The ones for whom passion, creativity and freedom are important, are the ones who would rather start up and live their dreams than slog in nine to five jobs (hey it’s no more ‘nine to five’). These start up entrepreneurs have the energy and desire to contribute to the world. Though the idea of having your start-up may be quite exuberating – your own brain child, success, fame, dollar value, etc., but the ground reality is quite different. It takes sleepless nights, over working, firefighting, stress – physical, mental, financial for some initial years before the start up takes off. Here is a curated list of suggestions that prepare the Startup Entrepreneurs to avoid failures and minimize their risks to come up as successful businessmen:
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1. Money should not be the ultimate goal
We are not saying that money should not be the goal. Of course, it is important for businesses to be viable. Most important objective of the business is rather in answering what value is it providing and how it plans to do that. Focusing on money can be misleading and potentially drift the startup owner to drift away from the plan given the financial struggle one may face. An entrepreneur by constantly focusing on the value proposition will not only develop your clientele in the long run which would increase revenues too.
2. Use Freedom Wisely
Freedom from the boss who breathes down your neck, now one is answerable to oneself. But it is a bigger responsibility. Freedom to work for any number of hours and from any location, is such a respite. This so-called freedom must be coupled with daily goals or else it would result in loss of the productivity. There are very good productivity apps to aid the working. As a start-up entrepreneur, one’s venture is a clean slate and how one pulls the reigns will decide the future of the start-up. Have a plan and execute it. Delegate proper work to the employees and see it gets finished on time. Procrastination SHOULD NOT BE part of an entrepreneur’s dictionary if he/she wants to achieve and establish credibility in the market
3. Growth Mindset
A Startup entrepreneur must assign a dollar value to his products & services and a growth plan for 1, 2, and 5 years right before he even starts. In addition, an entrepreneur who wants to grow should be open to new suggestions and ideas from his team, must be willing learn from others and his own mistakes and use different methods to make his products or services better over the period of time.
4. Creativity driven
A Startup entrepreneur is bombarded with different sorts of challenges and requirements. Unless one is creative enough to solve the problem even though it may mean designing impossible candies like Willy Wonka it is fair enough to survive the startup game. No no, one can’t afford to relax with the current success, it will get one complacent. Rather be creative and be proactive by improvising existing products and come with new ideas. A successful businessperson who is able to offer something new to the market will keep consumers happy and competitors on toes.
5. Brand building
The moment the market starts recognizing the brand, it means the startup has done a good job in establishing the brand. But, bigger question is how the startup wants the market to perceive its brand and for how long it remembers. Today, brand building of the start-up begins with the brand building of the entrepreneur himself. The name of the start-up and the name of the products must be unique and catchy to impress investors and clients. As an entrepreneur, you must be prim and proper in appearance for every meeting.
6. Prepared for instability
A job means security and stable income but for an entrepreneur, it’s more about instability than about security and stability. There would be highs and lows on his way of turning a startup idea into a big successful business. There will be days when there will be operational hurdles, market fall, and loss of investors or customers etc. Always be prepared for revamping your business strategies to deal with the uncertainties of the market. Your strategies must be in accordance with present market situations.
7. Plan – B
Having a plan B may prove as a big savior in the face of uncertainty and challenges. A Startup Entrepreneur should develop alternative offerings whether within the existing startup or a separate idea as a rescue plan or something to fall back upon because the one thing that everyone can related with is that we all are prone to failures when we are trying to do something new and a startup idea is always a new thing unless it becomes a successful business or a big brand.
8. Regular market research
A market research to start with, helps one know the customer better, who they are, what they want, what they like or don’t like, gives the right basis to build the business upon. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs startup based on their capabilities and gut feeling. That’s ok. But, matching up with the real market research gives the true picture. Now the entrepreneur can build up on the accurate foundation, target the right customer, market the right way. Once the business starts rolling, startups should conduct regular market surveys to understand customer satisfaction and to improvise product and services.
This checklist will assist a startup entrepreneur to prepare for the success while working on these points to avoid mistakes and walk on the road of one’s dream venture. On the other hand there are times when failures are sure to come as in case you are trying to achieve something big. And if, failure does happen, remember that failure is just a stepping stone to success so, one must not take failure to one’s heart and get demotivated. Instead, entrepreneurship is all about learning from the failures and build a strong base for your dreams.