If you are an entrepreneurial spirit who is tempted to go it alone and start you own business, you may want to consider working in someone else’s start up before you take the plunge.

While it is tempting, when you have an idea, to simply go for it, the skills gained working in a start-up can be invaluable to those looking to start their own business and can help to set you on the right path to success.

Benefits of Working for a Start-up Before Going into Business

Most people are drawn to the idea of a start-up business by the possibility of being their own boss and reaping all the rewards of their efforts, however no new business is a sure thing and those new to entrepreneurship might find that there are more pitfalls than they had expected. Choosing to work for someone else’s start-up company before going it alone can offer an insight into the issues that may arise once you start your own business and give you the opportunity to develop strategies for dealing with potential problems when you finally take the plunge and go it alone.

When you choose to work for a start-up in advance of building your own business, you are essentially taking a crash course in entrepreneurship. You will see the nuts and bolts of business building from the inside and may gain a number of valuable hints and tips on how to create a successful company for yourself.

Another great aspect of working for a start-up before setting up a business for yourself is that you can learn the ropes without having your own capital on the line – there is no point investing all your money in your own business before you truly understand the demands of the world you are stepping into since you may find that it is not for you, or that there are elements of self employment that you are not comfortable with and this is much better discovered at this stage than once your financial future is on the line.

Using Start-up Experience to Boost Your Own Business

Once you have put in the hours working for another business or company, you will find that you have developed a number of skills and a depth of knowledge that will stand you in a great position for launching your own start-up. Simple aspects of business, and tricks of the trade, such as using promotional USB flash drive’s as a giveaway at trade fairs and industry events or networking with the local press and other businesses to promote your product or service will come as second nature – allowing you to gain maximum exposure in the early day instead of waiting to discover these methods down the line.

Whether you work in a start-up that succeeds or fails, you will gain a great deal from your time spent there, and will come away equipped with what you need to give your own business the best possible chance of success.

Customer acquisition and development is critical task for a Startup. With limited budget-time-resource, it is almost impossible to let go even 1 single customer. As a Startup you have hardly any room to say no to a customer such as when they ask for new features, additional services, reduced pricing and many such things.

As customer is God and Startup is your life’s precious ambition, so you think your Startup shouldn’t say ‘No’ to a customer, isn’t ? Go ahead, you should say ‘No’, not for the sake of saying but certainly ‘say no’ if you think your customer will move on if you don’t fulfill their suggestion.

Rome wasn’t built in a day

If you think your customer will run away just because you couldn’t hear & serve their need, then you are missing big picture of your own Startup. It takes time, none of the super Startups were built in a day, they were build over years by bringing on the most valuable solution for customers. Your customer knows it, tell them ‘No’. Don’t burn yourself, stay focused.

Everything is ordinary on day one

It is a fact that when a Startup is launched (whether you build it or incubate in Y-Combinator, StartupWeekend, Seedcamp etc), it is the basic ‘minimum viable product’, ordinary to most customer’s eye. Hence during first few months, customer may puzzle you asking for anything & everything they think you should be doing or your Startup product is lacking. Go ahead listen to them (note what makes sense) and say ‘No’ politely.

Each Customer’s Like is different

One customer may like what you have built, but several others might not need that. So should you be cooking product for 1 customer or cook for ‘common problem’ ? Say ‘No’ to such 1 specific customer by helping them to understand their need and find a way how they could do without it. At same time, reach out to your other customers and verify if your thought makes sense. If your customer is asking for Vitamin, you can certain say ‘No’ as long as your product is solving their pain. Pluggd.in has a nice post, read it http://www.pluggd.in/building-product-strategy-vitamins-or-pain-killer-297/

Your competitor(s) are not running on ‘free’ oil

It is a common fear for a Startup that if they don’t hear customer, customer will go to competitor. The fact is your competitor is equally challenged and have their own schedule and roadmap. Even if your competitor does fulfil what your customer asked, it is impossible that they can do so every time. Say ‘No’ if you have this thought bothering you.

