#7 Best Tips for First-time Entrepreneurs Funding is always on tricky grounds and hence should be capitalized with full fledged plans to expand and prosper
By Raja Chakraborty •
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The current market scenario has gone through a great of deal of upheavals with technological disruptions to backup the power of smart marketing, to a great extent. Such an environment is thrilling for entrepreneurs to survive and thrive with nerve-wracking challenges and rewarding outcomes.
There is no end to the basketful of financial, legal, staffing, marketing, and customer issues from where they can learn as they meet up to the task of developing a successful venture out of a homespun idea. For those spunky individuals, willing to walk the extra mile for that taste of elusive success, here are a few tips for a jet start:
1. Base your business on a balance of passion and knowledge
Building a start-up from scratch, may seem lick a rosy prospect but in actuality, it is quite a grind. Therefore, it is important to something that excites and motivates you as this will keep your interest and investment buoyant even when things don't seem all peachy. Yet, basing your venture purely on gumption is not a wise move as a great deal of knowledge should fuel your steps. Avoid businesses or industries that you don't already know a good deal about as certain mistakes can raze your fledgling business to the ground.
2. Make Initial Funding Round Count
Funding is always on tricky grounds and hence should be capitalized with full fledged plans to expand and prosper. This ensures that you have a cushion for all the product development and marketing expenses to be incurred in the process. It is prudent to have sufficient capital for operations to break even- without any shade of debt/bankruptcy looming around. At this point, you should leave aside unfounded fears on diluting your percentage ownership in the company.
3. Emulate Leading Entrepreneurs
For every business, it is important to emulate a market leader, in order to find success in the cut-throat scenario. Seek out pointers and advice from them in order to understand the intricacies of the market better. Find mentors who can give you advice on hiring, product development, marketing and fundraising yet don't forget to implement your brand of marketing. A personalized touched, paired up with time-tested procedures create a business model that is a cut above the rest.
4. Research the Competition
A successful entrepreneur always keeps his eyes and ears open as the wind carries powerful information to capitulate on. Keep yourself thoroughly abreast through researching about competitive products or services in the marketplace, alongside having tabs on new developments and enhancements from your competitors. This will keep the onus to deliver unique offerings, on a constant flame, and help you push yourself to create fresh solutions to age-old problems.
5. Get Comfortable with pitching
The ability to lucidly communicate can be critical in bagging visibility, inspiring competition, and pitching to raise capital. In fact, pitching turns out to be a sore point and many entrepreneurs harbour baseless fear around it. To witness prolific success, you must let go of inhibitions and work to overcome this fear. Hire creative people to help you harness the pitching mindset, get professional feedback and proactively have the zeal to improve.
6. Never say never to Networking
Networking is a valuable tool as it can help you land a new investor, a great employee, a new customer, or even a great mentor. It is therefore, essential to attend industry and start-up events, to scope out new talents and opportunities. LinkedIn has been proved to be a powerful tool in aiding the tryst to network, so ensure that you and your company have LinkedIn presence and that you are constantly updating the same.
7. Always be eager to Learn and Unlearn
This is perhaps the most important tip that has proved to be worth its weight in gold, time and again. Rigidity is a deadly move against profit and the mark of a valuable entrepreneur is his/her ability to learn. Always be on your toe in keeping up with new developments but don't mindlessly implement it. Strike the perfect balance through unlearning practices that can be polished by incorporation of fresher ideas. This way, you end up creating a niche category where the ruling power lies in your grasp.
Conclusion
The life of an entrepreneur is incomplete without a heady dose of guts glory so savour the lessons and proceed with a clear vision in mind. After all, the market is a playground and those who take calculated risks, win.
