We follow traditions. We follow customs and we follow leaders blindly in everything we do and we follow the same with Business. But will it work. Yes and No because following successful Business outcomes result in following norms and rules of the game which are already successful factors. But what happens in our society is that when someone has roaring Grocery Business everyone in that colony thinks, Hey, its great. If he can do it, I can as well. The same applies for a medical shop or book shop or DTP centre and the result is more vendors for the same job which depletes demand and sets in saturation where everyone has lost on a Business Venture.
What is very essential first step in Business is that we should think of competing with ourselves and not with outside. This is only possible if you can think out of the box and innovatively to drive the market and not follow the market. This will enable you to pick a product and or service which you can strive on with yourself and your efforts, the only dependent factors to start with. For that it is essential to rely on your experience and exposure more than any thing else. If you have swum across a long river, it will not be difficult to try a channel. Rather if you do not know swimming, the channel will look longer than Indian Ocean to pacific.
Next, comes the Game plan with goals and vision. Obviously you need to think long but have to take small, bold and assertive steps. My first step was a second hand computer and telephone line with modem and my furniture was a 50 year old bench of my father and a broken bamboo chair eight years back. It took forty five days to get a telephone connection.
What to invest?
Most people invest money into Business. Many more invest in OPM (Other people’s money) and I firmly believe in Investment of Brain over money. The problem if you excessively invest in Money is that you spend the whole lot faster on non returnable goods like Office, furniture and infrastructure and you will end up having nothing for the product that you want to sell. You will end up borrowing more money and you will end up thinking all the time about repayment (-) and interests (÷) instead of Purchase & Sale (x) and Profits (+)
The same is the case with OPM. You rely on someone’s money which is not yours and spend it like yours, then your neck will have to answer for his money unlike Bank which is at least tolerant. My investment was 3 Lakhs and my annual turnover has (x) 100 plus times because our focus has been our products and our customers. It did not matter if I did not have a good chair to sit but mattered if my customer got his products in time when I started Business.
Play the game-the Game of changing Business.
In India we take Games seriously but the guys who play the game never take it seriously because they are neither accountable nor responsible to the Billion who follow sport.
But in Business, you should treat it as a Game and follow all the rules and strategies, but seriously because you are responsible and accountable to yourself. If you play it like a game, it becomes interesting, demanding and enterprising, to think, to strategies, to compete and to co-operate.But if you think that its just a game, you will loose even before the first whistle.
Co-opetition-Co-operation & Competition
Gone are the days when you thought here is the pie and all of us have to share the cake. The foregone thought runs similar to the Grocery example where the cake is shared by many players. Today we have to think of creating a bigger pie by creating more demand and the more for more theory applies for a win win situation between the employer and the employee and you and the competitor. In Business, every one is your friend and every competitor is there to co-operate and create better opportunities which are much bigger.
It is as simple as an Australian Cricket team picking which team it wants to play for the final. Gaming involves changing mindset in decision making process
Win-lose + lose-win =lose-lose
Win-win + win-win=win-win
Many a times, we see Corporate wars which may not sound ethical, but are played with astuteness where two competitors get together to bring down one winner and the pie is not lost by the player.
*Play to your strengths
Make your own framework as to what works best for you and where you can create the cutting edge, create opportunities to your employees and delegate your weaknesses to them like having a professional accountant if you are a technical person and motivate them to raise the platform with small rungs and create values and systems and work on them. Your **commitment towards goals over conviction of thoughts can only create a Successful Business story. The key to rewards in Business is also by analyzing situations and conditions, taking the right decisions after looking at 360º to it and interpreting and implementing the right course of action on day to day basis.
*Create a Niche
*Create a niche for your products and customers and stand by that at all time. Our statement reads-"Technology, Innovation and Affordability" and we tried to follow that from top to bottom and created a niche segment Cardiology and Cardiac surgery by providing affordable and innovative solutions in the segment which made us leaders in short span of time because for every Cardiac project a new Customer started, we were at their door step offering value and service which made them strive as a Business. They start working with you as if their life depended on you which make your life lot easier.
*Building an empire-brick by brick
There are no shortcuts in Business and all the Corporate giants in our Country have started small and grown step by step with commitment and perseverance, desire and dedication. Narayan Murthy of Infosys is a great example of a humble beginning who has strived to create an empire. **Empires are first made in the mind and then translated into result with time. Success is all about seeing within, understanding the outside and working in tandem with change-physical, mental, cultural and social and it does not come overnight. You should imagine future success as real and work towards it and you will achieve it with effort.
*Business for the community-A social responsibility
*Every Business venture should just not look at how much cash resources it has gained, but also at how many Human resources it has developed as successful human beings in this society. The goodwill and good deeds created in such an endavour will keep your family in good stead at all times.
And My three Mantras if you want to start Business.
“Invest in your brains more than money”
“Put your effort and wait for the fruits”
“You must allow money to chase you, but never allow it to catch up with you.”
Thanks for reading.