Relationship works

Whether you said ‘No’ to a customer for their new requirements or not, at the end of the day, your customer is your customer if you have built/can build relationship with them. It is the relationship which brings you customer who stays with you for longer time. Say ‘No’ to new requirement but build relationship. Tough! in’t ?

Having said all the above, you shouldn’t miss the point : your customer care about their problem and not about your solution. Hence apply GTD principles like Do-Delay-Delete-Delegate.

Do it if it solves pain, part of your solution area
Delay it if you are not sure and want to cross check with more customers.
Delete it if it is absolutely not related to what you offer
Delegate it to other who could fulfil the need (such as other Startups who is doing what your customer is asking for and unrelated to your solution)

Editor’s Note: Santosh Panda is the Founder & CEO of www.ayojak.com

Connect with him on:
Twitter : http://twitter.com/santoshpanda
LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/in/santoshpanda

This is a guest post from Holly Watson

Choosing the right marketing campaign for your audience type can make or break a young company. If you’re in the business of selling denture-bonding cream, a mobile and/or social media based marketing plan is probably not the wisest choice. But, if you’re offering college textbook rental services, text marketing and social media advertising would likely be effective. But, what if your company’s marketing strategy could go either way? What if your business isn’t so cut and dry, one way or the other? How do you know if you should go the mobile marketing route or stick to commercials during The Price is Right?

It’s all about knowing your target audience and choosing the right type of mobile marketing to reach them.

Different Ways to Market via Text

1. SMS Marketing

If your business falls somewhere in the middle between marketing to grandparents versus marketing to teenagers, you’re not alone. You can utilize different facets of mobile marketing in order to maximize your potential revenue.

Sure, the younger generation texts like there’s no tomorrow, but the numbers show that people of all ages take thumbs to keyboard on a daily basis, especially moms. Over 66 percent of moms are using their smartphones to make lists, find locations and scout deals. With their involvement in smartphone technology already so extensive, catering an SMS marketing plan to their needs is an excellent resource for them and a source of revenue for you.

A typical SMS marketing plan can include a wide range of services. Mobile keywords like “textbooks” can be sent to a text marketing provider to let them know that the user is interested in receiving deals on textbook purchases and rentals. Short codes function in the same way, but use a series of 4-6 numbers instead of a keyword. When a customer sends a short code text, it can trigger an automated response from your business that will link users back to you.

SMS marketing is a tool for serving a wide range of customers–from teens to older moms. However, you might want to stick to older forms of advertisement for the denture cream.

2. Bluetooth Broadcasting

If your audience is young, on the go and constantly connected, Bluetooth broadcasting, also called proximity marketing, might be a good choice. Though Bluetooth use is less widespread than texting, a lot of people still wear a Bluetooth or have their computers Bluetooth enabled. Bluetooth broadcasting allows you to communicate with customers within a certain range, who consent to be contacted by your business.

This form of advertisement is ideal for events at convention centers or other high traffic locations, allowing the transmission to project to a large number of people within a small range.

3. QR Codes

QR codes are essentially barcodes version 2.0. They are two-dimensional bar codes that allow users to access product or service information with ease and quickness.

The user downloads an application to read QR codes, takes a picture of the code with a smartphone and instantly can view all of the necessary information for any good or service. This is convenience at its finest.

As QR codes become more widespread in their use, more businesses will catch on to the trend and begin linking their products to specific codes. This type of mobile marketing is easy to use and requires little effort on the part of the consumer.

Keep Your Audience in Mind

Your advertising dollars are precious. Spending money on direct mail or PPC advertising can be expensive and ineffective. Mobile marketing offers the option of reaching consumers with a specific interest in your product. Take your target audience into consideration when choosing a form of mobile marketing. Go for it, and don’t look back.

Why do I want to start a business? Why wouldn’t I is my answer. There are so many opportunities for new businesses to start up; if i don’t make the most of them, then I’m sure someone else will.

