The Entrepreneurial Journey at WhatClicks ends…

In Aug 2016, it started with a discussion with ex colleagues to come out of the 9-5 system and take up something that we can call our own. We started background work in Sept and started our dream venture, What Clicks.

Months of discussions with friends from the media industry, clients, colleagues and mentors we saw this gap in the Indian market – of Digital Marketing Audit, then in 2016, not a common service. Only the top 50-100 spenders were aware of it, and just a handful of them used to do it diligently and learn from the outcome. Most of them got the audit done just for compliance.

The term “Audit” somehow has a very negative perception in our marketing fraternity. Vendors, Publishers and Agencies do not like it at all. Clients, well, some of them love it, but most of them see it as a threat to their individual KPIs and Performance Bonuses.

In fact, over the past 3.5 years, working with more than 25 brands and auditing more than Rs. 140 Cr digital marketing spends, we saw that there is potential to utilize the money a little more effectively and efficiently, esp when the stakeholders came together (Brand- the team and top management, Agencies, Vendors, Tools and related services). Clients that managed to get the stakeholders together, saw huge (potential) savings and tangible efficiencies. Few clients were unable to implement the recommendations due to reasons unknown to us even though they saw the results. An effort that didn't see fruition.

Our journey was memorable with a lot of partnerships, healthy competition from some, commendable co-operation by few agencies and a lot of trust for a small setup like ours. And on the other side, there was a lot of backlash from some bigger agencies, a few brands taking advantage of a small startup like ours and getting a lot of work done FOC (free of cost) in the name of pilots; and arm twisting by a few insecure entities too. But it is all part of the game and we accepted that.

Being a bootstrapped entity, there were challenges. We built a product from scratch, and truly something without much competition globally. Though it had dependencies on external data and the insecure entities weren’t cooperating on it, the product (though great on paper, as a concept and on pilots), failed to be accepted in the market. Maybe we missed the bus here but not getting the right investor on board and have a better GTM strategy for the product. But now that it failed, we somehow gave up on this big opportunity. In the startup world, products have a great value / valuation, services not so much, and consulting, rare. In our case, getting investors without a solid product, and just for services, was becoming tricky for all parties. Growing the team was a big challenge too, as we needed a steady cash-flow to sustain the payouts. But, we survived, not only did we survive, we were profitable right from the beginning.

Though we are proud of what we achieved, there were a lot of learning in this journey, which I would like to list down, and which may help others who plan to be entrepreneurs or are already one (in the service industry). Please note, these are just from my experience and may not be applicable to all.

·       Articulation – The biggest challenge in a business like ours, was articulating what we are and what services we provide. The term “Digital Marketing” implies we are into “Facebook, Google, Email, Lead gen and content business” If we say “Digital Marketing Audit” the first question was – like a financial audit, are you a CA? and for those prospects who would understand our services, “isn’t this our AORs job?”. And with over 25 distinct services that we had at one point in time, we had to just talk about 3-4 to get a buy-in, or at-least have ears opened to us.

·       Opportunity – There will be small but significantly important opportunities along the journey. Grab them if you have even the slightest of hint of positivity and growth visible in them. These may not come often, but if you collectively as a team feel it is good, go for it. NEVER delay.

·       Possessiveness – when we talk about an entity of our own, and stakes, we tend to be too possessive of the same, and being optimistic about it. Being possessive about the company, the services, the quality of output and customer success is great, but thinking about the stakes so much may not be the best idea. If you get someone you feel can be a catalyst for growth, give some stake and let that person help you grow.

·       Business Development & Customer Service – as a lean unit, we may prefer to don multiple hats at the same time, but these two services should be led by different people. One has to look at growing the business by looking at new opportunities and engaging with new prospects, while the other has to ensure the clients are happy, timelines adhered to and then, maybe up-sell.

·       Team – one thing we were proud of, was the team and the rapport. The 3 co-founders had clear roles, agreed overlaps in services, and trust in each other. Yes there were occasional disagreements, debates, honest opinions and vents, but the openness in communication, the transparency in discussions and ideas sharing were always on point and has been one of the main reasons for the success of the entity.

·       Customer Success – another area that we are proud of, and is something we would like to continue as a goal in all our future endeavors, is our efforts to focus on customer success, come what may. Companies exist to serve their customers and that has to be the single big outcome one has to aim for. And at What Clicks, all our efforts were for these results and all the sacrifices made, “jugaad” done and we going out of our way to service the clients was to get the right outcomes.

