Startup Clan- Entry, Survival and Inspiration

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Apple So what are you working on? What is the next big problem you are solving? Is the world ready for it? These are some of the questions I will ask you out of curiosity to know more about your start up and your own self? Answering these three questions will actually help you also to validate your business idea and also attain peace of mind as it is self-proving that you are on the right track. So now you are just at the beginning of the beginning. What will be the next step? Creating a business plan is the next step. A business plan brings all the dots and pieces in shape and order. All the working parts of your business are paid attention to and are also fine-tuned. This happens only when your B-Plan is set in motion for various purposes like fundraising, hiring, etc. So draft a superb business plan. How to do it? Let me help you with that. So what are the key elements while writing a business plan? Let’s look at them:rn1) Executive Summaryrn2) Business Descriptionrn3) Market Analysisrn4) Products and Servicesrn5) Organization Managementrn6) Sales Strategiesrn7) Future Development Plansrn8) Funding Requirementsrn9) Financial Requirements This is now a proper beginning. Once your business plan is created and you are in action it’s now time to take off and survive. I would like to quote Albert Einstein here: ‘The true sign of Intelligence is not knowledge but Imagination’ Ariana Huffington in one of her talks said that “Most CEO with their impressive resumes and fancy IVY-League degrees still make a lot of Mistakes. This happens not due to lack of Knowledge but it happens due to lack of wisdom” Knowledge is important, no doubt there. But wisdom is also essential. Wisdom comes from our subconscious mind. There is no proper theory as to when and how you will gain wisdom but it is being theorized that thoughts are the trigger. So watch your thoughts and redirect them wisdom will flow in. rnSo now let’s move to another segment how to survive in the market: Legal! Legal! Legal! Before starting your company, get the legal matter sorted out. Like registering a company, registering for the appropriate tax structure, etc. Hustle! Hustle! Hustle!rnHustling is an art. This word comes from streets. You would have to hustle through everything. It’s all about gaining advantage of the situation. In the start it would be a little tough, considering you are not used to it. But day-by-day it would get better. Hire! Hire! Hire!rnConsider your company as a computer you have to assemble. Each and every part in the computer has a specific function. You can’t expect the monitor to function like a CPU nor can you expect the graphic card to function like a memory card. You have to decide who will function as what and then decide where to take your company. The key is right person at the right place. Balance! Balance! Balance! rnHave a healthy work life balance. It is essential for every entrepreneur to strike a chord between work life and personal life. It is not worth to get burnout frequently. It will affect your productivity in the long term. Sales! Sales! Sales!rnSales are the reality. Only sales and marketing will get you the customers required for your business. The data collected through sales and marketing activities give you the grain of truth. The data generated will help you to strategize effectively. Develop! Develop! Develop!rnDevelop your product and services. Your product and services should awe your customers. Not only your products and services should be good your after sales services should also be up to the mark. As Bill Gates rightly said ‘Your unhappy customers are your great source of learning’ Innovate! Innovate! Innovate!rnInnovation is the key to successful running your company. Inspiration is a key driving factor in Innovation. To scare you a bit the world around you was built on innovation. Not only today will innovation be celebrated and used but also will be used in the future as well. Think about the Japanese officer who deployed the fan to kick off empty soap wrappers or the janitor who advised the board members to build an escalator outside the building. Innovation will be valued. In the end I would only like to say that ‘Work Hard. Be Focused. Be Innovative’