I grew up as a musician- I studied music throughout my academic life. It’s a passion I have that I hope will never stop. However, I never thought of combining my passion for music with business. I never used to think about or even begin to comprehend the word ‘business’. I was certain that I possessed neither the confidence nor the brains to make it as an entrepreneur- so aimlessly I carried on without really knowing how my career path would unfold.

However, all this changed when I attended a Music Business lecture at university. It really changed my thinking; I started to believe that actually anyone with just a bit of common sense, grit and determination can make something of themselves. I had always revelled in the possibility of turning a vague idea into a reality- however, this time I was going to take control and actually do it.

So this is my first business: ‘HispaTune’. It’s a website where people can go to find teachers in Latin genres of music (Salsa, Bachata, Tango etc). After the student chooses their specific music teacher and both parties have agreed a mutual meeting time, the teacher and student then engage with lessons over Skype.

Conversely, I believe the website is about more than just the Skype lessons. Without sounding too pretentious, it’s also about establishing an online community for Latin musicians. The reason why I decided Latin music was the way to go was because there is so much more to Latin music than the music itself; there’s the dancing, the style, the celebrations and the whole social aspect which are all as equally important as one another. The sense of spirit within the Latin community already exists; it’s now just a matter of creating an online platform for it to flourish and reach a wider audience among the western population.

I have many plans for the future of the business. Hopefully I would like to branch out to other music genres. Portuguese Fado music for instance really has a strong presence across the world and I believe there is a need to make full use of the musical talent that Portugal has to offer. As well as this I would like to produce Tuition DVD’s and other products which students can really benefit from.

What is known for sure (well, almost anyway) is that all of this expansion will be self-funded. The money made will be utilised to propel the business forwards, without the need of external funding. One of the main reasons why I wanted to be self-employed in the first place was to gain financial independence, which is a decision I intend to stick by.

I have paid for the business so far with purely my own cash (through part-time employment) and nothing else at the moment could give me the same sense of satisfaction. That isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of opportunities out there, especially for young people. Perhaps even one day the situation will arise where a loan or grant will be the only way forwards, but for now I will continue with what I believe is a much more natural progression of business.

Anyway whatever happens, however successful (or unsuccessful) the business will turn out to be, at least I can say now that I’m giving a real go at it. Best of all I’m enjoying myself and ultimately, regardless of what industry you’re in, that’s the main point of it all. The financial reward, in my opinion, is nothing more than a convenient bonus. What I really want to do is create something that people get pleasure from and to maintain a career that I can relish in.

If I had to sum up what it means to be an entrepreneur, I would use these three words: independence, freedom and enjoyment.

If a foreigner were to ask about life in Great Britain, what would we answer?

Would we tell of our lives driven by family and community, of our young people engaged, educated, motivated, healthy and responsible, of our doctors and police valued and respected, of our innovative and forward-thinking politicians motivated by integrity and the genuine welfare of their countrymen, of a nation of social and business entrepreneurs fixing society and the economy?

Or would we tell of our individualism and lack of social awareness, of our young people’s disrespect and disillusionment, of our out-of-touch politicians’ detachment and ineffectiveness, of greedy and selfish mega-business, of our obsession with money, celebrity, fashion and material gain, of our blame culture destroying personal and collective responsibility, of our political correctness replacing common sense and common courtesy, of our pervasive security and fear culture stifling growth, or our welfare state promoting dependence rather than self-initiative?

We have arrived at a critical moment in time. The time has come to ask, here and now, what kind of society we wish to live in, what kind of society we leave for our children and their children, what kind of example we wish to set the rest of the world. Because as society stands, our future is bleak.

We therefore have no choice but to set an entirely new agenda for the way we live our lives, laying new foundations for a healthy society that places its values on individual and collective hard work, taking responsibility for our own lives, being involved in community and with family, on finding wellbeing and purpose.

