Pen down these five easy steps on your to-do before embarking on the entrepreneurial journey
Inching towards the mid-30s, many of us have this earnest desire to economise our creative spark and work on the long in the tooth business idea. What probably hinders us the most is the zeal to chalk out a feasible plan and overcome the initial challenges of capital and confidence. Well, for starters, here’s a brief list of the to-dos.
Think Over: Before you launch the service or product, contemplate a bit on the desirability quotient. Do people really want it? Take the baby steps and first validate the business idea and get the early reviews on it. If people are willingly giving you tips on fixing a flaw or improving the lows, you are walking in the right direction. Prior testing the concept, it is rather expensive to launch an idea in the market.
Network: Networking should not be done merely for getting clients or turning prospective buyers into customers but for feedback and productive insights. Reaching out to people should help you with tremendous market research and build a gut instinct. In the long-run, this research will fetch revenues and the buzz you need to expand. Such a personal gesture is purposeful for finding the right audiences. Unless you are out in the streets,chances of stumbling on ‘your’ people are low.
Strategise Finances: Within the purview of calculating finances, assess the funding options-- loans, investors, jugaad or crowdfunding besides crosschecking your capital investment. How much you need to spend on the start-up depends on what service or idea it deals with. You would usually need some time before relying on the cash inflow from customers. The key to a flourishing stream of profits is in investing, keeping good credit and preparing a billing structure. Without a clear picture of the finances, you may slip into bad finances no matter how good the offer is.
Structure Legally: From acquiring licenses, filing out tax forms to determining partnerships, leave no stones unturned to resolve the legal hurdles. If you have peers contributing to the business, sketch an argument with the business goals and visions clearly listed. Once the basics are covered, apply for registration, transferability and intellectual property rights.
Build Online Community: To make sure your innovation sustains fierce competitors, focus on building an online hub to display, advertise and market the product. Video clips, gifs, memes, one-liners and written customer testimonials are some prolific engagement strategies for the virtual peeps.
