The BIG "E" - Life as an entrepreneur
Here's something I posted on the IIM B internal board, where junta from our batch has been posting their job experiences....
The big "E" - Life as an entrepreneur
Take the most challenging job, the one that you think is the most thrilling and adventurous. Multiply its 'thrill' factor ten fold. Add oodles of uncertainity, a high stake pay off and the sheer joy and pleasure of working for something you love, and something you believe in - and there you have entreprenurship.
This is Abhishek Thakore, Class of 2005. Summers at DB Singapore.
Since I started putting total night outs 8 months ago on my venture, I haven't been a particularly successful entrepreneur yet. In fact I've screwed up at a lot of places! So while these views might be coloured by my own experience, these have also been shaped by many other ground realities and eco-checks....
So disclaimers apart, lets head straight in!
I'd say entrepreneurship has a glamour quotient that goes far higher than the hottest day 0 jobs on campus - I say this because somehow if you're from an IIM and trying to start something off, you're going to be in the roving eye of the press. Which means a lot of footage. Which means drunk dancers coming on L2 and getting senti about how they too would love to chase their dreams 'someday'. Which means profs giving long sessions on why not to take the leap. Which means a lot of people curious to find out whats up with you. Which means having to explain to a lot of people why its not taking off as you planned it to. Which means a lot of expectations.
I'll split dhandha into 2 types - one is where you have a family owned business running, and the other, where you startup. I dont know much about the former. But chances are that your dad is unlikely to be in something like nanotechnology or new age schools. From what I have seen family startups tend to be the not-so-attractive places - from building industrial dynamites to distributing liquor to jewellery stores. The typical MBA itch means most people would not want to get back to the business right away. Personally me thinks that
a. Having your family dhandha for one, means you can avoid a lot of dirty work involved in the startup stage
b. A one year crash course from your dad will teach you much more about the business than any MBA funda
c. Beyond that you have an amazing scope to grow and expand your business - using what's been learnt, and play it really big.
Coming back to those of us who want to start out. I think the earlier someone decides to venture, the better it is - I for one decided to opt out quite late, and lost out on a lot of campus time that could be used to build more rigour, more research into the idea. It also lets your team get in sync - we started as a team of 3 - another MBA from NMIMS and a CA.
Our basic idea was human technology distribution - there are ways and learnable skills by which human performance can be optimised. While these are available at corporate levels, providing these to students would help improve their overall effectiveness. These 'soft skills' have been largely ignored by traditional schooling and parents too feel this need. School never basically taught us to handle our relationships, manage our money, cope up with peer pressure or dealing with failure. So why not DISTRUBUTE this technology - value essentially lay in the distribution, since content is freely available all around in public domain.
We started out with summer camps as a distribution format - camps market in Mumbai is small and unorganised. The camps did decently well. Though far below expectations, the sheer joy of doing something we loved (and having so much fun doing it) sustained us. Then a few things simultenously crashed. The cash cow of our business was a coaching class we had been running since 5 years in partnership. Its expansion completely bombed and we had to close 2 locactions where we expanded into (for the lack of 'holding capacity'). Other formats - institutional selling, public seminars, week long courses - all bombed. In parallel, families of my team mates really started getting onto them, and we decided it would make sense for me to continue solo. I ventured into corporate training, working with an established trainer (corporate training being very company-personal brand driven) and currently am exploring that side of the business which can serve as a future cash cow. (While this may seem like a single para what it summarises is a mix of a few months of total fight, near-depression, multiple approach modifications and nightmarish failures....)