·       Payments and Payouts – this is a big area of concern as SMEs, probably in India or across the globe. Being a small setup, there is not much we can do to get the payments on time. Though the Invoices mention 30 /45/60 days from the date of invoice submission, the bigger companies often get the leeway to delay payments (some of them delaying it due to internal issues, as a common excuse). And being a slightly new service in the market, it is difficult to show supporting documents and explain the same to the finance teams. Digital marketing agencies often provide vendor invoices or inventory bought, but with audit as a service, took time to explain the same. Another issue was with the procurement team which needed 3-5 more companies to share their quotes, well, in an industry with a handful of companies giving these services.

·       CA & Accounting – as a startup, one of the biggest areas to focus is the accounting & financial services. We were lucky to have one of the best minds in the startup ecosystem in Bangalore, Moneta Financials, run by CA Atul Rathi, to help us run the business with utmost care, transparency, due diligence and timely inputs on everything related to the financial, legal and other aspects.

·       Transparency – Another big learning. If you deal in the most transparent way, any kind of change in the eco-system will not harm you much. Be it demonetization, GST regime change or other such changes, thanks to our processes, deal transparency and contractual wordings, our records were always clean and easy to transfer to the new regimes. It really helped to put everything on paper and get it signed by the respective parties.

·       24x7 – it is a myth to feel that startups need to work 24x7. No, we aimed to run the business keeping the work life balance intact and ensured we put 8 quality hours a day at work and spend the rest of the time in managing or life, hobbies, family and health. Thankfully the 3 co-founders were all into sports – running, swimming, gymming & triathlons. And so the discussions were more on protein shakes than single malts. Yes there were deliverables which needed us to spend days and nights to be on time, but in general, the weeks were all within 40-48 work hours.

·       FOC – the low hanging fruit, to get entry into a company – is to get a small project free of cost, or on pilot basis. We did enter into a lot of projects with this tactic, which if we look back, gave us very little return on time invested (RoTI). Good quality clients will pay at-least for the logistical or operational costs or some token money even for a pilot. We realized it late, but once we did, put our foot down. No Free Lunches.

·       Self-Starter – well, this is more an attitude that you carry forever, than just in a startup. On various job portals and resume, we often see this term used pretty loosely. “Need a Self Starter”. Unless you work in a small setup, have no salaries coming up for a couple of months, and work day in day out to make a rupee, I would not call you a self-starter. And once you have seen such days, where you need to earn with everything that you have, and realize how important it is to give your best every single day, you are a self-starter for life.

·       Growth: another important point we would like to raise is the debate on growth vs profits…. Well, today, as a startup, profitability is not the only aim, the hockey stick growth (exponential growth) also turns to be important.

The hard call – to continue or not?

In Jan, 2020 we reviewed the services, growth, forecasts, market, the quality of projects, the outcomes, the delta we have provided at the client's end and many other variables. Collectively, the call was to end on a high than to go into survival mode and die down.

To put in perspective, here is an example.

A dentist, now with post-graduation in surgery and 10+ years of experience at top clinics in the country, opens up a clinic specializing in dental emergencies and surgery.

He gets 300 customers a month, with 270 of them (90%), as clients who have come to get basic checkup, cleaning or minor issues. Just 30 (10%) are actually the customers for whom the clinic was opened. Though he gets a healthy pay at the end of the month, the professional happiness or satisfaction is NOT so high.

For similar work, at a multispeciality hospital, he would have made the same or more money, and less operational stress (of running his own clinic). Hence, he decides to join a hospital and have his own department than run his clinic with so much of additional efforts needed, a 1 man show, and still no professional satisfaction.

Sometimes, in life, it is not just about the money. Some of us work to gain professional satisfaction and not just big titles and fat salaries. If we had a chance to do this again, with some changes, would definitely be happy to go through such a journey again.

And so, we decided to put a curtain on our little dream, of being entrepreneurs, for the time being. Yes, it is a little emotionally draining, and with the economy being uncertain due to Coronavirus the markets are clueless too, but that’s life.

Thank You for reading this, and hope to interact with you someday, in some capacity or over a nice coffee.

All the best, Stay Positive, Keep in Touch!