It’s a task that calls on each and every one of us to take our place at the table and play our role in a better society that will continue to serve many generations after our time. It’s a task that requires us to stand up within our communities, to look around us, to help each other, to help ourselves.

In 1997, at age 18, I found myself with no job, little education, no home and no future. Despite coming from a broken home, a broken education and the odd encounter with police, I decided to take charge of my life and make something happen. Higher education was not going to provide the direction or the hunger for getting stuck into life and a conventional workplace was not suited to my creative drive.

Instead, I invested the £300 savings in my bank, printed some letterheads and started a small business. Over the next 11 years, that business went on to employ nearly 200 people, provide a valuable service to its customers and gave me a life of character-building hard work, determination and financial security that I could be proud of. My starting point was never something as cheap as money, prestige or material goods, but the inherent value of creating something and making things happen for me and others around me.

Entrepreneurialism, from the French ‘entreprende’ for ‘undertake’, is typically associated with business, but it is really about making things happen, in business or society. It is about identifying problems and creating and trying out new ideas and solutions, whether starting a business venture, a community project or a personal project, simply taking a seed and growing something new and unique.

Across the undeveloped and developing world, the one aspect of poverty that nobody talks about is the entrepreneurialism and industriousness. Despite the harshest conditions, millions of individual people make the most of their lives, running businesses, scratching a living and in doing so, they achieve self-worth. Not a single handout sought or blame apportioned. Just hard work and self-help. And always with a smile.

In Britain, we have seemingly lost the power to help ourselves, looking to others for solutions. But we are capable beyond measure. We are our own leaders if we choose to be. We do not need politicians or bureaucrats to tell us what to do, how to live and what we need to improve our lives, what is best for us and when, where and how. We have the self-knowledge and power to take control of our own lives and those around us, to do what is best for our children, our families and our communities. Politics is simply the business of people and public affairs.

Following the riots which brought home quite how broken and separated we are from ourselves and each other, we have an opportunity to change the course of history and every single person has the power to be a part of that change.

But that is only possible if we stand up and take part, if we participate, if we are interested, if we take responsibility, if we lead our children by example and affect others to do the same with a sense of common good. It is every man’s responsibility and anything less is a dereliction of duty. And in doing so, we can be proud of the society that we have each played a part in creating.

The time has arrived to become a nation of business and social entrepreneurs who make things happen, for ourselves, our families, our communities, our country. As a great man once said, ‘become the change you want to see’. In work, in personal life, everywhere, walk out of the door today, find purpose and make something happen that matters to you and for those around you. It’s not apathy or lack of purpose that has stopped us so far, it’s just that nobody has shown us how fulfilling and rewarding it is to participate and make things happen.

This post was written by RUDI SCHOGGER
Rudi Schogger is an Business and Social Entrepreneur.

This is my interview with Pallav Nadhani, the founder of FusionCharts, a company that provides graphs and charts for over 18,000 customers and 375,000 developers across 110 countries including a majority of the Fortune 500 companies, including Google, Weather.com, Facebook, and NASA. He started the company when he was 17 without any outside investment.

In this interview, he talks about his background and how he started the company. He also talks about some of the advantages/disadvantages to/not start a business at an early age.

His entrepreneurial journey has been covered by various magazines like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Today, Economic Times and numerous blogs & websites.

Pallav is also an active angel investor in India.

Hi Pallav, thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me, how are you doing today?

Very well, thank you.

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I am a techie who now dons the hat of a CEO and an angel investor. I was born in Bhagalpur, a small town in India and then shifted to Kolkata (a metro city) when I was almost 15. My father was running a web design business in Kolkata. I worked with him for few quarters and picked up valuable lessons in client interaction, web designing and tools of the trade. Later, I did my Masters in Computer Science from University of Edinburgh. We just opened another office in Bangalore, and now I’m based out of here.

So what role do you currently have in the company?

Currently, I don multiple hats – part of a product manager, part of a marketer, part of a sales person and part of a recruiter. My job is to get the best people who I know on board and direct them on product and strategy, and let them drive it.

