How to Start Entrepreneurship

Contents

Points to know before starting out

     1. Make sure what is your "Why"

     2. Prepare well before starting

     3. Forget about the Competition

     4. Start with at Least One More Person

     5. Keep Your finances

     6. Fake it till you make it

     7. Create a timeline

Why Startups Fail

Myths and realities of startups

Actionable Item: Use the below file to create several business models before starting out on one. 6

 

"There're no startups, there're just business models."

While its all about "taking risk", that defines entrepreneurship, its even more about mitigating the risks that matters. An entrepreneur is the guy who knows very well about the risks involved and prepare a very well "risk prevention plan". The more secure your path is the better your journey is.

After my 1 year journey to entrepreneurship, I'm writing this article just to give the new-comers a glimpse about what all entrepreneurship is about and why you should and why you should not choose this hustling path of life.

I will narrate whatever I've learnt in a few points:

1. Make sure what is your "Why": An startup is just too much for one's personal life. Its just not a way to be independent or make quick money. Your why will boost you from time to time. If you take it literally, make a big poster and write your "why" very clearly on it. Let it be the first thing you see every morning when you wake up.

2. Prepare well before starting: While its about just taking actions without much thinking, you must prepare well for at least an year before starting it out. Below are some action plans you need to follow:

• Attend workshops and create a network.
• Be open up about your ideas
• Improve your soft skills 
• Read the biographies/ autobiographies of great entrepreneurs(Steve Jobs is a must)
• Create a very strong beck up plan as even the biggest names in the industry failed in their first attempt
• Start providing services to small business (this will harness your skills)
• Work in a startup (this one is the best before starting on your own to get the complete picture of how things work)
• Keep pitching your business plans in different B plan competitions.

3. Forget about the Competition: Choose any business and you'll find hundreds of competitors. The key here is to start like a king means just riding your own horse and treating your kingdom well rather than looking into the others'.

4. Start with at Least One More Person: Its too much of hustle to start alone. You just can't handle all of it alone. The best is to:

• Work in a co-working place. It gives you an environment which boosts you in lot many ways. While you can discover connections, you can see different people at different parts of their journey.
• Find a co-founder from the day One: Co-founder is the guy who will stand along with you in the tough times when all are against you (sometimes even your friends and family)
• Outsource some part of your startup: While its against the intuition, its quite more affordable and sustainable. It saves your time, effort, shares your responsibility and gives you the time to learn the skills on-the-go. Also you can later hire the freelancer full time as a part of your startup.
• Join an startup Accelerator: Its a one stop shop for all your problems. It gives you a great life support system when you can feel broke at almost every step of your journey.
• Build your 'A' team: This is the team that defines your company and success. If this is good, you can easily assume that you're on the right path. They say :

 "If you can't feed a team from 2 pizzas, it's too large" -Jeff Bezos

5. Keep Your finances in the Front: From the day one or even before that, just remember that your excel sheet containing your revenues and cost sheets is the only thing that you need to manage. The day your costs are in your control you can tread to any path that you want.

6. Fake it till you make it: No one knows your stats unless you go public. So its always better to guise yourself as big company. It just means what you want to be one day. Its because no one wants to associate themselves with a small company on the other hand, everyone wants to associate themselves with a big company. So its better to showcase as a pro in the field. In order to do so:

• Show a office address on your website.
• Create a very well about us page and list your achievements.
• Showcase your biggest customers on the front page along with their testimonials.
• Design a very determined social media strategy. This is how you showcase your company. Taking it lightly will be too much of a compromise.

7. Create a timeline: Not only create one but following it heartily will lead you on your path.

Why Startups Fail:

The top reasons why a startup fails are:

There're several reasons but all boils down to a single reason that is its founder. An startup essentially takes too many trial-and-error cycles so if the founder is patient enough to achieve its aim, there're usually no stopping.


Now, there're some myths about the startup that I came across when I started it:

Actionable Item: Use the below file to create several business models before starting out on one.

Imp links:

The Are of Creating a Business Idea
Starting my Dropship Business
How to Create a Business Plan?
11 Reasons Why Content based Portals are in Trend?