Really, there are already too many of them. If you aren’t 100% sure that you are going to be successful in what you are trying to do, then please don’t waste your money, and time of all of us. Spare your investor’s money who don’t understand a single word of what you are telling them.
Messing a Startup or Starting up a Mess
You maybe spoiling what you already have
I hear this a lot: “I am going to start an IT firm”, “I have started something with my friends”, “I am setting up a backyard office” and blah blah. Out of all that I have seen, most successful of new startups are those who start maybe alone or with a bunch of like minded intelligent friends. But those who just saved some money and then hire a development company to realize their visualizations, are mostly a big fail. At times I see some sound minds, who are great at consulting opening up small service provider companies, with all good intentions; but end up with frustrated clients and spoiled reputation.
Starting up in India doesn’t mean you can afford to be cheap
In India, communication is a lacking factor and we must accept it, that we are not native English speakers. Even though there are many people who understand technology very well, communication becomes a big hurdle and they can’t be used well. Clients from all over the world keep complaining, that they have hard time communicating to their outsourced consultant in India, which only makes work hard to be done. Many a times, there are various IT companies who get to design a product or service for western countries, but due to lack of knowledge of western culture and unwillingness to research on the same, they end up making something which doesn’t really meets the clients needs, resulting in rework, extended deadlines and client’s frustration.
Many people think of starting up a company in India to be of great advantage in terms of cheap labor. Yes, that is right, but make sure that your services are reasonably priced so that you can maintain the quality. Many entrepreneurs assume, that they are pretty clever at what they do, and don’t need an equally clever staff. They think they can spoon feed every task to every employee, but my dead friend, if you think so, then I think you are not aware of height of dumbness of people out there. To run a successful company, employees need to be just as intelligent as the management. You can’t afford either of them to be dumb, not good for you, neither for your clients. Some great person said, “One great programmer is equal to hundred good programmers”.
Research before you startup, unless you are Paris Hilton
No offense with Paris Hilton, she is hot and what she sells, she don’t need to do research on that; and even if she fails, well, she will still have a lot more than what you have ever seen. But you must do research before you start a company. Research about your audience needs, find your competitors, analyze their market shares, set up some goals, mark some deadlines, structure a budget, know what kind of employees you need, where can you find them. Do you need big investment, or you can work with your partners and experiment your ideas first. What is the least that it takes to do your best? You are spending money, spend it wise.
You are starting your business, but creating jobs for others; Make it stable
Its great that you have left your job now and are planning to start your own business. Now you can probably work according to your own timings and don’t have to be answerable to anyone. But did you realize you are creating jobs for some people who will work with you. Do you think that the kind of people you want to work with, will also like to work for your small startup company in their right minds? Does your product have enough potential which they will also be able to see for a promising future and long term career commitment? Are you sure that you will not run down your company and have enough backups to secure the jobs of your employees? Failure is not the end, but people don’t forget.
I didn’t mean to discourage ambitious people with this post, just wanted to discourage ambitious people with crappy ideas. Believe me, even I have got many crappy ideas in my mind, but lets accept it and don’t make a fool out of us and waste everybody’s time and money, and probably save it until we are hit with some really bright idea?
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So True !, It will just help them landing in debt.