Top tips for your start up

It is not always when somebody decides to become an owner/entrepreneur. While surely, it requires a lot of courage and guts to open one, loads of responsibilities to decisions and tremendous amount of hard work comes in handy for free. We all know that running or even working for a start up doesn't usually comes the smooth way. There are so many obstacles, ups and downs you gotta have to deal with them to compete and eventually succeed. If you are one of the very heroes and have been dealing with a tough time, here is something I got for you to cheer up and get your butt tighten up to work it off.

First of all, I personally respect you! You weren't involved in the mighty sucking ocean of IT, or didn't apply to big companies(Forget about small, people like you won't even settle for one!). You didn't even went on to do a teaching job as you believe teachers gain nothing more than curses! Instead, you decided to make your own path. YOUR OWN DARN PATH IN YOUR OWN DARN WAY. Isn't that something respectable? It is bound to be. Remember you are not alone, and you definitely are not in unchartered waters.

Well, I don't recall me saying I would dedicate this post just to show you what you are... So, here are some tips which voluntarily struck me without warning! As of me, I have currently worked with three start ups and own one, namely "Arbuda Astrocomps".

1) "Start-ups don't die, they commit suicide. In other words, 90 percent of start-ups fail because the founders get bored, discouraged, or something else, and they move on to other things, not because of some catastrophe. No matter how dark it is today, things will always better tomorrow."
-- Justin Kan, Justin.TV
Always stick to your work. While boring monotonous jobs can look fantastic to you, you can even get jealous of your colleagues working might be for respectable firms and earning a fat package and you are here stuck like hell. No matter what, the best thing about time is, it changes. Be it good or bad. Give all of yourself into it. If only you will let your dream overtake your brain, it will come true.
"Whenever you think about giving up, think about the reason, you stayed there this while."

2) "....the biggest thing I’d recommend is to start a company that’s on a mission, not just a company that’s building a nifty product."
    - Alan Johnson, Co-founder of Treehouse

 So, how long it have already been when you looked over you companies' vision and mission before? If just having monetary gains, is all what you want, I'd suggest you better give up.

3) Learning. There's no age to stop leaning. While the journey of every company from start-up to success is different, there are some steps that every business must have gone through. Talk to the successful ones. Their story may inspire you. But remember, don't just aim too high immediately. You would be a lot more contended if you or your company(Technically, as of now you and your company must have already become identities of each other!) have goals which you personally believe can achieve. For example, if you dream to be a pop star more famous than Michael Jackson you may become sad unless you have enormous amount of passion for your field which usually lacks in the case of career oriented goals. P.S. Love and passion are two different things!
Go and talk to ones who have already gone through what you are currently. If you are lucky enough, you may find some excellent idea for you start up.
Plus, you should be always updated with your field. Follow topics related to them in case, you don't want to skip any notable innovation. Mostly, the reason behind the failure is that your company wasn't up to mark. Learn to take feedback and do consider them seriously. Your consumers are ultimately whom you are supposed to impress.

4) Publicity. Here's what in which I can speak the most. Your people reach should be revolutionary. Not just decent but revolutionary. There;s no chance for your company to succeed if its existence is unknown or limited to those who are or where directly related to it.
Presentations, seminars, hoardings, public speaking to name a few methods to publicize. If you are not gaining much popularity among peeps.

5) Hire right persons for your company. Be smart in your scrutiny and don't compromise with anything less than the best available. You will have to yourself think what you have and what you will give to your employees after getting them to work for you. Employee satisfaction should also be top on your priorities list since it is not your clients, but your employees who comprises your company. Making them sign bonds won't have to be a good idea since you are a mere start up, but try to make your employees to stick with you with some or the other boundations. Or, the best just offer them services and perks which they won't want to leave!

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We willl not let exams decide our fate

Recently a video on youtube went viral. Sharing its amazing lyrics which is one of my all time favourites.

"Right now

There is a kid finishing parents’ evening in a heated discussion with his mother

Saying,

why does he have to study subjects he will never ever use in his life?

And she will look at him blanked eyed, stifle a sigh, think for a second and then lie

She’ll say something along the lines of:

“You know to get a good job, you need a good degree and these subjects
will help you get a degree, we never had this opportunity when I was
younger”.

And he will reply:

“But you were young a long time ago, weren’t you mum?”

And she won’t respond although what he implies makes perfect sense that societies needs would have changed since he was 16

But she will ignore him, grip his hand more sternly and drag him to the car

What she doesn’t know is that she didn’t ignore him just to shut him up

She didn’t lie because they are just returning him from parents’ evening

And an argument in the hallway would look bad on her resume

She won’t lie because she had just spent the last one hour convincing a
stern face teacher that she would ensure that her child studies more at
home

No! She will lie simply, because she does not know any better herself

Although all her adult life, she has never used or applied

Pythagorean theorem, Pathetic fallacy, and does not know the value of “X”

She will rely society to tell her child who has one of the sharpest mind
in the school, is hyperactive, unfocused, easily distracted and wayward

Students!

