In this article, the Co-founder and CEO of UrbanClap – Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal, share his experiences about how you can make or successfully run your own startup. And he discusses about How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur?

How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

Introduction

• What are the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the starting of a business?
• How to overcome these challenges?

Here are the lessons by Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal that can help you start and successfully run your own start-ups.

Have Courage to take a Breakthrough

When Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal was working with BCG, he used to discuss business ideas with his friend Mr. Varun Khaitan (Co-founder of UrbanClap), who was in New York. These discussions went on for 2 years (2011-2013) but they have not implemented any business idea.

Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal realized that something was stopping him to start a business and it was courage.

Courage of leaving a high-paid job and move on an uncertain path of entrepreneurship.

So, Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal decided:

• He will not step back.
• He will start a business.
• He may waste some years and some money on the startup but he will get experienced.

Build a Team of Trusted People

According to Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal, while starting a new business, it is better to:

• Make a good and trusted team instead of doing everything alone
• Have one or two co-founders to make the journey of your startup easy
• Align with trusted people

So, when Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal decided to start a business, he asked his friend Mr. Varun Khaitan to join him.

Mr. Varun Khaitan left his job and came back to India. This gave courage to Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal and he also left his job to start a new venture.

First Startup – Cinema Box

• In 2013, on a train Journey from Delhi-Jaipur, Mr. Varun Khaitan and Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal were getting bored due to no internet or mobile connectivity.
• Suddenly, Mr. Varun Khaitan said that it would be much better if we are able to watch movies using a local Wi-Fi loop.
• This idea was translated into their first business venture – Cinema Box.

What actually Cinema Box was?

• It is a box that can be installed in a bus, train, or plane.
• It transfers movies using local Wi-Fi loop.
• It doesn’t require the Internet.

Also Read: How to Scale Up Your Business

Reasons for the Failure of Cinema Box

Cinema Box has failed drastically due to the following reasons:

1. No. research and market study:

• Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal and Mr. Varun Khaitan have executed their first venture without any research and market study.
• This was against their training that they got while working in BCG.
• But, they thought that enthusiasm is more important in entrepreneurship than research and market study. They can do the research later.

2. Wi-Fi was banned in Flights:

• When Cinema Box was started, Wi-Fi was banned in flights so they couldn’t launch it in plans.
• The ban was lifted in 2008.

3. Tie up with Indian Railways was difficult:

• Indian Railways is a government body; so, there is a long process to get the approval for the installation of Cinema Box.
• This may take several years.

4. Cinema box was not a problem solving product for bus service provider or its customers:

• For buses, it was a ‘good to have idea’ but not a ‘must have idea’.
• The main problem that bus service provider had was – Customer acquisition, retention of bus drivers, keep a check on petrol theft, etc.
• Entertainment for customers would be at number 20th or 21th in their problem list.
• Similarly, customers would be traveling by bus only once or twice a year and could use a newspaper, magazine, book, or a downloaded movie for entertainment.

5. Cinema Box was not among the top 3 monetization channel for video production or movie houses:

• Monetization channels for video production and movie houses are – Theaters and TV channels.

Why First Business Idea Fails?

First idea of most of the entrepreneurs gets failed due to following reasons:

• First startup is always the result of passion and romanticism associated with entrepreneurship.
• Passion and romanticism about entrepreneurship is important because it gives you the courage to leave a job and start a business.
• However, it does not allow you to see that you are going in a wrong direction.
• You continue working the idea because you have heard that perseverance is very important and you should keep in working until you get the success.

Difference between dragging and perseverance

• You need to understand the difference between dragging and perseverance for making your business idea successful.

1. Perseverance – When you continuously put efforts in the right direction.

2. Dragging – When you relentlessly put efforts in the wrong direction.

• There must be a fine balance between your passion and objectivity to run a business.
• You should weight your business idea using the objectivity lens and understand whether customers actually like your product or not.

According to Paul Graham:

It is better to have an idea that a 100 people love than which a Million people just about like.

Lessons learnt from Past Failures

Although the failure of Cinema Box made them lose a lot of money and time, but it also taught very important business lesson to Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal and Mr. Varun Khaitan.

• Always remember that in 90% of cases, the first business idea fails. So, don’t get disappointed.
• Take your first failure as an inspiration and move forward.

Collaboration with Mr. Raghav Chandra

Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal and Mr. Varun Khaitan were observing another entrepreneur, Mr. Raghav Chandra, who:

• Was a software engineer
• Came back from USA
• Established a startup, Buggi.in, in lines with Ola and Uber for Auto rickshaws in Noida

Cinema Box’s founders wanted Mr. Raghav Chandra to join them but he didn’t like the idea of Cinema Box and asked Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal and Mr. Varun Khaitan to join him in Buggi.in.

But, Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal and Mr. Varun Khaitan were not ready to join Buggi.in as Ola and Uber has already taken away the market.

Both Cinema Box and Buggi.in got closed during the same week.

So, Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Mr. Varun Khaitan, and Mr. Raghav Chandra came together to start a new business in a systematic manner:

• They started by finding out the burning problems of the market
• The shortlisted 3-4 business ideas
• They made and launched the prototype of their business

Find Trusted Services Professionals

It was a Facebook Group and a prototype of UrbanClap created by all three youngsters.

Initially, 10 friends and family members were added to this group.

• Group members: They had to post of their domestic requirements like requirement of carpenter, cleaner, beautician, etc. in the group.
• Trained service professionals: They were asking for a formalized way to increase their earnings and eliminating the role of middlemen and contractors.

Results of the Facebook group:

• Within 3 weeks, around 1000 people joined the group.
• They started getting different types of customer queries.
• High demand of customers for trained service professionals.
• High demand of trained professionals to directly connect with customers and increase their earnings.

Understanding this market demand, the owners of the Facebook group has closed this group with a promise to come up with a new solution.

Starting of UrbanClap

Many people connected with the group have protested against the decision of closing the Facebook group. This boosted the enthusiasm of the owners and as a result, they:

• Built the first website of UrbanClap within a month
• Collaborated with 30-40 professionals
• Launched the website in the same Facebook group

So you must have understood how failures, struggle, new learnings and change in strategy ultimately lead entrepreneurs towards disproportionate success.

Key Learnings

• Courage is very important for starting a business
• Conduct through research to understand the customers’ needs
• Understand market situation before starting a product
• Find out burning problems in the market
• Learn from past failure and implement the learning in new venture
• Launch prototype of product before starting full fledge business
• Don’t keep dragging an idea that is not giving results

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