Better ways to sustain the(in a) startup!

I was talking about ways to sustain in a startup in BCB4 that was held in IIMB, Bangalore last week. Primarily, I talked on four major elements of the startup - would like to call it as 4C rules - the Customer, Company, Citizenry(people) and the Cash flow. Here is the summary of it.

Customer

1. Understand the target customer well.
2. Do the Customer profiling before you venture into the company.
3. Look at what customers benefit from your product/service – do not look at your product features!

Company
1. Ask yourself - What is that you want to change in the current system!
2. Do not venture into anything, just because you wannabe an entrepreneur!
3. Be unusual! Think big.
4. Go for a High risk high impact strategy! You are lucky if you have a low risk high impact strategy!
4. Always have alternate options!
5. Everything is urgent and important category - Do it now – Sense of urgency is a must!
6. Don’t expect to fly – Have a long term plan.
7. Crawl, walk, run – Fly strategy works out very well.

Citizenry
1. Too much passionate of your idea is too dangerous – Look at the flip side of it.
2. Complement your team - If you are a techie geek – don’t think that you can sell also, have a real sales man.
3. Add people, who is very passionate about your idea and ready to go for Marathon in the startup carrier.
4. Fire people – If he can not take forward the company's passion.
5. Be wary of expanding suddenly!
6. Do not take prejudiced decision – on people


Cash flow
1. Plan well according to the depth of the pocket!
2. Invest in inventory carefully!
3. Predict the fume date!
4. Maintain tighter cash flow.