How to start your own business?

Startups have lately been the trend in India with over 3500 startups cropping up in just one year. With the huge success of startups like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Ola, Zomato, Pepperfry etc to name a few, the Indian youth is going crazy over the startup phenomenon. Every student enrolling in college wants to come up with an innovative idea, start his own business and work for himself. But let’s be real, creating your own business from the ground level is no child’s play.

Following are the processes one should follow to develop his genius idea into a successful startup.

1. Visionary thinking
Having an idea and correctly implementing are two entirely different things. You have to think long term and creatively, how creatively you implement your idea can be the difference between success and failure. If you can envision what the future holds and fit your idea into that picture you can be considered visionary. Let me give you the example of arguably the greatest visionary of this century, ‘Steve Jobs’, his entire life can be an example of the power of being a great visionary, the success of the tech giant ‘Apple’ can be credited entirely to his vision of what the future holds.

2. Planning
Once you have a vision for your startup, you need to start planning. Preparing for the possible business pathways and options are essential part of your startup plan. It is necessary to have a realistic business plan, wishful thinking will lead you nowhere and being prepared for every scenario is very important. A smart businessman will always have a few contingency plans set in case of initial failure.

3. Financing
It takes money to make money, having a few financers backing you up can really be helpful in case of losing money in the starting periods of your business. Pitching to financers is probably the most difficult part for an inventor. The fact that you have to make sure that your idea does not get stolen can also be troublesome. Having some patents to back you up is really helpful during such meetings, so at least file for the patent if cannot wait for it to be issued. Also, crowdfunding platforms like kick starter can also be a great help in this regard.

4. Startup
Once you have raised enough money it is time to enter the market and unleash your idea to the world. Having a dedicated marketing team can be really helpful here. One should understand his market and appeal to them. Competitiveness and perseverance are two really important traits to establish yourself in a marketplace. Do not be afraid to go up against others who provide similar products or services and remember it is okay to fail, what is important is to believe in yourself and get up again and learn from your mistakes.

5. Maintenance and Growth
One needs to deliver on the promises and commitments that he sets. After settling in the market, if you want to remain successful you need to maintain the quality. Slacking off is not an option. One needs to manage his time well and also trust your employees. If you are solving every niche problem yourself you are not running your business well. Also, one needs to understand that change is inevitable and always keep looking for new ways to improve your business. You need to change along with time to remain successful, a lesson the world learnt from Blackberry.

While it is only natural that some of the above phases will appeal to you more than the others depending on your idea, business model and your personality and you should be devoting your time on these differently to optimize your performance. But, you will need to apply your resources, vision and talent on each of these and you might be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or the first YOU!