10 Differences Between Entrepreneurs and Businessmen

Entrepreneurs and Businessmen

There are many differences between entrepreneurs and businessmen but a major difference is there, which should be known by everyone who wants to become a businessman or entrepreneur.

So that major difference is that entrepreneurs always have a big new idea. 

By this they want to make money by solving some problems in people’s lives and businessmen always work on ideas which are already existing in the market and businessmen always give preference to make money rather than solving problems.

Why It is Important to Know Differences Between Entrepreneur and Businessman :-

It is very important to know the differences between businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Because after getting the real meaning of these two words, a person can relate themselves to what they really want to become in their lives and then they can start their own journey towards their goals and dreams which can be anyone either businessman or entrepreneur.

Here is the short definition of a Businessman and an Entrepreneur.

A businessman makes his place in the market with his efforts and dedication, whereas an entrepreneur creates the market for his own business. 

The businessman is a market player while Entrepreneur is a market leader because he is the first to start such an enterprise.

Here I am giving the 10 differences between entrepreneurs and businessmen:


1. In Terms of Ideas:

This is one of the big differences between entrepreneur and businessman which is in terms of ideas because an entrepreneur always has an unique idea which originates by himself only and by this he always wants to solve a big problem of society  and make money too.

An entrepreneur is always the first creator of a product, he invests time, energy and money on his own idea. 

A businessman always chooses a profitable business idea whether it is his original idea or an already existing idea, that’s why a businessman always faces a big competition in the market because many other people are doing the same thing but a businessman is the only person who can make a success out of any idea.

2. In Terms of Risk Taking:

In terms of risk taking a businessman always takes pre planned risks they don’t want to lose money and suffer from insolvency. 

That is why they always calculate profit and loss when it comes to business. 

Entrepreneurs always take unbelievable risks, usually they don’t care about losing  time and money because they would always be very passionate about their dreams. 

And when they do this with zeal, zest and passion, most of the time they get extraordinary results and great success. 

An entrepreneur is always a risk taker without calculating profit but a businessman always calculates profit first and then takes risk.

3. In Terms of Working Style: 

A businessman always does work for making profit, and their name for this world whether they are enjoying their work or not they are to do only work for better results in income.

They always want to become a big man by their money and standard anyhow.

They want to gain profit by hook or crook, businessmen always see the world as an opportunity.  

Entrepreneurs always do work which they enjoy, they always prioritise the world first and they always see the world as duty.

They always give preference to comfortability while doing any work, and always be passionate about doing something good for the world. 

Entrepreneurs often go into business for their passions rather than for profits.

4. In Terms of Customer Relationship:

A businessman usually sees their customers as his source of sales and earnings, for a businessman customers are like oxygen to survive in their business and for gaining good income. 

An entrepreneur always takes their customers as his source of duty which he has to maintain for lifetime an entrepreneur believes in maintaining relationships for lifetime rather than gaining profit. 

For an entrepreneur, customers are his companions whom he wants to make happy and satisfied by his work so he will not be compelled to do any other things for keeping them in their touch.


5. In Terms of Keeping Eyes on Competitors:

A businessman always tries hard to beat his competitors and win the competition. 

Sometimes he also considers cooperation and collaboration rather than competition to achieve certain goals. 

Entrepreneurs always learn from their competitors, they handle their competition in an easy and calm way.

They review their competition on a regular basis and face the challenge as a learning experience. 

Competitors encourage them to do more and more good work for going ahead from their competitors.


6. In Terms of Employer Employee Relationships:

A businessman hires employees and workers to grow his business and gives them targets to be completed in a specific time period. 

And he pays them for their hard work only and a businessman always maintains a worker and owner relationship.

An entrepreneur treats their employees as a friend and a leader, entrepreneurs never treat their employees as workers only, he always gives them respect and suggestions to do work in a good manner and invites them to help them grow.

7. In Terms of Money Making Mindset:

In terms of money making mindset a businessman is always afraid of losing money, it is the one of the huge fears which every businessman has. 

Many businessmen trust in a good economy to start their work, they always work for gaining profit, especially in the retail, and financing industry. 

Entrepreneurs generally take more risks with money finance and circumstances  in comparison to businessmen. 

Almost all entrepreneurs believe in this line which has been said by a big personality that  “nothing ventured, nothing gained”.

It means you can’t expect to achieve anything if you never take any risks.

Entrepreneurs always believe in saying that It is fine to make mistakes and lose money If you make some fundamental mistakes, then only you will look at the reason why this has happened.


8. In Terms of Time Management: 

A businessman never wants to waste his time, he always does his work in the same specific time period which he has already planned for that.

He never wants to delay any work or commitment to be out of schedule. 

