About 88 percent of Indian population is bereft of computer education. More over the IT industry, even with such a huge growth, still have not reached the rural sector of Indian subcontinent widely enough, because of the absence of real understanding of the services and education to be offered to the market needs.

Born in the year 1983 in a small village of Nashik district, the promoter of Project IT India studied in an English medium school some 11 odd kms away from the place he lived in. Educated with a diploma in electrical Engineering, he later worked with his father in their workshop for a year and started pursuing a degree in international business with a PG in materials and logistics management and a PG in import export management.

While studying, like any business seeker, he started working and exploring on all the possible options of getting in to business and started an IT company.

With a ready working and client base in education vertical to the tune of 2000 odd numbers, he decided to venture out in education vertical with courses to be offered.

The start
International Certification and regional language content is something which is absent in the market today. Moreover for any international certification, one has to end up paying an average fee of Rs. 4000 to Rs. 7500.

When the fees are compared with the exam vouchers available in the market, it becomes equal in price and people are thus reluctant to spend money on the examination vouchers being universally accepted and compromise with a local certification and thus go ahead with the brands who promise job guarantee.

Today, we see that a franchise is being taken by paying a huge amount upfront and in turn being allowed to operate that brand in market. The idea behind starting this project is to give a multi-point franchise, offering multiple source of income. The franchise is thus not dependent on one point and breakeven at a faster note. The main obstacle was the brand name. Inspite of having the biggest brand in the market from US, no one is really aware of it. We have to give a basic reference while we deal with the clients in general.

We studied the market and saw that regional language is the major break through which help to the students can be provided on a mass scale. Moreover, there are no big companies present in small town and the only limitation is that of a higher franchise fee.

In the model we have cut down on the franchise fee, and have a stated policy to make our franchise partners to spend as low as possible which allows us to utilize the existing infrastructure.

Our offerings:
We provide education as the major focus of services being offered through our franchises. IT Hardware, Networking, Linux, Storage, Cloud Computing, Accounts, Security, are a few courses to list. We are targeting quality to quantity. We already have proposals from huge network to get associated with to implement the program in their network.

However, we do not take up such projects as quality is sacrificed in the process. We target to reach maximum number of rural Indian students. The company is already in talks with major universities abroad to provide different courses through the franchises. We also have accreditation of international organizations for quality content and management of the franchise partners. It’s a pure partnership franchise that we are looking into. Like many in the business we do not merely issue a certificate and forget that the partner is not working or surviving. Right from appointing to delivery, we are present in the system throughout for the franchise.

Buying into the franchise:
Before buying into the franchise, the franchisee should consider:
Source of income
Market competition
Brand value
Support from the franchisor
Exit policy and safety guarantee

An average investment depends on following factors:
The geographical location.
Existing infrastructure availability.
The spread and the working target. (1 district or two districts, or a state as a whole)

An average investment for a franchise partner starts with Rs. 25,000 one time with a renewal policy and an exit policy in place. Investment of Rs. 25,000 is necessary for a franchise while Rs. 5,00,000 for a district partner. About 200-500 sq. feet area is sufficient to start a basic franchise focusing only on two basic courses, so is the case with a district or a state partner as he is not required to necessarily start off class room training. For academic, the requirements are already in place so no investment is required. The ROI period for a franchise is 3-6 months and for a district partner 6-12 months. We charge a royalty at a rate of 15 percent while books for the course are charged according to their actual cost and exam vouchers at a heavy discount from $99 to $30.

A franchisee is provided the following support:
Training to the trainer
Hiring a trainer in case of non-availability
Marketing
Marketing material
Branding and promotional activity.

According to our exit rules we give money back to the tune of 50 percent of the franchise fee or the amount which is not collected as income by the franchise partner whichever is less over a 3 months’ notice from the franchise holder post 12 months of his operation in that vicinity. Fraudulent means and ways of working can lead to the termination of the agreement with a franchisee.