India is the world's largest democracy. Another interesting fact is that our country is the third largest startup country in the world. India is home to 75,000 startups. That means we have more than 100,000 entrepreneurs in the country. This number is seeing a rapid increase.
India may be a hotbed of entrepreneurship. But understand one thing, starting your own venture is one of the most challenging professions. You are unsure of any income when you start, and you are primarily on your own to solve some of the toughest challenges in your startup. But everything has its pros and cons. Some pros of having your startup are that it gives you unbundled freedom and independence to work and execute things. It also allows you to follow your passion and emerge as a leader in your organisation.
So, being an entrepreneur is a challenge but a greater reward too. However, you must be highly skilful and ambitious to succeed.
So, let us look at some of the skills you should possess to start your startup:
People Skills
Startups are all about working with people. People make a startup successful, be it your customers, investors or team members. You cannot execute any task if you are not good with them. Hence, understanding people and treating them right is very important to the success of a startup.
For example - Customers want the best product, investors like growth in your startup and team members enjoy the right culture to feel valued in a growing organisation so they can grow with it too. To understand that everyone is getting what they want, you should have people skills as a startup founder. This helps you make everyone happy so they can perform their roles and responsibilities well.
How to improve: Talk to 10 new people and write their needs on paper. Cross-verify with them if you wrote the needs correctly.
Analytical Skills
The definition of a startup founder is one of analysing the risks and rewards of an opportunity and then taking a leap of faith to build a startup to utilise the opportunity. Let us understand this with an example: Imagine you are starting a startup to have an ambulance reach the patients within 10 minutes. The risk is that you must build a network of ambulances to reach different patient locations within 10 minutes. If you don't get ambulances, your startup will fail. The reward is that you can save so many lives if you make the network.
A startup founder is someone who analyses risks and rewards efficiently. And after analysing, they build a startup that minimises or manages the risk. And on the other hand, their startup maximises the reward.
Successful startup founder knows the importance of time and prioritising their goals to get time-bound results for their startups.
How to improve - Analyse 10 problems you think are wrong in your society or wherever you live. Submit those needs in writing to the president of your society association or the District magistrate.
Time Management Skills
It is rightly said that "People have 24 hours in their life. Successful people have 48". Well, not literally, but successful people manage their time so effectively that they make more out of their day than anyone. This is precisely what you require if you are aiming to start your startup. Let us give this some more context.
As a startup founder, you will have many roles and responsibilities in your hand:
- You will have to hire a team.
- You will need to talk to your customers.
- You will need to develop the product to launch in the market.
- You will need to get investors to fund your startup.
And also remember you have a personal life too. So, yes, you would have to manage this so effectively. Add all this to the pressure of making your startup successful early on. So, you have to manage your time effectively to get all the tasks executed - personally and professionally.
So, prioritise your goals and find smarter and quick ways to do your work. But make sure you do not get burned up in the process. Enjoy the journey but be patient and consistent towards your goals. Successful startup founder knows the importance of time and prioritising their goals to get time-bound results for their startups.
How to improve - Write a list of 5 tasks you will complete in the morning during the day. At night, tick the tasks you did and carry forward the ones you didn't do to achieve them the next day.
All round skills
A startup does not start with a lot of people. But setting up a startup does require a lot of work in different domains. So, naturally, who would do all the work? If you guessed the founder, you are absolutely correct! (give yourself a pat on the back).
A founder is supposed to be an all-rounder. They are expected to do customer service when they talk to their customers. They are expected to do coding when they are building their website. They are expected to know about finance when they are forecasting their revenues for the future. They are also considered to be Human resource personnel when they are hiring people for their startups. Also, they must have legal knowledge when filing taxes and incorporating their company.
Yes, this is the harsh reality of being a startup founder. So, you should know different things and always read more about areas of and outside your interests or expertise.
How to improve - Prepare a list of three topics you do not know about. Do courses or read a book on that topic for three months.
So, you see, a startup founder has to be a multi-skilled person. That is why they are the most crucial element of a startup. And the success of the startup depends a lot on the founder, especially in the early stages.
So, my dear startup founders, start brushing up on your skills and develop the mindset to become an entrepreneur. Start looking at problems around you and start finding solutions for them. Start building those analytical skills and give importance to your time. Start reading about topics you do not know and develop a network of like-minded people around you.
Who knows, the next big startup from India is yours!
The author is CEO of Faad Network - A SEBI registered fund that invests in startups. Till date they have invested in over 70 startups including Battery Smart, Blusmart, Grip Invest and others.