9 Things You Must Know To Be A Successful Entrepreneur

We all want to become an Entrepreneur,but do we even know what is entrepreneurship or start-ups and what anyone have to go through while getting the title of 'Entrepreneur' ?. I have discussed about 9 things which will help you to be a Entrepreneur.As you know,it takes time to be a successful entrepreneur,so it will take time to read this article thoroughly.

So,sit down,relax yourself and go through all the topics one by one and do tell your views in the comment section below.

OBJECTIVE :

A) What is Entrepreneurship?

B) What is a Start-up?

C) What are the differences between a start-up and a company?

D) What are the various stages in a start-up?

E) How do we get a company registered?

F) How does start-up india initiative of GOI helps the Startups?

G) What is an Intellectual Property Right?

H) How and in what circumstances can you have /claim it?

I) What are the skills that are needed for Entrepreneurship?

A) What is Entrepreneurship ?

Entrepreneurship is an act of being "the owner of a business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make profits".It can broadly be defined as the creation or extraction of value.With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, which may include other values than simply economic ones.

B) What is Start-up ?

A startup is a young company founded by one or more entrepreneurs to develop a unique product or service and bring it to market. By its nature, the typical startup tends to be a shoestring operation, with initial funding from the founders or their friends and families.

C) What is the difference between Start-up and Established Company ?

A startup is a idea developed into reality by a small team in a small office or a garage(in case of Apple).

A start-up is a company typically in the early stages of its development.

A established company is which started to make revenue through it's idea with a huge investment and big office and has a huge staff.

D) What are the various stages in a start-up/company ?

6 Stages of a Startup and What You Should Be Doing at Each One

Like any other growing thing, all businesses have lifecycles, and although many factors influence growth, there are 6 specific stages of a startup as they develop. Though the time spent in each stage will be different for every growing company, there are six main phases. Why does it matter what start-up stage your company is presently in? “Knowing where you are in your journey will help you manage your time and resources efficiently,”

Stage 1: Concept and Research

It seems everybody has (what they consider) a million-dollar idea, but making an idea into reality is very rare. Rarer still is the “great idea” that not only gets off the ground, but finds its perfect audience. A huge factor in a start-up’s success comes before the company itself ever launches. Before you do anything else, carefully research your target audience and your offering’s potential products-market fit Do people really need your product or service? What problem does your offering solve? Is your idea already out there, being sold by an existing company? Answering these questions entails a lot of research into your potential competition and industry, but it also takes talking to hypothetical customers about how your offering might help them. Research in hand, create a business plan and mission statement. Set goals for your development over the coming years.

Stage 2: Commitment

Here’s where you move from a concept to a company, putting your research into practice. Create a prototype, develop a process, and start building a team. Secure funding. Continue to refine your business model. Work towards a minimum viable product, begin initial marketing to drum up some word of mouth, then launch.

Stage 3: Traction

Traction, or validation, is typically the first year of a start-up. This is the stage where you begin to get the word out about your product and gain your first customers. Here you find out whether or not your company is truly viable. “Before their companies start to grow, most entrepreneurs mistake traction for growth. Both come at different stages in the lifecycle of the startup and play very different roles,” says Varshneya. At this stage, focus on growing your customer base and actually attaining the product-market fit you researched earlier.

Stage 4: Refinement

In the refinement stage, typically year 2, you are receiving—and soliciting—feedback from early adopters, then using that feedback to continue refining your product or service. How can you improve your offering? What about your customer experience? Concentrate on expanding the aspects of your product that are most beneficial to customers. Your early interactions with customers go a long way toward establishing your credibility and building customer trust. Show that you are taking customers’ concerns into account as you continue to develop your offering. Refinement also means refining your process, making it more efficient. How can you streamline your process? Are there parts of the workflow you can cut out altogether? Is product performance matching your projections, and if not, where is it getting derailed? Test your strategies and track conversion rates, social media analytics and any other data you can to inform your decisions.

