How to succeed in your software services startup with clearly aware of its pitfalls

Today afternoon, I got a tweet from my friend Anand Nataraj (who is an entrepreneur and founder of Cogzidel groups, Agriya)

happy to advice two college folks on their desire to become an entrepreneur... they look how i behaved 8 years back. students means raw enthusiasm... when i advice them something they show results the next day... it is nice to groom people like them

This made me to write this post where I want to point out on

• how to achieve success in your entrepreneurship
• with clearly aware of its pitfalls which you shouldn’t let them to stop you

For the past few years, I can see a trend where many of the college/university teens like to become entrepreneurs especially in IT field. This is a welcoming trend but there isn’t much direct and simple guidance/info available for them which lists out the pros and cons for starting software services startups

Myself and my friends did some freelancing work during the recession time on 2001-2002 but we didn’t pursue it after we failed in bunch of our initiatives and landed up in jobs due to various factors(family pressure, unable to get new projects etc.,)

During the same period, Anand was also running up Agriya with his friend Aravind and their venture is a successful one. They achieved success despite coming from an moderate background and now Anand is onto Cogzidel, his second online initiative after he sold his stakes at Agriya.

So, mine is a case of failure in software services startup(though seriously I should admit that we did more of freelancing as getting jobs is really difficult during the 2001-2002 recession) and Anand’s a successful one.

How to succeed?

On how to succeed in your initiatives, I strongly recommend to read Anand’s article titled Tips for Software Services Startups as he shares his hard earned USP :)

This might not be a traditional technical/Harvard type of write up but it is indeed a powerful collection of words from a experienced entrepreneur who has gone through the hardships of startup and wants to share his success for others to benefit.

Here is the gist of his tips

• At least one founder must be a techie
• Use power of Reverse Auction Systems
• Hire fresher’s or students
• Communicate with clients regularly
• Work on shared office
• Outsource Non Core Functions
• Cross Sell
• Promote your corporate site & Blog
• Update your blog regularly
• Tie-ups
• Partnering
• Participate in forum
• Start Developing Products

Mind you, above is just a gist and I recommend to read his article where he talks about the above tips in neat and concise way

For new/want to be entrepreneurs, above article might pep you up and inspire for sure… but you should also be aware on the possible pitfalls of software services startups.

What are all the pitfalls?

I initially thought of listing my experience on this but changed my mind as I came across an interesting article by Eric Karjaluoto where he talks about Why your Web Startup will fail which also included the mistakes I did in my freelance period.

Here is gist of Eric’s point on possible pitfalls

• You won’t have an audience
• You're going to run out of cash
• You’ll get frustrated
• The emotional rollercoaster will beat you
• You’ll get excited about something else
• But it probably won’t be the competition

As told for Anand’s tip, above is just a gist and read Eric’s article for details

Closing note…

My intention is to encourage the new/want to be entrepreneurs to succeed in their venture and also being aware of potential pitfalls which they have to keep in mind in their endeavor. And definitely, not to stop or discourage anybody in try their hands on entrepreneurship.

My thing is one should

• always go positively in his endeavors with knowledge of pitfalls/cracks in the journey so that he is aware of it in advance and ready with the plan to tackle
• rather than facing it suddenly and then you will be falling from the mountain and it is difficult to get up again and continue the same journey

My wife Chitra always tell me that 18-28 years is a best time for anyone to achieve their dreams.. be it to become a entrepreneur, music composer, singer, sports professional etc., because during this period, they will be

• fresh and raring to go out for their dreams without much hesitation
• they are raw and will be hugely self motivated
• more possibility of not worrying about taking care of their family financial needs as their parents might still be working

And I do agree with her thought though it might vary by slight margins to different people in different countries…

Hope this helps…

Wishing you all the best :) and don’t forget to share your story with me :)