What does it take to start out by yourself? A 'keeda' to do something (compelling enough to make you forget opportunity cost calculations), a family that really really supports you, a strong team, decent money that will let you stay in the business for atleast a few years, a rigourously researched idea, the passion to go on after failing back-to-back, some past experience in starting out things, a firm grasp on the industry, an ability to execute and do 'dogwork' (right from paying phone bills to daily sweeping of office, haggling with carpenter to trying to recover stuck money back), a support system of contacts (its really WHO you know that makes a world of difference in this one and mentors are the real saviours)....and a deferred placement option, just in case you blow it up ;)
What you learn? I can't really compare but I can say the experience has taught me the life on the street. Its a funny world where cash is king. Being able to sell (and without a system around you), and most importantly its a great exercise in getting a reality check on your abilities. A job is like the typical mom. Your mom might get angry. Not talk to you or hit out at you. But at the end of the day you have a meal on the table at dinner time. A business on the other hand is like dad. There are no mercies. Whether you're screwing it up or doing great - the bottomline shows you then and there,right in your face. And its not funny when your team has a combined opportunity cost of 5000 bux a day and you make that much in a month, without knowing how things are going. So you learn to manage yourself, your emotions, your fears and more....other challenges seem surprisingly easier in retrospect!
How does it pay? Like the typical risk-return profiles, pay-offs tend to be exponential (for the enterprises that survive) and you dont know when the tipping point will hit. Typically struggling for years in an industry can give the dumbest people great insights. And interestingly the people I met in the world of entreprenurship were nowhere as smart as junta back on campus. Which is why perhaps, they were there,and they had made it! Yeah after a while if you're not doing too well, it can get to you - and the real big kill I guess for any entrepreneur is when he takes his company public!
Unlimited work hours and you dont complain. Funnily though the discipline to work from home is something that came as a challenge initially. There are also a lot of tough calls to take - which businesses to continue to focus on, whether to supplement your earnings through part time work (there was a month where each one of us made our 40k teaching CAT!). Clarity of thought helps a lot, especially in planning ahead too.
Starting a business is no big deal really. Any one of us could start say a CAT coaching class or a recruitment service, and perhaps make more money 5 years ahead. The deal is strating something that you can take to a scale you dream of - thats where the game is ;) For example, as a speaker I keep myself well occupied doing stuff all over the place and it is decent money and fun work. But there is no BUSINESS MODEL in that - its more like an Anand Kasturi kind of self employed. Eventually as I got busy doing that, I realised that this was not what I wanted. Again there are loads of 'intraprenurial' options - kind that let you do what you want FOR a company in a similar industry, for a share of the pie of what you do. But just not the same thing.
Finally the most challenging thing I've found is taking a call of when to stay and when to quit. While on one end is the self help paradigm of 'dont-give-up' and the romantic notion of continuing the struggle, on the other end is your family waiting for your first decent pay check and a bunchful of mentors asking you to stop for now. These are tough calls - because they're painful either ways.
For now having looked at both retail and corporate training I plan to get back to a job for a while (being thrown out of my home doesnt look too good an option!) . Its cost me a year trying this out, and I've not really tried to think how it would affect my 'career' prospects. Becasue over all it has made me a much stronger person. And someone who will not regret having tried. And statistically, the average entrepreneur fails 3.8 times. With just one screw up - I guess I've a long way to go :)
Its a bug that never dies :)
Final verdict :
If you've an idea or passion you're willing to bet your money on, I see no reason why you shouldn't take the leap right after campus. You've an option to defer your placement, a support network on campus and there's no better way to learn and test yourself than to really do it. On the other hand if you've reserved your 'dhandha' plans for later in life, know that quitting your job might just get more challanging as you get used to a lifestyle, have a family and grow older.....
For PGP2005:
Fellow buggers, I know a lot of us have plans of starting out. Whenever you do, make sure you pop in a mail. Apart from free initial startup phase consultancy, I'm always game for another ride!
The big "E" - Life as an entrepreneur
Take the most challenging job, the one that you think is the most thrilling and adventurous. Multiply its 'thrill' factor ten fold. Add oodles of uncertainity, a high stake pay off and the sheer joy and pleasure of working for something you love, and something you believe in - and there you have entreprenurship.
This is Abhishek Thakore, Class of 2005. Summers at DB Singapore.
Since I started putting total night outs 8 months ago on my venture, I haven't been a particularly successful entrepreneur yet. In fact I've screwed up at a lot of places! So while these views might be coloured by my own experience, these have also been shaped by many other ground realities and eco-checks....