Stage 5: Scaling

The next stage of a startup is scaling, or growing—further growing your customer base, your offerings, and your company itself. In this stage, which can start at year 2 to 3 and last for years, you iterate on what’s working and put processes into place to iterate faster. Continue optimizing your marketing strategies to efficiently pull in customers and increase your conversion rates. Build out your staff and infrastructure to support your growing workload. For the smoothest scaling up, build scaling mechanisms into your business plan from the beginning. How and when will you hire more employees? How will you expand your marketing? What about growing your physical premises and technological infrastructure? Keep in mind, however, that you’ll need to stay agile as you grow—the process can be unpredictable. Like refinement, scaling requires considerable awareness about your process. As a founder, this likely means limiting or delegating any non-essential tasks you are performing. “While scaling up, there may be many tasks on a daily or weekly basis that hold you back or slow you down,” advises Varshneya. “While scaling up, you want to channel all your focus on just one thing—growth.”

Stage 6: Becoming Established

Congratulations—your company is no longer a start-up, but an established enterprise. In this stage (likely year 3 or after), you may see considerable growth, although not at the dramatic rate you did while scaling up. Focus on increasing customer retention and loyalty, testing and refining your marketing strategies, and further developing your strengths.

E) How do we get a company / start-up registered ?

If you are willing to register a startup or a new company in India then you need to record it in Indian official records i.e. Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). One does not need to visit the corporate office for registration as it can be done while sitting at home. The registration includes Digital Signature Certificate(DSC), Director Identity Number(DIN) and filing for an e-form.

Four major steps to register a company/ startup in India:

Step 1: Acquire Digital Signature Certificate (DSC)

The Information Technology Act, 2000 has provisions for use of digital signatures on the documents submitted in electronic form in order to ensure the security and authenticity of the documents filed electronically.

Step 2: Acquire Director Identification Number (DIN)

The concept of a Director Identification Number (DIN) has been introduced for the first time with the insertion of sections 266A to 266G of Companies (Amendment) Act, 2006.

Step 3: Create an account on Ministry of Corporate Affairs

 MCA portal- New user registration @ mca.gov.in

Step 4: Incorporate or Apply for the company to be registered

List of documents required before submission of a company:

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  Original copy of formal letter issued by ROC regarding availability of Company name
  
  
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  DIN of all those directors of a proposed company
  
  
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  DSC - Digital Signature Certificate
  
  
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  Form-1 for incorporation of a company
  
  
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  Form-18 for situation or address of the proposed company
  
  
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  Form-32 for particulars of proposed directors, managers and secretary

About the Companies Act, 2013

The Companies Act, 2013 passed by the parliament has received the assent of the President of India on August 29, 2013. The act consolidates and amends the law relating to companies. The Companies Act, 2013 has been notified in the official gazette on August 30, 2013. Some of the provisions of the act have been implemented by a notification published on September 12, 2013. The provisions of Companies Act, 1956 is still in force.

F) How does Start-up India Initiative of GOI helps the Start-up ?

On January 16, 2016 the government of India launched the Startup India Initiative . This was undertaken in order to support entrepreneurs, create vigorous startup ecosystem as well as shift India towards creating jobs rather than seeking them.

The very objective of the Startup India Scheme was to build a strong ecosystem for promoting innovation and startups in the country.

Benefits of Startup India Scheme :

There are a host of benefits provided to the startups by the Startup India Scheme. However, in order to avail these benefits, an entity is required to be recognized by the DPIIT as a startup.

1. Self Certification under Labor and Environmental Laws

Startups are allowed to self certify their compliance under six labor laws and three environment laws. This is allowed for a period of five years from the date of incorporation of the entity.

Furthermore, such a benefit is given in order to reduce the regulatory burden for startups so that they can focus on their core business and keep compliance costs low.

2. Tax Exemption for Three Years

The profits earned by the recognized startups having granted inter ministerial board certificate are exempted from income tax for three consecutive years.

Such an exemption is given to facilitate business growth as well as cater to the working capital requirements during the initial years.

3. Tax Exemption on Investment Above Fair Market Value

In case a startup:

• has inter – ministerial board certificate and
• receives consideration from the issue of shares exceeding the face value of such shares

then the consideration upto Rs. 10 crores received from such shares exceeding the fair market value of such shares is exempted from tax.

4. Easy Winding Up of Company

Startups also known as fast track firms can be wound up within 90 days as against 180 days for other companies.

