The key growth-related initiatives that small businesses and startups are likely to take in the first half of 2008 include the product and market related initiatives top the agenda, followed by those related to funding. M&A initiatives get the lowest priority, because the respondents are in a stage where organic growth can still be very significant. Within market-related initiatives, launch of new products and services is the highest on the agenda, stating that the entrepreneurs are looking at launching new products and services. Some are planning at entering new markets. Together, these represent a very healthy prognosis of future prospects and a very bullish outlook for the segment.

As far as funding is concerned, bank funding for new projects and venture funding are on an equal footing and there would be considerable funding infusion into their operations. It is natural that not too many IPOs are being planned in the immediate future. In the coming year the prospects and plans for the first half of2008-09 and impact of environmental factors on the new business will be coming from IT and related industries. To cut the long story short, these are great times to be a startup or a small business in India.

For starters, it is the time to see their businesses growing in rupee terms during the previous half year and only slightly under 10% reported that there businesses actually shrunk. Some also sees a negative growth in rupee terms came from the technology-enabled services sector which is slightly surprising, given that the services sector is experiencing robust growth. Given the size of these businesses, one would have expected a significant impact of the budgets. Many in the field believe that the respective state budgets have no impact on their businesses as the budgets do not specially focus on small businesses and startups.

The stock exchange and the dollar rates are more interesting are the absolute symmetry of the two graphs and the impact of these two factors on your business making the difference to the business.
The impact of the dollar rate is more than the impact of stock exchange fluctuations. Those who benefited significantly from the rupee appreciation included those dealing with industrial goods as the most significant segment. Those who derived a slight benefit from the rupee appreciation were almost entirely from the IT segment and interestingly, almost all of them were small companies with a turnover of under Rs 10 crore.

The future prospects are bright for these start ups entrepreneurs. They are not afraid much of the current turmoil in the stock markets or the impact of the decrease in the exchange rate of the Rupee. Most of them believe that the prospects are somewhat or significantly higher than the previous six months. Only a handful believes that prospects are somewhat lower and almost no one rated their prospects as significantly lower. The economic story is still strong and bright to look at with little ups and downs but the new entrepreneur is not scared much and is well equipped with the requisites.