Tell us about a bit about FusionCharts and how did the idea came about?

When I was working for my father’s web design company, I came across this site ASPToday.com that used to pay a good amount of money to authors for writing innovative articles. That sparked in me the idea to write an article for them. During those days, I had to prepare charts in Microsoft Excel for my school work – and after doing web design, I found these charts very boring and dull. And since I had been working with Macromedia Flash (Adobe Flash now), I started exploring how to marry that to business data and to create better charts for web.

After a few weeks of coding, I made an animated and interactive charting system, which was very crude. But, in all naivety, I wrote an article on that and it got published. I got $1,500 from that (and another article that I subsequently wrote for ASPToday.com itself). That was my seed capital for the business, and also the start of the entrepreneurial journey. Developers who read that article liked it and kept on asking for modifications and enhancements and this is when I realized that a product could be created out of it.

What were you doing before you started FusionCharts?

I was in high school.

What would you say has been your most memorable experience so far on your entrepreneurial journey?

Seeing a picture of President Barack Obama on a US government website, looking at our product as part of that website.

Starting up the company, what would you say was your most difficult process and how did you overcome it?

Coming from technology background, dealing with people was the most difficult part. I had no hiring experience or expertise in HR policies. Plus, my expectations from employees were always over the board, as I expected them to work like me. Learning how to delegate important things also took me time. Gradually, I realized my follies and started working on it – and am still working.

Tell me about your experience in the University, did you think it helped prepare you for the real world or should i say corporate world? How would you describe your experience?

It was something that I wanted to do for a long time – more of a personal dream. I learned more about life in general than academics. For the first time, I was living all by myself – doing everything that is required. Living in India, you get used to a comfortable life with maids, helpers, chauffeurs and office boys. That period made me realize the importance of time management. Plus, the cultural experience was invaluable.

You’re also an angel investor, when did you start investing?

Almost a year back. While we started with the idea of covering the void in East India, we now invest pan-India.

What do you look for in companies you want to invest? what industries are you investing in at the moment?

Good & balanced team having belief in their own idea (though not married to it, in case they need to pivot). Also, an arena where we could add value personally, more than just the money. We invest in software and Internet companies only.

What do you do for fun?

Traveling, poker and a lot of reading.

Let’s go back a bit to when you were 17 starting a business, what would you say were the advantages and disadvantages of starting a business at such an early age?

Advantages:

Nothing to lose. If you start early and fail, you came out a much wiser person.
Others easily forgive mistakes that you make early.
Since you have never worked, you have no idea of baselines (or benchmarks). As such, you bring a fresh
perspective and always try and improvise it (because you always feel that what you’re doing is not up to the mark).
Early pocket money, that gives you freedom to do what you want.
Good PR story J

Disadvantages:

Potential employees and customers might not take you very seriously. You’ve to be really good to prove otherwise to them.
Lack of people skills. Not having enough knowledge on how corporations work, people behave, policies & frameworks operate.

What are some of your favourite web based tools at the moment?

Google Apps, Wrike

Name some of the Indian start-ups you admire at the moment?

Zomato, DimDim, VisualWebsiteOptimizer, RedBus, JustDial

What are some of the advantages of having your base in India?

I would say it would not have mattered if we had our base in India or US, since we sell online & globally.

What future developments can customers be expecting from FusionCharts?

We’re expanding our product portfolio horizontally (more products) and vertically (more depth in each product). We released data-visualization products for PowerPoint (called oomfo) and SharePoint. We are also working on making FusionCharts fully JavaScript compatible, so that it works on all devices.

In terms of expansion, we recently opened another office in Bangalore to be able to attract senior talent. We’re expanding our sales & marketing efforts.

How To Get Press As A Start-up

As an entrepreneur you may be well aware of the benefits that your company can offer to clients – but are your potential customers in the loop?

One of the most cost effective ways of getting the word out is to generate press coverage for your business – in print publications, online and through the broadcast media. However, editorial slots in any of these media are hard to come by, so it is important to implement a press strategy to make the most of any available opportunities.

