Things budding entrepreneurs should keep in mind before starting their own venture

It’s not easy to become an entrepreneur. The competition is already pretty tough and getting even tougher, and it doesn’t matter what degree you’ve acquired to learn everything about entrepreneurship. Almost no university or college can prepare you for becoming an entrepreneur. The best lessons that you’ll learn about entrepreneurship would be on the job.

According to the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), there are over 27,916 startups in India as of February 1, 2020. Seeing how the industry is evolving and it is becoming easier to start a business, we might see a further increase in this number in the time to come.

Even the domains that were considered niche are now seeing tough competition among brands. All this might make you feel overwhelmed, and this data may even deter some budding entrepreneurs from taking the enthralling journey.

Many entrepreneurs manage to raise substantial capital during the early ages but fail to put it to good use. Money management is just as important as money itself; otherwise, it doesn’t take long to lose everything you’ve worked so hard over. What’s more important than money is to have a solid ROI (Return On Investment) model. It will help you maintain consistent cash flow and avoid liquidity issues – which might be the back-breaker for new businesses.

This is the age of change and adaptation and to survive in it, you have to follow the rules. You can’t expect to run your business smoothly and grow simply by hiring good candidates. As things change, you need to train them so that they can grow their skill set. You also need to focus on your employees, understand what they need, and compensate them adequately.

While this might be easier said than done, it’s still something that you have to keep in mind. Consider yourself an employee and a shareholder in your business. Amateur entrepreneurs often fail to make this distinction and end up mingling their personal and business finances, which leads to troubles later.

Oftentimes, the key to unlocking success is choosing the right business. Sometimes, you want to do something but the market conditions are against you, and these are the situations that could be warning signs for you to take a step back and reevaluate whether the business that you want to conduct has a sufficient profit margin or not.

Maintaining a proper work-life balance is very important and keeping the two separate is much harder than it seems – especially when you’re running your own business. But you need to make sure that you do not go crazy over micromanaging everything and spending more hours at the office than you need to. Entrepreneurs who tend to spend 12 to 13 hours every day end up getting burnt out in the long run. By working lesser hours, you’ll feel fresh and you’d have time to streamline your work as well so that whatever you have to do, takes lesser time.

If you don’t bother to save money early in your life and life salary to salary, then you’d have a tough time generating funds for starting your business. Ideally, one should save at least 30 percent of their monthly income. Savings give you a plethora of options at a later date.

There are a number of entrepreneurs who have great ideas but not deep enough pockets to finance their own business. Thus, they end up taking debts, which often become the cause of doom for the business. Startups are inherently risky, especially if the business model is untested, and if you add to that the burden of debt, it becomes even riskier.

The worst thing is that even if the business fails, the business owner is required to pay back the debt. There are a few entrepreneurs who use home loans, and personal loans to start a business because interest rates on these types of loans are low. However, before taking debt, take all things into consideration and do not borrow an amount that you cannot manage to pay back.

Having a good mentor can help you dodge so many troubles! By learning from their experience, you can carve a niche for yourself and grow without having to absorb damage. But keep in mind that the mentor that you choose should have a sound knowledge of the domain that you’re going to be working in and has evidence of success as well.

There are many people in the market who claim to be experts but are actually con-artists looking to benefit off of you. Stay away from such people.