Are you looking for ideas? Being an entrepreneur, I have been thinking of ideas from long time and I have a few age-old ideas which I do not know how to make them feasible but I am sure if they get realized, it will be a revolution bigger than internet or computer. Is there anyone who can take up the challenge? Here they are:
1. Hindu Lord Hanuman used to become as small as and as big as he wants any time. How? My one uncle explained me one day that like we have 3 states of matter, solid, liquid and gas and we all understand that in solid, molecules are quite nearer than liquid and gas. Similarly, can we design something for body where we can increase or decrease distance among molecules without affecting functions of various organs or may be, we can increase or decrease the size of molecules. If we can even increase/decrease size of molecules by 1 mm, whole body might be quite big. If we can do these, we might accomplish that. Can we do this?
2. Hindu Gods or angels can fly without need of any machine, like, aeroplane etc. How? We all know birds can fly but what do they do differently which we human are not able to do. We human have already learnt technique of swimming without putting any machine on/in our body hence I am sure we can also fly some day. Is it just weight or do we need wings or what our Gods are doing differently which we are not able to understand. Lets invest in this, we might get a way of flying. We might resolve issue of traffic although air traffic will increase.
3. Hindu Gods can vanish from one place and appear somewhere else in a split of second. How? ever thought on that. May be, they travel at the speed of light and our human eyes cannot notice that and we see suddenly, the God has disappeared and the God appears somewhere else instantly. Can we human being travel at the speed of light?
4. Many movies have been made on how can we become invisible and do whatever we want even in a crowded place and still nobody notices us. Is it a solution or watch or something else, which we apply on our body and we can disappear and do funny acts. One can also choose to punish all terrorists or bribe-takers or bad politicians etc but if everyone becomes invisible than can an invisible person see another invisible person. If not than we have another idea to work upon that how can one invisible person see another invisible person or how can someone else make an invisible person visible?
5. Hindu Gods and many saints can cure/heal a human being just by their touch or by providing some fruit or ash or something else and receiver gets cured or can generate a new life. How? Does the Gods and Saints radiate some kind of rays from their hands or body which heals/cures us? or do they have some kind of lotion on their hand and when they touch, we get cured? Can we work on this and cure crores of people including me.
Lets not laugh on above ideas as they might shape the future and someone might make them reality. I think that these many ideas are enough to rock the world or universe or do you have some more ideas which at any point of time has already been discussed but still we could not accomplish or enlighten me if someone in some part of the world has already progressed a lot or working on these ideas. So entrepreneurs, start working and lets have even better gadgets. We still have miles to go....
More later,
Hariprakash Agrawal (Hari),
http://opcord.com - Optimizing Business Variables with Coordination
http://vicharpravah.com - An initiative to make common man aware of their potentials and responsibilities
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Journey to entrepreneurship...
From long time, I had this dream of becoming entrepreneur and at last, I could realize it last month, Jun'2009. I knew that this is going to be a tough job as I am new to entrepreneurship but I realized that it is not really that tough if you enjoy what you work and you work for what you believe in.
I do not remember when first time, I thought of becoming entrepreneur, may be, it is in blood as I belong to a community known as "Baniya" in India. Baniya means business person. I am a calculated risk taker and I do take risks after doing my home work with whatsoever little I know. The day, I entered in IIT-KGP, I knew that one day, I can realize this dream and it took 10 years to have that courage, confidence, financial stability, family support (in fact, strong support from family), goodwill among friends (even those persons who are yet to become friends), some level of network and most important recession, which brought me out of comfort zone. Sometimes, you feel like flowing with life especially when life is smooth but than one day, you are in mid of the river and find that one storm has arrived from nowhere and you need to take prompt action to sail and reach to destination safe and sound. Recession has had similar impact on me.
What might make the difference is your preparation on your dream. How far one goes, depends on how strong the foundation is. Entrepreneurship is a creative process and I learnt a few steps from many individuals and I could take care of some of them. Below mentioned points might help a few other entrepreneurs as well.
1. Understand your finances
Only few can undermine the importance of money especially when you are about to take a new journey. One must calculate the current savings and how long can one survive. In my opinion, do not count on your properties, immovable assets at this point because those will be useful if you hit rock bottom for some reason. In normal scenarios, I could foresee that I can survive for about an year even if I do not have any profit from new venture (Pls note that I do depend on my spouse's income which is very very big support). Me and my wife sat together and understood our savings and inflows and we collectively thought of a few cost cutting measures, like, delay paint for our flat, no major expenses, cuts on outings, reduce lavish lunches/dinners/parties etc and we felt that we can pay our EMIs, we need not to trouble our parents (and extended family) and more important that we need not to borrow.
