How to start a start up in an effective manner…. :-)
Have you ever came across a business idea and wants to start a start up but is afraid of the failure of the business just because you are not a Marwadi/Gujrati or you don’t have enough money to capitalize your business or might be you don’t have a clue regarding the direction to start a start up. If such thoughts are bothering you then better keep it aside. After going through this blog you will get to how cool is it to start a start up and that too you can start in a very effective manner.
India is going through a trend where whenever a graduate gets bored from his 9 to 5 job , he looks for 3 options that are : IAS , MBA or Start Up…. Well, out of these three persuing a career for start up is the most appealing because here first of all you will be your own boss…and second, you wont be having any restrictions for earning any limited amount of money.
But the question is how to convert your million dollar idea in a million dollar output that too in a country where failure rate of start up is 90%. The answer is simple , just concentrate on what the rest 10 % is doing . The primary reason for a start up to be successful is Innovation and unique business model . But for executing this you actually need three things that are people, to make something that customers actually wants and to spend as little money as possible . This has been very well explain in an article by Paul Graham : “How To Start a start up”.
So starting with the first one
People:
While you shouldn’t always trust your instincts about how to run a startup, you should trust your instincts when it comes to hiring people. “One of the most common mistakes young founders make is not to do that enough,” Graham says. If you feel someone is a useless or your gut says something with someone is off, listen. Thus the team building is very important aspect for starting an start up
What customers wants :
This is something where your start up actually revolves around.The article says that the reason for why most of the start ups failed is that they are not offering what actually is the need of the customers. It is believed that the most of the startups failed because they are unable to raise fund .But thats just an immediate cause. Why are they unable to get funding.The reason is simple that their ideas is not strong enough to fulfill the needs of the customers and thus they are unable to raise fund.
To know whether the product is going to be a success in market or not is to have a prototype in the market and based on the customers reactions decide whether to continue with the product or there is need to redefine the product.If the Beta version is accepted by the customers then you are on the right track.
How do you figure out what customers want? Watch them. One of the best places to do this was at trade shows. Trade shows didn’t pay as a way of getting new customers, but they were worth it as market research. We didn’t just give canned presentations at trade shows. We used to show people how to build real, working stores. Which meant we got to watch as they used our software, and talk to them about what they needed.
Now taking about the final aspect……
Spending little money:
According to the article, even if you get an infusion of real money from the investor it doesnt mean that you have to spend it infact, you better not. n nearly every startup that fails, the proximate cause is running out of money. Usually there is something deeper wrong. But even a proximate cause of death is worth trying hard to avoid.
During the Bubble many startups tried to “get big fast.” Ideally this meant getting a lot of customers fast. But it was easy for the meaning to slide over into hiring a lot of people fast.
So the above mentioned were some of the tricks for starting a start up in a most effective way……..:-)
You can read the full article of Paul Graham for Start up through the following link : http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html
