new business partnership with Anil Kaicker (My CA)

I have been facing problems in my business and sales are not growing for last 2 years. In fact last year sales dropped by around 30%. While my customers are happy with the products, I have not been able to scale up.

Mr Raghunandan, CEO of incubator where I spent three years, advised me to have a mentor or a partner with financial and/or management background. However I never understood the importance of it and never bothered to look for a mentor or ask for financial/management advise.

I shared my financial problems with everyone including my CA. Recently on April 10,2008 when I shared with him that I am working on solar based projects, he also expressed his interest in the solar based products.   He proposed starting a new partnership firm for solar based products.

I agreed for it immediately. Things moved at hectic speed. He bought stamp paper, got a partnership deed made. We sat down and and signed it on April 14th.

Today on April 15th,2008, we met again along with a prospective reseller. I demonstrated a sample of the unit to him and to prospective reseller. Anil discussed with me about marketing plan including the immediate mailer campaign.

It was clear to me that I missed the marketing aspect of all my products.

We are on the job and lets see the results.

I am clear that I have been a bloody idiot all these years.

Will keep you updated about the progress.