Primer on Running a Design Practice in India !
A note on setting up product design practice
First things first... you need a space. Residential premises are a favorite with designers. It's good for some lazy moments... or you may have ample of it too ! In either case Residential is good. The legal position is also clear... or as clear as it can get. You can't run a practice from residential property if you are located in Delhi. Anywhere else in India you can, as long as it is a consultancy (Doctors, Designers, Chartered Accountants and a few others), you don't carry out manufacturing and you do not have more than 10 visitors per day. 10 might be a problem, or may not be in fact !! On second thoughts you'll be lucky if you have any visitors at all !
Ok, visitors, or lack of it is not the issue...'caus it's not a foot-fall business. people don't locate a designer by signboards... 'Oh good there's a designer, lemme get something designed'.. ain't going to happen. But still, you have to let people know that you exist. Basically you have to somehow get your foot in through the crack. Here, what doesn't work is more important that knowing what does... in fact nobody knows, what does... so it's smarter to talk about what doesn't. Cold calling doesn't... not even if you beg and grovel at the board number. Mass mailers won't. It gives a permanent bad name to the practice. Distributing pamphlets at events, no good ... you can't do it at traffic junctions for sure! Calling distant relatives also doesn't... you have already wasted 4-7 years of you life, you could have become a support for your parents ... after all it just sounds like a hobby.. this Design thing... people who go for stable jobs are not fools, after all.... I guess, that does it!
What does, however, and surprisingly, are those off-guard moments when you might have shared a meaningful idea with somebody... I mean absolute somebody. People who might have noticed your passion when you are not trying to flaunt it. People you connect with at the level of values and shared aspirations. People who do not doubt your sincerity.
People , then are your biggest assets. People, however will not come looking for you. Having a website does help. It is best done DIY... do it your self. All designers should learn web publishing. Thing to note here is SEO. Search Engine Optimization. 80% of internet traffic is routed through Search Engines. SEO then is the art of convincing search engines that yours is the site that will answer people's queries. Queries = Keywords. The world today is connected and brought together by keywords... sounds complex ?... so why DIY. DIY, because most of them do a shoddy job. Shoddy because, either they do not understand SEO, or are too creative with it. (see post on respectable SEO). Creative SEO is all about generating fake or non serious links to our site, publishing recycled articles on other sites on your behalf. Posting fake queries on B2B (business to business)or work share and social networking sites. They'll generate a sudden frenzy of traffic to your site, so the ranking will go up. But it's not sustainable... These people will promise top ranking for your site... while many others will promise the same to your competition... so you know ! Also you can only target so many keywords to draw traffic to your site. Choose Keywords carefully. There are many keyword research tools online.
Social media is also good for networking. LinkedIn is good for professional networking. There are other networking tools and sites. Facebook also has lot of intellectual activity happening... most stimulating of these is having your profile picture changed and people reacting with either 'cool'... or... 'wow' !
You also need computers and software. Licensed is better. Remember that once you are on your feet or even before, you'll start getting calls from software vendors. Most of them will say that you have 10 installations of their application when you may only have 5 computers in your office ! There'll be lot of this coercive marketing. They'll threaten legal action. Most strident will be the once that sell inferior and overpriced products. It is interesting to locate the members of this Eco-system.
Designer - sends quote, made to do concepts, gets advance ! after 25% work, delivers work, mostly denied last installment of fees ! (if the design is not stolen right at the concept stage).
Client - Calls you. Drives a hard bargain often by trivializing the design process. Gives tremendous freedom in deciding colors ! Wants the first and only prototype to work perfectly and solve all problems. Tells you there is practically no budget for development. Design fees is almost a favor. Sometimes disappears after the concept is presented.
Software company: Very vocal about IPR. Most vocal are the ones that have applications that draw a line and erase it for you in 20 different ways. These are also extremely overpriced. Some of these applications would have gained market penetration and market share by using piracy (a bit like windows becoming the standard when it used to crash 7 times a day). Competing products would be difficult to find and trained staff even less. Their vendors would send Facebook requests!
IPR Evangelists: They are often professionals. Many of them have taken it up after retirement. They promise to protect your ideas. They promise to navigate the hostile
governmental process through excellent know-how and contacts. One will quote Rs 50,000/- another will quote Rs 150,000/- for the same job.
Legal system: Hostile, like most government organizations. Tedious and extremely slow. You can never hope to sue your client for non-payment of fees and hope to do business.
