How to build a business: Introduction

I have always enjoyed Entrepreneurship — building my own businesses or meeting and talking to others who do the same.

Of course, building a business means different things to different people. Some do it for the financial reward, while others want to help people solve a problem. However, most do it because they seek the independence of being in charge.

Regardless of the reason, Entrepreneurship comes with its own set of challenges. Creating and running a successful business requires a lot of hard work, a good bit of inspiration and a little bit of luck. Most of the stories people hear are about companies that achieved huge success seemingly “overnight.” The stories you never hear are about the businesses that never got off the ground.

Often, Entrepreneurs whose ventures “fail” decide they are never going to try it again. Why bother? It’s too costly, time consuming, and depressing. Others get “hooked” and keep at it until they are successful.

Frankly, I believe that the choices you make, your adaptability and how much fun you’re willing to have go a long way in deciding your success as an Entrepreneur.

When I got started, I was lucky to land a great job in the India office at Webaroo, a tech startup in Silicon Valley. My colleagues were incredibly smart and we had a good amount of funding. Our founders were serial Entrepreneurs with a track record of great success, which gave us confidence that we would be able to raise more funding if needed.

Despite all of that, our core product wasn’t taking off. So we had to change directions and try something new.

Since we had funding and a great team in place, I had the privilege of building a business within a business. As you can imagine, this was not nearly as challenging as starting from scratch, so I was able to focus on the art and science of building a sellable product. I went from having zero experience in Entrepreneurship to having a successful business.

The main purpose of this book is to discuss the core pitfalls Entrepreneurs face while building businesses, how to avoid them, how to create a desirable product, and most importantly — how to have fun and increase your chances of success.