The real thing about starting a business. What does it take?
I am a Practising Company Secretary; among a lot of work I do business formations and set up has been what I do primarily.
When a client comes to us for advice or with his business plan, two minutes into the conversation, we understand that he hasn’t thought his business idea through. There are still a lot of gaps that persist. Leaks that need to be plugged.
So, to save you of the numerous visits to our offices and save us the time of repeating the same things for the client, here is a brief outline of what you need to figure out before you call yourself ready to become an entrepreneur!
1. Key partners.
Who are your key supports? Who brings the complementary skills? Who is your supplier? Whose is your business partner, a person who has a skill or a function that you sorely lack. Whose presence would make a difference to your business? List out all those who are critical for your business to start, scale and survive. See if you have these by your side!
2. Key Activities.
What does your business do? What’s its core competence? What can your business do? What should it do? Which service or product does it provide and would like to make a name in!
3. Key Resources.
Now don’t say finance immediately. Yes you do require finance, everyone does, but why you require, how much do you require…all these are important considerations and the bifurcations of all these should be at your fingertips. Here, jot down all the necessary things that you will require to make your ideal a reality. The resources!
4. Value Proposition.
The most important. What value do your bring or propose to bring to the market? For e.g. Apple brings innovation as a value addition through its products. What is your value? How is the world becoming a better place because of your business or how are you making lives of people simpler by your product or service? The larger people you serve, the larger is your cause and the larger is the value you bring to the table.
5. Customer Segments.
These are those people who will make or break your business. The clients! Now, who are these? Where do they come from? Why would they buy from you and how much will they buy? What is their purchasing power like? What is the frequency with which they require your product or service? Is this a fixed or a floating crowd?
Clarity on this aspect will help you reap beautiful dividends as your career flows!
6. Cost Structure.
Yes, right where it hurts. Kitna Dena Padega? Kharcha Kitna?
You need to be ample clear on what you are going to shell out on, why and at what period of times! Learning the difference between costs and investments and remembering that quality comes at a price and only monkey’s work for peanuts!
i. How much is the cost for setting up?
ii. For working capital?
iii. For making major expenditure?
iv. For paying salaries?
v. For other fixed costs involved! (Phone, electricity, blah blah)
7. Revenue model!
The ultimate. How are you going to make money bhaisahab?
Ultimately, it is for this that you have started your business. Without this, your passion, desire to help the society and change the world, everything, would just fall apart! In no time!
So, where all can you draw your moolah from?
i. Clients?
ii. Donations?
iii. Advertising?
iv. Complimentary tradeoffs?
How, when and the mode of raising this revenue!
So there you are, answer the above 7 fundamental questions in depth and then visit a professional. He would get immense clarity from your clarity and clarity breeds productivity!
India is on a roll and this is the golden era! Ride the wave! Be an Entrepreneur! Wohoo!
I think this a very lame article, very broad based and without much of thought process. How can a start up be compared with Apple. I dont there is any single unique point in this article which someone reading can get inspired or take clue…