startup lessons

12 powerful lessons for new entrepreneurs

One needs to keep various factors in mind while aspiring to become an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship is one field which has grown leaps and bounds over the last few months. However, becoming an entrepreneur isn’t an easy task. One needs to keep various factors in mind while aspiring to become an entrepreneur.

Here are few powerful tips for first-time entrepreneurs:

1. Build a great team

Entrepreneurship isnt a one man show; it is a collaborative team effort which is why it is important for you to choose a kick ass team who you can trust with your vision and the future of your company.

2. Have a clear vision

It is important for an entrepreneur to have a clear vision about his company and its future because without a final goal, no one would know what they’re trying to achieve. This would lead to chaos and eventually to the downfall of the company.

Related Post: 12 Ways to avoid startup mistakes

3. Is it solving a problem?

Is the product/service you are offering to people solving a problem in the society? Because, if it’s not solving a problem, no one would buy it. Hence, it is absolutely important to find a problem or create it and then introduce your product accordingly.

4. Sometimes less is more

An entrepreneur wants to achieve everything in the beginning: offer a good quality product with extraordinary features and make profits. However, it is important for a new entrepreneur to deal with one issue at a time and focus on solving it rather than jumping in between 100 issues. Also, initially, offer a simple and nice product to attract your customers and then bother with the modifications.

5. Don’t price your product low for the sake of it

Sometimes just to enter the market, people price their products very low and later when they increase the prices, they have no customers. That’s why initially the prices must be sustainable and viable even if it means some less customers.

6. Your USP is your selling point

If you do not have a USP; you are doing something wrong because then your product is no different from your competitors. It is necessary to listen to the customer feedback and strengthen your USP and focus further marketing around it.

7. Be a great leader

There’s no point in being a leader everyone fears; instead, become a leader who is fair, just and approachable. The leader needs to make sure that the team works as one and everyone’s ideas are taken into consideration before formulating a strategy.

8. Keep learning

A new entrepreneur needs to keep learning: sometimes it’s the tricks of the trade and sometimes it is simply life lessons. There are people who’ve been in this field longer than you have and it is always better to learn from those people. Also, reading books, watching videos and movies and hiring a coach can help you learn better.

9. Your business isn’t your life; it’s only a part of it

A lot of entreprenuers make the mistake of making their business a part of their soul and start getting defensive with their ideas and operations. It is good to be serious but needs to know where to draw the line. Focus on the more important things in life as well: family, hobbies, health etc.

10. Public speaking will get you places

As an entrepreneur one needs to be confident about their public speaking skills because pitching to VCs or giving a speech or a talk to the team isn’t an easy task. You need to be impactful and reasonable. Also, for the right ideas and words to come to you at a particular time, it is important to practice this art.

11. Don’t take failure too seriously

Failure and successes are a part of the job that you’ve chosen and the worst thing you can do is be hard on yourself because of a setback you’ve faced. After the setback, identify the mistakes and make sure you don’t repeat them again.

12. Try changing the current scenario

You should be focused on changing the world with your idea and inspire people to buy your product for the same reason. Money, success and other materialistic aspects are momentary and will come with time.

15 Important startup lessons for new entrepreneurs

Fifteen CEOs of new and existing companies reflect on what they’ve learned, and impart their best lessons to aspiring startup founders.

No matter how much industry experience you have, you won’t know everything there is to know about running a business the moment you launch your first startup. There’s a pretty steep learning curve, and odds are you’ll find yourself saying, “I wish someone had told me that,” at least a few times along the way.

If you want to prepare yourself for some of the more difficult and unexpected challenges of entrepreneurship, it’s crucial to listen to the experiences of those who have been in your shoes before. Fifteen CEOs of new and existing companies reflect on what they’ve learned, and impart their best lessons to aspiring startup founders.

Your role

Follow your mission

“Let your core mission/ideology be your guide. It is your core that started you down whatever entrepreneurial path you’ve chosen, and it is your core that is the key to unlocking the strategic steps that make the most sense for your venture. If you continuously remind yourself why you’ve embarked on a particular journey, you’ll continue to move closer and closer to your ultimate objective.”