An entrepreneur works as an artist or a imaginator, only his imagination makes him an entrepreneur. 

An entrepreneur’s product is always his masterpiece, that is why he always does work in a calm way because in hurry we can never imagine things. 

And without imagination we can not make any unbelievable product or brand.

Entrepreneurs always work on the idea whether that idea will take much time but the outcome, which we will get that will surely surprise everyone. 

9. In Terms of Understanding The Success:

Businessmen always describe success in money and growth.

How much money they are getting from their business, what is the turnover of their business, how much growth they are gaining on a daily basis, how much people want to work with them and want to invest in their business, that is the real success for businessmen.

Entrepreneurs never describe success their work describes their success, they always believe in one thing that if we are talking about our success then it is not your success it is only money which you have gain from your work but if people are talking about yourself in a good way and because of your work then it is your success.


10. In Terms of Opportunity Understanding:

Businessmen always take money as an opportunity, if they are seeing any area where they can invest and make money in a huge amount then they will take that thing as an opportunity and they will never miss that opportunity.

Entrepreneurs always take their duty as an opportunity, entrepreneurs always want to solve problems of people by their idea.

And entrepreneurs take that work of solving problems of people as an opportunity which will be done by them.

Conclusion

I have talked about businessmen and entrepreneurs but by these things i don’t intend to offend anyone because both businessmen and entrepreneurs are important in today’s era we need both of them at some places.

So I hope this article will be helpful for you and give you the right vision towards your goals and dreams.



20 Functions of an Entrepreneur

Functions of an Entrepreneur

Are you planning to get into entrepreneurship? 

Or are you already an entrepreneur? 

If you jump into entrepreneurship without knowing what all you’ll have to do after taking it up, The chances of your failure are more than you becoming successful. 

Improper planning can lead you in the wrong direction too and can increase the chances of getting failure. Before entering into any entrepreneurship, you need to know some basic but indispensable functions that may prepare you for upcoming challenges in your venture.

To make your entrepreneurial journey successful here we have written down 20 functions of an entrepreneur – 

20 Functions of an Entrepreneur

  1. Responsibility towards the society
  2. Decisiveness
  3. Develop Inventiveness
  4. Experiments
  5. Be organized
  6. Spread the learnings
  7. Control of situations
  8. Recognizing the opportunities
  9. Riskiness for venture
  10. To manage the roles
  11. Make public relation
  12. Transfer of learning
  13. Transfer of  technology and its acclimatization
  14. Economical Development
  15. Division of incomings or earnings
  16. Acceptance
  17. Culture of contribution
  18. Clarity of target
  19. Finding niches
  20. Building networks

So let’s reed them in detail now

  1. Responsibility towards society –

When you start a venture in order to grow self economically and livingly, he owes the responsibility to develop society as well.

Your entrepreneurship must be the solution to the society’s problem, not the reason for their problems. It must be uplifting the economic condition of society too along with the entrepreneur. 

You need to make sure that your organization or venture is fulfilling the responsibility to develop the society to make it a better version.

It is helping in making a better living for people. Start the entrepreneurship that opens the doors for new opportunities for the society and for yourself too so that it aids you to maint your responsibility towards the society where you dwell-in.

2. Decisiveness – It is very much crucial to take some riskful decisions in order to grow. Everytime you can not make an accurate and correct decision which always will head you in the right direction.

You shall have to make some decisions to get the wrong or right out of it. Making decisions is important rather than making always right ones because that is practically not possible at all.

Calculate the risk factors of the decisions for entrepreneurship and work on it.Make some riskful decisions for your entrepreneurship which are much needed for the venture in order to give pace to its growth.

3. Develop Inventiveness – Sometimes a hand which doesn’t know to be an initiator becomes a very big loss for entrepreneurship.

Sometimes what your product needs is just the right initiative at the right time.The demand of the market can be supplied when you fulfill at the right time before anyone else does in the market.

You can see the instance of any industry, the initiator who brought-up the solutions of the problems of society and took initiatives, is still booming the market.  

4. Experiments – it is a very much needed element in entrepreneurship. You shall have to bring new methods in order to increase earnings and growth of the product.

Experiment with the innovations.Make the products innovative but before making it so, raise the demand of such innovation in market so the experiment can have more possibilities of getting success.Ba innovative with the techniques of the production, customer services and with your product.

A customer likes to be serviced with new better things. In order to stand still in this competitive market, you shall need to experiment with everything and to bring the innovations in entrepreneurship.

5. Be organized –  Keeping all the resources is very much important to run the venture smoothly. All kinds of resources that entrepreneurship requires- human and nonhuman resources are extremely important for the venture.

Availability of all needed resources at the right time avoids the obstacles of increasing the productivity of work. By being an organized entrepreneur only, you can satiate the purpose of increasing productivity at your venture.