You do not have the time or the money to protect your IPR (Intellectual Property Right).
IPR: You can practically get IPR for everything. Even the most inane things, if it has not been IPRed before ! If a particular posture of sleeping has not been patented, you could be the one to hold a patent for it... hurry. IPR fanatics are mostly DIY specialists. They hold patent for ideas and process. Often these ideas are not validated for performance, endurance, fatigue, safety,stability etc. IPR applications are done on paper. The drawings and specifications are practically a joke. This IPR regime needs to be seriously questioned. It is fast shutting off vast areas of human knowledge. Big companies are buying off non-performing companies only to have access to their patents. Not because they seriously need them...But only because they do not want to be dragged into legal battles. Soon you'll need 1 designer and 4 lawyers to design a shaving kit !!
Ok.... now back to setting up the practice. You need cover for few other legal issues. Consult a CA/ CS and cover all you legal positions. It needs paperwork depending on the nature of your outfit, Private Limited company (PVT.LTD), Associates, Partnership, Proprietorship or Limited Liability company (LLP). You have to understand the tax implications of each, liability in case the practice needs to wind-up and, profit sharing. You will also need to understand the quantum of documentation and cost of running these. Like if you are a PVt. LTD, you will need to file yearly returns for income tax, the same also need to be filed with Registrar of company (ROC), you file for service tax every month and beyond a certain turn-over (not too high) your accounts need to be audited. LLP is easier to form and disband and as the name suggests, there is limited liability on founders. Besides these you'll need to Register your company with ROC, get a service tax number. If you do any manufacturing then you'll need VAT (value added tax) registration. If you are a partnership or proprietorship you'll need a shop-act license.... and a few more things.
A partnership is easy to create. You only need a rubber stamp to open a bank account. .. there can be more than one partnership with the same name. Which cannot happen with a company. Remember when you apply for a company name, you have to give three names. The Govt official at ROC uses some strange logic to make the selection. Design companies are known to go for wacky names. But if to add more options you provided some unimaginative names... the ROC will select the one that they think has the most direct association with Design ! So be careful ! 'Frog Design... ye kya hai bhai' !
You need to register you company name and Logo. Once awarded you get to write R in a circle over the name! You can also apply for a trade mark to build the brand. You need to buy a domain name. It is best to buy it on your own, and not ask your hosting agency to do it. Simply because, if you need to change your hosting agency, the old hosting agency may not be prompt in renewing the domain on expiry. Also shifting to a new server means changing the DNS records on the Domain name control panel (the old hosting agency will have the access not you!). Also, for shifting the domain name to the new registrar, you'll need an authorization code from the old agency. Most of these agencies are not prompt when they stand to loose business.
Now that, the company has been formed, domain registered , website published and stationary printed... let's go back to clients. Most will come from your professional network. If you can demonstrate longevity, the network should expand. There will be highs and lows. (Most downward trends in the economy will impact design practice. Remember most of us are in a non-essential area of work). It is important to understand the mind of your clients... they are a non-homogeneous group and have different values and aspirations. There could be a few stereotypes though:
A mid-size to big company - The call usually comes from the purchase department or the project leader at the operational level. It is best to reach the decision maker. In such cases .. the CEO or the Project Owner.
The individual Business owner - If they are not thoroughly professional (and there are a few), then idea of ownership is very centralized.... the idea itself (of the product) may have to originate from the owner.
Engineers in reverse - They'll show you a product and suggest some improvements. You'll also be told that they fully understand the importance of form. Color ! of course, the designer is the best judge. Your biggest competitor is such cases is the Chinese market and ready made electronic product housings. The moment you give them a quote on design fees and an estimate of development cost, some Chinese options will surface!
Innovators : They have fresh ideas, and limited budgets. it's always a pleasure working with them. Problem areas are unproven idea patents... then the work is much more than you expected.
If there is anything that defines the Indian client and practicing design in India, it has to be their understanding of what is design? Design, you'll find, to most is synonymous with Decoration. A designer makes things prettier. A design with out decoration is not design enough. You may have made things easier, economical, efficient, safer, marketable and desirable but you may still have somebody wanting to know, where is design in all this !
It, however comes down to culture and identity. European styling is understated, their colour pallet is pastel, Korean cars have accentuated bone lines, crimps and a certain scale, American designs starting from European traditions have taken on a different identity, Australians are constantly searching for an identity in Roos, Boomerangs and nature... What is the Indian Identity ... It is probably emerging right around us ...
