The other day, students from the Sociology Department of Williamson Sangma State University, Tura, visited Shillong for an exposure trip and went to NEHU for a learning experience. The Department has a paper called The Sociology of Entrepreneurship. In my interaction with them I suggested that a better theme would have been the Sociology of Tribal Entrepreneurship since there is a difference between a tribal entrepreneur and a mainstream one. Most tribals are first generation entrepreneurs. Damewanmi Suchaing, a former teacher of St Edmunds College turned entrepreneur, said that he found a niche market in the packaging of the products that Meghalaya is marketing, particularly the Lakadong turmeric. While Meghalaya boasts of the best turmeric, black pepper, tea etc., the packaging leaves much to be desired. He found a way to better package the products and found takers in the rest of the country. His products are Na Kper Homegardens’ Harvest.
During the exchange with the students Suchiang raised an important point – the difference between an entrepreneur and a business person. This is important for all of us to understand. An entrepreneur creates and develops a new venture by identifying opportunities, innovating and taking risks. Any new venture is risky because there is no prediction if there will be takers for that product. That includes starting a café, a bakery, a homestay or any new venture which has no history behind it. Today quite a few entrepreneurs have started packaging Lakadong turmeric and they have takers because of its reputation as the turmeric with the highest curcumin content in the world. Entrepreneurs have expressed their consternation at the huge demand for Lakadong turmeric not being commensurate with production. But that’s also the selling point. No product from Meghalaya can compete on volume. What it can compete on is high value. Hence ‘low volume, high value’ is the catchphrase.
Now let’s come to the word business. What is business? No one would know that better than someone who owns a cloth store in Police Bazar and inherited it from their parents and grandparents. So, a business is essentially an ongoing activity of producing, selling or providing goods and services to earn an income. A business is something tried and tested such as selling paints or sanitaryware, which always has buyers as long as there is construction work to be done. It’s an established business that usually will not fail unless it is managed and run badly. A business is run professionally; the owner does proper bookkeeping and knows the daily profit and the turnover. Suchiang stressed that turnover is not profit. This is something that entrepreneurs often miss and what they need to learn along the way.
A new café or homestay started by an entrepreneur is not tried and tested. Anything could happen. It could take off brilliantly or fail depending on whether the entrepreneur has had adequate training at managing the business. Once an enterprise takes off it becomes a business. Hence a business is an ongoing activity of producing, buying, selling or providing goods and earning an income. Simply put entrepreneurship is about starting and innovating. Business is about operating and managing. Once the venture is established and focuses on day-to-day operations, marketing, accounting, staffing, and profit-making, it becomes a business, and the owner functions as a businessman or businesswoman. Every entrepreneur eventually has to become a businessperson once the venture succeeds but not every businessperson is an entrepreneur. As stated above those who inherit or purchase an existing business and manage it effectively without introducing major innovations are businesspersons.
In Meghalaya today, several entrepreneurs who have come into the eco-tourism model that combines community homestays, digital booking, and cultural experiences. Such new enterprises are visible as one travels to Sohra and even within city limits. The majority of our homestays however do not live up to their names because a homestay essentially is an extension of a family home where extra rooms are added for guests. The guests can enter the kitchen to see what food is being cooked. Some even like to learn the recipe. What has happened in Meghalaya is that guest houses are erroneously termed as ‘home stays.’ The guests are treated like hotel guests where they have to register at a reception desk. Homestays usually cannot accommodate more than a couple of guests because of their intimate nature.
So, do entrepreneurs have it easy in Meghalaya? Are all entrepreneurs trained to manage a business? Or do the large majority of them take a chance? It’s true that PRIME (Promotion and Incubation of Market-driven Enterprises) Meghalaya, a government initiative which started in 2019 to support aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups by providing them training and start-up finance is doing its best. PRIME offers skill development which trains entrepreneurs in branding, packaging, and business management. PRIME also offers training in technology where modern tools are provided in physical co-working spaces. Above all, PRIME assists young entrepreneurs in gaining access to funding, bank loans and innovation funds by facilitating credit linkages.
The Tourism Department has assisted with funding of several guest houses and homestays and these stand out as we travel to the tourist destinations of Meghalaya. But ask every entrepreneur what challenges he or she faces, and we have a standard answer: having to pay the plethora of pressure groups.
Many entrepreneurs have to deal with avaricious Dorbar Shnong who believe it is their right to demand a cut out of the business. Some Rangbah Shnong however are supportive but those are few and far between. Then there are pressure groups with all manner of acronyms especially the established ones who think its their birthright that all businesses should share their profits with them. For struggling entrepreneurs this is the biggest impediment. This is nothing but extortion which is given the respectable name of collecting money for a cause. And the causes are many – these pressure groups will organise all kinds of functions to popularise themselves but instead of collecting money for the same from their members they have made it a habit to fleece businesspersons.
Then there are all manner of “seng” (organisation) from the Seng Kynthei (women’s organisations) of the shnong to the Seng Samla (youth organisation) all looking at getting easy money. If this is going to be our attitude then businesses in our state have a very low survival chance. This is also one aspect of governance that has failed miserably. In reality all the groups that go around collecting money should be told to show their official registrations and they must provide receipts for the money collected. A non-registered group has no right to collect money from the public. So why do we take all this as “normal.” Where is the law in such cases and what protection does it give to struggling businesses?
Another problem with businesses in Meghalaya is that most are not innovations; they are copy-cat ventures. If someone starts a café at a particular place and that café does well, very soon another cafe will come up nearby to compete for customers. Some may say, “So what, I have every right to start any venture I choose to?” The problem is that both ventures will not do well because the customer base is low. This is fine if the place is milling with crowds 24×7 and there is space for another café to come up but not every place in Shillong can boast of such a crowd. One sees bakeries come up a dime a dozen and probably their bakes are not getting sold on a daily basis leaving those bakeries to sell stale stuff the next day. Besides, these days there are bakeries that specialise in home delivery and people don’t really need to go shop for cakes and pastries.
Another aspect that needs attention is quality control. We are not really sure of the quality of the honey that’s packaged in Meghalaya. How much of it is organic and how much is processed. If entrepreneurs claim that something is organic it has to be backed up by certification. This is the only way to win public loyalty.
Entrepreneurship is the need of the hour since government employment has reached beyond saturation point. Its time the Government of Meghalaya gives some attention to the problems faced by entrepreneurs and address those upfront. It is also time for entrepreneurs to build solidarity and address their problems collectively instead of moaning and groaning individually.