Business owners have two choices when it comes to generating press coverage – they can decide to employ a public relations professional or can go it alone and decide to do their own press in house.

Employing a PR Consultant to Promote Your Startup

For those who are not well versed in the way the media works, employing a PR professional can take a lot of the strain out of publicising a business in the press. In much the same way as a PAYE payment company can take responsibility for payroll issues out of the hands of the business owner, a PR firm will be able to create and manage an effective public relations strategy for an enterprise.

PR professionals will have a great set of media contacts and will be able to channel information about your company to those outlets most likely to pick it up and run with it. They are also well aware of what editors and journalists will find “newsworthy” (interesting and relevant enough to be featured in their broadcasts or publications)

Tips on Conducting Your Own PR Campaigns

If you do not have the inclination (or budget) to employ a professional , then never fear, because there are a number of simple steps that you can take to catch the eye of the press and try and secure some free advertising. Things that business owners carrying out their own press and public relations work may wish to consider include:

Writing and distributing topical press releases within your industry. Press releases must be relevant and not overly promotional. The key to getting a press release picked up by the media is to make your company only a small part of the story.

Consider holding an event to raise money for a popular local charity and inviting the local press to cover your efforts, or issue an expert comment on a story that is already getting a lot of coverage. Press releases can be sent directly to newsdesks of relevant publications, or you may wish to use an online press release distribution service who will forward uploaded information onto relevant media as well as making it searchable online.

Building a relationship with the relevant journalists. Contacts are a journalist’s lifeblood, so if you, as a business owner, get a reputation as a helpful contact, they are much more likely to consider featuring your business in their work.

Join networking groups for your area or your field and seek out members of the press – introduce yourself and share interesting information, don’t give them a sales pitch on your own product or service. Once you know who the key players are be sure to stay in touch.

This post was written by Martin Povey who has his own marketing and business coaching company. He has worked with many entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises, looking at business strategy and creative solutions to build their business and achieve their goals.

If you’re like me you simply want to do great work for great customers, earn an honest income and make your business more profitable.

The fact is that to achieve this you need to plan your work and work your plan. Without a well thought through plan your dreams can quickly turn into nightmares.

Your Business Building Plan is your road map, showing you the route to take, where it is you want to be and how you’re going to get there and achieve your goals.

As an entrepreneur, independent professional or home or small business owner you know that being your own boss can be terrifically fulfilling, fun and even profitable – yet at the same time it can be extremely frustrating! Why is that?

Could it be because it seems that so often you’re so busy “doing” that there’s no time to focus on building your business. And because there’s no overall business plan or marketing strategy in place, the result is a continuous cycle of “feast or famine”.

There’s plenty of business out there but you’re so preoccupied with the current state of things that you’re not looking at the future state. If you don’t know where you’re going then you’re not going to get there!

Let’s say that you decide to visit an old friend who lives a couple of days away. Would you simply wake up one morning, just take off, turn right at the end of your block, then drive for 48 hours hoping that you were going in the right direction, hoping that you’ve got enough gas and enough money and hoping that you wouldn’t hit anything on the way through because you couldn’t afford to fix it?

Of course you wouldn’t. You’d carefully plan when you were going to leave, plan what route you were going to take, plan alternate routes, plan how much gas and how much money you would need, plan on when you would get there and plan on what you’ll be doing when you arrive.

With your plan in place you wouldn’t have the constant pressures or overwhelming worries about what and you should be doing next and when, where and why you’re doing it. You’d arrive at the end of your journey stress free and ready to enjoy time with your friend.

Your Business Building Plan can help you deal with problems before they get out of control. It can simplify decision making and can help you identify, set and achieve goals.

Your business building plan needs be a carefully thought out document. It should outline exactly what your business is, how and where you will run it, how you are going to finance it and how much it has or will earn or lose.

