It has been almost a decade since this Entrepreneurship journey started and it has really been a lifetime experience. There have been many days when I could not believe the life I was living, it all was so awesome. There have also been days when some decisions that I took led to moments in life that were not expected. There have been many friends whom I brought to the journey of Entrepreneurship and made them quit their full time jobs. There have also been many friends who went back to their full time jobs quitting Entrepreneurship. Having said all this, yes there have been many good and bad experiences till now.
I have seen friends go from $100/day to $100,000 per day and friends who went completely broke asking for help in the online Journey. Markets change, and so is the Online world and the startup eco-system (especially of India).
There have been some key learnings that I would like to share. They are the crux of over a decade experience of mine in the world of Entrepreneurship. From being a kid to an Entrepreneur with multiple companies and investments in many other, have been to all stages. From starting with $5 / month pocket money to spending a couple of Million USD online in Online Media, life has taken a different turn.
But again when I look back, IT’S STILL NOT BIG ENOUGH!
Yes, we are still small in terms of scale we wanted to achieve. We still lack the numbers we wished to achieve. And Its not just me. If you are reading this post, you might also be one of those and believe me, you are not alone; there are millions of others like us. So what exactly did we miss in this journey that we missed the numbers and others touched the mark or outperformed.
Yes, there is some bit of luck ( I do believe in it ), but there’s much more to it.
Why do we MISS our Targets!
There are numerous reasons that can lead to your ideas not realizing in actual bank balance, your targets being missed continuously. One of them has already been talked about in the last post and that was not being consistent.
Sometimes we get too overwhelmed with the numbers that we forget why we started.
When I started Clicks Bazaar, the only dream was to get as many clients as I could and make decent profits so that my family could lead the life they wished for. Family was and is still the biggest motivation to work and make the dreams come true. When I read Robert Kiyosaki’s The Cash Flow Quadrant, I was too adamant to jump from S quadrant to I quadrant (and eventually I did) but there were many things that I wished were a part of that book or any other book I read that could have made the success rate much higher.
a) Mission
For every company I have ever started, the number 1 reason was to make Profits. Which eventually is the goal but there is a bigger reason to everything you do and that is the Mission.
Mission is something that empowers your company even when you are not around. Clicks Bazaar did not have any mission for almost 3 years; eventually I realized that and then we transformed our mission to: “Helping atleast 100 entrepreneurs every year reach their dream via our services” and that eventually worked out. The work in the company was no more measured by the number of hours put in or the deadlines but whether we helped the person achieve what he / she wanted to or not. Did we over perform their expectations and requirements or not.
This one step changed the structure and performance of the company completely.
b) Processes
Clicks Bazaar was started during my College days and I had no experience of any job before, nor did anyone in my family. It had a startup culture with everyone having freedom to do anything and everything they wanted. But there is one thing I took time to realize – “More the Freedom, Less the ACCOUNTABILITY”. Everyone should be given freedom to do what that wish to and work for the betterment of the company, but we need to have a process for everything. Processes keep the company structured and the replacement of anyone in the company is fairly simplified (including me).
This sounds simple but it took me almost 8 months to define the processes for each and every department. The processes are not yet finalized but they are in a much better shape than they used to be in the early days.
The right processes can help you scale up the company at a much faster rate. If the processes in the company were defined from day 1, we could have saved years in the journey. But better late than never 🙂
c) The Problem of Plenty
When I started my first company, the idea was to scale very fast and open multiple ventures with partners and help everyone scale to new heights (which didn’t go as planned). Over the last 4 years, we have worked with over 300+ clients (at Clicks Bazaar), invested in a few startups and opened many sister concern companies (with good people onboard) to manage the team. The companies are going good and doing good business. But there is still 1 question that bugs me every night I goto bed.
“If we are that good, why are we still NOT the Market Leaders”
Though we have been self funded, though we have been profitable, though we have grown very rapidly, but We are still NOT the market Leaders in any company we started.
Does it Really Matter to Become a Market Leader?
Do you remember the cricketer to score the 5th highest in world history?
Do you remember the 7th person to land on Moon?
Do you know the 14th biggest Tech Company in the World?
Well the answer for most of the people out there should be NO.. Most of us don’t (including me).
If the mission / vision is just to make some money and do decent profits, being a market leader doesn’t matter. But if the Goal is to create a legacy, being a market leader does matter.
Why Didn’t we become the Market Leader?
Well the answer itself is in the post above. We had the problem of plenty. We were so occupied managing the companies we had built, so busy managing over 300+ clients, so busy experimenting new things to scale that we created many stable revenue streams and the only time we had was to manage them. We were partially involved in all the companies and in none of the companies was I ALL in.
If you are not all in, you are in too much comfort to do take BIGGER RISKS.
When you go ALL In, its not a question of whether this will be successful or not as its the only option you have. You can’t treat one company on priority at one point of time and the other one at some other instance. You need to make it work at any cost. The same is for any project (if not company).
Do something and do it in such an awesome way that No One Else can beat it (atleast easily).
This is the reason there is only 1 Apple, 1 Google, 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 1 Amitabh Bachchan and many more (in their fields).
If Mr Tendulkar practiced Cricket for half the day and was busy half the day doing some other thing (giving equal priority), he would not have been able to do any of it to the level has has achieved in cricket.
There are numerous examples.
So What Next?
Well finally I am going All in. Giving 100% in something I really love.
You will know more about it soon.
But Yes, If I knew these 3 things earlier, I would have saved atleast 3 years of my Entrepreneurial journey and would have become a market leader by now in atleast 1 of the domains.
But again, its not just me but you as well (if you are reading this).
So guys, lets get back to work from the basics. Lets become the Market Leader and yes, Lets help others as much as we can in our journey so that in our journey, we help many others to achieve their dreams.
You guys might be having similar experiences of your own. Do share them in comments. Would love to know and learn from your experiences 🙂
