The First 100 Days: Struggle of Startups in the Path to Success These stories will definitely give you a heads-up on how to sail through your start-up ignition phase

When planning to start your own company, be ready for chaos. You are stepping into unknown territory and a lot of uncertain things are bound to happen. Be prepared for the unprepared. Failures are bound to happen, deals are going to fall apart, you will often find yourself in helpless situations, and your worst fears might come true, this is what the startup journey is all about.

While no one can help you to deal with the first 100 crucial days of your new company, a little experience might give you will and hope. You have the passion but lack the basic requirement to run a firm. You have a vision but don't know where to begin and how to imply thing?

Entrepreneur India got in touch with entrepreneurs who started their own companies and have seen it all. Bringing you the stories from founders of their first 100 days and what they went through. Read these opinions and get a clear view. This will definitely give you a heads-up on how to sail through your start-up ignition phase.

Soar to Greater Height

A great high for anyone is to get the opportunity to build their own team. Here's another story of Milan Thakkar, CEO, B2C Business, Walplast India.

"I began my career at Walplast. Repositioning brand architecture and prioritizing product portfolio was another feather in the cap that gave me enough and more confidence. With more and more opportunities coming my way, I made sure there was a cultural transition in the company from a service mindset to a product and growth mindset. To add to all this, directly working and interacting with the first-generation entrepreneurs gave me an opportunity to fine tune my business acumen and soar to greater heights with each new dawn I saw," he says.

But there were some struggles like attracting talent from organised established players/multinationals to an Indian enterprise, Prioritizing what to sell and details on market mapping, Aligning with first generation entrepreneurs' B2C mindset and Creating a better perception of the brand in the market, he added.

Failure Not An Option

The first 100 days of a start-up are confusing and tiring as you are constantly trying to establish a balance between client expectations and delivery. Since you are relatively new in the industry and haven't yet made a name for yourself in it, you have to work harder than everyone else and hence failure is not an option.

Talking about her journey as a founder and CEO, Aakanksha Gupta of Public Relations firm The Other Circle said how she has come across every roadblock and handled it single-handedly.

"I had multi-tasked to find creative solutions so as to accomplish a lot with very little resources.

Being a startup, we had a very small team in the beginning and everyone had to do everything. I was working over 18 hours a day, and well that hasn't changed (she laughed). Also since our model has been that of a lean canvas, it has everyone trying to do a bit of everything in the start from research to client servicing to media relations. One of the biggest challenges I had to overcome was self-doubt and how to keep pushing through because, often we tend to think that the first impression is the last one and with your first few clients, you need to make sure they are the seed to your future referrals," she shared.

Landing clients has fortunately never been difficult for her, but to pave her way and the agency's way to get to a point where they are known for their work in the industry is a journey that has taught her a lot.

Building a Sustainable Business:

What goes into the making of one of the most popular men's lifestyle communities in media? A lot of hard work for sure and persistence.

"The first 100 days of launching MensXP were filled with uncertainty & anxiety. A sense of realism was sinking in, along with a rush of excitement about what lay ahead. This was the pre-social era when content distribution was not half as democratic, and publishing brands were primarily built on the back of search engines. As a solo founder, I was hustling to build a sustainable media business on the back of Google ads by day, and pouring over stacks of case-studies from global publishers by night. As they say, you're only able to connect the dots looking backwards, and those 100 days surely lay the foundation for what later became the country's largest men's lifestyle community," says Angad Bhatia, Founder-MensXP & COO - Indiatimes Lifestyle Network.

Having shared these stories, it is inspiring to see how much passion and hard-work goes into the making of a start-up and all you need is the will to not give up and thing to fall in place.