It shows the risks and strengths of your business, describes the market, outlines your long term goals, and sets out the milestones you must reach.

It will simplify decision making, and it can help you identify, set and achieve goals. It will help organize and consolidate ideas so you can better promote your business.

Your business building plan needs to be a well thought out document to guide you in your day to day running of your business. Your plan will reflect your commitment and enthusiasm and with your main goal and other goals defined, it’s much easier to set targets, timetables and budgets to achieve them.

A written plan will save you time, work and money; think of it as a security blanket for your business and your own peace of mind, so if you haven’t written your plan yet – make it a business priority.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Andrew Jervis. Andrew is currently on the Masters of Enterprise at the University of Manchester. Brought up on the Isle of Man, Andrew went on to attend School and his Undergraduate education in the North of England. Andrew worked in a graduate position in an offshore bank before embarking on his enterprise journey. Currently he is involved in 3 enterprises each with their highs and lows: Check them out: www.quickvehicleparts.com, www.pieboyclothing.co.uk, www.andypie.co.uk

So you’ve got that amazing idea? Check! You know exactly how it’s going to plan out? Check! It’s going to make you a millionaire with in 18 months? Hmmmm….. Check!

Being (or aspiring to be) an entrepreneur is an amazing experience. It brings out a whole series of emotions – excitement, frustration, joy, worry, laughter, you name it! Inevitably you’ll meet a whole variety of extraordinary people.
You’ll more than likely have no money (or negative) in your bank account at some point and you may even think “what the hell am I doing?” Well if your reading this and you’ve started a business and are currently experiencing some or all of these symptoms, don’t sweat, its perfectly natural.

From a personal perspective starting out on my first business was a hugely exciting period, but one that was approached naively, yet became a great learning experience. With aspirations of having the world of wheel trims eating out of our hands in no time, my self and business partner at the time were ready to conquer the world. Our projected financials had many noughts at the end of the net profit line and we were already day dreaming about great success and riches.

The reality was quite different… We launched and well… the sales came but not by the amount we anticipated… by a considerable amount.

Being positive, ambitious and optimistic are all very important traits to be successful in business. Some people who launch with this enthusiasm hit the jackpot first time and very quickly (Mr Zuckerberg would provide a modest example of this), but as the stats show the majority of start-ups don’t succeed and many of those who do get through the first couple of years go on to make modest incomes.

The point of raising these sobering facts is not to be negative and dampen the fantastic enterprise spirit that has swept the nation but is to prepare people for their enterprise journey ahead. The road is long, fun and enthralling but you have to be prepared for hard work and setbacks. That’s not to say that the journey wont be rewarding as it definitely will be!

From a more practical perspective I thought it would be worth pointing out a few pearls of wisdom that have been passed down to me that I have found particularly useful blended with a little bit of my own experience. From the top and in no particular order:

Don’t settle on your first idea… You are potentially stumbling through 100’s of great business ideas everyday. A really effective way to find a great idea is to look at the problems you encounter every day. I’m pretty sure your problems are not just isolated to you, so if you can solve a problem for your self then you can solve it for whole bunch of other people.

Under take a feasibility assessment…. Undertaking a very basic feasibility assessment on your business can quickly find out if it’s a goer or not. What’s your cost price, what’s your sale price, how many units do you need to sell to break even, how many customers will potentially and realistically buy from you (everyone and anyone doesn’t count!)

Go niche… This is not necessarily a pre-requisite for a successful business but it can be an effective method to get trading in the early days. Find a small particular niche market that no one else is focused on and really deliver great results for your customers.

Be very good at one thing, not ok at 5… I can be very guilty of this, as can most entrepreneurs. With so many ideas flooding through your head it can be easy to get side tracked and before you know it, you can be doing an OK job with a few ideas but not really delivering to your full potential. This brings us back to don’t settle on your first idea…. Be picky and choosy and when you know you’ve found the right idea commit to it.