6. Spread the learnings – When you start your entrepreneurship, you also learn by your mistakes and try to earn the experiences from those mistakes or try to learn from the other entrepreneurs’ experiences. In the same way, share your experience that you gain through  your learning and mistakes so that it will help future entrepreneurs in their learning phase.

This can easily be done by workshops, seminars, industrial visits and many more things. Share and read success stories, it will guide you a lot and will work as practical guidance for future entrepreneurs. That will help to increase the economical level of nations.

7. Control of situations – A venture just does not need the resources to keep it functioning, but it needs the team or people also who can deal in tactful conditions too. A venture gets loss and profit both but utilising the profit to double the productivity and dealing with the losses, is not an easy act to perform in the venture.

It needs a calm and decisive mind which can make some decisions while keeping the emotional part aside. You shall have to develop leadership qualities, interpersonal skills , skills which can handle disturbance through various things, skills which can manage the resources, develop the skills in the employees and can think for the utmost benefit of the venture.

8. Recognizing the opportunities – A venture value the works which bring social and economical increase in entrepreneurship.

For such opportunities you shall have to become the searcher who can figure-out the usual and unavoidable necessities of the people. Such opportunities will help you to create a beneficial prospect to your venture. 

9. Riskiness for venture – It is a major and indispensable function of entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur shall have to become a risk taker regarding the production, estimation of material consumption,  machinery, technology and many more things in the venture. Opportunities of the organization shall work when, calculated risk of needed elements will allow it to increase the production.

To bring innovation in the production, to maximize the productivity, to increase the demand, suh risks are very important to take. Even not just to increase entrepreneurship but sometimes to bear with the losses, risk is much needed. To cover the losses through theft, robbery, hooliganism or any natural or man-made misshappening risk becomes important.

10. To manage the roles – A venture demands multiple roles of the entrepreneur. An entrepreneur holds the command of multiple functioning like, planning, damage controlling, organizing, risk taking, leading and many more. An entrepreneur plays several roles in order to run the venture with proceeding graph.

The roles are categorised into interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles. Interpersonal roles include figurehead role, leader roles, liaison roles, Informational roles include monitor roles, spokesperson role,disseminator roles where as decisional roles include disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiate role. All roles vary on the basis of work.

11. Form public relation -Every new venture needs organized relations with the public to develop credibility in the organization.

The productivity gets increased from the venture through public so it is so necessary to form relations with the public in order to keep the venture functioning.

You need to target your public as per your demand of the venture then accordingly you can step in the path to build terms with them. This function is very crucial especially in the initial phase of any venture. Because many ventures were discarded due to not having public relations that could- help them to transform their idea into reality.

12. Transfer of learning – When you join a venture you work as a beginner and try to learn from the knowledge which has been transferred by experienced entrepreneurs.

In the same way, your knowledge will also be beneficial for future and budding entrepreneurs and employees of the organization. Your transferred knowledge will help your new employees in adapting themselves in the aura of your organization as fast as possible. Such transfer brings maximum efficiency in work.

For such transfers you need to ensure to store employee’s key knowledge to share it with new ones in future.

13. Transfer of  technology and its acclimatization – The transfer of technology generally known as TOT. It disseminates the required technology to the different ventures or entrepreneurial arenas of the world from different corners of the world.

In such a way it plays a very big role in uniting the world and  helps in increasing the economy of the venture which holds this technology. Its adaptation or acclimatization is equally important to function the entrepreneurial activities in correct and progressive order.

Because you can own the technology with monetary terms but can not adapt it with the same, you shall have to be used to it along with your consumers shall also need to be. It is important to impart because it lessens the processing timing and saves a lot of money which we put in human resources.

14. Economical Development – To sustain the economy in entrepreneurship is necessary to keep the work throughout and keep it functioning properly.

Every organization helps in sustaining the work and the economy to balance it. It can be made possible by spreading the venture in different corners of the country and world.

15. Division of incomings or earnings – It is a very necessary function of business to make separate division of complete income.

Every part of the production requires a particular amount of income to function properly, so deciding the part of income for production’s different elements is the work of so much accuracy and efficiency.

Even in the time of losses some functions are mandatory to run, so keeping such expenses while dividing the income is also important. This the responsibility of the employer to keep everything in mind and make the accurate divisions to not to let work get hindered through such mishappenings.

16. Acceptance – This function of entrepreneurial arena will not affect the industrialization directly in its absence but gradually the deficiency of acceptance in the team of the venture may give a discard to the venture.

The ability to accept if something is not being known by the employer or employees of the organization and learning it can only help them to keep growing for longer visions.

