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How To Launch Your Business in Just 48 Hours: Insights from Noah Kagan

Another video summary that I found very relevant. I find Matt Gray’s messaging very relevant and this was powerful.

These are some timeless tips of wisdom shared by Noah Kagan, a business mogul who’s been rocking the entrepreneurial world for over a decade. If you’re dreaming of starting your own venture, here’s what you need to know:

Keep grinding, no matter what. Ever heard of perseverance paying off? Noah’s a living example. He’s been pushing out content and connecting with his audience consistently for 15 years. Take it from him: success isn’t overnight. It’s about showing up, day after day.
From Ordinary to Extraordinary: Guess what? You don’t need to be a tech whiz or a Silicon Valley insider to make it big. Noah’s met all kinds of people, from ice cream sellers to customer support stars, who’ve turned their ordinary skills into extraordinary businesses. Start where you are with what you have.
Fear is Just a Four-Letter Word: Most of us are scared of starting because we think we need that ‘perfect idea.’ But here’s the kicker: There is no perfect idea. It’s more about solving everyday problems and just getting started. Turn your daily annoyances into your next business venture.
Leverage the Digital Goldmine: We’re living in the golden age of entrepreneurship. With tools like social media, email marketing services, and payment processors, you can kickstart your business with practically no cash upfront. The world is your oyster – all you need is an internet connection.
Embrace the Ups and Downs: Noah shares his personal lows, like getting fired and facing rejection. But here’s the thing: those setbacks can be the start of something new and exciting. It’s all about perspective. Remember, every successful entrepreneur has faced their share of challenges.
Turn ‘No’ Into Your Fuel: Rejection isn’t the end – it’s just the beginning. Use it as fuel to propel you forward. Noah’s journey teaches us that a string of no’s can eventually lead to a yes. Keep pushing, keep experimenting, and never lose sight of your dreams.

So, what’s stopping you? Take a leaf out of Noah Kagan’s book (literally and figuratively) and start your own business journey this weekend. Remember, the only real failure is not starting at all. Let’s turn those dreams into reality!

Mar.21

What Dalai Lama taught us about our life in a Startup

Posted by Haja in Attitude, Business, Innovation, Leadership, Motivation, Personal Branding

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Dalai Lama is undoubtedly an inspirational leader! He is one of the most positive human beings I have seen, heard and read about. While reading the Deccan Herald today, I came across these rules (18 of them and I picked the top 5 which I wanted to share -with some thoughts of my own pertaining to running your own Startup.

Rule 1: Take into account that great love and great achievement involves great risk. Absolutely! The rewards are always commensurate with the risks you take in life! Take risks, of course, calculated ones- and see the rewards spilling out in the long run. Leaving your corporate job and creating a startup is a risk. A major risk at the time when you leave. Irrespective of the outcome, great achievements are round the corner -and you need to have complete BELIEF in that! Go with the approach- and you will come out richer, better and stronger!

Rule 2: When you lose, don’t lose the lesson. You will lose in many of the battles you take up. Which is good. Remember, they are not the end of the world. As a startup, we lose customers- but we learn lessons from why we lost them. Look for a learning in every misstep you take. And the more you take, the more lessons that you learn – which makes you sharper in the longer run.

Rule 3: Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. Always! It may be bitter and makes you feel even more desperate! Ultimately in the long run, it is all for a good reason. We lost some great opportunities (it looked like that at that point in time), but in the longer run, we realised it was good that we did not win them. Go with this attitude into many of your discussions- and you will end up a winner in the long run.

Rule 4: Learn the rules so you know how to break them. The objective is not to break the rules. It is to understand how you can think out of the box and approach a challenge differently. Innovatively. As an employee you end up always having to work the rules- but as an entrepreneur, you have a chance to reset the rules. Follow that. For that- learn the rules first… and find ways of rewriting them.

Rule 5: Share your knowledge. Its a way to achieve immortality. The Path of an entrepreneur is a lonely one. But remember, there are a lot of people wanting to follow the same path. Show them the road. Be free with the feedback. Help them navigate the path basis what you have learnt. It is not about immortality- but it is highly satisfying- and that makes a big difference. If you are a believer- then remember, it will all pay itself back in the long run.

Being a Startup has its share of risks & disappointments. But the rewards far outweigh the risks you take to do this. Irrespective of the outcome, you will also always emerge better than before – and that is the best outcome of becoming an Entrepreneur.

Go and try it. Live your life. Live it well. Leave your mark in the world!

Thank you, Dalai Lama for these life lessons.

Jun.10

How Forrest Gump, Don Corleone and James Bond helped our Startup

Posted by Haja in Motivation, StartUp

Note : This article was published on LinkedIn.

I am hazarding a guess that most people would have watched The GodFather, Forrest Gump, and at least some of the James Bond movies. Either when they were young, or for the younger folks, as classics.

I continue to watch them now and again. But over the years, I have started to view them and see messages that are relevant to us in many walks of life. And once we were a Startup, I picked some messages from the dialogues in these movies, that made a lot of sense to us.

Here are 3 famous quotes from these movies that I thought, fit the Startup DNA.

Actually, it applies to any company or employee as well.

Attitude

“Life is a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you’re gonna get”
Mrs Gump/Sally Field in Forrest Gump (1994)

Attitude is everything.

Remember, the things you planned before you set out? The blueprints, the business plans etc.? Most probably, you will throw them out (or threw them out) once you started running your business. Your plans constantly evolve. Your customers change. The Segments you are addressing may evolve to include more or go deeper into a niche. But change will happen.

And change follows challenges. Challenges, that you will invariably face in the early days of your startup.