2. Ensure family support
There is an old saying that hope for best, prepare for worst. Life looks good when everything is going good but in bad times, it is the family who provides moral, emotional, and financial support. This is key to start business as one will have rough patches on the journey (like Indian roads:)) and that time, if someone is around, life does not look that bad.
3. Develop competence
One need to be thorough in the area one wishes to enter unless you have huge money and you can hire experts in that area. One also should learn a bit of company law, equity, finance, HR, legal areas etc to not to be cheated by others. Network can help you in reaching to key stakeholders but its your competence, confidence which will convert it in a deal. In simple words, do not miss a single opportunity to learn. Just be open to any kind of learning.
4. Nurture your friend base
I am realizing that most of the tasks get done due to the relationship one share with his/her friends instead of logic behind the task. Sometimes, we argue a lot about a particular task with a person but if we share great rapport with the person, the argument reduces. One's friends are their business managers in the beginning when one can not invest much money in marketing. At times, one's reach in market is directly proportional to the friends one has in the beginning. Needless to mention, do help your friends in need, share life with them and one might get unbound, limitless opportunities.
5. Build your network
Who can dare to deny importance of network in coalition days? Do attend most of the business events (like, startup fairs etc), attend trainings, Alma mater, from very beginning. Nobody can predict that which relation may help you in getting some assignments. Do initiate/ involve in community service projects as it might help in building goodwill and some good friends.
6. Understand customer base
Synonym to business is customers. Do some amount of research on what industry segment one wish to enter, what problems one is trying to solve, who can be potential customers etc. Have a discussion with few potential customers to understand their challenges, pain areas and wish lists. It might help you in refining your approach.
7. Prepare business plan
Enough is written on need of business plan and one can do google to know enough on this topic. Point is that one need to keep end in mind, have a clear vision & mission statement and a plan to achieve them. Planning is like setting strong foundation and validating your thoughts with industry veterans. It is indeed even more important if one is looking for investments.
8. Business vs Service
Each business addresses some or other need of society hence it does have a social linkage. Society at large must feel benefited with that business. The degree of benefit may vary. New company must highlight that how do they plan to create more value to society. Define the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) or in minimal words, explain your unique offerings or value to society.
When one does business than always have your interests in mind and be clear on that. In other words, service is done with more involvement of heart while business is done with more involvement of mind hence have a clear distinction between these. In nutshell, no space for intuitions, collect as many as facts possible before the jump.
9. Plan distribution of equity
If you have many partners and investors than must plan equity carefully. One of the major factor of loosing trust can be this. Choose your partners carefully with whom you share trust. It does not matter that how long you have been knowing them but it does matter that what is the general perception of the each individual. Building competence is easier at times than building trust.
10. Unique identity of company (Logo, name, website etc)
For some reason, I do not see parents naming their son / daughter with very old names , like, mine. There is lot in name and its important that we understand it. If one wish to create its own brand, do not copy some already published name, like lets refrain from naming your company Petsi in line of Pepsi. It might not give impression of creativity. Name of company should reflect your line of business.
Logo is something which should reflect theme of the company. It can be a simple line if one can explain rationale or theme behind it. It should generate curiosity among onlookers and they should ask you that why did you do it this way.
Website is one's identity in faceless world. It is never complete and one will always find scope of improvement. Have a basic website ready to launch as early as possible. With so many open source frameworks (content management system, like, Joomla) available, it is very easy to build website with minimal technical knowledge.
Not sure, where this journey will take me but I just thought of putting my thoughts and one may provide his/her feedback that does it look enough or am I missing any important point.
Bye for now..
Hariprakash Agrawal (Hari)
http://opcord.com - Optimizing with Coordination
I do not remember when first time, I thought of becoming entrepreneur, may be, it is in blood as I belong to a community known as "Baniya" in India. Baniya means business person. I am a calculated risk taker and I do take risks after doing my home work with whatsoever little I know. The day, I entered in IIT-KGP, I knew that one day, I can realize this dream and it took 10 years to have that courage, confidence, financial stability, family support (in fact, strong support from family), goodwill among friends (even those persons who are yet to become friends), some level of network and most important recession, which brought me out of comfort zone. Sometimes, you feel like flowing with life especially when life is smooth but than one day, you are in mid of the river and find that one storm has arrived from nowhere and you need to take prompt action to sail and reach to destination safe and sound. Recession has had similar impact on me.