So disclaimers apart, lets head straight in!
I'd say entrepreneurship has a glamour quotient that goes far higher than the hottest day 0 jobs on campus - I say this because somehow if you're from an IIM and trying to start something off, you're going to be in the roving eye of the press. Which means a lot of footage. Which means drunk dancers coming on L2 and getting senti about how they too would love to chase their dreams 'someday'. Which means profs giving long sessions on why not to take the leap. Which means a lot of people curious to find out whats up with you. Which means having to explain to a lot of people why its not taking off as you planned it to. Which means a lot of expectations.
I'll split dhandha into 2 types - one is where you have a family owned business running, and the other, where you startup. I dont know much about the former. But chances are that your dad is unlikely to be in something like nanotechnology or new age schools. From what I have seen family startups tend to be the not-so-attractive places - from building industrial dynamites to distributing liquor to jewellery stores. The typical MBA itch means most people would not want to get back to the business right away. Personally me thinks that
a. Having your family dhandha for one, means you can avoid a lot of dirty work involved in the startup stage
b. A one year crash course from your dad will teach you much more about the business than any MBA funda
c. Beyond that you have an amazing scope to grow and expand your business - using what's been learnt, and play it really big.
Coming back to those of us who want to start out. I think the earlier someone decides to venture, the better it is - I for one decided to opt out quite late, and lost out on a lot of campus time that could be used to build more rigour, more research into the idea. It also lets your team get in sync - we started as a team of 3 - another MBA from NMIMS and a CA.
Our basic idea was human technology distribution - there are ways and learnable skills by which human performance can be optimised. While these are available at corporate levels, providing these to students would help improve their overall effectiveness. These 'soft skills' have been largely ignored by traditional schooling and parents too feel this need. School never basically taught us to handle our relationships, manage our money, cope up with peer pressure or dealing with failure. So why not DISTRUBUTE this technology - value essentially lay in the distribution, since content is freely available all around in public domain.
We started out with summer camps as a distribution format - camps market in Mumbai is small and unorganised. The camps did decently well. Though far below expectations, the sheer joy of doing something we loved (and having so much fun doing it) sustained us. Then a few things simultenously crashed. The cash cow of our business was a coaching class we had been running since 5 years in partnership. Its expansion completely bombed and we had to close 2 locactions where we expanded into (for the lack of 'holding capacity'). Other formats - institutional selling, public seminars, week long courses - all bombed. In parallel, families of my team mates really started getting onto them, and we decided it would make sense for me to continue solo. I ventured into corporate training, working with an established trainer (corporate training being very company-personal brand driven) and currently am exploring that side of the business which can serve as a future cash cow. (While this may seem like a single para what it summarises is a mix of a few months of total fight, near-depression, multiple approach modifications and nightmarish failures....)
What does it take to start out by yourself? A 'keeda' to do something (compelling enough to make you forget opportunity cost calculations), a family that really really supports you, a strong team, decent money that will let you stay in the business for atleast a few years, a rigourously researched idea, the passion to go on after failing back-to-back, some past experience in starting out things, a firm grasp on the industry, an ability to execute and do 'dogwork' (right from paying phone bills to daily sweeping of office, haggling with carpenter to trying to recover stuck money back), a support system of contacts (its really WHO you know that makes a world of difference in this one and mentors are the real saviours)....and a deferred placement option, just in case you blow it up ;)
What you learn? I can't really compare but I can say the experience has taught me the life on the street. Its a funny world where cash is king. Being able to sell (and without a system around you), and most importantly its a great exercise in getting a reality check on your abilities. A job is like the typical mom. Your mom might get angry. Not talk to you or hit out at you. But at the end of the day you have a meal on the table at dinner time. A business on the other hand is like dad. There are no mercies. Whether you're screwing it up or doing great - the bottomline shows you then and there,right in your face. And its not funny when your team has a combined opportunity cost of 5000 bux a day and you make that much in a month, without knowing how things are going. So you learn to manage yourself, your emotions, your fears and more....other challenges seem surprisingly easier in retrospect!