Don’t be afraid to break the mold

“To succeed as a CEO you need to be steadfast in your beliefs and not always conform to the perceived ‘norm.’ CEOs will ultimately be measured and respected by their actions, reactions, rate of success and how they impacted the world during their time at the helm. Today is the best time to ever be at the executive level of a company, but the power a CEO has goes way beyond producing great results for your company. It has more to do with leaving your legacy. We all can help bring the world to greater frontiers.”

Become an all-around expert

“As a CEO, you are an all-encompassing employee. Be sure to learn from all fields of your business, whether it’s data entry, technology, legal, HR, PR, sales or even from the manual and physical labor side of things. When tasks need to get done, when questions need to be answered, when upgrades are required or additional research needed – even though it may not be your field of expertise – you are the only answer.”

Recognize when to scale up and change your role

“The characteristics that make a startup entrepreneur successful, being nimble and multifaceted, can prevent the company from scaling. Every company has a threshold at which point that founder has to understand that his role has fundamentally changed and he needs the skills of a good CEO – someone who can set the vision and build the capabilities to achieve the vision — to continue to scale the company.”

Your team

Hire people who are smarter, better and faster than you

“Forget your ego – this isn’t a contest! Don’t believe that people who are smarter than you won’t respect you or support your decisions. On the contrary, they know if you are in your position, you’ve worked hard to get there. If you hire people who are ineffective, you will end up doing a majority of their work for them.”

Have a backup plan for your team

“As a startup, we have ingrained in our minds that we must operate as lean as possible, including staff. However, it’s equally important to hire for growth, especially when it comes to specialized positions. You should never have a [situation] where, if [a certain staff member] were to leave, your operation would slow down or stop.”

Your product

Look at everything as an experiment

“No product is perfect, no idea fully formed. You will make assumptions, and you should trust your instincts, but the only real way to prove your product is by testing it on real customers. So, don’t be afraid if the first cut of your product isn’t perfection. It will invariably change over time.”

Related Post: 12 powerful lessons for new entrepreneurs

Listen to your customers

“We’ve got an experienced team of developers, product managers and marketers, but our customers know the app inside out. We know that they are what brings the product to life. There is nothing better than a customer suggesting a product feature or opportunity that we hadn’t thought of. By being open-minded to consumer feedback, we’re able to build a better product to serve them.”

Find people who already believe in you

“Our global site live in September. We learned that, instead of launching the site primarily in the India, we needed to focus on our existing U.S. audience because that’s where we had eager ears. This doesn’t just apply to people launching a successive product or service; it’s sage advice to people who have networked in fields related to their upcoming offerings. If you get like-minded people who already know and are interested in you behind your launch, you’ve just growth hacked your amplification potential.”

Your operations

Define and focus on your niche

“Looking back at 2015, we stopped chasing extravagant customer deals and focused more on our core customer base of small and medium-sized businesses. These are the customers that get duped by some of our competitors and the ones we know we can help the most.”

Know when to be aggressive

“You must win and re-win clients every day, even the comfortable ones. We were focused on making a better product to solve [an important client’s] problem, but we did not engage them in all we were doing. We were passive and polite when we should have been a little more aggressive and forthright. Had we rocked the boat, we would have had a chance. Instead, the boat sailed and we missed it.”

Pay attention to fundraising and investors

“In 2015, we successfully raised the largest round of funding on AngelList … and learned how well crowdfunding really works. It provides not only an efficient fundraising model, but also adds valuable investors to your team who can be very helpful in accelerating the business. We also learned the true benefit of including a strategic venture investor, Summation Ventures, to our team.”

Your decisions

Be aware of your opportunities and challenges

“There will be many distractions/opportunities that will try to steer you off course from your plan, which will lead to a high probability of failure. There will be opportunities that you will not want to pass up, they just have to be vetted thoroughly. Being aware of everything around you such as the market you are attacking and additional influencers or investors will help make you a more effective leader.”

Be open to criticism

“As a CEO, you sometimes can get stuck in routines of innovation and development that don’t always factor in the opinions of your subordinates. We routinely have meetings where employees at all levels can provide insights and opinions on how to improve and optimize how we work. You will be surprised what you can discern from individuals that don’t have any other vested interest in telling you anything but the truth.”

