The struggles of a startup

The startup struggle is the actual grapple time of any entrepreneur. Everybody has the goal of being a successful entrepreneur. Many a time we imagine ourselves on the cover of magazines or on prominent internet sites with headline titles such as “Most successful entrepreneur of the year.” But the process of how it happens are hidden from view of everyone.

Instead of watering down your thoughts, I want to paint a clear picture of this, writing my personal struggles which I faced during the journey of establishing my company.

Upon completion of engineering school in 2011, I joined my established family business in the construction industry, of which I worked for 3 years. Whilst working there, I realized that the field was not for me. I did not enjoy going to work everyday, and started dreading it, I yearned for a change. This gave me a sense of self-motivation and confidence which grew day after day. I did intensive research on the different fields that interests me and finally decided on starting a mobile app development business. With the golden ideas in hand, I furthered my research via travelling, to understand the economy, market, global position and demands of the mobile app develop business for India. And finally, in March 2014, I established NZT Solutions. Today, we have successfully delivered more than 150 mobile applications to huge enterprises and start-ups alike.

My struggles in a nutshell

• Objective Evaluation: An important point to note when intending to start a new business, would be to gather all your ideas. Research has to be done in depth and a study of the market is important. Then comes the planning phase, it is critical to plan. Most individuals come up with a buzz, a sensational idea and immediately want to hit the road with it, but in reality, there is more to it than just jumping into it.

• Hunting for Resources: Arranging finances was a task, and hiring good talent was also a tough challenge. I was holding off and trying hard to look for the right talent for the company, until I was given a good piece of advice, “You don’t hire good people, you make good people.” And it changed my thinking altogether.

• Promote continuous improvement: Maintain quality in my developments is a challenge, to improve on them was tougher. The market is highly competitive with the competition willing to work on the same project by accepting lower rates. Developing business in such a competitive market was a tough nut to crack.

• Strategizing:  People tend to think things happen on the first try. This way, they put emphasis and rush to execute plans, tripping up in the process. It is very important to understand that the work should be divided into phases and when starting out, to divide the work out into phases. The MVP (minimum viable product) too, is very important in the initial phase, keeping that in mind would be paramount. It is finding smart ways to strategize, and set a slow and steady pace instead of charging ahead. Evaluating the output after the completion of each phase should be done too.

• Transitioning: When scaling up, the challenges faced are, building a strong branding, striving for better business (more clients), implementing better policies and setting a strong company culture.

Three personal mantras

Here are three personal mantras that I abide by:

1) Aim high – Keep looking up, don’t lose faith.

2) Be Imaginative – Based on personal experience, the most creative of ideas may just pop up.