MUMBAI, India | 18th December 2020: There’s a new plot afoot in the business eco-system. People are herding towards this fresh, new idea without keeping in mind the repercussions that it could inevitably cause. Most attribute their actions towards this phenomenon as a medium to gain financial stability. Some just go for it due to their incessant curiosity and to tickle their intellectual fancies. This phenomenon is called a start-up. Assessing the impact of the pandemic on the many facets of start-ups, Mr. Amit B Wadhwani,(AWB) gives his notions and strong ideas about the start-up trends in the country.
Mr. Amit B Wadhwani is a highly regarded and sought after public speaker, writer, producer, anchor and thought leader. He and his brother have created an empire from a humble beginning in the real estate sector. From being a fresher, to becoming a baron in the fraternity, ABW has a lot to contribute to the news sector as well.
Here he puts forth some rather insightful points on this subject.
Trends can be useful to follow, but they can also be incredibly dangerous. When a serious pursuit—for example, data-driven growth—becomes a trend, it invariably becomes dumbed down by opportunistic “Big Players” and companies looking to ride the trend for their own gain. They are always looking out for such ill planned start-ups, solely to crush them before they even take flight. But, who doesn’t love following a fancy trend? Most of the urban youths have fallen victim to this trend.
He isn’t suggesting that the idea of a start-up is wrong in its entirety. Most successful businesses at some point in their tenure were titled as a start-up. It is a very promising way to skyrocket careers, given that the person is completely prepared and ready for it.
Many start-ups, during their initial days, face adversities and difficulties due to a lack of data. Data can be a very subjective thing. For some, it could mean a big mound of paperwork. For others, it could mean a huge list of clients. Amit, in his experience, has stumbled on a rather different path altogether. According to him, data for any business is the person’s aptitude and experience in said field. A lack of experience is the most common shortcoming in most of the recent businesses.
Another vital aspect of a new start-up is to understand the potential customer’s individual journeys. One needs to map the content and strategize his plans for the customer’s perusal. Content creation could go into hyper drive when needed, and that’s fine. Sometimes old content can be pushed in a more effective way as well. If you’ve built trust to the point where people begin wondering how your solution might work for them, it’s time to enter the Try stage of the hourglass. The try phase is a much underrated one in terms of execution. Most people leap over this phase due to the desire of achieving before due time.
Time management is hard for most people. It’s certainly something that most influential entrepreneurs have also felt sometime during their initial years. If not kept in check, it can mean working on the wrong things for far too long, at the expense of what’s actually important.
The essential element that people should understand is the major difference between a start-up and a set-up. A set-up is the evolved and more fruitful form of start-ups. Imagine a start-up going through the tough and trying ages of puberty to finally evolve into an adult. Set-up is that adult. Only and only when a business reaches its set-up phase should one consider investing money in it. Premature start-ups invest mammoth-like amounts of money in their businesses and more often than not end up losing all of it. The best case scenario in premature investment is suffering exuberant losses and finally trying to salvage some amount of money.
There are a ton of different frameworks that have been published that seek to help aspiring business men and women to identify the right channel to pursue, but ultimately this comes down to a fair amount of trial and error, especially if they have no historical data to work with.
“Never fail to dream, but always have a tight grasp on your realities….”