How does it pay? Like the typical risk-return profiles, pay-offs tend to be exponential (for the enterprises that survive) and you dont know when the tipping point will hit. Typically struggling for years in an industry can give the dumbest people great insights. And interestingly the people I met in the world of entreprenurship were nowhere as smart as junta back on campus. Which is why perhaps, they were there,and they had made it! Yeah after a while if you're not doing too well, it can get to you - and the real big kill I guess for any entrepreneur is when he takes his company public!
Unlimited work hours and you dont complain. Funnily though the discipline to work from home is something that came as a challenge initially. There are also a lot of tough calls to take - which businesses to continue to focus on, whether to supplement your earnings through part time work (there was a month where each one of us made our 40k teaching CAT!). Clarity of thought helps a lot, especially in planning ahead too.
Starting a business is no big deal really. Any one of us could start say a CAT coaching class or a recruitment service, and perhaps make more money 5 years ahead. The deal is strating something that you can take to a scale you dream of - thats where the game is ;) For example, as a speaker I keep myself well occupied doing stuff all over the place and it is decent money and fun work. But there is no BUSINESS MODEL in that - its more like an Anand Kasturi kind of self employed. Eventually as I got busy doing that, I realised that this was not what I wanted. Again there are loads of 'intraprenurial' options - kind that let you do what you want FOR a company in a similar industry, for a share of the pie of what you do. But just not the same thing.
Finally the most challenging thing I've found is taking a call of when to stay and when to quit. While on one end is the self help paradigm of 'dont-give-up' and the romantic notion of continuing the struggle, on the other end is your family waiting for your first decent pay check and a bunchful of mentors asking you to stop for now. These are tough calls - because they're painful either ways.
For now having looked at both retail and corporate training I plan to get back to a job for a while (being thrown out of my home doesnt look too good an option!) . Its cost me a year trying this out, and I've not really tried to think how it would affect my 'career' prospects. Becasue over all it has made me a much stronger person. And someone who will not regret having tried. And statistically, the average entrepreneur fails 3.8 times. With just one screw up - I guess I've a long way to go :)
Its a bug that never dies :)
Final verdict :
If you've an idea or passion you're willing to bet your money on, I see no reason why you shouldn't take the leap right after campus. You've an option to defer your placement, a support network on campus and there's no better way to learn and test yourself than to really do it. On the other hand if you've reserved your 'dhandha' plans for later in life, know that quitting your job might just get more challanging as you get used to a lifestyle, have a family and grow older.....
For PGP2005:
Fellow buggers, I know a lot of us have plans of starting out. Whenever you do, make sure you pop in a mail. Apart from free initial startup phase consultancy, I'm always game for another ride!
posted by The One at 1:19 PM
2 Comments:
HI,
I was just surfing on the net and found your article, rather I should say --found you. I dont know whether you are still blogging and will read my comment.
My Name, is Neeraj Tiwari, belongs to your category. I have started my own business (in your words, start up) and passing through the intial stage of starting a big company from my home. My website name is Jobkeeda.com, not just another job portal.
In the last 9 months, I have learned two things and I think that is all for an entreprenure and becoming big. First; EQ is more important than IQ and second dont be just another entreprenure or someone who just want to do a business.
I have seen people and who say they started the busienss, because they wanted to do something. According to me, its just like that you want to travel, but dont know whihc train you wnat to take. You will start the travelling and take any train, without knowing where it will stop or what is the end. You might land up in the forest of chambles or at a place, where you will not find any transport to turn back.
So, the most important thing of starting a new venture is, the objective, where you want to move and why you want to do. Making money, solving the great problem, if is your objective for starting the business, than I can say you can survive, but if you are starting a business just to do something, beleive me you will nto do anything in life.
It was nie reading your article and your expereince, and I learned a lot from this article.
At any time, if you would like to conatct me, just mark me a mail at: n.tiwari@jobkeeda.com or support@jobkeeda.com.
Hope to hear something from you.
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