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RodinStar / Startup

On the worst day of the season….Cheque comes

By Kunal Chaturvedi on 33 Comments / 8500 views

 

Awarded the

“Rodinstar” Post 

of the week!!

 

 


 Yes it was the worst morning of the season, heavy rain and dark sky, gloomy mood, tough to reach office. But still somehow I started my day and reached work. Had work to do, but in the back of my mind the same bloody question – how to pay off the rent and what about the future business?

In the deadly summers (42° to 45°) of the year 2012, we decided to come up with a startup. With the idea of Digital Marketing and Web Analytics we started our journey of Entrepreneurship. During the course (of almost 8 months) we have learnt several things. Some are highlighted below:

1)      Mystery name Partners and Co founders:  I don’t know how many of the successful Entrepreneurs got the key to solve this mystery, but I am the unfortunate one who is still struggling with this mystery. Read thousands of books on this mystery, listened to so many professionals, businessmen, and sadhu sants, but nothing happened. My case is totally different. So try to formalize these things in the beginning only.

2)      Outsourcing: Outsource your maximum work in the beginning; don’t hire any resource on the basis of one or two projects.

3)      Never rely on Job Vaale Freelancers: Search for proper freelancers, never outsource your work to those who work for some extra money after their office hours. They can turn their back to you in a jiffy (Family first! yes of course but dur ke rishtey ki chachi ki beti ka b’day hai… hello!!!!).

4)      Jo Zaroori hai vo Hona chahiye: Invest in all that is required for your startup. Don’t hesitate. Decide for yourself, whether a particular investment is required or not.

5)      Risk is a Good Word, Take calculated Risk: In Entrepreneurial Society, this (Risk) is a buzz word. “Aapko risk lena koi nahin sikha sakta”, but who wants to learn that anyways buddy. I am not the one who would risk my life or my hardcore earnings (khoon paseene ki kamayi). But yes I am ready to take a calculated risk. And this is the only thing you need to learn.

6)      Always open to Opportunity. No work is small and you never get big work or projects in the beginning. So don’t be hesitant to take up small projects even if it means taking them following the no-profit-no-loss funda.

7)      Yes!!! Where is the account sheet?: I am not talking about the balance sheet or profit loss sheet, I am talking about your daily expenditure sheet. Mark your expenditure from day one. Do not decide to start with an expectation of salary in your account. Start with zero and once your startup starts earning, decide your salary.

Yes it is true that we Indians work on Rocket Principle. “Jab peeche aag Lagti hai tab sab ho jata hai”. Since last three months I have spent almost 18 hours of a day for my startup. Because I have to pay my bills.

So we started working for business acquisition, although we worked for the same in last 8 months but during last 3 months this division has had intense work. We needed clients on board. We had no network, no credentials, and no mentors. We are not MBAs either (they have at least bookish knowledge). What we had with us were our capabilities and confidence. So on the very small (I can say tiny) boat of our knowledge and capabilities we started looking for clients.

But if you are in the service industry, it is extremely difficult to prove a point to your prospect – “Bhaiya hum pe vishwas karlo aur yeh business humein de do”. Sometimes I feel why these business guys are not ready to work with emerging entrepreneurs like us. Dude, we can even go that extra mile to deliver things in time and with best of the industry quality to you. Because we know that we may hold only one percent value to your business but we rely on you completely. It’s a matter of our lives and we cannot afford to compromise on timelines and quality of our services.  

We did several associations to create credibility. You can say we created guarantor who guaranteed that we can deliver things. Somehow after the associations we started getting leads. Technically (as per some industry gurus), the conversion time of lead to prospect to client is 90 days. But it may be possible that on the 90th day your lead turned prospect turned to-be-client closes your case by declaring budget issues. I think our bollywood villains are much better than these corporate vultures.

But without losing our hopes and by not giving up we continue our journey. And one very fine morning we received a call from one of our leads. They wanted to promote one of their verticals and the budget was almost zero (in comparison to budget we had proposed for digital marketing). We accepted the challenge and started working for them. Because we were able to show them some outstanding results, our client gave us another business and this time we hit the target. We got our first revenue cum profit generator. We catered to our client very efficiently and managed to impress them with our quality work.

Today we got our first cheque and I am pretty sure that all the entrepreneurs out there know exactly the feeling I am going through. And believe me guys, everything motivates you if you are an entrepreneur but when you see the result of your efforts it will take you to cloud nine undoubtedly.

I am hoping tomorrow will be a bright sunny day and we will start our journey with a lot of enthusiasm and definitely write something in golden letters….. 

Kunal Chaturvedi

www.lathesis.com

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33 Comments

  1. kunal,

    thank you for sharing this wow moment with all of us. right now i feel just as happy as you!!

    that’s what i love most about being the first person to read each story 🙂

    best wishes and many many more cheques your way! 

    p.s: sending loads and loads of goa sunshine to everyone up north!

  2. Kunal – each of your word echoed my journey till now.. and yes, we definitely understand the feeling of having that cheque in hand. Best wishes for your journey and as Asha said, many many more cheques would soon make their way to you 🙂 

  3. Thanks Asha…:)

  4. Thanks Anamika. I was just trying to express what i learned and what i am feeling now…..

    and good to know that we took the same route till here….

    all the best to you too…:)

  5. Cheers @ Best Wishes Always !!

  6. Thanks for sharing 🙂 Congrats!

    May you keep receiving cheques, and in return you keep sharing you learning.