Further, an insolvency professional shall be appointed for liquidating the assets and paying creditors. This would be done within six months of filing an application to make such an exit.

5. Startup Patent Application and IPR Protection

Startup India provides high quality intellectual property services and resources to help startups protect and commercialize their IPRs. This includes:

• fast tracking of startup patent application,
• providing 80% rebate in filing of patents as compared to other companies
• providing 50% rebate in filing of trademarks as compared to other companies
• panel of facilitators to help in filing of IP applications and
• government support to bear facilitation costs

6. Relaxation in Public Procurement Norms

In order to meet quality and technical specifications all government of India departments, ministries and PSUs have been given authority to ease the norms with regards to public procurements. Thus, a startup can avail exemptions on:

• earnest money deposit
• prior turnover and
• experience requirements in case of government tenders

Further, startups can now get listed as sellers on Indian Government’s largest e-Procurement portal that is Government– Marketplace (GeM)

7. SIDBI Fund of Funds

The government of India has set aside a corpus fund of Rs. 10,000 crore. This fund is managed by SIDBI and is intended to provide equity funding support for the development and growth of innovation driven enterprises.

The nature of such a corpus is fund of funds. This means that the government contributes towards the capital of SEBI registered funds. These funds further invest in startups.

Conclusion :

Thus, in order to boost job creation and entrepreneurship, the Government of India launched the Startup India Scheme. Under this scheme, the government intends to give a host of tax benefits, make compliance easy, fast track IPR tracking and offer other set of benefits. These benefits are offered so that entrepreneurs can focus on their core business and do not have any regulatory burden.

G) What is an Intellectual Property Rights ?

Intellectual property rights are the legal rights that cover the privileges given to individuals who are the owners and inventors of a work, and have created something with their intellectual creativity. Individuals related to areas such as literature, music, invention, etc., can be granted such rights, which can then be used in the business practices by them.

The creator/inventor gets exclusive rights against any misuse or use of work without his/her prior information. However, the rights are granted for a limited period of time to maintain equilibrium.

The following list of activities which are covered by the intellectual property rights are laid down by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) −

• Industrial designs
• Scientific discoveries
• Protection against unfair competition
• Literary, artistic, and scientific works
• Inventions in all fields of human endeavor
• Performances of performing artists, phonograms, and broadcasts
• Trademarks, service marks, commercial names, and designations
• All other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary, or artistic fields

Types of Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property Rights can be further classified into the following categories −

• Copyright
• Patent
• Patent
• Trade Secrets, etc.

Advantages of Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property rights are advantageous in the following ways −

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  Provides exclusive rights to the creators or inventors.
  
  
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  Encourages individuals to distribute and share information and data instead of keeping it confidential.
  
  
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  Provides legal defense and offers the creators the incentive of their work.
  
  
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  Helps in social and financial development.
  
  

Intellectual Property Rights in India

To protect the intellectual property rights in the Indian territory, India has defined the formation of constitutional, administrative and jurisdictive outline whether they imply the copyright, patent, trademark, industrial designs, or any other parts of the intellectual property rights.

Back in the year 1999, the government passed an important legislation based on international practices to safeguard the intellectual property rights. Let us have a glimpse of the same −

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  The Patents (Amendment) Act, 1999, facilitates the establishment of the mail box system for filing patents. It offers exclusive marketing rights for a time period of five years.
  
  
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  The Trade Marks Bill, 1999, replaced the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958
  
  
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  The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1999, was signed by the President of India.
  
  
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  The sui generis legislation was approved and named as the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Bill, 1999.
  
  
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  The Industrial Designs Bill, 1999, replaced the Designs Act, 1911.
  
  
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  The Patents (Second Amendment) Bill, 1999, for further amending the Patents Act of 1970 in compliance with the TRIPS.
  
  

H) How and in what circumstances can we claim Intellectual Property Rights ?

After working hard to develop your intellectual property (IP), you will want to protect it from others benefiting from it without your permission. Although certain IP rights are automatic, it's still up to you to actively protect your work. Nobody is going to look for copyright violations or trademark infringement on your behalf.

Register the Appropriate IP Protection

The strongest protection comes from registering your work. By doing so, you put your claim into the public view, discouraging many (but not all) people from using your work without permission.

