Entrepreneurship - As a career option

“You gotta gather what you need, you gotta choose your direction
And when the moment is right for you, you gotta go
You gotta keep your ideals high, you gotta know that the sky belongs to no one
You know, you’ve got to go” — Above & Beyond

In the last ten years, the definition of business has changed massively. The change that we’re pointing out here has been caused by a simple acknowledgment — the acknowledgment of the limitless potential of young and capable minds.

There used to be a time when we’d relate to businesses as a frontier for well-dressed officials in their mid-30s, sitting around a high-profile office to discuss matters in compact terminologies. But through labyrinths of advancement and technology, today we are at a standpoint from where we’re ready to consider and acknowledge the abilities of newly established and young professionals.

We have rationed business ideas with not just probability but the possibility. This is a time when new, innovation amalgamated business ideas receive a great deal of encouragement and support. Therefore, an entrepreneur is an individual who comes up with an idea so interesting that people don’t mind spending their money on it.

Is an entrepreneur a person trying to be a businessman?

Technically, yes and factually, no. The concept of entrepreneurship is to channelize one’s interest towards a direction where from one can derive monetary benefits. Can you recall Facebook posts or just pictures over the internet that say: “Do what you love, love what you do”?

Upon investigation, it has been derived that entrepreneurship incorporates quite a bit of psychology. This is the reason why we were relatively less lively during the morning assembly prayer at our schools than the recess. The key here is interest, as it is interest that retains our ability to go that extra mile which makes all the difference.

Entrepreneurs are however different from businessmen. Here are a few salient features that differentiate business organizations from entrepreneurship:

Definite structure

• Fixed operational protocol
• Base offices
• Defined shifts of work

Our experimental generation is more aware than we could ever imagine, thereby when we conceive ideas not only do we have the means to scrutinize its possibilities but also the scope of such ideas. This acts as the fuel that drives us towards our respective areas, more earnestly than ever before.

Entrepreneurship could lead individuals into many walks of professionalism, such as:

• Content generation
• Performance Arts
• Fine Arts
• Public Relations and Social Media
• Spiritual healing, etc.

Eligibility criteria to become an Entrepreneur

• +2: Have to graduate in any stream
• Bachelor’s Degree: Bachelors in any discipline that touches Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Management
• Master’s Degree: Masters in Business Administration (optional)

To become a successful entrepreneur, there is no specific course or programme that one needs to pursue academically. As stated earlier, entrepreneurship walks hand in hand with the idea of your entrepreneurial venture.

However, it is advisable to attain some experience through internships or workshops. This acts as a whetstone to sharpen your skill at the time when you’re about to begin your journey.

Although entrepreneurs are identified by their vision and exclusivity factor, some basic knowledge about the field of their work acts only in their benefit. A lot of people obtain a Masters in Business Administration in this endeavor.

Nowadays young entrepreneurs often look back at the experience that they incurred while working for another company, which helped them lay the foundations of their own startup.

Before starting your own entrepreneurship venture you will need a good business plan that comprises of the following elementary understandings:

Basic understanding of your work field

• The basic structure of your operation
• Potential clientele
• The scope of revenue generation

A day in the life of an Entrepreneur

Greetings! I’m an entrepreneur and I own a start-up. My start-up deals with Social Media management for businesses in the city, where my job is to connect these businesses with their surrounding for better sales and a good brand image. I have a laptop in the name of an office and my working hours are stretched across wide as long as I am awake.

There are days when I’m just sitting at home, waiting, doing nothing; to days when I cannot remember the feel of a comfortable chair. Social Media interface requires a complete understanding of online traction rates, target audience, and search engine optimizations over vivid social media platforms, which frankly is quite tricky at times.

But despite all this, my job remains to be the most passionate thing in my life and I stop at nothing when it comes to my work.

Here’s how a day in my life usually goes, unless it’s STAR WARS day:

9:00 AM: Waking up to some serious deadlines. We have a client whose specific target audience is the most active between 9 AM and 11 AM. And I forgot to schedule a post for them last night.

10:15 AM: Just got done making a creative post for my client. This was a close call. Now, some serious breakfast to energize for a day that will suck all of it out of me.

11:30 AM: My associate and co-founder rings me up and tells me that he has pitched to a luxury hotel. We need to work out a Social Media strategy, one that will definitely impress the people across the table. The meeting is tomorrow at 1 PM. Seems like a lot of time? Not really. There’s a lot of research work and analysis that goes into the preparation of a proposal.

12:00 PM: My associate comes over to my home (which is also our office). Let’s get down to some work now. Meanwhile, I’m almost close to making two creative posts for a salon who have been our clients since we first started out. I’ve scheduled the post for two different time slots; one at 3 PM the other at 7 PM (this is the time when their clients are really active on Social Media).

1:20 PM: Meanwhile, I need to see my CA file returns for the last quarter. He has an excel report that I cross-check, and then we upload them to the Central Board of Excise Taxes’ server. This may not be as exciting as it sounds, but then again is extremely important from business’ point of view.

3:15 PM: Back home now. Although we aren’t really there yet we have a rough estimate of the areas we need to touch in order to bag this client. In order to do anything productive, we must first feed ourselves and so we’re retiring briefly for a lunch and The Big Bang Theory. (This may take a while)

5:00 PM: We’re now getting ready to go and meet a club for whom we did Live Social Media coverage and who now refuses to pay up the decided amount. In cases like these, it’s best to draw up an agreement that specifies your payment. Thankfully, I always draw one up before a deal and got it vetted by a lawyer friend - one golden rule for startups: save money wherever you can.

So we’re only going to meet the gentleman and politely suggest to him that we have a legal binding contract under which he is liable to pay us the amount. Why we are going to see him is because things are better in person than over the telephone. Plus, we do not want to lose a client (even like this one).

6:45 PM: He eventually promises to cut us a cheque for the pending amount and we head to KFC to celebrate. One of the best ways to spend money if you ask me, personally.

6:50 PM: I get on a conference call with a headhunter who has recommended a digital marketing expert our clients repeatedly ask for. I take a brief interview - she sounds smart. I ask her to send over some samples, and briefly explain how we work.

We need to be a good fit for each other, and not just here for us. It’s important she understands and appreciates our system, and can fit in. I promise to send her an email with a couple of activities as a test, and then we’ll have an in-person meeting in a few days. I hope our small company can afford her.

7:30 PM: The post is now online; this time with the correct syntax. Now may be a good time to take care of the KFC craving that we left unsettled.

8:20 PM: We’re back online with our research and development for tomorrow’s presentation.

8:45 PM: My photographer joins me now to hand over the data from a recent party that we were contracted to cover. Sadly, he’s two days late for the third time and we’re gonna have to let him go. It’s always uncomfortable firing people, but practicality dictates that dead weight must be chipped off.

9:15 PM: My associate has chalked out our accounts for the last month, but something is out of place. We apparently have no account of about 3000 rupees. We begin combing through all our expenses to figure where things went wrong.

11:30 PM: Our presentation is now ready. Hopefully, this will work. We’re done for the day. Dinner time!