No business can grow without the growth of the entrepreneur who runs it. It is the entrepreneur who becomes the central line of the growth of the business. If the owner isn’t upgrading himself or herself, their business isn’t going anywhere. That’s a given! Here I share with you the basic fundamentals that an entrepreneur must focus on at any given point of time irrespective of the stage or the scale.
- Ideas
Entrepreneurship is developed, it is a skill. There are no born entrepreneurs, they build themselves. Entrepreneurship lies dormant in all of us. We all have that inherent desire and wish to do that one dream business or project one summer day. The fact is if we ask all the people we know to write down their dream business on a piece of paper you will get a huge pool of resourceful business ideas to work on. The tragedy is very limited people can visualize it as a profitable venture. No business is a bad idea. Every business is a growth business. Successful entrepreneurship is about taking a crazy idea to its logical plan and then utilizing the available resources to commercialize the idea into a long term profitable venture. An entrepreneur must always have ideas at the drop of a hat to solve problems, address demands or to innovate new products. Working on creative thinking is imperative to be a continuous resource provider of ideas. The key is in continuous creation of new, better and different ideas without falling in love with the old ones. Creation is possible only when the entrepreneur is continuously learning.
- Plan
Once the idea is in place, the next step would be to create a clearly written down execution plan with step by step precision of what is to be done to make the idea convert into a business venture. Writing down the magic questions and their answers is the key. Magic questions include the what, where, when, how, who and why. A plan is nothing but a detailed execution methodology shared and supported by all the members concerned in a venture. Most entrepreneurs fall short of penning down their ideas simply because of lack of will or laziness. It is said that when you write your plans down, they help you remain motivated and on track when you are most knocked down in business. A plan consists of series of short, medium and long term goals. A goal is nothing but a dream with a deadline. Having a well thought of PLAN A and a contingency PLAN B are crucial in any entrepreneurial voyage.
- Risk
This is what separates the men from the boys. Starting a venture requires the rare quality to challenge our comfort zones. Doing things that make us uncomfortable and destroying the status quo remains the fundamental essential quality of successful entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is doing things that are contrary to everything that has to do with the words security and comfort . It’s about choosing the short term pains to actualize and materialize the long term gains. Risk taking involves an emotional and mental decision first which translates into a financial or logical decision later to do something that has the probability to fail as much as to succeed. Risk taking becomes easy when the entrepreneur develops the ability to remain confident about the strengths and talent especially in times of crises.
- Time
Entrepreneurship is about being ahead of time by planning your affect. Entrepreneurs wear multiple hats and hence it is imperative that they wisely choose to do the most crucial and important activities in their business which only they have the expertise of doing. Entrepreneur’s must focus only on key success driving activities in their business and delegate the rest to people who are better at doing those things than the entrepreneur. Initially entrepreneurship takes a toll on the personal time and space of the individual, however, at later stages, the individual develops the habit of ignoring personal time and this leads to an unbalanced life. Spending quality time on crucial revenue generating and business growth related activities coupled with taking time out for family, fitness and hobbies is mandatory for a successful entrepreneurial life. Developing the discipline to follow learnable routines and at the same time having the flexibility to adjust as per changing demands is very important sign in entrepreneurship.
- Team
Can you imagine the pyramids in Egypt built with a single rock? Can nations be built by the effort of a single person alone? Difficult to imagine, isn’t it? The sum of the parts makes the whole and the whole is incomplete without its parts. You cannot build a fantastic business unless you have fantastic people working with you. It’s easier to attract and nurture talent when you have a strong vision and purpose for your business. Business building and entrepreneurship thrives on collective efforts of like minded people moving together towards a common goal. Entrepreneurs tend to be self involved to the extent of not sharing their ideas, frustrations and dreams with others. Their initial experience of solitude makes them closed emotionally and as business grows the entrepreneur does not realize the benefits of sharing. Leadership is about helping others bring out their strengths towards the achievement of a strong purpose. Entrepreneurs must learn to instill other people’s confidence and other people’s capabilities. It is only when you build a team, can you build a great business.
The above ingredients, if mixed passionately with solid persistence can help anyone build a fantastic entrepreneurial venture. Here’s wishing you all the best for your Businesses journey.