    I respect you spirit of entrepreneurship! 

  7. Kunal

    Just two words for you mate! Incredibly Awesome!!

    Being a freelancer for almost half a decade, I know the feeling of getting your hands dirty, not meeting deadlines due to others and especially the “Rocket Principle” 

    Deadlines are the stuff that drives us, Period.

    I have felt the pain of not getting established clients who don’t like trusting us “new kids on the block”

    As Asha said, Many more to come mate!!

    GodSpeed!

    Kunal

  8. All the best Kunal. Looking forward to hearing more stories from you!

  9.  Ok ! Now I like the spirit of this man !

    Kunal, Really you are the kind of sound, I’d love to hear from my associates. I’d like to meet you.

    I am not promising business yet, but I’d like to meet you and explore the potential of a possible alliance.I went through your site and checked out your location. You are close to our office in Gurgaon. 

    Please call me and drop by for a nice cup of T and some biscuits. If business happens its a win win for both of us 🙂

  10. Thanks Anurag..We are the one who needs best wishes more than anyone else…;)

  11. Thanks Sarsij, I promise to keep sharing my learning with all of you guys coz i need your suggestions and guidance as well….

  12. Hey Friend, Your are my first friend named Kunal….:D…Thanks alot for your wishes….

  13. Sure Tejas…Thanks for your wishes….

  14. purani yaadein taza ho gayi;)

    God bless the entrepreneurs:) 

  15. Belive me Sugandha you are giving me a different kind of smell.

    For an entrepreneur invitation on Tea is more than sufficient. See you soon. 🙂

  16. Yes, you smelt it right. Now that the ball is in your court lets c how soon we can catch up ?

  17. Thanks for sharing this buddy & All the best. 

    Human nature: It motivates & makes me feel good that others would not succeed without hard-work  (more than or equal to me)  kidding but true  🙂 

  18. Thanks Amit

  19. Hard work payoff….

  20. One must read this article who have just started or planning to start their own venture. If you read this one you will walk with ease. Great work Kunal.

  21. Thanks Pramod!!! M still a learner…jst sharing my till date experiences…

  22. Hey Kunal,

    Congrats on your first cheque, its always a great feeling. But make sure you dont spend all of it and save up for another rainy day that might be just around the corner!

    Wishing you all the best!

     

  23. Hi Kunal,

    Although it is quite some time now of your post on 6th Feb to till today and i am hoping that undoubtedly you must have bagged new project for a next bright day to feel the cloud nine or above. However I still could not stop myself from writing on this post,

    Congratulations for your first cheque!!

    Struggle is everywhere but the best part is you understand that what is it actually and your own perception of looking at them. You have neatly narrated it. I can feel the soul behind the words.

    With the time; it is not only that, you have to change but you would also need to expand your horizon for which team work would be the key.

    I dis-agree to your opinion on “OUTSOURCING and Free-Lancers”: reason being; it is not just the “BALANCE SHEET” of daily cores expenses that you have to manage but also the work which is being distributed to shared resource and it could be more profitable.

    Yes, while proposing (to distribute job) to them (Free-lancer or Out-source) you have to be as precise and knowledgeable as that when you are with a CLIENT (to get a job)

    To be honest, i am not trying to post an article on the entrepreneurship but still trying to stress more on the shared work and precise selection. As you said:-“Calculated risks”.

    In the new start; it may be with limited resource or sole work.

    Finally, your approach is right and you can may have a second thought on the pretext I mentioned above.

    Good to see the progression chart and heartiest wishes to see the bars rising much more.

    Keep up the good work and positive energy around you.

    Good Luck!

    Regards

  24. Finally one more thing:

    Did you manage to join the TEA and BISCUIT meet? If so than by the time you joined the table; was the tea hot and biscuits were crunchy?

    Good Luck!

    Keep sharing! Be Social! Build Network!

    Regards

  25. kunal,

    pls look at the top of your post!

    🙂

  26. OMG !!!

    This is something Big for me!!!! 🙂 

    Thanks a lot Rodinhood.

  27. Great inspiration! Good luck, make it big!

  28. I enjoyed reading this. It’s a good motivational article for entrepreneurs like me. Keep going Kunal..i wish you a big success in your entrepreneurship.

  29. All the best Kunal. On reading your story, I have gone back 6 years and the whole episode re-winds. All the very best. Keep rocking…keep rolling….

  30. Hi Kunal,

    Just one word for u.Simply Awesome!!!!

    All the best!!!

    Cheers!!!

  31. hey kunal…..

    where are you and how have you been???

    we’d love to know what’s going on at lathesis – don’t fall off the cliff man, stay in touch!!

  32. Hi Kunal… 

    I learned few thing from my mistakes, those are the points you mentioned.. i.e. point 2, 3 . i’m strictly following .. 

  33. hey kunal,

    it’s been 3+ years since you wrote this and i’m wondering about your journey!!

    would love to hear from you soon!!

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