When the employer or employees of the venture stop accepting the fact of having aspace to learn more then the gradually the venture starts working on its edge. A venture grows when the team has the will to become the learners throughout.

17. Culture of contribution – A fist is complete with the contribution of all 5 fingers of a hand as a venture is complete with the contribution of employer and each and every employee.

When you contribute while having a zeal in the heart to contribute not to the organization, not to the employer but to the nation,but to the whole world. This must be in the culture where you work, for who you work, by forcing it,one can not keep it for a long time.

This can only be developed in each and every member of the organization by having a thought to give contribution in making a better nation and world.

18. Clarity of target – Every person comes in entrepreneurship with a purpose and it varies person to person. But sometimes some work with no purpose, and there the problem starts happening.

You will need a purpose if you want to create a successful entrepreneurial kingdom. Some have purpose to earn money, some have purpose to earn status, some have purpose to influence others. There is no judgement happening on the purposes, it is an individual’s choice.But having a purpose is necessary to keep growing further.

19. Finding niches – A good entrepreneur never misses an opportunity where a great entrepreneur turns every  chance into an opportunity. You are great in your work when you are able to identify your niche where you are best in it.Knowing in  all spheres is good to work but having your own niche is necessary to grow.

Once you find your niche you can be better to solve others’ problems in your niche. You will have to keep working for it. So if you already know your niche, that’s good, if not, find it and work on it.

20. Building networks – Networking building is the last step of entrepreneurship where our whole production lies-on. Your production will be able to help to maximum consumers of it when your network will be enormous.As larger the network you have, more impact your product will create. Your larger network will bring the change on a huge scale. That you can get through by developing credibility.

When one enters into the business or entrepreneurial world, due to lack of knowledge, due to less ability of pre assuming the losses and many more unpredictable factors become the reason for a great failure of the venture. Then you just need proper guidance.

Here are some main functions that everyone must know before entering into entrepreneurship in order to avoid mistakes and to run it on a better scale. I hope this will help you and make your venture a success.

How Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are impacting modern business era?

How Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are impacting modern business era?

In the last few decades technology has become a very indispensable part of our day-to-day lives. It has taken over almost each and every section of our basic necessities. Individuals’ more than half life has been dependent on the technology. 

From our day to day life tour business environment, everything is rapidly becoming the user of Artificial Intelligence. We are somewhere among the most comfortable generation that we are witnessing the services and receiving the help of Artificial Intelligence to make our lives easier. 

Now every small and big entrepreneur wants to impart the technology in business to get a hype. The maximum part of our technology has been covered by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. So, we are preferring them more to create a healthy and successive business graph.

But having said that every coin has two aspects, it also has. On one hand Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning has made our lives and work easier than before at the same time on the other hand it is decimating our lives in some aspects. We are using the maximum part of AI in our business environment. So, definitely we will be going to get maximumly positive or negative results in our businesses. 

This article is all about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are impacting modern business era? So, before we start to learn, we all must know what is Artificial Intelligence?

What is Artificial Intelligence?

A part of computer science that helps human as a human. It works to makes things faster with the help of technology. It fusses-over to create more most intelligent machines of world. We can have some examples of AI that we use it on a daily basis, eg., Speech recognition, Cortana, Siri, Google Assistant are well utilized and known examples of Artificial Intelligence. 

Let’s learn the both aspects of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning’s impact on our business era.

POSITIVE IMPACTS 

  • Digital Assistants
  • New innovative businesses
  • Accuracy that helps in decision making
  • Economic Growth

Digital Assistants

Digital assistants have become so common that we don’t even realize that we are surrounded by it. It has created a huge scaled market in terms of users and sellers.

According to the survey so many facts have come in the light. 

According to the report of 2018 digital assistants’ popularity will cross 1.8 billion by 2021 worldwide. Out of them 54% have agreed that digital assistants have made their lives easier. Estimated size of Virtual Digital Assistants’ (VDA) market worldwide is 8.56 billion USD. It may go 15.79 billion USD by 2021.

We use digital assistants in making our work faster and easier like

  • To get to know about traffic conditions of a place where we need to go.
  • To get reminders of meetings and personal appointments.
  • To read out emails and messages.
  • To type something faster than a human typing speed of typing.
  • To order goods, foods, and so more.

Digital assistant seems fun in use and the language it speaks is so friendly and understandable. Through the help of digital assistants’ children also learn to speak clearly.

Estimated Size of the virtual digital assistant (VDA) market worldwide

YearSize (In Billion USD)
20173.00
20185.21
20198.56
202012.12
202115.79

New Innovative businesses

Artificial Intelligence begot a market of innovations. It forced humans to utilize their creativity and create some innovation that world actually need. Artificial Intelligence brought so many innovative business innovations. 

