Even though organizing and running your own business as an entrepreneur sounds very thrilling and might look profitable from the outside but on the inside it is completely different and this is surely the shared notion of many existing Entrepreneurs. The preliminary stages comprise of struggles like company operation, employing personnel, setting up a functional crew & business development, generating timely profits, working in the direction to reach breakeven point and also receiving profit along the way – these tasks are enormously challenging and thought-provoking to arrange and launch.
There are two sides of Entrepreneurship, one being the pursuit of a dream venture and the other being keeping your bank balance from drying up. Entrepreneurship can be hard-hitting and one long lonely journey for many. While some are fortunate enough to succeed, some give up. I continue to learn and grow while learning these few lessons in my journey.
1. Focus on building a scalable product: The capacity to manage the increase in demand by a company or system or a process within an organization is referred to as scalability. To be exact, a business is believed to be scalable when it can be extended adequately in order to accommodate the needs of a growing business. Scalability is an important criterion for investors in deciding whether to invest in a particular business or not, as scalable business models allow businesses to grow and also have a better chance at attracting strategic investors or partners.
To make your business scalable one can outsource non-core tasks, make the processes simple and easy to understand so that training for new employees is lesser and automate routine processes.
2. Don’t depend on external funding
Entrepreneurs need to stop focusing on external funding and look within and use their own resources to finance their startup. It is best to bootstrap and learn to nurture your business progressively, even if it means accepting to use a frugal approach. One should pursue external funds only when they plan to expand their business and take it to new heights, and not just to meet the regular everyday operational expenditures of the startup.
It does not make much sense for an entrepreneur to shape up his business with all that courage and diligence and then deliver the harness to someone else. Doing so ultimately leaves one with very little control to do things that leads to compromise in one’s vision.
3. Build a team that will stick with you in thick and thin
There is enough data and surveys done that prove how working with a good founding team improves a startup’s chances to succeed. Allegiance is very hard to find these days, it’s not that people aren’t loyal to a startup but the problem is that economy has grown to be fluid that there isn’t any passion to serve a growing business. For any startup to work, one needs to place value not just in the business and its operation, but also in an individual. They should make the employee feel like the business as their own.
To find a team that will stick with you through thick and thin, one needs to start by selecting the right people in the preliminary stages of the startup, be the front-runner of the team so that your employees look up to, not only when things go right but more importantly when things go wrong. And always remember, you’re nurturing a family.
Lastly, only those who take action unfailingly enjoy success; irrespective of how big the challenges may be. Performing the authentic work with optimism and well-intended attitude can help any entrepreneur to carry forward their work in this thrilling journey.