Madison Student Wins Essay Contest On Financial Advice

MADISON, NJ – Nyah Sinha may still be in high school, but she knows as much about stocks, bonds and mutual funds as her friends do about emojis and apps, and now she’s offering that winning advice to an entrepreneur she knows very well, her father.

Sinha recommended an investment portfolio for Ranjan Sinha, founder of Axis Group, that was so compelling it won her first place in New Jersey in the SIFMA Foundation’s Fall 2018 InvestWrite competition. From P/E ratios and ROIs to retirement planning and asset classes, Sinha’s broad knowledge of investing enabled the junior from Madison High School to climb to the top of the competition in the high school division in New Jersey.

“The SIFMA Foundation honors and congratulates our InvestWrite winner Nyah Sinha and teacher Christine Rankel,” said Melanie Mortimer, President of the SIFMA Foundation. “By making economics fun, interesting and relevant through The Stock Market Game and InvestWrite, we can give students of all backgrounds a better understanding of their personal financial lives, our economy, and the opportunities inherent in the global capital markets.”

InvestWrite is a national essay competition that bridges classroom learning in mathematics, social studies, and language arts with the practical research and knowledge required for long-term personal financial planning, enhancing students’ ability across important academic and life skills. The competition serves as a culminating activity for participants in the SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game program.

The Fall 2018 InvestWrite competition required students to select an entrepreneur they admire, research their company and explain how they would advise the entrepreneur to invest the company’s assets. Nyah Sinha highlighted the leadership of her father, Ranjan Sinha, who created Axis Group.

“He is someone I have personally looked up to as an entrepreneur. His business that he created with his college roommate in 1992 has grown immensely since then, containing offices in Atlanta and New Jersey and potential offices in California.” Sinha said in her essay, “Since Axis Group is a smaller company, their options for accessing capital markets to raise cash could be limited. By buying bonds the business doesn't have to give up control and can still raise some money to expand the business.” Sinha continued, “Another option would be to get private investors. Private investors are a good way to expand a business because it allows you to raise a significantly greater amount of cash than bonds, only giving up a little bit of control to your investors.”

Nyah Sinha and her teacher, Christine Rankel, were honored at an event on Feb. 26 at Madison High School.

The complete winning essay by Nyah Sinha follows:

"My father, also known as Ranjan Sinha, has successfully created and grown his business Axis Group. Axis Group is a small data management company with many clients across the country, such as Shark vacuums and Mars candy company.

Axis Group’s goal is to help other businesses to become more efficient and grow with the strategies that Axis provides. He is someone I have personally looked up to as an entrepreneur. His business that he created with his college roommate in 1992 has grown immensely since then, containing offices in Atlanta and New Jersey and potential offices in California.

Since Axis Group is a smaller company, their options for accessing capital markets to raise cash could be limited. By buying bonds the business doesn't have to give up control and can still raise some money to expand the business. Another option would be to get private investors. Private investors are a good way to expand a business because it allows you to raise a significantly greater amount of cash than bonds, only giving up a little bit of control to your investors.

Lastly, by becoming a public company, having their stocks traded on a public exchange will allow them to raise the most cash but consequently the company would be giving up a lot of control and the scrutiny on the stock market can be pressured. Of these three options I would advise the company to collect private investors to raise cash.

Since Axis Group is a smaller company, they are very personable with their clients, so they can give them the best business possible. By collecting private investors, Axis can now expand their company just enough to bring in clients from different areas without dealing with the scrutiny of the public exchange.

Now that the company has raised enough funds, there are a few approaches the company could take to grow their business and their long-term financial returns. One way for the company to grow their platform is to open offices in bigger cities across the nation.

Since most of Axis Group’s clients are from the east coast, building offices along the west coast may not be a bad idea since they have such a stable platform already. In the future, if Axis does come out successful on the west coast, they could investigate opening offices globally to gain even more business around the world.

The company could also use the money they have to offer more/new services to their already existing clients. By hiring more employees to help clients out more with their businesses by offering additional services, clients will be more than happy and will be sure to recommend Axis to other businesses.

Axis Group has been a growing company for over 20 years and is continuing to grow every day. If the company gains a bigger platform, going public may be a good direction for them. As the company becomes more well-known across the nation, going public and having their stock traded on a public exchange would be a great way to increase the company’s funds."

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