How many equations, subjects and dates did you memorize just before an exam never to use again?

How many “A” grades did you get, which were never asked for when applying for a job?

How many times have you remembered something 5 minutes just after the teacher said: “Stop writing”

Only to receive your results a month later to realize that you were only 1 mark short of the top grade?

Does that mean remembering 5 minutes earlier would’ve made you more qualified for a particular job?

Well, on an application form it would have

We all have different abilities, thought processes, experiences and genes

So why is a class full of individuals tested by the same means?

So that means Cherrelle thinks she’s dumb, because she couldn’t do a couple sums

And if this issue is not addressed properly, it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy

Then every school has the audacity to have policy on equality

Huh, the irony!

Exams are society’s methods of telling you what you’re worth

But you can’t let society tell you what you are

Cause this is the same society that tells you that abortion is wrong, but then looks down on teenage parents!

The same society that sells products to promote nature hair, looks and
smooth complexion with the model on the box, half photoshopped, and has
fake lashes and hair extensions

With pastors that preach charity, but own private jets

Imams that preach against greed, but are all fat

Parents that say they want “educated kids” but constantly marvel at how rich Richard Branson is

Governments, that preach peace, but endorse war, that say they believe
so much in the importance of higher education and further learning

Then why increase tuition fees every single year?

I believed Miss Jefferson when she took me into the office, said that my exams would be imperative to my success

Because we were taught to always follow when Miss Jefferson led

Then I took Jefferson out of the equation and learned to think for myself

I realized, we were always taught to follow when misled

Huh, the irony!

Test us with tests, but the finals are never final

Because they never prepare us for the biggest test which is survival!

And what I suggest is fairly outlandish

So I don’t expect everyone to understand this

Except for the kid that knows what it feels like to be worth no more than that D or that A that you get on results day

And the ones whose best stories were never good enough for your English teacher

Because apparently you missed out key literal techniques

Did not follow the class plan,

And the language was too “informal” for him to understand

But then he’d reference Hamlet and Macbeth

And you’d fight the urge to express your contempt by partially clenching
your fist with only your medius finger left protruding in the middle of
your hand

And asking if he was aware that Shakespeare was known as the innovator of slang

Or the kid at the back of the class who thinks:

“Why am I studying something that doesn’t fuel my drive?”

But when confronted with a maths problem his eyes come alive

So this one is for my generation,

the ones who found what they were looking for on Google,

the ones who followed their dreams on Twitter,

Pictured their future on Instagram, accepted destiny on Facebook.

This one’s for my “failures” and “dropouts”, for my unemployed
graduates, my shop assistants, cleaners and cashiers with bigger dreams,

My self-employed entrepreneurs, my world-changers and my dream-chasers!

Cause the purpose of “Why I hate school, but love education” was not to initiate a worldwide debate,

But to let them know that whether 72 or 88, 44 or 68,

We will not let exam results decide our fate

Peace.

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What does it feel like to be poor?

Here is a quora answer which personally moved me,

"I grew up in a lower middle class South Indian family. A well educated mom and a not so well educated but hard working dad. And there is my little sister who is 6 years younger to me.
While growing up in Hyderabad I have seen my mom working her guts off to make both ends meet. I particularly remember this because whenever the Principal of our school walked in to take names of students who are yet to pay the fees, my name was there by default. The memory is so stark that I clearly remember the only time my name wasn’t called out. That day, I had a grin on my face. It felt as if I was set free after being caged for years.

Then came a high. My mom, while working as an Accountant started an HR consultancy firm which flourished and she made good money. But since she had an eternal spender as a life partner, she couldn’t save much. Instead, the money made the wine sellers rich (If you know what I mean).
Let me give you an example of how much she made during that period – She gifted me a TVS Scooty when I made it out of school. Mind you, this is year 2001.
During this period nobody would have foreseen a low. But it was around the corner. Year 2003, a tsunami in the disguise of my mom’s deteriorating Health hit our family and what followed were the darkest days of our lives.

My dad took a decision. He decided to send us to our home town(while he stayed back), where he expected to receive financial and moral support from our relatives for my ailing mother. I had just finished my 12th and my sister had finished 6th grade. In a matter of few days, our lives had taken a U-turn. Palakkad, Kerala. That’s our home town. My sister joined school and I couldn’t continue my studies. It came as a rude shock to me. Within no time I went from an effervescent kid to a silent gape addict. Looking at the financial and our mental situation my mother went in to depression. She also had lost 20 kgs by then. Day in and day out we were praying for her recovery. Before the situation could sink in, life took another blow at us. A massive one at that.