Google Assistants, Siri, Cortana, Robots are all the innovative begets of Artificial intelligence only. But we have been so much used to of all these besides robots that all have turned into common innovation.

If we talk about new recent innovation then you must be knowing about ‘Google Tulip’.

If you have heard about it then please let yourself know completely about it. If you haven’t heard yet then please go and google about google tulip. 

Google Tulip is a beget of google that communicates to flowers and fulfill their requirements of water, sunlight and etc. with the help of AI. It was tested in April 2019 and it was successful attempt have had by google. 

It was innovated for tulips in Netherland, a country which produces 12.5 billion flowers per year which is around 50% of all flowers in the world, Scientists believe that flowers communicate to each other by their roots and send signals to each other. Every other person of Netherland wants to keep tulips at home in vases. But it becomes so difficult to keep them fresh and alive.

Accuracy that helps in decision making

Machines takes decisions based on set of algorithms, previous records and data. So, the rooms for errors reduces so much. It creates an environment of accurate outcome with no error which helps in decision making.

When human takes a decision, he connects emotions in decision making and that may hamper business. But machines have no emotions. They work on set algorithms, not on human emotions so they work efficiently in less span of time.

Economic Growth

Artificial Intelligence has not only played a big role in business but it gives a good hype in our economic growth as well. With the induction of AI, its study and education has also needed to be getting started. That creates one more option for students. 

AI begets innovations and innovation is something that every country or nation wants to implement for the public. That brings economic growth.According to the market research firm Tractica, the global artificial intelligence software market is expected to experience massive growth in the coming years, with revenues increasing from around 9.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 to an expected 118.6 billion by 2025. (Information taken from google)

NEGATIVE IMPACTS 

  • Dependency 
  • Unemployability 
  • Expensive
  • No room for creativity

Dependency 

On one hand where AI is giving a very good impact on our businesses at the same time on the other hand, it is increasing our dependency on machines. For Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technologies we shall have to dependent of machines. That can hamper the productivity.

And at the same time humans are becoming lassitude by having all works done by being at the same place through google assistants like Alexa.

 Unemployability

At one place where Artificial Intelligence is saving our so much time at the other place it is giving big downfall to the employability graph. It is stealing lacks of people’s jobs what they do instead of Google assistants.

As machines can work for long 24*7 hours without a single break. So, in that case businesses would certainly prefer to appoint machines and would invest in them instead of humans. That may bring a huge sales unemployability. We can take a very practical and real example of this. In upcoming years driverless cars will be owing on roads. Thousands of drivers shall have to lose their jobs.

 Expensive

Though AI is giving helpful results in making lives easier, but it is a very expensive proposition. It is not going to be easy to implement in low economical fields. For example, driverless cars are going to be very expensive than normal cars. 

A middle-class man cannot afford it for his comfort. Its maintenance, proceedings are very expensive, we can simply see the robots, robots are highly maintained part of Artificial Intelligence. However, low fund industries and companies cannot entertain Artificial Intelligence.

No room for creativity

Artificial Intelligence works on algorithms, previous reports and data. It works and gives commands as we set machines to command. It doesn’t have a mind to think creatively. SO somewhere AI steals creativity from business. 

If your business is completely entertaining AI then it would be very difficult to keep it creative for a long time. Machines work efficiently not creatively. It performs as we command them to perform.

CONCLUSION

Definitely Artificial Intelligence can be the biggest change in mankind but at the same time damage that we’d face through this cannot be ignored. AI has power to eradicate maximum poverty of this world. It can explore new dimensions and if we use it precisely and in a useful way changes are adoptable and explorable.






What is a Lean Startup ?

What is a Lean Startup?

  • Lean startup is a method used to build businesses based on the beliefs that the entrepreneurs must investigate experiment and test as they develop the products. 
  • It is basically Customer development + Product development. 

10 Important points about lean startup:

1. Lean startup uses validated methods and a hypothesis to assess consumer interest. This will help you to understand the needs and demand of the market. Hence, you can produce accordingly.

2. Lean startup gives a lot of importance to customer related information such as product popularity, Lifetime customer value (Profit attributed to the future relationship with a customer) and customer churn rate (Percentage of customers lost during a specific period).

3. In a Lean startup, experimentation is given more prominence than having a fixed plan. 

4. Lean startups will release their products in a small quantity in order to assess the customer reaction to the product. 

