The Journey Entrepreneurship

By Vinay Gupta | Roll number 3972 | Class of 1993

It is a thought that comes to the mind of many having bigger aspirations and a tumultuous mind – vision of being independent and creating value for themselves or in other words – being an entrepreneur and how to go about this. And while I am no expert in this matter, however, having first-hand experience of founding UMMS in 2012 and successfully operating the company for about 11 years, I can share and pen down what I believe can help others in their planning, execution, and sustainability of the business if they dive into this arena. And in fine print I must mention before you read any further – this is neither a recipe that guarantees success, nor a solicitation or an offer for anyone to use this information for jumping into the unknown – these are my view, my opinions and could be construed as light reading material – at the most.

For the majority who have succeeded as an entrepreneur, and I have been fortunate to interact with a few during the last few years – this was not something that they had planned all their lives. It happened either by chance or that they were thrust into this and just the fact that they were ready for this that their vision became a reality. It is therefore not very common and entirely not untrue that you would hear people say – you must be at the right place at the right time. It is important, though, to understand this in more detail and let me put this in a simplistic manner –a conducive environment and a leap of faith are the most critical ingredients to produce an entrepreneur.

And to define a conducive environment, it is when you are not satisfied in your present place of work, or your ideological philosophy does not match with the current organization – that is the perfect scenario for someone to think about taking the plunge. I would, however, like to add – salary/ compensation is not the right motivator for obvious reasons.

And even though there are many who continue to work in a very conducive environment but hesitate to take that leap of faith. For those who would like to understand leap of faith – have you seen a monkey jumping from one branch to another, it would leave the first branch and jump just on the faith that it would be able to latch on to the next branch. That faith is necessary for someone to jump. And this is indeed not easy – it requires conviction in what you believe in, courage to pursue this and perseverance to take this to the end. While a lot can be said about this, and it can be a topic to be discussed in itself, but, in my opinion, this is one

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Once the decks have been cleared and someone has decided to take that plunge, it is mostly downhill from that point. Planning is indeed the next step for envisaging:

• Vision and mission statement – this defines the company’s goal and policy that would underline the story that everyone is expected in the company to sell. It is finally the story that would make the company unique and the product line sellable. Behavioural or style theory

• Product line – it is absolutely necessary for the product to be unique for it to be sellable. If there is no uniqueness in the product, it is not possible to sell. Transformational theory

• Finance requirements and cash flow projections – this is something that many fail to consider, and the majority of the businesses are unable to survive for long due to this weakness. Hiring a professional in this can be helpful and productive. Emotional intelligence theory

• Organization structure and the right team – for any organization, it is essential to have the right people for it to function and progress. Building a team that believes in the leadership, its vision and works together will out-perform the other competitors.

• Marketing strategy – And while the product range can be great and quality excellent, it is equally important to market it in a manner that the customers find value in the product and pay the price that would compensate for the efforts. There are several tools available in the market to strategize this correctly and again, an expert can help.

• Sustainability – Markets evolve, and the businesses need to evolve with the market and customers’ needs. This is the key to long term success. The product line of today or the story that is sellable in the current environment might not be true for tomorrow. Look around and you would all realize how the businesses that were thriving earlier have collapsed in a matter of a few years.

And while there is no secret recipe for success as each business would have different requirements, however, in my opinion, there is one ingredient that is a must – lots of hard work and great support from friends and family. Once started, it is a long haul and the journey, though fulfilling, can be a roller coaster ride. One must be prepared for this as there is no shortcut to success – at least I am not aware of that formula.

My best wishes to everyone who is at the edge and contemplating the mantra that Tiger Woods gave many years ago – Just do it! ▄