Starting Up? Remember this

So the eureka moment has arrived- You want to start your own business. Having been in your situation, I can tell you that there is no better feeling. Give yourself time to enjoy this feeling because once you start constructing your dream it’ll get messy. The idea of starting up is just like the thought of having a baby. It’ll be beautiful to begin with, but problems begin right from the initial months of starting your own business. There are certain things that you need to know before you set sail. Since I’m already sailing in these choppy waters, I thought this checklist, while may not be exhaustive, but will come in very handy.

Check and double check your idea and concept.

You will never get so much time to check and test your idea as you will before executing it. Play the devil’s advocate and question your concept and try not to be convinced easily. This can be difficult, but there can be no better way to firm up your idea. Run a small pilot and see the response. This is something I did for our startup NoBroker.com as well. Me and my friends, tested markets for 6 months before talking to potential customers.

What’s your reason for Entrepreneurship?

The journey from employee to entrepreneurship is not easy. You need to ask yourself why you want to be an entrepreneur, can you handle failure, and are you patient enough? Or are you just fed up of your job? These questions are just scraping the surface. You have to be prepared for the time commitment. Don’t expect business from friends.

You can make a successful entrepreneur if-

Successful entrepreneurship breeds on a strong problem solving approach and your unique expertise on how you want to solve that problem. When we were starting out NoBroker, there were a lot of real estate portals offering housing solutions. But a major customer pain-point till remained unsolved. People were paying brokerage only because of a huge information asymmetry that existed in the real estate sector. We decided to remove this information asymmetry with a highly sophisticated tech based algorithm.

Don’t love yourself

It’s very easy to be consumed by your own idea. Admiring your own self in the mirror is the biggest waste of time. Be your own critique. Dismiss your drafts and push your limit higher. Always keep an ear to the ground and keep picking on trends in your area of operation. If you have a head-start, there’s a high chance of you winning.

Dream big, but start small

Remember children don’t grow up overnight. And so it’s true for your baby too. Take small steps toward the big picture. Remember the rabbit and tortoise story? Yeah, the tortoise wins. Keep your idea simple, tap one revenue stream at a time. Always have a one sentence pitch. Lullabies are meant to be long, pitches need to be ‘to – the – point’.

So what are you waiting for? Leave the shore and start testing the waters. And if I make it to the finish line, I’ll sure look out for you!