Smart reads for entrepreneurs

Books for start ups

          Hello everyone, this isn't a blog actually,  this post has some names of books you all should read that will motivate you and keep you going to work at your start up phase. Start up is a difficult period and requires great attention and dedication its like having a new baby. So here is a list of some books you all should read:

• "Learn to program" by Chris Pine
• "Start something that matters" by  Blake Mycoskie
• "Vital Voices: The Power of Women Leading Change Around the World " by Alyse Nelson
• "War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle" by Steven Pressfield
• "The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything"
  by Guy Kawasaki
• "The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions"
  by Gurbaksh Chahal
• "Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big" by Bo Burlingham
• "The New Business Road Test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan" by John Mullins

Apart from these some from my personal collections that you all can read are biographies of business leaders like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Dhirubhai Ambani. And if you are quiet young and wanna be an entrepreneur, go for "MBA at 16" by Subroto Bagchi its a fun read.

So, enjoy your life, keep reading, stay updated.

Cheers

Akash Poddar

5 misconceptions on being an Entrepreneur

5 misconceptions on being an Entrepreneur

          Hello everyone, hope you all doing good in life. This blog is about some myths people carry abouut being an entrepreneur, so lets focus on this and change their attitudes. If you’re looking for a feel good post about why you should quit your secure 9 to 5 job and become an entrepreneur, this is not the post for you. Being an entrepreneur is great and I wouldn’t trade it for a desk job, but there are some things aspiring (or existing) entrepreneurs should know.

1. You’re going to be insanely successful. You are not the next Mark Zuckerberg. Sorry, you’re not and I’m not.:( If you have the idea that you’re going to sit down and create the next Facebook and be worth billions of dollars in seven to 10 years, it’s not going to happen. Am I saying it’s not good to dream big? No. I’m saying there is only one Facebook or Apple and only one Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs in this world.
2. Entrepreneurs have a very flexible work schedule. They can work three to four hours a day and have plenty of time to fool around!. I know I’m not alone when I say that entrepreneurs don’t have the luxury of ending our workday abruptly at 5pm. When you own your own company or work for someone who does, you have to put in the extra hours and the extra effort to make things happen. If you aren’t ready to work some pretty long days, you probably aren’t cut out for being an entrepreneur.
3. Entrepreneurs can take off when they want — after all, you’re the boss, right? Remember all those times you used to be able to party on random nights of the week or just take off for a weekend with your friends? Not if you want to keep your business afloat the first year (or two, three, four, etc). Now I’m not saying you won’t ever get time off, but most entrepreneurs live, eat and breathe their businesses after all its their money at stake and a lot of times partying gets pushed to the wayside. What’s more important: Playing poker with college buddies or generating income so you can pay bills the next couple months?
4.  Working from home means you’ll have more time for your relationship, your pets, taking care of your home, etc. Wrong! Because you work from home, it’s like you live in this constant state of never finishing anything. You start cleaning the dishes and then think of a great idea or feature for your company. Instead of taking your significant other out to a nice meal, you ask to get drive through so you can get back to work quicker. No venture can be ever taken for granted. A venture is like having a baby, its a 24/7 job as client calls or a baby in this example
5.  Everyone wants to have your job. I’m guessing it’s because people genuinely don’t love their jobs, but they think you have this perfect setup where you get to work and play all day long. I always hear things like “At least you don’t have to deal with a commute” or “I have so many worthless meetings and calls, you’re lucky”. It may seem like a cakewalk, but the truth is the struggle is always onn

For all the starving entrepreneurs out there, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all doing things we love and enjoy, and that’s what matters. I may not be building the next Facebook, but I am excited about controlling my own destiny and knowing the harder I work, the bigger i make

Cheers

Akash Poddar

How to excel in Art of Net-Working

            Ok first of all i am sorry for the late post have been travelling a lot with 2 big family functions in radar recently and thus couldn't concentrate on posting, i have been getting your comments and emails and it inspires me more and more. Now, as far as this post is concerned, "Net-Working isn't working on the Net" LOL :P Networking is something every entrepreneur has to be very good at, it is one of the most most important criteria to excel in business. You never know who, where and when will come upto you with the next major break through, even if nothing major comes up, you will atleast get to learn so much talking to different people and learning about their lives and ventures and struggles. 