Related Post: 6 delusions of every new entrepreneur

Harness the power of ‘no’

“There are so many opportunities to consider and it may seem counterintuitive to forego them. The problem is that while these opportunities are attractive and create return, they come at a cost, and these costs can be disastrous for the company. The nature of a startup is to become a leader in a chosen market segment. It is far from a trivial target: How does a small company with limited resources become a leader? Only through focus and utmost discipline, and knowing when to say ‘no’ to certain opportunities.”

7 Lessons from Ramayana for every entrepreneur

Ramayana is not just a story, but an educational medium used by the ancient sages to espouse the importance of doing your dharma (duty).

Ramayana is one of the greatest epics of Hindu Mythology. Ramayana is not just a story, but an educational medium used by the ancient sages to espouse the importance of doing your dharma (duty).

Out of so many lessons one can learn from Ramayana, we are listing top 7 lessons which entrepreneurs should learn:

1. Don’t over commit like Dasharatha. You may be in trouble later. It’s better to commit low and deliver more.

2. Do your business with all ethics. Consider your business like dharma. Keep your words like Lord Rama.

3. Build a team. Rama was able to win against Ravana just because he was able to make a performing team. Every member of your team is important.

4. Be a decision maker. When Hanuman went to get Sanjivani booti he was not able to identify it. He brought the whole mountain. In running a startup, you need to be a decision maker no matter what.

5. Stay cool and don’t be angry. Laxaman was a short tempered person. He lost his cool many times which put him into trouble. Running a startup means keeping your head cool all the times.

6. Startup is all about making life sacrifices. You will need to work overtime, have to leave your comfort level just like Sita who decided to go with Rama in forest for 14 years exile.

7. Leave your ego. Ravana got destroyed just because of his ego. When you are running a startup, leave your ego’s aside.

5 Signs that entrepreneurship is not your cup of tea

Here are 5 signs that entrepreneurship is not your cup of tea.

Do you want to become an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurship is like that drug which is wanted by everyone but only few have what it really takes to get it. If you’re thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, STOP!

Before you dive into water, you must check the temperature. Before you actually become an entrepreneur, you must know if it is right for you. While you would have read many articles that try to inspire you, this article will present the real picture in front of you. Here are 5 signs that entrepreneurship is not your cup of tea.

1. You look upon others for ideas

If that brilliant startup idea has come from what your friend is doing, there are high chances that the idea will fail when it would be implemented by you. Unless you have a way to make that idea better or in other words to make it unique, you must decide to stay away from it.

2. You don’t like to help people

Entrepreneurship isn’t about starting a business, it is about solving a problem. And you would want to solve a problem only if you like to help people. If you’re a person who just wants a business to buy a big penthouse like Bruce Wayne in Batman or anything expensive, entrepreneurship isn’t for you. Most likely, you’re going to fail. So, don’t try until you develop the feeling of wanting to help others.

3. You aren’t passionate

Maybe you have the most brilliant idea in the world which you know would work but if that idea doesn’t make you excited, restless and nervous, you’re not going to make a fortune with that idea. You must be passionate about what you plan to do. If you’re not, you would never be successful.

4. You are proud of yourself

Starting up a business takes more than an idea. Right attitude is super important. An entrepreneur needs to play different roles and needs to make sure that he/she plays each role perfectly. If you’re too proud to sweep the floor to make space for your first meeting, entrepreneurship isn’t your cup of tea.

5. You can’t handle a team

A business idea would never work unless the people working on it are under a good leadership. A good leader and obviously a good manager is what you need to bring out from yourself to make your idea work. If you think you lack with leadership and management skills, go work on some job and get the experience. Don’t think of entrepreneurship unless you have those skills.

Entrepreneurship is sort of buzzword these days. Everyone wants to be entrepreneur but seldom know what entrepreneurship really means and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. So, do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

You may also like:

12 Ways To Avoid Startup Mistakes

The 15 Characteristics of Effective Entrepreneurs

8 Things Entrepreneurial People Do Differently

This article was originally published in Startup Champ

Image Credit: startupconnect.co.in