What might make the difference is your preparation on your dream. How far one goes, depends on how strong the foundation is. Entrepreneurship is a creative process and I learnt a few steps from many individuals and I could take care of some of them. Below mentioned points might help a few other entrepreneurs as well.
1. Understand your finances
Only few can undermine the importance of money especially when you are about to take a new journey. One must calculate the current savings and how long can one survive. In my opinion, do not count on your properties, immovable assets at this point because those will be useful if you hit rock bottom for some reason. In normal scenarios, I could foresee that I can survive for about an year even if I do not have any profit from new venture (Pls note that I do depend on my spouse's income which is very very big support). Me and my wife sat together and understood our savings and inflows and we collectively thought of a few cost cutting measures, like, delay paint for our flat, no major expenses, cuts on outings, reduce lavish lunches/dinners/parties etc and we felt that we can pay our EMIs, we need not to trouble our parents (and extended family) and more important that we need not to borrow.
2. Ensure family support
There is an old saying that hope for best, prepare for worst. Life looks good when everything is going good but in bad times, it is the family who provides moral, emotional, and financial support. This is key to start business as one will have rough patches on the journey (like Indian roads:)) and that time, if someone is around, life does not look that bad.
3. Develop competence
One need to be thorough in the area one wishes to enter unless you have huge money and you can hire experts in that area. One also should learn a bit of company law, equity, finance, HR, legal areas etc to not to be cheated by others. Network can help you in reaching to key stakeholders but its your competence, confidence which will convert it in a deal. In simple words, do not miss a single opportunity to learn. Just be open to any kind of learning.
4. Nurture your friend base
I am realizing that most of the tasks get done due to the relationship one share with his/her friends instead of logic behind the task. Sometimes, we argue a lot about a particular task with a person but if we share great rapport with the person, the argument reduces. One's friends are their business managers in the beginning when one can not invest much money in marketing. At times, one's reach in market is directly proportional to the friends one has in the beginning. Needless to mention, do help your friends in need, share life with them and one might get unbound, limitless opportunities.
5. Build your network
Who can dare to deny importance of network in coalition days? Do attend most of the business events (like, startup fairs etc), attend trainings, Alma mater, from very beginning. Nobody can predict that which relation may help you in getting some assignments. Do initiate/ involve in community service projects as it might help in building goodwill and some good friends.
6. Understand customer base
Synonym to business is customers. Do some amount of research on what industry segment one wish to enter, what problems one is trying to solve, who can be potential customers etc. Have a discussion with few potential customers to understand their challenges, pain areas and wish lists. It might help you in refining your approach.
7. Prepare business plan
Enough is written on need of business plan and one can do google to know enough on this topic. Point is that one need to keep end in mind, have a clear vision & mission statement and a plan to achieve them. Planning is like setting strong foundation and validating your thoughts with industry veterans. It is indeed even more important if one is looking for investments.
8. Business vs Service
Each business addresses some or other need of society hence it does have a social linkage. Society at large must feel benefited with that business. The degree of benefit may vary. New company must highlight that how do they plan to create more value to society. Define the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) or in minimal words, explain your unique offerings or value to society.
When one does business than always have your interests in mind and be clear on that. In other words, service is done with more involvement of heart while business is done with more involvement of mind hence have a clear distinction between these. In nutshell, no space for intuitions, collect as many as facts possible before the jump.
9. Plan distribution of equity
If you have many partners and investors than must plan equity carefully. One of the major factor of loosing trust can be this. Choose your partners carefully with whom you share trust. It does not matter that how long you have been knowing them but it does matter that what is the general perception of the each individual. Building competence is easier at times than building trust.
10. Unique identity of company (Logo, name, website etc)
For some reason, I do not see parents naming their son / daughter with very old names , like, mine. There is lot in name and its important that we understand it. If one wish to create its own brand, do not copy some already published name, like lets refrain from naming your company Petsi in line of Pepsi. It might not give impression of creativity. Name of company should reflect your line of business.
Logo is something which should reflect theme of the company. It can be a simple line if one can explain rationale or theme behind it. It should generate curiosity among onlookers and they should ask you that why did you do it this way.
Website is one's identity in faceless world. It is never complete and one will always find scope of improvement. Have a basic website ready to launch as early as possible. With so many open source frameworks (content management system, like, Joomla) available, it is very easy to build website with minimal technical knowledge.
Not sure, where this journey will take me but I just thought of putting my thoughts and one may provide his/her feedback that does it look enough or am I missing any important point.
Bye for now..
Hariprakash Agrawal (Hari)
http://opcord.com - Optimizing with Coordination
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)