5. The Pivot – A pivot is not necessarily a failure. It means you will change one of the main hypotheses that you had implemented. There are different types of pivot. They are:

  • Zoom in pivot – A single feature in the product now becomes the whole product.
  • Zoom out pivot – It’s the opposite of zoom in pivot. A whole product becomes a single feature in something bigger. 
  • Customer segment pivot – The product was right but the customer segment targeted was not. Here, the product remains the same but the segment changes.
  • Value capture pivot – Changing how value is captured changes everything in the business. (Cost structure, product, marketing strategy, etc)
  • Technology pivot – A new technology can substantially reduce the cost, increase efficiency or performance and allow you to keep everything else the same. (value creation, customer segment, etc)

6. Small batches:

One of the biggest advantages of working in small batches is problems can be identified at a much lesser cost. 

For example – If there is a defect in the physical part, stopping the entire production line can be avoided. 

7. The Andon cord:

The key to the Andon cord is that it brings work to a stop if there is any big problem that requires it to be investigated. 

The activation can bring the production to stop if there is a big issue. This will help the management because it will help in reducing extra cost and increasing the quality too. 


8. Kanban:

Kanban is a visual system for managing work through a process. The goal of Kanban is to identify potential problems in your process and fix them so that work process can be smooth without any bottlenecks.

This is also helps in saving money as it helps in recognizing the problem at an initial stage.   

9. The 5 Whys:

Using the 5 Whys technique helps you get close to the root cause of the problem. It’s a simple and a powerful technique. 

This technique is particularly useful for startups, as it helps them to find the optimal time and speed for making improvements to the detected problems.

10. Minimum viable product:

A Minimum viable product is a product with just enough features to cater to needs of the early customers and this will help in providing feedback for future product development. 

These were some important points about lean startup. Hope you liked it. ☺  

Also read about startup india here-

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Difference Between Self- Employment and Entrepreneurship

Difference Between Self- Employment and Entrepreneurship

Often, self – employment and entrepreneurship are confused to be the same. An entrepreneur and a self-employed person may share the similarity of owning a business but their mindset and approach are completely different. 

The distinction between self – employment and entrepreneurship are:

Self-employment: When one works for himself. Maybe as a contractor or running your business.

Entrepreneurship: Process of setting up a business, taking on financial risk, in hope of getting profits in return.

Here we have written 8 points to differentiate self-employment and entrepreneurship –

1. Being self-employed, you have people working for you. Being an entrepreneur, you have people working with you. 

2. As a self-employed person, you hire people to work for you. The vision and goal is set by you and it solely depends on you. As an entrepreneur, you have people working with you. You and your team work together on setting and achieving the company goals. 

3. Self-employed people are the face of their business. If their absenteeism is constant, their business will significantly go down. This is not the case for an entrepreneur. The business will keep running even if the boss is absent because the employees understand the vision of the business. 

4. For self-employed, if the business owner retires or passes away, the business will also die. But if the business owner passes away, the business will still continue. It is not dependent on him to exist.

For example: Even after the demise of Steve Jobs, Apple still continues its business. Or even after Jack Ma retired, Alibaba continues its operations. 

5. Self-employed is reserved in his thinking. He does not want to go big. He is just concerned about paying off bills. Entrepreneurs are open minded. They are global thinkers. They understand the advantages of catering to people’s needs on a large scale.

6. A self-employed person is not a risk taker. He fears change. An entrepreneur is a risk taker. He has the zest to explore new opportunities and believes that he can manage and control risk. They understand that with great risk comes great returns. 

7. A self-employed person tries to do everything on his own because he thinks he is the best and nobody is better than him. An entrepreneur on the other hand understands and accepts that he can’t everything on his own. He delegates the right work for the right people so that there is efficiency in the work done.

8. Self-employment does not have many requirements and restrictions. Entrepreneurs must deal with a wide range of legal requirements including business registration, insurance requirements and filing taxes.

From this, there is a fine distinction between self-employment and entrepreneurship.

With 8 aspects mentioned, where do you see yourself?

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10 Benefits of Working in a Startup

When you think of working in a startup, do you think it’s fun or long hours of slogging? There is no correct answer to this. Both of them could be true. But it’s important to not overlook the benefits of working in a startup. 

Before taking a final decision, don’t forget to consider these benefits of working in a startup. 

1. You’ll get to work with passionate entrepreneurs:

If you work in a startup, you’re going to be managed by passionate and talented entrepreneurs who have gambled everything for fulfilling their dream. Working under them will teach you more than you could have ever imagined and their guidance will take you places.

2. Wear many hats:

As a startup employee, you’ll be designated with many other roles outside of your job description. Although this could mean more stress and long hours, the experience and exposure gained from doing this is cannot be experienced in a corporate. 

3. A unique growth opportunity:

Best of the candidates are not motivated and driven by money. They are motivated by the opportunity to learn and grow. They understand that knowledge is money. In a startup, they can develop new skills and do things they wouldn’t have the opportunity to do elsewhere. 

