Raising the Bar of Entrepreneurship

Here are 10 key learnings as an Entrepreneur as we celebrate our 10 years.

These learning could be useful for anyone who wants to set up venture based on strength of existing domain knowledge at around mid-life crisis ( An age of 40 !) and having developed inclination to become an Entrepreneur based on environment or education.

1) Setting up something by first generation Entrepreneur from scratch with portable MBA tag is tough, Entrepreneurship is a journey which need constant self motivation & mentoring to scale peak.

I was fortunate enough to having seen such businesses as CFO in my past employment. I also participated in planning venture in logistics domain with one of the cross functional team members coming from different domain but it did not take off.

Mentoring is must and it helps in removing/validating self doubts. Post #covid19, role played by such Mentors has gone up manifold.

2) In first 365 days, prospects business lead may treat you as " Fly by night " operator. So be ready to fight this tag specially after having spent good time in Corporate employment and getting those salary cheques on fixed day. Generating lead to revenue conversion is something where one can write big book itself.

3) Have relationships cultivated from the existing eco-system around you to garner support during initial days. I was supported very well by my past employer @Hurix Systems where I was CFO.

We named our CFO Services platform by taking away last 2 alphabets of Hurix and my designation - CFO. Hence the name IxCFO born.

4) Taking up Entrepreneurship decision should be by choice and not out of compulsion. In current #covid19 situation this point need extra validation to many who wants to setup their venture. Hype v Hope need clear distinction here to chart out risk mitigation strategy.

5) Take stock of personal front challenges by discussing plan with family/friends & check on personal finance EMI factors to make sure " All is Well". Minimise your "internal " Challenges before one venture out to fight external " Opportunities". 

6) PPT / Exel model based Strategy has little meaning till the time one gets into Execution mode in this  #VUCA world. Still one need to draw exel based model in terms of couple of alternative business plans to make sure that there is sensitivity around Vitamin - M cash flow. ( CFO Advise to all )

7) Having spent significant time in Corporate, I had realised the power of friction in board room. Light is ON when you have negative & positive properly set in. So have core team in place from day one to generate that heat to have that " flashes of light" during execution. 

8) Recognise the power of NETWORKING - In person or Virtual via social media, as journey of Entrepreneurship is all about Transition to Transformation.

#Covid19 has redefined power of Virtualisation - Localisation - Globalisation and networking is the name of game everywhere.

9) Develop model for growth coupled with sustainability and take fresh guard approach every 12 months with SWOT analysis. ( #CFO guide). Cash burn & Cash generation - Both has separate dimension to every business growth curve defined by market players. So be mindful.

10) With Passion, Emotion & Focus, Entrepreneurship is a journey and hence important to go with the " Flow" to avoid " Lows". Developing an intuition based decision flow system backed up with team view/data is very logical way to perform to any seasoned Entrepreneur.

Remember - An act of God ( in legal terminology) like Covid19 is not in your hand. In fact, efforts & result mismatch is needed to keep oneself on float all the time.

But then taking a leap of faith from #gitalockdown comes to handy all the time for raising the Bar of Entrepreneurship.

Connect for Mentorship , CFO Services support :

My earlier blogs on the subject of Entrepreneurship

Past blog on Entrepreneurship

Recent Blog

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