Startup a Fashion OR a Passion?

Startups are becoming too sexy now a days. Young entrepreneurs treating it like a new fashion which is true up to some extend but one should never forget that the list of failed startups is much more long that successful startup. Number of startups have been reported which does not make any sense, some of them are being created for sake of funding. Changing the world or becoming a billionaire with a new creative idea is a dream of every entrepreneur. But honestly! what excites you about a startup? Funding, success, fame or challenges? The answer itself is self explanatory, decides the duration of startup and shapes the future of your startup.
Just picking one of these options can not predict success of your startup. Building a company and making it great is not a one day process. Various vertical heads like failure of other startups, market analysis, support and more importantly understanding the customer and marker plays critical role.

So What should you know before you start?

1) Passion.

Passion is key to keeping a business strategy moving. "Refused to give up" is the most used word by most successful people. Half-hearted efforts will chip away at your drive to succeed. Keep your hope and passion alive even if other do not believe in you.
So here are the main items to take into consideration if you’re trying to develop a business platform. These elements constitute will support a smart strategy for any new enterprise:

2) Take baby steps.

Jumping all in is rarely ever successful. There are success stories about people who invested everything once and came out winners after six months or a couple years, but those are rare. Risk management is an essential factor in any startup, and balance is vital. You can absorb losses more easily if you take smaller risks in the beginning. Those will provide essential and productive lessons.

3) Learn from others.

Successful entrepreneurs often worked for others in their field of choice before striking out on their own. Spending a few years in the industry under an excellent mentor will provide a good launching pad. Learn from your predecessors’ mistakes and brainstorm about how to improve upon their model. Find someone willing to teach, and think about starting your business elsewhere when you leave.

4) Learn how to self-promote.

Confidence and a good elevator speech can take any pitch to the next level. The first marketing any company experiences comes from its founder. Spend time learning how to share your vision without coming across as “salesy.” Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale, but remember: the client is always the focus.

5) Constantly take action.

Entrepreneurs are movers and shakers. They can’t afford to analyze every detail or they’d never get anywhere. There is no place for procrastination in a startup. It’s a 24/7, no-vacation-or-sick-days kind of job that demands constant forward momentum. Make a brief assessment at every step and move on it. Trust your instincts.

6) Make a plan.

Read about successful businesses. Take in the wealth of knowledge that’s been provided by successful entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and the personalities from Shark Tank. A successful business plan does not have to be a book. A 10-page plan is digestible yet long enough to include everything you need to start.

7) Build a reputation.

According to Brandi Bennett at HostGator.com, maintaining a blog on a well-hosted website, or volunteering your time and skills, shows instead of tells the community, and thereby builds expertise and trust.

8) It’s never too late to start.

Many successful entrepreneurs started later in life. J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter author), Julia Child (chef), and Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) all started their wildly successful brands after they were comfortably along in their lives. Having the experience that comes with age can give you a unique outlook on your business. Life experiences bring depth that the most educated young adult, by his or her nature, is less able to foresee.

9) Build your "A team".

Finding the skill sets and attitudes that support the culture of the brand you want to promote will foster innovation and enhance your reputation. Include folks from outside the company for the people you rely on. That will start a free marketing chain reaction that can build confidence and revenue.

10) Be mindful of your attitude.

The attitude of the founder will set the tone for the business. Negativity, laziness and entitlement waste time and money while they tarnish your reputation. Success largely depends on making mistakes and accepting blame in stride. Owning up to and facing challenges head-on is what makes a mere business owner a leader.

Starting a business can wreak havoc on the owner’s personal life. While all the above tips are necessary for success, taking care of yourself mentally and physically is also imperative. Exercise, sleep and diet play a central role in ensuring you implement these policies successfully. All of them drive attitude, motivation and relationships.

Successful CEOs tend to follow a structured, daily schedule of rising early, exercising, having snacks on hand for fuel and socializing many evenings of the week.

source: entrepreneur.com

What an startup entrepreneur should never miss while building a team?

Now a days all entrepreneurs are busy to build a great team, they look for a young passionate crew who not only has team leading quality but also can burn his/her energy to make the startup successful. But most of these young passionate crew lack one thing i.e. what is and how to follow a proper process? If not implemented in individual it slows down the growth of the company while their competitors do well.

I am wrapping it up for both entrepreneurs as well as employee. An entrepreneur should ask and an employee should be aware of the questions like;

What kind of process improvement have you done in your working tenure?

Possible Intention:

• To know if you understand in real sense, what process improvement is.
• To know if you have applied the theory, you learned, in practice.
• To know if you have a 'big picture' understanding from process point of view.

Insights:

• Read more to develop a sense of 'big picture' understanding on process improvement.
• Think of this process improvement more from your productivity perspective. 
• It may be very small improvement but it tells a lot about your project understanding and approach.

Example Answer:

In our project, we used to perform ad-hoc unit testing and completely missed testing of some peculiar cases like null, empty string for some methods. And this used to be discovered in integration testing of the system. When team lead found this, we did root cause analysis and decided to write unit test cases using framework like JUnit. We formed a small team of two members for proof of concept. Once it was successful, we used tools like eclipse to generate unit test cases. Later on it was adopted as best practice for the project in java. 

Anti pattern:

• Do not tell about some improvement which you have not been part of.
• first you need to be absolutely clear about the basic process followed and only then you can suggest something. The suggestion may not be very technology intensive etc., however it should have perceivable benefit which you can substantiate.

Interviewer's Interpretation:

• You have process understanding and orientation, plus experience of working on process driven culture.

Tell me 4-5 important things which you will carry if you have to stay below sea for a month.

Possible Intention:

• To know how creative you are.
• To know if you get baffled by a bouncer question.

Insights:

• Stay calm and use you creativity.
• Give a disclaimer that you are not expert or have any experience of staying below sea, so you are guessing.
• What is expected is, some logical guess work and not the right answer.

Example Answer:

Before giving the answer I would have really searched on Google for the kind of environment and gears required to stay below the sea.

Now let me guess, I need to carry following things:

• Diving gear.
• Sufficient supply of oxygen.
• Any medicines needed because of environment change.
• Food that will be appropriate.
• Equipment that I will need to survive, for e.g. a knife, pressure meter, compas etc.

Anti Pattern:

• Do not get baffled.
• Do not say you may not not be able to answer the question as it is not your area of expertise. Sometime the correctness of the answer is less important than the attempt.

Interviewer's interpretation:

• Logically good answer indicates your basic thinking is fine.
• Witty answer would show creativity.
• Any answer which is not right at least shows that you are willing to encounter problems even if you are not well-versed in it.