**5 steps to become an entrepreneur.** If you wish to be an entrepreneur right after college, 5 steps would be discussed before to follow for sustainability and growth. Every person who wishes to be an entrepreneur feels that he has a great idea and he will just go to the market to implement his idea and will get big funding. The truth is behind every successful startup that gets million-dollar funding, there are at least 1000 unsuccessful ventures and no one talks about those failures. ## **#1 How to Write a Business Plan?** Having a business plan does not mean that making a presentation and mentioning your thoughts in it. Rather, a business plan is all about having the maturity to understand the problem you are solving, what your market is, who your perfect and imperfect customer is, why is your product and service valuable, what is your USP, and who are your competitors. - Mr. Paritosh Sharma has judged many business plan competitions and there most of the entrepreneurs say that they have a very cool plan of capturing a total of 1% of the total healthcare market. For example, if the market is of 10 thousand crores and even if he captures 1% of it, it is a big deal. - This is a wrong approach as a business plan should be milestone-driven. You will have to show this to your potential investors that what you are going to achieve in 4 quarters of 1 year. For example, you wish to concentrate on the product in the 1st and 2ndquarters and will launch it in the 2nd quarter and will show growth in the 4th quarter. - The clarity of the business plan is important to reach investors. In fact, you will see failure again and again if your strategy is not right. - For example, Mr. Paritosh Sharma did the same in his first venture. Around 8 years ago, he started the 2nd social media consulting company in India. He got an investor also but had no knowledge of legal terms at that time and therefore, he signed a contract in which it as written that the investor is buying his company. - When you make a business plan, vet it from at least 2 people. You can find experts on LinkedIn, or college accelerators and incubators or professors or mentors to discuss your business plan. - Don’t just jump into the plan. As they say, ‘Entrepreneurship is like building a plane after falling off the cliff’. This is not true as out of 1 million only a single person can do it and the rest of them die after falling off the cliff. - If you want to save your failure, money, and time, make your business plan very carefully. ## **#2 How to Find a Co-Founder?** Investors generally prefer to invest in a venture with co-founders that is, where 2 to 3 people are involved in making a company. - This happens so because when 2 to 3 people are involved, there is a team as a single person cannot handle all the work like registering the company, etc. - Co-founders also have different competencies. For example, if you have a tech-venture and if your strength is marketing and the strength of your co-founder is tech, it would be a perfectly balanced team. - Generally, college friends come together to make a venture. For example, Razorpay is a global payment company that started in Jaipur, India by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar who both were together in college. - Another example is Flipkart. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal used to work together in Amazon and got to know each other before starting the company. - Do not just choose a co-founder because you like him for the time being; rather choose a person with whom you can win a long race. - Ensure that your contract with the co-founder is clear. Define the KRAs and KPIs of the co-founders. - Also, mostly co-founders get involved in a fight when the company grows and an investor wishes to invest $1 million. Therefore, on the very first day ensure that if both the co-founders have ownership of 50-50%, it should be documented on paper. - The first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company that is the first document should have written in it that as per the directors of the company, mention the co-founders and their roles and also the total paid-up capital. - For example, if the total paid-up capital is Rs. 1 lakh, mention that Rs. 50,000 is given by each co-founder, and therefore, both have a share of 50-50%. - Have an equal partnership to avoid any confusion. ## **#3 How to Get an Investor?** At an initial level, there is an interesting thought that is F (Friends), F (Fool), and F (Family). - The term fools are used here as at an early stage when someone invests in you, he only invests in you and not your business. - For example, Mr. Paritosh Sharma started his 2nd venture that was a product company, and made a very interesting social platform for entrepreneurs. And luckily, got through the technology to market the accelerator plan of Intel and the University of Berkeley in the first round. He visited Silicon Valley and met investors there and gained knowledge. - But he did not have the money to go to Silicon Valley and even his parents couldn’t afford it. Then, he met Mr. Rahul Gupta in a hotel in Faridabad for tea. He told Mr. Paritosh that this venture will not be going very far but you are a very interesting person and he gave a cheque of Rs. 5 lakh. While sitting in the hotel, they got a print out of an A4 sheet and wrote a contract then and there only. - Mr. Partosh even asked the investor about what happens if the money got wasted to which he replied that he knows how to make money and that is why he is investing. - People will always invest in you and your trust and therefore, take the money confidently. - Ensure that the first funding you will get from F (Friends), F (Fool), and F (Family), and when the business will grow, you will get your 1st professional investor who is an angel investor. - These angel investors are rich people who invest in ventures as they know if the venture will do well, their money will increase. - The third round of investment comes through venture capitalists who can invest in your company from $1 million to $10 million, while the angel investors may invest from Rs. 1 to 5 crore. ## **#4 How to Build Traction?** When you launch your venture, you will have to show traction at every milestone. - For example, if you have an FMCG product like oil or soap, you will have to show several customers when you launched the product till after a year. If you have an internet product, like software like ZOHO or Freshworks, you will have to show several users. If you have a mobile app, you will have to show the number of MAUs (Monthly Active Users) or DAUs (Daily Active Users) - The basis upon the engagement of the customers with your service or how many people are buying your product is called traction. - A professional investor also invests in your company based on traction as needs a return on his money. - When a professional investor invests $1 million in your company, college students feel everything is good now and I will just sign on the term sheet he will send me. - Never sign the term sheet without reading it. Take the term sheet to a chartered accountant or a professional investor friend, understand every term and condition. In case, you didn’t like any condition, go back to the investor and negotiate it. As chances are very high that you made innovation and all the rights of the intellectual property can go to the investor if you did not read the contract carefully. ## **#5 How to pivot and not fail?**  Let’s assume that you have done all the above points properly but you still couldn’t be successful or maybe your interest area changes and this change is called a pivot. - Take your college life as the best experimental period as far as entrepreneurship is concerned. Therefore, you can do all the experiments. For example, if wish to run a Fintech company, make Fintech products. - Ensure to do all the experiments only before the 3rd or 4th year and if you are unable to build traction, don’t take the experiment forward. - After 4th year, you must have clarity about the venture you wish to move ahead with. These 5 steps are important to become a successful business. Also, many of you might come from middle-class families. If you don’t have the financial lifeline of 18 to 24 months, don’t get into entrepreneurship with too much enthusiasm as it won’t work.