My dad could not manage his finances and became more aggressive than usual. He took decisions in a jiffy, one after another. Slowly there came a time where he could not send us a single rupee for our survival. In a short while we were asked to vacate our two room(one room and a kitchen) rented house because we couldn’t pay the rent for 3 months straight.
We then moved in to a small hut.

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It could not hold the rain. Sitting inside this house during the rains was like sitting under a tree. You don’t get drenched but you are also not sitting inside closed doors and enjoying the rain.
The house didn’t have electricity, no water connection, no well, no compound wall (as you can see in the pic) and no proper BATHROOM. With two women in the house, not having a proper bathroom was horrible. We stayed in this house for close to 4 months. These four months taught me the value of every single breath of life.
We ran out of money and food. One morning we woke up at about 5am and made black coffee for us, that’s when my mom looked at my sis and me and said, “We don’t have anything to eat for today”. After a few minutes of pin-drop silence we looked at each other and burst out crying. We got in to a group hug and cried for almost an hour. Then, I went in to the room and picked up the Dish Drops (Utensil cleaner), Car Wash and Shampoo sachets that we had purchased as Amway Distributors few months ago. I had 20 of these sachets, each costing Rs.5/-. I saw an opportunity, I waited for the sun to rise.

As soon as it was early enough to go door to door, I started my journey. I went door to door selling these sachets. Where ever I saw a car I got in and spoke about the Car Wash. Where I saw women, I spoke to them about Dish Drops and Shampoos. I turned in to a determined 17yr old who wanted to feed his mom and sis. I was asked to leave at most places as they were not used to door to door salesmen. One man hurled a shoe at me for entering his gate. The shoe whistled past my ear. I think it must have kissed me on the way because I still remember how the shoe felt. It looked like a journey that would not end. I wiped many a tear off my face during this journey. But I did manage to sell a few sachets by noon, by which time I was so hungry that I felt I would faint.
I stopped at a road side hotel which looked affordable to me. I sat there among masons & Carpenters who were working nearby, to eat. I had never been with such people. This was my first, tears started flowing and I ate my food with tears in my eyes. My first meal of the day was awesome. Its the best meal I have ever had. After that day who am sitting with never bothered me. My meal cost me Rs.12/-.

I continued my walk until 4:30pm before I felt I had earned enough to buy rice. I took a bus back home and purchased 2kgs rice on the way. I paid Rs.10 per kg. While I was walking back home I held the rice close to my chest as if hugging a little baby. It was dear to me. My mom and my sis were waiting. When I reached home my mom and sis were elated. We burst in to tears again, which lasted a while.

After some time, I asked my mom, “What did you both eat?”. Mom didn’t respond. My cute little sister told me, “We went to our neighbour’s and asked for some Papayas from their papaya tree, mom told aunty that I like Papayas. I dont like them but I ate it because I was hungry.”
Hearing this I just couldn’t control myself. I cried and my sis said, “Don’t worry brother, I won’t ask for chocolates”. The group hug was back again. We cried inconsolably for a very long time.
After this day, we never looked back. We somehow made it out of that hut. I found a job as a door to door salesman. My first pay cheque was for Rs.500/-. I remember packing it neatly in an envelope and handing it over to my mom.

I joined another company as salesman and one of my prospective clients made me realize that my english is good and I should be doing something else. I asked him to suggest. He said, “Call Centers”.
I have written about how I met him in the below answer.
Subhash Kumar’s answer to Was there a stranger who you met once, and will likely never meet again, who profoundly affected you?

We are now in 2005, two tough years had passed. We decided to move back to hyderabad.
After coming back I found my first job in a BPO after failing close to 30 interviews. How I made it is a story in itself. It took me 4 months. I joined HSBC’s Data processing unit as a CSR.
My second innings had began. Cut to 2014 and I am an HR Business partner with an IT firm. I finished my Graduation and MBA through distance and have been working since 2003 at a stretch. No breaks taken.

I had my head in the right place, still have. So never ever got carried away. I have a calm demeanour and the confidence of a shooter who doesn’t make too much noise while playing his sport. Just makes his gun do the talking. I respect everything I have in life and value every rupee. I show how much I love people around me without a bit of hesitation. I talk very less and do more. I don’t think judging people is my business, so I dont do it. I keep an open mind. In the meantime I have also tried business and failed. So I have massive respect for people who create their own lives. Most importantly I have retained the effervescence.
​
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So to answer the question, “It sucks to be poor, but that’s what made ME. So if I had the power to change my past, I would rather let go of the power”. :)
Life is about moving forward. Let’s go together..!! "

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