4. Experience the startup culture:

The startup culture is more chill compared to the corporate culture in terms of dress code, rules and employee hierarchy. Have a problem that is not resolved? At a corporate office, you would have to go to your boss, and he would report to his boss and so on. But in a startup, ideas and problems can be discussed with the boss directly. 

5. Work that matters:

Working in a corporate in the initial stages of your career means you’ll probably be stuck doing some work that doesn’t really have any significant impact on the mission of the company.  But each startup employee is important and has a crucial role to play in the success of company. 

6. There will be ping pong and foosball: 

Obviously this is not guaranteed but usually the startup office atmosphere is a world away from the corporate office atmosphere. And if you happen to join a startup without a ping pong table, a few e-mails and a bit of money pooling among the colleagues can do the trick. 

7. Learn how to be an entrepreneur: 

Do you have a dream of starting your own company someday? Working at a startup will help you get closer to your goal because startup employees work together. This will help you understand and evaluate the decisions that are taken at the top level, middle level and lower level. Not only that, you also learn how to deal with all types of clients and understand how day to day business matters are handled. 

8. Working in a startup can be the equivalent of doing an MBA:

In MBA, you will be learning all the concepts but not implementing it practically. In a startup, you will be implementing it practically. You will be dealing with real money and real clients. Of course doing an MBA has its own perks but working in a startup can really increase your knowledge. 

9. Flexibility:

One of the main advantages of working in a startup is flexibility. The option of work from home, option to do their work on their own schedule and find a balance so that they can spend more time with their family, friends and their hobbies.   

10. Stock options:

Many startups offer stock options along with regular salary. This is a cool option because it will make you feel like an owner of the company. This can add as a motivational factor to work harder and learn more so that you can contribute to the growth of the company. 

So, these are some of the benefits of working in a startup. Hope you liked it.  


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10 Things You Shouldn’t Do in a Startup

10 Things You Shouldn’t Do in a Startup

There is no text book as such to run a startup in the right way. Founding and running a startup successfully is not easy. 

Almost 9 out of 10 startups don’t make it past the 5 year mark.

After conducting numerous researches, they state that experienced entrepreneurs are 3x more likely to succeed with a new startup than an inexperienced founder.

Below are some of the common mistakes startups make. Read carefully to not make the same mistakes! 

1. Stop hiring the wrong people:

When your startup is new, it is essential that you hire the right people for the right role. 

You can’t afford to waste time and money on someone who is not efficient.

This doesn’t mean they are useless. You can’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. 

You need to hire people who match your passion and their mindset should align with the long term goals of your company. 

2. Stop assuming that you know your customers:

When was the last time you sent out a survey to your customers? Or did a poll? Or even talked to one of them? 

If you don’t remember doing any of these, you’re in deep trouble. 

You should understand that a customer is the king. You should give them what they want. Hence, it is very important to understand what exactly they want.

3. Don’t waste money on things you don’t need:

This also applies to your personal life and not just startups!

You don’t need a big swanky office in a prime area right now. Don’t compare your startup with other startups that have a foosball table or free lunches. 

All those things are cool when you can afford it. Offering them too soon could end your startup even before it takes off. 

4. Don’t try to serve everyone:

Don’t empty your plate by trying to serve everyone because you won’t have anything to eat then. 

Your target market is not everyone. So don’t try to be everywhere trying to solve everything for everyone.  

Concentrate on your target audience and cater only to their needs first. Once you know who your product is for, it becomes easier to market it to them. 

When you market the product to the right people, the chances of boosting up your sales is also higher. 

5. Stop raising capital if it is not working out:

If you are trying to raise capital for your company, make sure you are confident about your ideas. 

Investors will invest in your company once or maximum twice if there is no consistency. 

If they lose money multiple times, you will end up having a bad reputation in the market. This can also affect getting funds in the future.

6. Raising very less capital:

Most of the startups take funding at some point. They won’t have much runway left and they’ll need some extra funding to take off. 

Raising very less capital = Too less money = Unsuccessful take off. 

So if you take money from investors, you should take enough money to get to the next level. 

7. Things you think your startup needs but not immediately:

Here is a list of things you need but not immediately:

  • A good location
  • A CFO
  • A Receptionist
  • Many employees
  • An HR department
  • A conference room
  • Policies for everything. 

8. Stop having unnecessary meetings:

A study by Clarizen in 2015 found that 46% of employees would rather do something else rather than sit in a meeting. 

Some of the things they said they would rather do included having a root canal, watch paint dry or move to Antarctica. 

Fun fact: Most of the employees spend longer time preparing for a meeting than actually attending a meeting.

9. Slowness in launching: 

Several problems could be the reasons for slowness in launching.

