The fifth and concluding day of DARE May Eweek had Tushar Makhija, Co-founder & CEO, stockezy.com. He shared his insights on building the step by step process of entrepreneurship. Mr. Makhija said the first step to entrepreneurship is getting the idea right. “The entrepreneurial bug had bitten us when we were working at VM Wire. At that time we did not think we would work together. Actually that was the time when we started thinking of entrepreneurship. So the first step to entrepreneurship is to get the idea, before building up the company, you should get the idea in what you believe. You should identify the problem that you want to solve-that's the genesis of entrepreneurship,” he said.
 |
|
Tushar Makhija |
Second most vital step of entrepreneurship is building team. Mr. Makhija said the three friends of them were staying together, so for them it was easy to find out the core team members. He said one should have team members who believe in your idea. You need to build a team that compliments you. When you have the idea out you would need a team. "Another most important factor of building company is that you need to connect to your customers –by collecting the feedback of the customers you can better organise a team,” he suggested.
The third step of entrepreneurship he learnt from his mistakes. “You have to identify the target customer. Connect with your audience by any means. Best would be social media-if you do so you will learn a lot. This strategy really helped us to articulate what we wanted to do. You should think how I can simplify my business idea that connects to people. When we talked to one such customer of ours who asked us do you want to be the facebook for stocks-from his questions we got the clarity of our thought.”
Fourth step he said is to decide how to get the word out. Even if you are a small organisation or starting up, social media helps to get the word out. “We did a minimal investment on advertisement; we got our audience through our registered members. Word of mouth has become the world of mouth now days. Social Media helps to get the word out. You can blog, answer different queries of other entrepreneurs, speaking in several platforms also helps an entrepreneur to create buzz of his business” he explained.
The fifth and the important step for entrepreneurs is getting fund. Mr. Makhija believes for funding there are several sources including several investment houses like Mumbai Angel and incubators. He said if you are able to present your ideas before an investor then funding would not be a constrain-provided you are equipped with a good business plan. “Don't miss any opportunity to meet investors, if they are ready to spend 5/10 minutes time with you, grab that opportunity. Even if you are not getting money but you will get the much needed mentorship, insights that will help you to grow and sustain.”
For early stage startups there are seed funds. He suggested “What the seed fund look in you is how prepared you are-how you are going to monetise-who is your customer- number of your customers etc. They also look the team. I learnt many things when I talked to two VCs. Most importantly your idea should be simple enough, should be able to solve a problem-if there is not a problem-your idea is not a great one.”
In addition of the above, Mr. Makhija suggested, “An entrepreneur should take advice from lawyer if your idea is going to affect any legal matters. Register your company; register your name as the VCs would want to see if your legal formalities are done.”
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
- How to minimise overheads and manage cost at the initial stage
- How to make your business more productive using communication tools?
- Cloud, Funding, B-Plan and more discussed at Headstart
- The opposable mind: How entrepreneurs succeed
- How to overcome challenges in your entrepreneurial journey
- How hiring people on contract basis would help entrepreneurs