           My 2 cousin brothers are getting married and like every Indian wedding theres lots of ceremonies and people coming and eating, so opportunities like this is perfect to get to know people and build contacts, you never know that long distant uncle of yours maybe the supplier you were looking for! So i took this opportunity to talk to many people in these functions getting to know about them and their businesses, thus this post will help you to excel in this very act of "NetWorking"

•    Have your objective clear:  With this what i mean is, you should know what/whom are you looking for, are you looking for an investor or a co-founder or a supplier or mentor. If you know whats on your mind, things will be easier and you will save a lot of time.
•    Get a stag entry: Most of us would like to visit such events with a partner or a friend but its better to go alone, this way you will get bored and to avoid the embarrassment of standing alone by the speaker, you will end up talking to someone. being an introvert doesn't help these days, you will have to outreach yourself to win that export order you have your eyes on.
•   Cast a web: More the interactions you make, greater will be a chance of benefiting from that occasion. Studies show that 5 to 7 minutes is more than enough to know how much will this particular conversation benefit you, so calculate accordingly and avoid distractions {both beer and babes :D}
•   Feed-in reminders: Its not possible to remember everyone you meet and talk in such gatherings so its better you make short notes of people and their details using abbreviations, best place to scribble in at the back of business cards or better if you have a note pad app in your smart phone, also to avoid awkward situations do this privately in a corner or at rest room.
•   Follow up: The most important of them all. Few months down the line none of you will remember anything, so use mediums like Linkedin or facebook or twitter to stay in touch, this also helps to build long term contacts and get invitations to similar gatherings.

    Use these tools to increase your horizons and build contacts as you can never predict who comes to your rescue at what situation.

Cheers

Akash Poddar

akashpoddar@live.com

Confused about doing a job or starting up a venture? Here is your solution

      After my graduation, all my relatives and family friends were like "you should do a job Akash for work experience" I am sure even you all must have had similar experiences, but as far as i was concerned,  right from day 1 i was all set to start up a venture, ofcourse i had 3 most important advantages on my side:

1. I learnt the tricks of the business from my dad living in MFBS (Marwari Family Bijjnes School) and my father completely supported my decision
2. I had an option to choose, most of us don't
3. I had amazing faculty at IIPM, Kolkata who have always boosted the entrepreneur in me

      So, most of us who are yet confused about should they opt for campus placements or start up a venture, i have from my experience jotted down some points based on which you all can take a better decision:

• Authority vs Flexibility: If you are one of them who doesn't mind being under a leader and you have utmost respect for higher authorities, get a job! However, in start ups, goals and targets aren't fixed, what ever order comes becomes your target so the structure is very flexible in nature and if you believe that you prefer such a flexible structure, join the club.
• Introvertisim vs Extrovertibility: First of all dont use these words, thay arent in dictionary, i just made them up :P. So, the point is, if you are an introvert person and you prefer sitting at a table without much interactions and just completing your work and rush home, congratulations, you are what the corporates are looking for, do get a job! However if you are one of those who likes to talk and communicate and exchange ideas and phone numbers, you are an entrepreneur material because networking plays a very vital role as you need contacts everywhere
• More than enough guy or Not enough guy: This means that if you want everything in plenty and properly executed on time then corporates have different departments for these and you will be happy there, whereas, in start ups, nothing is enough and easily available, you may have to use your father's briefcase as a drawer so be prepared to make lots of adjustments as "a peny saved is a peny earned" 
• Leisure vs Adventure: I am not saying that jobs are leisure, i know many of my friends who slog themselves at jobs, but atleast they know how much money you bank a/c will have at the end of the month and believe it or not, its a form of leisure knowing your bank statement well in advance. However in entrepreneurship, its like an adventure trip, you never know whats coming ahead unless you are lucky enough to have fixed some of your clients. So if you think you can survive in this jungle, gear up.
• Perks vs Survival: Jobs however attractive it may get with lots of perks and incentives and salary structure there is a limit to everything at the top, whereas, business comes along with this most important advantage of gaining unlimited wealth, the more you dedicate, the more you take home, and with the increases in expenses, everyone eventually learns to give 100% to business and enjoy that lifestyle you always wanted, the car of your dreams, 2 vacations abroad and that LED with lazyboy sofa. It all comes down to survival of the fittest and sustainability, ofcourse that may not come as fast as in a job, but remember the hare and tortoise story :)

   These were some of the points i think should help you to decide to come to a proper conclusion and then your father will tell you what to do LOL ! No but seriously at the end of the day its all in the guts, do what your heart says but listen to your pocket as well coz i know for a fact that even if i did not have those 3 advantages, i would still be rocking it as an entrepreneur.

cheers

Akash Poddar

akashpoddar@live.com

Should young entrepreneurs attend college?

    I have come across many young people who are really passionate about starting up a business or already have a business while there are in college but they don't want to "feel like" attending classes because they believe that classes are wastage of time. Moreover, they also give examples of entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Bill Gates and most recently Mark Zuckerberg that all of them were college drop outs, but, these are 5 to 6 of them who were exceptional leaders and they created giant companies but, we often overlook thousands of them who dropped out from college, failed in business and landed nowhere. They don't even have jobs now because they didn't bother to get a degree from college, and they truly regret their decision of skipping college to start up.

