking on websites like Entrepreneursbreak for the latest tips and tricks in SEO that will boost the amount of traffic their site gets is increasing, as is the amount of revenue made each year through online sales. They will use it to lower their expenses by looking for deals.
Sanjeev and Reema, who was a finance topper in her MBA class, sat down with the excel of their last years expenses and found that most of their expenses were in the brick and mortar stores. 50% of their expenses (totalling upto Rs10 lacs) were on electronics (TV, theater system, PC) and clothes. If they could make a serious dent of 10-20% in that cost and also savings in their vacation cost, they could save a good amount! Specially near to Diwali where the Diwali mega sale online of their favorite site helped them save a lot due to planned purchases. Another online sale during the new years meant that they were ready for the new year’s needs for the latest refrigerator and and new furniture.
As they seriously managed their expenses and ecommerce sites became their main source of purchasing in every way, last year they had “ecommerce savings” of close to Rs 2.5 lacs. Planning one’s expenses is the critical aspect of saving money.
And, this money had been invested in short term investments of liquid stocks and the money had been growing. This stock investment part was Reema’s world. She had ensured that the saved money had been doubled! Good short term investment strategies can indeed do wonders. As you see the need for savings arises from stagnant income. The e-commerce sites run lots of offers during festival season which becomes the main source of purchase, hence in order to save money, it’s important to plan which can be done by creating goals on tools like Guided Portfolios on edelweiss.in