Network and drink green tea… Regular tea and coffee is OK as well but make sure you talk to other entrepreneurs or free lancers. Starting out can be quite lonely especially if you’ve come from a big organisation so speak with other entrepreneurs, go for tea and cake, share experiences and contacts and help each other out!

Get a mentor… Being able to get some one who’s been there and even got the t-shirt to give you pearls of wisdom along your journey can be priceless. Preferably get a mentor who is tied to your industry and walked your proposed enterprise journey before.

Learn from Failure… Failure is not bad. Infact, failure if used constructively can be a really good thing. Its much better losing a few hundred pound in the early days and learning a lesson, than losing £10,000’s later on having not learnt that lesson. Don’t be afraid to fail and if you do, dust your self off, learn what went wrong and try not to make the same mistake again.

Have fun, get passionate, work hard and play harder… Your enterprise adventure is certainly not going to be dull and it is certainly going to bring out all sorts of emotions. It’s going to be important that you will have to work hard when required to but it’s equally as important to enjoy your new freedom and play when you can. Most importantly enjoy what you do and get passionate about it!

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Noam Kostucki, Noam is a social entrepreneur and recently a speaker at TED, Noam has given training, coaching and consulting at Yale University, HP, Tata, UnLtd and the British Heart Foundation. He is the founder of Seeducation (www.seeducation.org) and SeedPro.

In the UK alone, the social enterprise market grew from $24 billion (2007) to $97 billion (2010), and some people are still wondering whether “making money from doing good” is realistic.

I believe that everyone can make a healthy living from doing good. In my TED talk, I explored the question of “when is doing good the best way to make money“?

Now I want to look at what kind of social enterprise model can work for you.

If you are part of the 75% of the people who start by telling saying “but… you don’t understand: what I do is different. In my business we can’t do [...]“, don’t worry: just write down all the problems with doing what you would want to do and find a solution for each barrier, one by one, rather than all together.

When starting with social entrepreneurship, people wonder what they can do and how it applies to their industry or specific business. I don’t have a set answer, and no good consultant ought to. But we’ve got 2 other things in our sleeves:

1) a set of questions to ask you… most people I meet don’t actually know much about their market and own line of business

2) a set of models you can get inspired by… most people find the answer themselves once they’ve seen how someone else has made it work

This is why I have identified for you 6 of the most common big models. Take a look at how different organisations understand the idea of “making money from doing good” and take the best from each.

1. Buy 1, get 1 free for someone else: like the Jojo Project or Tom’s shoes, for every item you buy, someone else gets the same for free

2. Profit go to do inspiring good: OneWater that sells commercial water in supermarket invests most of its profit to build roundabouts for children to spin in Africa. As they turn the roundabout, they pump water to a water tower for the village and the surrounding ones. They also sell advertising space at the top of water towers to generate more revenue.

3. Intrinsic good: FEED Project is a company that sells bags and clothes that do good. Each items you buy is intrinsically good because they are made of eco-friendly material, and as an added value, each item also helps feed people in the developing world. So as they do more good, they make more money, the more money they make, the more good they do!

4. Invest in your future market: Seeducation is the “charity” that gives free education to individuals on how to make a living from doing good. SeedPro is the “company” that get paid by organisations for training, coaching and consulting on how to make money from doing good. These charitable activities support people in creating social enterprises. The more people Seeducation helps, the more social enterprises there are… and therefore the biggest the market is for SeedPro.

5. Improve the chain: Innocent drinks sells high price top of the range juice. They charge you for quality product, but also for the quality of the service they provide you: the go back all along the chain of production and makes sure every aspect is ethical and sustainable. They pay fair price and help their providers improve their sustainability and profitability.

6. Uncontested experts: For example, Age UK, the charity to help the elderly really runs 4 businesses that generate 104 million pounds from trading in 2010 or the Directory of Social Change that makes year on year about 95% of the money it needs from selling training, books, conferences and online tools.

If you want to learn more about how you charity can start making money from doing good, check the TED talk or tell you what you want to know about through comments, questions and ideas!