Being an entrepreneur is like heading out into the uncharted territory where you have to find ways by exploring. It’s reasonably obvious where to go, what to do next, and mainly you can rely on yourself when you run into problems. There are many days when you feel like things will never work out and you’re operating at a loss for endless months. Sometimes you will find a roller coaster ride of emotions that come with striking out on your own actions. Before quitting your day job to pursue the idea that’s been brewing in your mind, is a life-changing rung that many of the entrepreneurs have experienced with. But once you get the success it is worth it to take a toll on your own proficiency.

An entrepreneur is a person who identifies the need and starts a business to fill that void. But this basic definition provides little insight into the specific character traits and attributes that make a person thrive as an entrepreneur and the challenges which have to be faced with a lot of intrusion in an expedition.

So, Headstart Delhi with its Startup Saturday, July 2018, edition thought to bring out some foremost and important challenges which an entrepreneur experiences during the early stages of his startup. 

Dr Sanjay Pande, TEDx Speaker & Business Coach, Mr Kesava Reddy, VP Sales- E2E Networks, Mr Amit Grover, CEO- AHA Taxi and Mr Amit Tandon-VP & Business Head at Healthkart as being our speakers made the initiative more meaningful by guiding the budding startups.

Dr Sanjay Pande, our first speaker has encouraged a lot as a motivational presenter by making our fellow entrepreneurs understand the transition phase where results don’t come out as per the plans. The complicated word “transition” is the most important factor in the growth of a startup. So, an entrepreneur has to understand the importance of external training, which is completely dependent on the internal training of an entrepreneur’s mind, the limitless boundaries which have to be stretched out and crossed to set the benchmark and the legacy. According to him the three seas- change, complexity, and competition are the success mantras to surpass the inquisitive challenges.

Mr. Kesava Reddy, our second speaker who himself has grown up from the root level in spite of being not from the sales background has successfully acquired funding for his venture and eloquently shared his sagacity on the hacking of B2B sales and marketing strategies for the budding startups by putting across 5P’s of lessons that he learnt in the process of establishing E2E Networks. The pain points are “Prospecting”, “Persona”, “Persuasion”, “Purpose” and, “Passion”.

“Marketing is a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.”

—By Philip Kotler

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” This is sales.

—By Vince Lombardi

So, to build a successful startup a great deal of resourcefulness is required, because an entrepreneur, has to often run into dead ends throughout the course of a career. The ability to bounce back from losses is essentially important to be successful. Initially, there will be much more disappointments than progress, here regressive attitude is required to leave the past behind for the future growth. It’s imperative to stay optimistic when bad things happen.

Next in line Mr Amit Grover, Co-Founder AHA Taxi, an online cab aggregator discussed the vision of the venture by making outstation taxi booking easier and affordable for the masses and how it is positively changing the dynamics of outstation taxi market in India. The support thousands of driver partners from pan India surpass the competition with trains, buses, flights and other big taxi players. Sustainable growth is among the biggest challenges any business leader faces, and the oration has thrown the light on the management and measurement of sales to grow results. The factors include:

1)    Right USP
2)    Networking, partnership & collaboration
3)    Build value proposition
4)    Create barriers to entry
5)    Maintain contacts with upcoming and existing clients

In the end, Mr Amit Tandon explained how direct sales strategies, direct consumer approach for their feedback, performance evaluation and authenticity issues can affect the consumer brand in progression.

 

Contributed by: Heena Gupta -Volunteer, New Delhi