Everyone who has seen Band Baaja Barat knows, it is a story of two entrepreneurs who build a successful business and also fall in love with each other. It is their journey from start to success with a bit of love angle involved in it. I will like to list a few of my takeaways from this movie.
1. Ideation: The ideas was to start a wedding planning business in New Delhi.
Unlike what most VCs, Gurus, and Investors ask, this was not an unique idea. There was a pain point(this too is not mandatory. e.g. twitter ) which they were addressing alright, but nothing uniqueness about the idea. I would so far to say that it was a run-of-the-mill idea. The idea was simple and they could explain it in under 30 seconds to any one.
2. The Start: This is probably the most important thing in the movie, the start. Although they had the idea and new some things about it, they did not jump right into starting it. Instead, they joined an established wedding planner as interns or assistant.
I can not stress the requirement of this more. In my list, it is the number one priority. Get involved. Know the business. Do not jump right away. I have done that mistake, and learned about it in a very long time. If you are having an idea of a web product startup, just knowing coding and being able to make the application is not enough. You need to have experienced marketing, sales, revenue generation, maintenance, customer service, etc. The only way to know these is by getting your hands dirty. Join a startup as an intern, be eager to learn as much as possible and in as many areas as possible. If you are having a plan to start your chain of superstores, it helps if you can do something small first. A franchisee of an existing business. This will give you the required learning. For all aspirants who want to build a web business, and are not able to intern in a good startup, I would suggest you start an affiliate marketing site, preferably, a niche related to your idea. This will give you hands-on experience and you would learn many things which otherwise is not possible.
3. Start small: With the numbers we often see floating in the tech blogs, it is difficult to stay ground and set goals with small numbers. Starting small is very important. If you start small, the investment required, automatically comes down. Ideally, you should be able to start-up with your savings or pocket money. Getting your first customer is very important. Slowly, as you work with customers, you will grow in confidence and might be able to put the profit back into the business and not need any external investment.
4. Scaling Up: When you are ready, you have to take a leap of faith and scale up. Also, on scaling up, you have to spend all your efforts on making sure you do not screw up.
However, some of the facts, they showed in the movies, is very rare in the real world.
1. Going Viral: If your marketing strategy is going viral, then it is not good. It is good to have a viral feature, however, banking on it is really foolish. I have gone thru this myself.
2. Vendors: In the movie, you find all the vendors are really helpful and no one is actually trying to screw them. Very rare. Effort should be spent, to find right/reliable vendors.
I would really like to hear more, if I have missed any in this post.