Don’t have a closed mind about the purpose of the business. Keep your options open and evolve with the business as you go along. You never know what you get next. Where your next order comes from. What your future holds.

Have a positive attitude. Irrespective of what hits you.

Just remember.

Life is a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get next.

Branding

“Bond. James Bond.”
Sean Connery in Dr No (1962)

What is your brand? Do you have a brand at all? Are you just one more of those startups or companies or employees trying to get by?

Are you working on it? If not, you should. How you position yourself and carry yourself and your company makes a huge difference.

Everything about you that touches your customers, clients, or other people should carry your brand- and make it stronger.

And it is not just the Logo.

The presentations you do. The communications that go out of your company. The mails. The proposals. The Website.

How do you carry these off? Are you seen as a “me too”? Do you see anything “different” about it?

Look at every communication as an opportunity put you and your company as being “different”.

If it does, you are in the right path. If not, it is time to look at it and start the rebranding exercise.

Bond. James Bond.

You are not just another Agent.

Remember, you are not just another Startup.

Offer

I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Don Corleone/Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972)

For a Startup, the first chance you get to tell your story and offer a solution to a customer, is the window of opportunity to blow his socks off. To do that, you need to do your homework. Understand the challenge the customer is facing, get into his boots, and then work on the solution from inside out. You are not bound by any restrictions of having to follow their rule book. You have the opportunity to show a bigger, broader vision to your client.

Design a proposal and an offer that makes it compelling for the client. Something by which he transitions from a “do I need this guy” to “how do I get this guy to help me”.

Make an offer he cannot refuse. Remember he has problems for which he is seeking solutions. Make the offer compelling. Make it relevant. Make it memorable.

Make it an offer he cannot refuse.

All the best. The journey is exciting. The opportunities tremendous. There is an opportunity behind every desk. Start somewhere and start making those changes today.

May.09

The 1 thing you should do before you quit your job and become a full time entrepreneur

Posted by Haja in StartUp

When the bug bites, you want to quit the job and move on and set up your business immediately. Every day counts. The road all set out. The world of fortune beckons.

I know the feeling. Been there, done that.

Before you start, hold on a bit!

Chances are, you have already done a lot of reading, and all those books of how people made their millions is not just making your impatient, but also giving you a sense of urgency of time being wasted doing nothing.

Before you jump in, consider doing this one thing before you jump in.

Invest some money-

– and buy some stakes into one start-ups that is new and struggling for money and guidance. In today’s start-up world, there are a number of companies that need both a little investment and a lot of guidance and advice. Both are difficult to come by unless they are willing to part with some stakes. With a little money, you can get a stake (and I am not talking of 50% kind of stakes- but more like a 10-20% of stakes) in return for guidance/ support.

I say invest money instead of giving time – because by putting your money in, you secure a seat in the table as a stake holder- and enforces your commitment to get a return on your investment (apart from just the learning) while ensuring the company also looks at you as a partner instead of a coach or a guide. Most start-up’s are quite averse to parting with stakes – and it is important they see the value of what you bring so that they are willing to give you some stakes. In return you help them with your skills that will enable them to grow faster (hopefully).

This will help you in many ways.

· Gives you an inside view of how a startup actually works (or tries to work).

· Support the Founders in a number of activities that may be your speciality. You will go beyond the scope of your “job description” and discover new skills (we all did).

· Learn the concepts of cash-flow and how the company works & how they grow.

· Understand the challenges regarding hiring and managing a team.

· Decide on processes you need to put in place to make a company run smoothly.

· Work out various marketing programs that you can design on a bootstrapped model and understand ROI.

· Help the founders in making proposals for investments. This could include making a business plan & a pitch document (significant learnings).

Most importantly, you learn how to manage your money better- and learn while you work.

The list can go on.

You super-charge your learning of how a startup works and after a period of 6 months to a year, you are better positioned to know how to really start and run a company.

Also, as a bonus, your stake in this company could help you as a cushion when you start your own company.

The benefits are numerous. And your learning is significant.

Don’t give up on your dreams of starting off on your own. I am just suggesting you give it a bit of time, and effectively learn what you will anyway have go through when you start a company – while you are still earning a salary.

It could be one of the best decisions you take.

We learnt this after we started 🙂 Sharing this with you so that you could learn from this – and optimize your investments- and maximize your learnings.

Get moving Tiger!

May.02

So you want to be an Entrepreneur….

Posted by Haja in Startup Tips

It has been an year exactly since we got into our Entrepreneurship journey. It has been one exhilarating ride till now. And while we sit on the other side of 365 days, here are some comments that come to mind from friends and well wishers…

It is not going to be easy to do something like this. Stay focused.

You guys have guts to do something like this!

I want to do this either, but I have commitments. Will you be open to sleeping partners…

Most of what they said, makes complete sense.

When you start your business, you run on your enthusiasm for the first 90 days. Then you realize that the money you planned to use, is drying up- much faster than you had anticipated.

And you start wondering what to do next.

Here is a compilation of thoughts that we have gone through and learnt post 365 days of flying, running, walking, crawling… in that order. And then the flying starts again.

Here is the first tip!

Irrespective of what you plan, what you think, what your friends tell you…. the time it takes to turn around a business is anywhere between 12-18 months! Plan to stick around that- and ensure your family is fully supportive. Without a supportive family, it will be a struggle. With a supportive family, it will be a blessing! You will want to do more!

Don’t go on the basis of people who “Make it” in 3-6 months. For every company that makes that happen, there will be a 1000 more, that will not be able to get to that timeline.

It is better to err on the side of safety!

Go live your dream!

Mar.22