It is very good to have all the required information for starting a new MSME unit.But to practically establish it in reality is entirely a different thing.

Its because you can really understand how things functions only after you get a first hand experience of anything.

I can also say this because i have practically established ,operated and sustained a new MSME unit and has gone through the difficulties of establishing a small enterprise in India.

The most important quality of an entrepreneur for a new MSME unit establishment and success.

It is righty said that the first step in the right direction is a great thing.Therefore starting a MSME unit or any business is definetely a very positive step by an entrepreneur and should always be appreciated .

But the real challenge is sustaining it in the long run and keeping it alive ,growing and taking it to greater heights with the passage of time.

But it is not an easy task .To keep onself motivated and committed towards own goal an entrepreneur has to do many sacrifices.

So the best way to make it easy is to chose that field of business which is interested to you.And if you have experience in it ,its really great.But even if you dont have any interest , dont worry.If have interest in that particular field of business you can achieve experience over a period of time

I chose tea business as I was having some experience in tea tasting, blending , selling , retailing etc.

I wanted to start my tea blending packaging & marketing unit. So i started my journey of enterptreneurship with the following things essential for starting a MSME unit:-

• I Registered to the udyam registration system as a MSME.
• I applied for the fssai license
• I applied for a MSME loan from a bank in which i had been maintaining a account.
• I applied for trademark of my tea brand.
• I applied for the GS1 barcode.
• I made my tea packaging designs

I applied for the FSSAI license.

If you are in food business you have to obtain the FSSAI license from the government.It is mandatory for every food operator whether it is a retailer, wholesaler, packeter, or manufacturer.

So i obtained the fssai license after applying online on the government portal.

I contacted the DIC office and applied for a SSI unit and obtained the udyog ADHAAR number

The first thing I did was registering my unit as a MSME under the udyog aadhaar system.Because earlier it was udyog adhaar registration system .Now its the udyam registration process.

Now I have registered again to the udyam registration portal this year .Udyam registration is a must to start a MSME unit in India.

There are immense benefits of udyam registration .You can avail all the government schemes and benefits for MSME only after registering yourself under the system

It is a very easy online process, anbody can do it online.

I applied for a MSME loan under the PMEGP loan scheme.

After obtaining my udyog adhaar registration I appied to my bank for a MSME loan.

I already had a bank account in the bank.

It is really very important for a entrepreneur to start a relationship with a bank and maintain a good relationship as it will help him in the future.

The bank initially was not convinced by my project report.But Eventually they sanctioned me a CC limit for working capital and a term loan for machineries.

I got my trademark registered

A trademark is really very important to register for your business or products. If you are launching some consumer products it becomes even more important.

It is really very easy to register trademark these days.

you dont have to go to expensive lawyers and consultants to get your trademark registered.

There are so many companies online who offer the services of trademark registration.They dont charge much fees. I had registered my trademark with the online company BMCgroup.in.They were really good.I dont know how is their current service.

After applying for trademark you can use the R mark at the top right corner of your brand.You will get the R , registration after 2 or more years .Then you have to again pay some fees.

After applying for trademark I also applied for the GS1 Barcode

You must have seen the black lines on a consumer packet which is scanned and details emerge on the computer screens of sellers in malls and supermarkets.You can click the link GS1 barcode.to know more about it.

It is very essential to have a barcode on your product to sell it in malls and supermarket.They will not sell your product if you dont have barcodes on it.

I bought two machines from bank loan.One FFS machines (form fill seal machines) and one band sealer.

Its a long time back ,so I started with a FFS machine, a simple band sealer and few other small accessories .Its better to have a pneumatic machines now.

Simple FFS machines are cheaper to buy but have some serious limitations when compared to the pneumatic machines.

In the pneumatic machines, compressed air is used for movement and electronic controls govern their movement. This gives a huge flexibility in the machines at a marginal increase in cost which can be recovered in a short period of time

I have faced some difficulties in simple FFS machines:

Simple FFS machines are good for starting but only if you have patience to bear with it.These machines often get disturbed and lots of packaging materials are wasted in the process of its settting.

Also generally it doest have good batch coding and mrp printing system. So I would suggest you start with Pneumatic packaging Machines if you can afford it.

How I made my tea packaging design and materials

Packaging plays the most important role in the marketing of a consumer product.And in the field of tea packaging and marketing , its even more important.

In small cities and tier II cities in India there is lack of good packaging companies.Even if there is one ,they charges very high rates for the packaging material.

In my city also in those days there was no good packaging company so I went to my nearest metro city and ordered my packaging material.

The packaging company also helped me in designing my pouch packets.

Designing is the most important part of packaging.

So while designing your product you should always be careful in doing in with perfection.