CHANDIGARH:Xcelerator Ludhiana – Sadda Karobaar, Punjab Di Shaan (program led by Government of Punjab, CICU (Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings) and GAME- Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship), is paving the way for participants to become local success stories. The 6-month business accelerator program for catalyzing growth of businesses in Ludhiana, has started showing promising business growth for entrepreneurs who signed up for the program. “After the first session of Xcelerator on customers, I was able to strike better conversations with my end retail customers, and was able to fetch new orders by talking about my products and my business value proposition. This has helped me scale up my business, in very little time,” shares Siddhant Pruthi, Entrepreneur, Robin International, an entrepreneur associated with the Xcelerator Ludhiana programme.
Similar growth stories are now regular at the Xcelerator Ludhiana. Jasjot Virk, Director, WePay Finance, decided to take his lead generation onto social media platforms. “Our aim is to help people realize that WePay Finance could help them fulfil their dreams of owning a house and a car. With taglines such as ‘Rent ko Kaho Bye, Apna Ghar Banaye’, and ‘Drive your Dream, we were able to increase the weekly leads from 6 to 60, in the first week of being a part of Xcelerator Ludhiana and have ever since multiplied our leads to 600,” said Jasjot Virk.
Officially launched on 5th January 2021, in presence of Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal, Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of Punjab, Ms. Vini Mahajan, Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab and selected MSMEs, senior bureaucrats, GAME founders, Ludhiana district administration, GAME Punjab Taskforce and key leaders from the Ludhiana ecosystem, the cohort has already completed close to a third of the program.
With sessions spread across 6 months, the program is facilitating hands-on training with the best trainers and practitioners from India, peer-to-peer learning, and mentorship focused on ‘3Cs’ - Customer, Capacity, and Cash. The mentoring sessions so far have been hosted by industry stalwarts like Sachit Jain, MD & Vice Chairman of Vardhman Special Steels and GAME Punjab Taskforce Chair, Upkar Singh Ahuja, President of CICU, and Romi Malhotra, ex-MD, Dell India, and DXC India.
“The sessions helped me train the sales team to identify and quantify the value while working with new prospects. It also helped us win a business that was stuck for quite some time,” shared Tarvinder Singh, Founder, Technocrat Horizons, an entrepreneur at Xcelerator Ludhiana.
“Basis the mentoring sessions, we segregated the sales and production department, which has led to increased sales and higher output. We also introduced a new incentive scheme for dealers to motivate them to increase sales, while incentivizing timely payments instead of penalizing late payments,” said Deepjyot Singh Sethi, Founder, Vellbond Industries, on the impact of the mentoring sessions on his business. Inspired by the talk with Mr. Sachit Jain, he also started automating processes at Vellbond Industries, in order to increase their production output.
Speaking about the success of the entrepreneurs, Alok Shekhar (IAS), Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce and Information Technology, Government of Punjab said, “The program had received 450+ applications from growing businesses across Ludhiana and after a rigorous selection process, 27 entrepreneurs were invited to participate in the first cohort of the Xcelerator Ludhiana program. It is heartening to see that entrepreneurs have started noticing the growth in their business in such a short period. With over 70% of the program yet to be completed, there is ample room for all participating entrepreneurs to grow and turn Ludhiana into the entrepreneurship capital of Punjab.”
The Xcelerator Ludhiana includes workshops on customers, techniques on working with large clients, building an energetic team, and getting international collaborators for their businesses. With an emphasis on scaling up, the entrepreneurs are also trained on understanding their current business reality to create a 2-3 year business plan, training on hiring processes and onboarding of the new people into the organization.