THE TIMES OF INDIA
Bangalore, Thursday, November 10,2011
Plan your success: Tally’s Bharat Goenka
Bharat Goenka, founder of Tally Solutions, was conferred Nasscom’s first lifetime achievement award in software products. Nasscom said: “With more than 2 million customers today, Tally is a shining beacon for thousands of product entrepreneurs in India. Goenka is often referred to as the ‘father of the Indian software product industry’, given the fact that he was amongst the first to develop products for the Indian market using just a personal computer more than three decades back. ” Tally grew by over 100% last year to Rs 210 crore, and expects similar growth this year. Goenka spoke exclusively to TOI on Wednesday:
How do you feel about the award?
It’s very overwhelming, especially when you get recognition from your peers and contemporaries. Still don’t know how to react to it. This year has been very special. I turned 50 this August, I’m celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary, Tally is celebrating its 25th year in business, and now this.
What would you advice product startups?
Plan your success. Don’t think about successfully making money, think about making a success. Define that success, and then work backwards. The way you chase your first hundred customers will decide Whether you get to a million or not. Most people lose their way if their first 100 or 1,000 customers give them adequate cash flow, profitability. Once that happens, there is no possibility of getting to a million. In our third year of operations we had 1,000 customers, and at that time my father said, ‘The market consists of those who use Tally and those who will use Tally’. So we took very clear decisions those days, set a clear strategic goal to get to a million customers. We refused to make money through services. If required, we provided free services. We knew that if services money started coming in, our people would stop chasing new customers.
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