Starting a new venture – Thoughts, challenges and what success means

While starting any new venture, the entrepreneur is faced with several interesting challenges in their thought process, and we are hoping to address some of these in this chapter:

  • To start or not to
  • Fear of failure
  • Focus on the offer – Broad v/s Narrow
  • Focus on the market development
  • Leveraging existing networks – how much does it help?
  • What should one be prepared for?
  • How long are you willing to give yourself?
  • Dealing with the outcome – success or failure!

Around these topics, some of the key questions that they need to address would be:

  • Do I have a comprehensive plan?
  • How sustainable are my resources – money, material, and time
  • Will my networks help?
  • Fear on failure

To start or not to

This is the biggest dilemma or issue that any new entrepreneur is faced with. People dwell on this for too long (and rightfully so) but, one should ensure that this does not lead to over thinking that culminates in indecision and frustration.

At this stage, bringing your thoughts back to basics help:

  • Why did you want to consider this (entrepreneurial venture) as an option in the first place?
  • Why would you consider giving up the thought now?

Fear of failure:

  • Every change (even a positive one) can bring about a certain sense of fear, that is so characteristic of uncertainty and our ability to deal with ambiguity. While the fundamental premise for all of us is to succeed (and not fail) – It is important therefore to start visualizing what success would look like and likewise what failure could look like! In both cases, we need to be conscious of red herrings and not be completely carried away by them.
  • The moment we visualize what success / failure looks like; we are better prepared to deal with the outcome. It is important not to let the fear of the unknown stop your dreams! While it is easier said than done, remember that there is a lot more to learn from experimenting, and also from failures!

Focus on the offer – Broad v/s Narrow:

Another classic dilemma for an early-stage start-up is – should my offering be narrowly focused (very specific and sharp) or should it be broader (not as broad to solve every problem under the sun!)

While there is merit in both in the approaches, it should depend on a few key considerations:

  • The specific expertise you bring and the depth of issues that you / your product can solve
  • The resource bandwidth – knowledge, experience, and capacity
  • How broad is broad or otherwise – the more adjacent the offerings are, the better the traction and larger the market.

As a start-up, it is always useful to present a focused set of solutions – with a flexibility to seize on adjacent areas of need. This could include modifications to offering, market or customers. It is important to keep in mind that we need have a nice balance of depth and breadth.

Focus on the market:

  • Understanding what the market needs and how your product or service will support this need or solve a problem is very important. Many a times, an entrepreneur is only focused on their own areas of expertise (which is of course important), however, the success of the venture will depend on the adaptability to meet the market need.
  • Broadening the application / solution from a geography, industry and customer is very important as also the need to be able to extent the relevance across the breadth of functional areas that we can address within an organization.
  • Remember always that the offering needs to solve a problem and the way you can clearly articulate (story telling) how well your solution can support this effort will be critical.

Leveraging your networks:

  • Identify who amongst your network of contacts / connections can help you with key issues such as – validating concepts, solutions, offerings, market knowledge, client introductions, etc. It is useful to set your expectations right, so that you don’t feel let down at any point. Always be prepared for not seeing the kind of support you may expected or even promised! It is not because your networks don’t want to help you, but their priorities may have changed.
  • There is nothing more magical than having some resources in your network who will go the extra mile to help new entrepreneurs succeed in their journeys – Finding such gems may be difficult, but I firmly believe that they are not nonexistent!

What should you be prepared for:

In a start-up journey, there are always many surprises and shocks – however, to me that is the most fun part of the journey!

A few things that may help in preparation would include:

Belief in yourself, your plans, and the purpose – of course, giving yourself the time to get there Visualize success and failure and keep an active eye on how the visual is developing Know that you must be flexible and agile as customers and markets change rapidly

  • Try to have a partner who complements your strengths – also keeping in mind that their expectations, promises and reality can be quite different!
  • Success has many parents, but failure is almost always an orphan – but as we said, the learnings can be plenty!

How long should you give yourself:

  • In my personal experience, a reasonable time to give oneself should be around 15-18 months to take a final decision on whether to continue with the effort or not to.
  • An ideal situation would be to have financial resources adequate to support this journey from both a professional and personal perspective. Typically, in about 12 months from the start, you will be able to gauge the direction the journey is headed towards – it is critical that one takes stock and make the required course corrections at this stage.

Dealing with the outcome:

  • All of us want a successful outcome from such career altering journeys – some get it and many may not. If the outcome resembles the visualization you had for success or failure, then you are better prepared to know what one should do!

Many a times, people may redefine what success or failure is midway into the journey – and that is fine as well, if it meets the ‘why’ of your original intent. Remember, failures are not fatal nor are they permanent – just remember to take all the rich learnings from the experiment into professional and personal development.

Good luck with your journey – If you don’t travel the distance, you will never know!