Entrepreneurship

Life plan before your business plan

~ premsagark ~ 5 Comments

“Entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing on their business plan before they’ve focused on their life plan”.

– Norm Brodsky

I don’t know if I am an entrepreneur yet. But I am glad I read this, because I was on the same path. Focusing too much on the business plan and ignoring the much more important life plan.

Life’s a roller coaster these days!

On days when I have many enquiries, I feel on top of the world. On days when there’s hardly an email or two, things look doubtful. Will I be able to cross last months revenue? What the heck am I doing here? Should I go back to a job? Questions plague me.

My way of overcoming those questions is usually by hitting the gym. Running does wonders to my mood.

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Hare or the tortoise?

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Tapprs is growing!

Honestly, I didn’t think it would take off much. Out of my frustration of not being able to figure out what I wanted to pursue as a business, I simply started something whimsically. That has grown into what could turn out to be THE BEST TRAVEL & PHOTOGRAPHY RENTAL in Bangalore, if I stay put for a year! Oh yeah, maybe… more than just that!

Of course, there are issues. But those are sweet ones. Of developing a brand. Of growing, managing and scaling up. Of making profits. Of wondering if my hobby has gone for a toss devoured by the demon of money making!

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3 skills entrepreneurs need

~ premsagark ~ 3 Comments

I realize the increasing need to have 3 very very important skills while running Tapprs.

Those are:

  1. what does the customer need?
  2. how much will he pay for it?
  3. how does he decide

If point 1 above sounds too simple and obvious to you, it helps to read the story of Iridium, the satellite phone company that never was. And I think they realized it after plonking down a good 5 billion $ down the drain. And I think 7-8 years of ignoring market signals.

As for the 2nd, you may do well if you were reborn as Steve Jobs.

As for the 3rd, I would get insanely rich if I could crack the code.

Am sorry if you came here to know how to get those skills. There’s no short cut. So, go figure them out yourself.

And come back to leave a comment when you attain nirvana!

Small steps

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“Think big”, an oft used phrase.

Think big, one should definitely do provided the thinking isn’t beyond means and methods.

And for small ventures, “think big, act small” is more ideal. This part, you and I know already. Many books and articles have been written.

“Think big, act small!”.

We read. We listen. We nod in consent.

Yet, when it comes to doing, we forget!

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Value chain

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Many of us first time entrepreneurs get it wrong.

When we conceive an idea and execute it… most often we get excited and blinded by the greatness of the idea that we fail to study something vital. (Or like in my case, after wanting to start something exciting and not getting any great idea, start something without actually studying vital information.)

That vital thing is value chain. (I don’t know if there’s a better phrase for it.)

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Good entrepreneur

~ premsagark ~ 4 Comments

A good entrepreneur isn’t one with a great idea or isn’t one who hasn’t ever failed.

Heck, he needn’t even be good at execution… at least to begin with!

He is one who has a good sense of smell.. towards the customers needs and towards where eventual profits are (or whatever else the reward). And pursues it relentlessly.  Whatever shit happens in the meanwhile is a lesson… if one has the composure to call it that and the caution to not let it hit the ceiling.

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Rebranding Tapprs

~ premsagark ~ 6 Comments

I have to confess.

Inspite of all the cribbing in my earlier posts about how rentals is not exactly a great market and how the market signals aren’t great, I have been hooked onto the idea of Tapprs (mind you, not to the idea of rentals).

The reason is, I feel Tapprs could be woven into a nice brand if done well. Not necessarily rentals, could be anything else too. I have stuck my neck out on Tapprs. I can’t explain why. Perhaps, its because it’s your baby, even if its ill-conceived. Or perhaps, I feel that it needs to be given more time and patience.

I have put all my tech ideas on hold to give Tapprs some concentrated effort in the coming 1-2 months.

Whatever, I am here now. Looking at re-branding Tapprs. I don’t want Tapprs to be identified as a rental place and would love to create a brand out of it.

I want Tapprs to be attributed with a few characteristics. And that means change from the ground up.

I’ve tried to work things out towards that effect. So here goes.

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Run fast to reach late

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I have started running recently.

It’s been 3 weeks now and makes me feel good.

In the last 2 weeks, I used to do 10 laps in the ground near my home in about 28 minutes usually, a distance of around 4.6Kms.

Yesterday, since I entered the 3rd week, I thought I will push myself a bit more. So I tried to run just a wee bit faster.

To my surprise, it took me longer than my usual sub-28 minutes.

It took 30 minutes.  I had slowed down during the latter part a bit.

That made me think.

  • Slow and steady may be boring. But is still a good strategy.
  • Fast growth is not the answer to building a good business / financial portfolio / lifestyle.
  • Focus on quality. Maintain priorities. Focus on goals, not on reaching fast.
  • Don’t sweep things under the carpet in your race to pace it out.
  • Think long term though few of them may be counter productive in the short term.

It is especially important that I keep these things in mind given my current situation. Gave up my job, too many experiments, lot of ideas, lack of execution knowledge, what-next situation, etc.

 

Market size

~ premsagark ~ 6 Comments

I was looking at the performance of Tapprs in the last one month.

Tapprs did reasonably well in June for a 2 month old venture (actually a respectable 5 figure). July hasn’t been bad either. And I have a few advance bookings for August too.

So, I should rejoice. Right? Well, not exactly! (Read this post first).

Before I get into details, let us keep in mind the fact that Tapprs handles two different things. Travel rental & photography rental. So what I say needs to be taken in context with what category it is in.. travel or photography.

Photography rental is my core service. Travel rental (sleeping bags, tents, bicycle, etc) is just an add-on. (Also, I am finding it hard to handle them given that people take it on treks, wet & dirty the items, return it without bothering to clean them, etc. It’s a pain! I may remove it off.)

I was checking the statistics for Photography today.

  • SEO traffic is bad. Conversion is decent.
  • Facebook, readers of this blog and friends are my best referrers! Thank you guys :-).
  • 10% business is repeat.
  • User feedback is extremely good.

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