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  Trademark registration gives you the right to use the R symbol, giving legitimacy to your claim. A symbol on your unregistered trademark does notify the public of your claim, but has no real legal backing.
  
  
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  A patent or provisional patent application gives you the right to use the patent pending designation. This can discourage many people from developing a product they won't be able to use for long.
  
  
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  Registering your copyright preserves your right to sue infringers and, if your suit is successful, collect damages and attorney's fees.

You do need to make sure you maintain your protection, too. Choose a strong trademark and document your first use to make it easier to defend in court if necessary. Renew your trademark on time, use it continuously and file the paperwork documenting use.

If you start marketing or otherwise disclose your invention to the public before filing for patent protection, remember that you must file your patent application within one year of disclosure and be the first to file, or you lose the right to protection. Consider starting with a provisional patent application to preserve your rights.

Pursue Foreign Registration

If you plan to market your invention in other countries, you'll want to investigate registering your IP in those countries. The United States has several treaties and conventions making it easier for U.S. citizens to register patents and trademarks in multiple countries with one application. You will still need to follow each country's laws. For example:

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  Many countries require that you file for patent protection within one year of disclosing your invention.
  
  
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  Some countries require that you file for patent protection before making your new product public.
  
  
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  Some countries require that you include more than a or R symbol with your trademark.
  
  

Many foreign countries also have agreements with the United States to recognize your copyright registration. If the country you're interested in does not, see what it requires for you to register.

Keep it a Secret

Some intellectual property is best protected by keeping quiet about it. If your work is not patentable, or you prefer to protect it using the trade secrets law, limit the number of people you tell about it. When possible, have potential partners or investors sign non-disclosure agreements .Make sure you make clear exactly what is confidential and how long it must be kept secret.

Even after filing a patent application, you might want to limit additional disclosure, depending on the situation, since protection technically only starts when the USPTO grants your patent.

Monitor Your Marketplace

Laws and registrations offer you legal remedies after your work has been used improperly, but they don't actually prevent your work from being stolen in the first place. Some people may not be aware of the law. Others don't care. And sometimes even a thorough patent or trademark search misses something.

Therefore, it's your job to keep an eye on your industry:

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  Pay attention to new products and companies, and note the images and words in their marks.
  
  
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  Set up Internet search alerts, such as Google alerts, to receive emails when words or phrases similar to your work are mentioned online.
  
  
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  If your trademark is particularly valuable, consider using a trademark search firm to police your mark. A company like Thomson CompuMark will search domestic and international trademark and domain registrations.
  
  
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  Be careful about trademark dilution. If you allow your mark to become a common term rather than a brand, you risk losing your right to it. For example, "zipper" was once trademarked, but became a product category rather than a brand.
  
  
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  Investigate products that appear similar to yours and their patent filings to determine if they infringe your patent.
  
  

Defend Your Rights if Infringed

If you do find instances of infringement, take action. Depending on the situation, you have several options, including:

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  Send a cease and desist letter telling the infringer to stop using your work. You can send it yourself, but for the most impact, have your lawyer send it.
  
  
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  Send a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice for copyright infringement on the Internet.
  
  
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  Request a court injunction to stop a patent infringer from continuing to make or sell the product.
  
  
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  File a lawsuit. Depending on your situation, you many have to decide if you have a strong enough case to make this option worth the cost and effort.
  
  

I) What are the skills that are needed for a entrepreneurship ?

Regardless of how incredible your business idea is, it’s a long road until you turn it into reality. More than 50% of today's start-ups fail in the first four years of activity. This is often because many of today’s entrepreneurs lack the necessary skills to face critical challenges and setbacks during their first years as a startup.

Then again, if starting a successful business was easy everyone would do it. What most people won’t tell you is that without the proper mindset, knowledge, and skills, it’s close to impossible to develop a successful startup.

Let’s go back to those necessary critical skills. What do entrepreneurs need to start, manage, and scale their entrepreneurship journey to achieve business excellence?

1. Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness is defined as the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties. It means you get stuff done. This has nothing to do with how communicative, inspiring, or self-disciplined you are. If you’re not able to effectively handle your day-to-day problems and deal with uncertainty, your business will surely fail.

