Those who wish to turn #entrepreneur, after working with blue chip companies for years, should be ready for the following:
Initial years in business are the toughest as: 1) There is a dip in your personal income since you aren’t working anymore. 2) Business is like a just born baby, it requires your time, effort without expecting any returns for years to come.
Remain positive & passionate.
If you are convinced with your idea and have done due validation, you should remain focused. Try to work out alternate ways to sustain yourself. Expecting returns from the business is futile initially.
When I left my job in mid 2000s. I used to earn 40k. The sudden erosion of this amount had a bad impact. I had received Rs 2 lacs from my PF and other savings. I loaned it to a friend and told him to pay me 20k for next 10 months.
By doing this, I secured 50% of my last earnings for coming 10 months.
I turned visiting faculty and started teaching advertising, retail, marketing to students in B-Schools. I used to draw Rs 1000 per session. This amounted to Rs 5000 per week and hence 20000 per month.
Thus 100% salary was secured without depending on my business for first 10 months.
I put to use my experience of working with advertising agencies, approached other small time agencies and turned content writer for their SME clients. I used to earn around 10k from this.
For first 10 months, I secured more than the salary I drew from my last job. 50k
This approach took all the pressure away from me for my personal sustenance. Now focus was to make my business become profitable and give me returns on my effort & investment. I taught for 6 years!
It is essential for an aspiring #entrepreneur to understand his inherent strength and to work on the projects that exploit this strength. Teaching and mentoring was my strength and later on I assumed the same role in my firm.
Amidst failure to earn profits and grow I realised three things:
– I could teach & mentor
– I could write & motivate
– I was patient & hopeful – hence was an optimist.
I worked on these strengths and turned around, a not so relevant Juhapura store to a brand.
