#3 Major Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs in India You must be communicative in the way people like you best, not how you like

Here are some of the techniques that somehow helped me gain the initial traction for my startup, and paved the way to fulfilling my dreams.

Lesson 1

How to Hire Senior-level Employees and Retain Them?

At the seed stage, I implemented a four-day visit programme for prospective recruits after the interview round. It was a trial period where we checked the efficiency of an individual.

It informed me how suited and compatible he is for the relevant job. A person may be well-qualified for a certain work but there are more important things like his passion for new work, and his way of looking at related tasks. This process removes the uneasiness.

Almost all the first members of my startup had to undergo this visit period. It involved taking the prospective recruit to a restaurant for a breakfast to make sure the individual expresses himself fully.

We made sure there is no communication gap left between him and the company. The communications involved are both formal and informal in nature that also reflects his familiarity and ignorance with the work we want from him.

In the beginning, I made some mistakes in the recruitment process, but I always made sure it doesn't affect the startup's progress and my own work. After-all, the quality of work done to a large extent is determined by the team members involved.

And when it comes to building a startup, other than being talented in their respective areas, the employees may have to handle or manage more than one task at a time.I call them super team members.What I've felt is, a budding entrepreneur should try to be closer to his employees' hearts than their minds.

Giving gifts to employees on occasional basis (including for a birthday, and for the startup achieving certain milestones)specially to praise his or her efforts, can also do wonders. Not only does it work as a motivating force but also provides him with mental satisfaction.

Don't Change the Roles!

Never change the role of the employee to meet his demands, unless he, in the past, has already demonstrated his worth in that new role he is demanding. It creates a wrong impression upon other employees, affects the balance of work and can be suicidal for the growth of the startup in the long-run.

Lesson learned: You must be communicative in the way people like you best, not how you like.

Lesson 2

How to Get the Initial Validation and Traction?

As we know, no matter how incredible your products or services are, you have to create timely customer awareness about it, to further increase sales and for constant growth.

With limited resources and budget, it is hard to find a solution to attract customers and retain them for a long run.It is said that only 0.1 % of the startups experience overnight success, whereas 90 % of them fail due to various reasons besides lack of funds while going through the same phase in the beginning.

There are techniques to gain that initial traction that can drive your startup's progress. The best way to gain traction is to provide a unique product or service, synced with methods or processes for customer satisfaction.

In the recent past, the two majorreasons that sent many startups to a vanishing point were lack of innovative products and customer satisfaction. These factors determine the success or failure of any startup.Although a product that sells itself could become a force of a startup.It could greatly help in inviting the funds.

To keep in mind, there are somenotablebrands out in the world today that are using word-of-mouth marketing to back-up its products, in lieu of launching an expensive advertising campaign.

Lessons Learned: You must gain an expertise of word-of-mouth marketing to back-up your products or services.

Lesson 3

How to Brand Yourself?

Branding yourself can be one of the toughest jobs of business of any niche. Apart from just being a name, symbol, design, or some other feature that distinguishes your product from your rivals in the eyes of the customer, brand is also the overall experience you deliver to customers.

People are the most powerful resource. Try to offer an experience that is hard to forget or resist, or that doesn't have any substitute. Even the musicians or singers who play poorly in bars and cafes are substituted, if they continue to give the same performance (service).

Lesson learned: Try to provide your customers an invaluable experience.