A resourceful entrepreneur is a persevering individual. They squeeze every single drop of their creative power to come up with constant solutions. This kind of resourcefulness never ends. It keeps going the entire time that the business is in operations.

2. Vision

A visionary entrepreneur is a person who is able to identify future business opportunities by looking at the present trends. These trends help predict the marketplace’s direction. As a founder, it’s your responsibility to make individuals assess and invest in your long-term vision. However, in order to build trust, you’ll have to prove other competencies to your audience. These include your communication skills, strategic thinking, confidence, leadership abilities, and passion.

Visionary leaders can also predict how people will react to future products and services. Before critical issues arise, they already have the proper solutions ready to save the business from losses.

3. Communication

It doesn’t sound too complicated to communicate your ideas, thoughts, and solutions to your employees in an effective manner. That is, at least not until you’re stressed out or in a difficult situation.

Often, entrepreneurs will find golden ticket ideas and successfully identify solutions necessary to their marketplace needs. However, they may not be able to communicate their business solutions clearly enough to make their efforts worthwhile.

If you want people to follow your lead, you’ll need to be able to improve your communication and effectively convey critical aspects, such as why your business is better than the competition, why your employees need to stick with you, why the future is brighter than your team perceive it, and so on.

4. Focus

New entrepreneurs are bombarded with tons of things all the time. You’ll have hundreds of tasks on your to-do list, and encounter overwhelming moments that won’t pass unless you’re strong enough to overcome them. That’s when the power of focus kicks in, a key skill that needs to be practiced on an everyday basis.

Developing a startup is often harder than running a functional business. Founders must focus on the tasks and responsibilities that truly matter during the early stages. Some aspects that can’t be neglected while starting a business are:

• Branding
• Revenue
• Product/service validation and market fit
• Customers
• Hiring a talented team

Each of these factors demands a huge amount of focus from you. If your mind is untrained and your thoughts, emotions, and actions are chaotic, then your startup has the potential to fall apart.

5. Leadership and Management Skills

Founders wear a lot of hats during the startup stages. They are leaders and managers. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs that lack leadership and management skills will find it impossible to deal with the overwhelming number of responsibilities.

As a leader, you’ll have to motivate, inspire, and organize your employees because nobody’s going to do that for you. Responsibilities, expectations, and task management all fall on your shoulders.

Great founders develop strong relationships with their employees, and boost their team’s productivity and efficiency. They also strengthen the foundation of the company. This is done by showing your team they are being taken care of, you respect them, and they can always come to you if they encounter any issues.

6. Grit

Startup founders will always encounter impossibly boring tasks. These tasks aren’t fun, but they must be done. During the very early stages of a startup, every single issue must be taken care of manually by the founder himself. As the business evolves, these assignments will be automated by software or outsourced with the help of freelancers and interns.

Until then, founders need to realize that they’re alone with their mission. If they won’t do it, nobody will. Ultimately, every important task must be done eventually. This is where the grit comes in. The term is very similar to the expression “getting shit done.” If you don’t like it, too bad. Endure and keep working until the job is done.

7. Patience and Resilience

A startup owner can’t expect overnight success, same as they can’t expect everything to be easy. Being patient means altering your expectations in a positive way. Shift your perspective from short-term to long-term thinking. Stop assessing your startup as a success or a failure. If you do that, you’re looking for results.

Owners that constantly seek short-term results to move forward will often run out of energy and motivation. If you shift your mindset and look at your business like you’re looking at life, you’ll understand what your startup really is — a journey.

During a journey, you’ll need to be patient and resilient. When you encounter difficult challenges, see them as necessary milestones and skill upgrades. When everything seems to be falling apart, keep in mind that there’s always something you can do to make things better.

Most importantly, don’t give up on your startup. Did something go wrong? Take your time to recover, build strength, skills, knowledge, and do it again. Patience and resilience are the keys to success!

Every great startup founder is recognized and praised for their end accomplishments. However, behind the scenes, the hustle and struggles are always omnipresent. Before you head out on this beautiful, yet incredibly challenging, journey reevaluate your present competences. Knowledge, skills, and attitude. Each one matters, and they should consistently be improved as your business keeps progressing!