    There are people who have valid reason to not attend college and yet they create significant ventures are regarded with respect and become examples, but there are many who have all the leisure to attend college but they treat "entrepreneurship" as an excuse to not attend college land up nowhere most of the time. I know many entrepreneurs who never attended college yet they are making healthy money, but if you sit with them some time, you will be surprised on their words, "it wasn't a choice that time, my parents couldn't afford college for me" says Mr Vicky Saraf who runs a successful chain of clothing line. 

    College education in today's time is very essential because honestly we don't take out time apart from college to update our knowledge on whats the latest in the block, college gives us the opportunity to learn and gives us immense confidence to sit with whoever and wherever and most importantly it gives us a stand in the community so that we can negotiate strongly. College in my personal experience gave me learning experience and the ability to implement these ideas into my business and the results have been quiet fair. 

     For example: I need to give a business plan presentation to VCs to seek fund for my business, now if i didn't have college education, i would have given a fair presentation, but my professors have given us exceptional knowledge and now i know that a business plan is of 4 types: Mini Plan; Working Plan; Presentation Plan; Electronic Plan and i can present the VC my same idea in more than one ways as per the situation. College education will boost the morale of you as an individual even when you aren't wearing that CEO tag. Moreover there has been only 1 Facebook, 1 Dell, 1 Microsoft and 1 Apple

Cheers,

Akash Poddar

akashpoddar@live.com

"No" to jobs ! "Yes" to startups :)

These days when hit with a layoff, more and more people are deciding to take matters into their own hands to start some kind of business from scratch which later on is turning out to be the backbone of US economy, the concept of Self Employments and SMEs are indeed boosting the economies all over the world.

Necessity as they say is the mother of all inventions, the layoffs forced them to rethink their work futures.  Most of them are starting up in the sector where they used to work, whereas some are working on chasing their  dreams. Moreover in this era of digital marketing, the marketing costs have come down tremendously says these start up entrepreneurs. Most of them are starting with some sort of

• Blogs
• Youtube channel
• Facebook Page
• A website

One of them is Debra Kabarsky. She used to work in new home construction company, after she got laid off, she thought of opening a bakery business, with the support of her family, she started it and now she is making more money monthly than her annual package at her job. There are many others who have the same success story, they also start working in their respective industries like architect CP Kukreja who started his own architect firm and is one of the best names in the industry. Even the current age young entrepreneurs are either getting fired or even leaving their current jobs to start up something on their own as they arent getting enough job satisfaction. One of them is my friend Swayam Jaiswal who got well placed in a Steel Company but he left his job to start up his own venture on Bathroom ceramics and fittings and is already turning some heads in the industry.

One has to be prepared to put a lot into the business initially with very less return. They have to use this opportunity to do something that makes one happy with no one else holding you back now. Expect to work harder than you have ever in your life, you may not be rich very quick but your life will be enriched by doing what you love. We hope they do really well in these start ups and contribute to the economy with employment and taxes.

Cheers,
Akash Poddar
akashpoddar@live.com

Is Business Transition important?

Hey guys,

Recently, i had to give up my post as the President of E-Cell at IIPM Kolkata, so, with the help of my professors, we figured out an Transition Plan which would help the E-Cell to be run by my successors. While doing the process, I thought how important is the same thing in business houses and specially Family businesses where matters such this are often driven to courts.

Business transition is a process of transferring business to successors. If it is done properly, it can be a really profitable experience, handled improperly an owner can encounter many pitfalls, regrets and financial reverses. It may become a nightmare. There are no second chances in transitioning a business.

A formal business transition plan puts the goals, priorities and strategies in place for a successful transition. Without a clearly defined plan, business owners are leaving their personal and financial future to chance. Then questions arise like "I know my business the best, how can i transfer it" or "Will i do it myself or are their professionals for it"

Well, This is a complex and personally challenging process. It's very difficult to do it alone and get it right. If you have legal, tax or risk management issues, you must use professionals familiar with these areas to take care of them. Even if you have an accountant, broker or financial advisor, they may not be uniquely qualified to assist you with the transition. You need experts focused on business transitioning. There are firms, such as The Monitor Group and its Transition Team, that can work with you to identify the best choices for each expert. To find experts who deal extensively with business transitions, seek recommendations from your accountant, lawyer or broker, or try a local trade association in your industry.

Experts can become involved at any point of your transition. These experts can review the work you have completed, provide recommendations and take the necessary actions to get you on the right track. Even if you have completed your transition, a certified financial planner can help with wealth management.

So, how to begin with it?

The four phases of proper business transition planning are:

1. Pre-Sale Phase
2. Positioning for Sale
3. Transaction Phase
4. Wealth Management

Following the above Four Phases of a Successful Business Transition, use the following process to guide you through your transition.

• Data gathering (documents you need to begin)
• Initial Expert Team Consultation
• Selection of your team
• Creation and Execution of the Transition Plan. (typically a 6-month to 5-year timeframe)
• Successful completion of the transaction
• Wealth management system put in place for a secure financial future.

Cheers,

Akash Poddar,

akashpoddar@live.com