Validation - Key to success

The last 2-3 months leading to your entrepreneurial journey are very critical ones as thats the time when you need to go all out to validate your concept, the business model and should at least have a rough sketch regarding how the organization will shape up in the next 5 years

Today with the advent of platforms like Google Ad words, social media , business forums it has become much easier to attract a larger crowd to put their comments on the viability of your model. Along with that meet/talk/chat with as many industry people as possible to dry run your model from different aspects.

The most important part is to do your homework right, draft a basic model which highlights what you offer, why are you offering that, why do you think you can only offer that, what are the risks and what are the numbers and then just put that in front of as many people as possible

Be discreet on the how part but never feel that someone can take your idea just by hearing it. If that happens return back home happy thinking that you had a very loose business model and good that you didn't start anything with that

Remember the key to your success is a strong business model which can't be replicated easily and which can give you a long term market advantage.

More in my next blog

Cheerio
M

Learning to drive a car / Building an organization

Sitting in CCD ( an Indian version of Starbucks The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary) I was trying to think the various phases which an organization grows and how we can map different strategies like ( Deal Space, Negotiation, Customer Acquisition etc) to the stages of the organization. In the process I could see an interesting analogy with the way we drive or learn to drive .... :)

Stages of Organization life cycle

1.) Conceptualization and Planning Phase-> The process of selecting a car and doing estimation in terms of 'cost of acquisition' vs the benefits; excitement, dreams ....

2.) Inception Phase-> Driving the car with 'Learners' tag; fear, inhibition, frustration, bootstrap

3.) Sustain Phase -> Driving the car removing the 'L' tag and surviving any major crash; learning the nuisances of driving the rules, the people, the road...

4.) Stabilization Phase -> Driving the car with Music and AC on; enjoying long drives, loving the journey

5.) Growth Phase -> Switching to a bigger model or getting a chauffeur to drive; innovation, funding

The challenges are both at the micro and the macro level, to successfully cross the various phases and also knowing upfront the checkpoints for jumping to the next stages

More in the next blogs

Cheerio
Mitul

Bootstrapping your business - Part I

I have been through a lot of seminars and conferences on 'Start-ups' and 'Entrepreneurship' and it seems everywhere there is an agreement that 'You need to run your business for a period , validate your concept/business model and before you can approach for funding'.

The key challenge lies in terms of keeping your offering small ( in terms of the capital/operating cost) yet affective and accelerating it through a very aggressive Sales model.

So it's very important to nail down your concept/idea in terms of 'Revenue Projection' and 'Expenses' and then see how much you can spent vs how much you will get.

Searching for ideas which can generate investors interest right at day 1

More in the next blog