Some of them are:

  • Working too slowly
  • Fear of dealing with clients
  • Fear of being judged
  • Working on too many things

It is important to not be very slow as this could send a bad message to the investors. Hence, it is essential to face all the odds and come out of that zone. 

10. Poor investment management:

Money is like the fuel that is used to take the business forward. If you don’t manage money properly, then you cannot take your business forward. 

Hence, it is very important to manage your investors. If you don’t allocate your funds properly, raising funds will be difficult in the future. 

When you’re starting out, you could be confused. You would want to make it big in a short span of time. But rushing too fast can backfire too. 

So make sure you note down the points mentioned above to avoid any hiccups in your business.

So these are the 10 things You Shouldn’t do in a startup. Hope you liked the article. ☺ 

If you find difficulties in making a business plan then please read our this post – How to make a Business Plan ?

Importance of having a company culture

Importance of having a company culture

Company culture is the backbone of any successful organization. Every organization, from small businesses to large corporates, has a culture. Company culture includes values and behaviors that adds to the social and psychological environment of a business. A healthy company culture helps in boosting the performance of a business. 

Let’s take a look at 5 reasons why company culture is important:

1. Identity of your company

To begin with, culture contributes to the identity of your company. For instance, if your company prioritizes achieving both organizational goals as well as individual goals, then workers will be more likely to join your company as they see growth both personally and professionally. 

2. Absence of company culture creates chaos

If the company does not have a good work culture, it can be an unhealthy work environment. 

If it does not make the employees happy, then their productivity level will come down. This will directly affect the growth of the individual and hence the growth of the company.

3. Retention of employees

A solid company culture attracts employees who are proficient and, more importantly, retains the existing employees. When people feel like they belong to a culture, they are more likely to make a long-term commitment with the company. This means fewer people to hire and better bonding among your employees.

4. Image of the company

Culture increases your brand image. If you have a high spirited and a cheerful atmosphere, your customers will see you as a gracious brand. Depending on your target customers, that could be a huge advantage for sales and company reputation. 

5. Business growth and longevity 

Good company culture positively impacts business growth and longevity.

Studies show that most of the profitable companies do not primarily focus only on profit making. They give equal importance to the company culture. They believe that a happy employee is a productive employee.

So, when there is a solid company culture, there is retention of employees, business longevity, leading to the growth of the business.

There is no single formula for a “perfect” company culture. It is different for every business. It is important to remember, “company culture is what motivates and retains talented employees”. And this is what will keep the business alive and competitive in the near future.

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10 Elements of a Successful Business Idea

10 Elements of a Successful Business Idea

Ideas are the lifeblood of a business. Most successful startups always become big because of a good idea and not because of surplus funds. 

1
Value Proposition
2
Customer Segmentation
3
Distribution Channel
4
Relation with Customers
5
Cost Structure
6
Key Activities
7
Important Resources
8
Your Partners
9
Revenue Streams
10
Scalability and Potential for Automation

                  Table of Content

1. Value Proposition:

A value proposition is a promise of a value a company guarantees to deliver to its customers. It is basically a product, service or feature that makes the company attractive to the customers and investors. It summarizes why a customer should buy your product or use your services. A value proposition should be directly communicated to the customers via the company’s web site or other advertising mediums. 

2. Customer Segmentation: 

Customer segmentation is dividing the customers into different segments like age, gender, geography, interests and salary. 

Customer segmentation can help you:

  • Develop effective strategies.
  • Provide better customer experience.
  • Better Ad targeting. 

3. Distribution channel:

Distribution channel is the path through which goods and services travel from the vendor to the consumer level. 

The distribution channel should be minimal as far a possible because it helps in getting the goods faster and at a lesser cost as there will not be many middlemen involved. 

This will help in increasing the company’s profits and customer satisfaction. 

4. Relation with Customers:

Cash is king but the customer is God. A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all. Building good relationships with your customers is very important as it helps in understanding your customers’ needs. 

Providing what your customer needs will increase the profits of your business. This will help you gain more returning customers, referrals and more profit in the process. 

5. Cost Structure:

Cost structure is the fixed costs and variable costs that are required to operate your business. 

To maximize profits, businesses should find every possible way to minimize costs. While some fixed costs are vital for keeping the business running, a financial analyst should always review the financial statements to identify expenses that do not provide any additional value to the core business activities. 

6. Key Activities:

Key activities are basically the activities that a company must perform to succeed. 

For example, if your business focuses on the production of a product, you should focus more about the customer needs and produce accordingly to satisfy the customer needs. This will also help in increasing the net income of your business.

7. Important Resources:

Key resources are basically describing the important assets of a company. They are required to make a business work. Every company needs them and it is only through them that companies generate income and value proposition. Key resources can be financial, human, physical or intellectual. 

8. Your partners:

Team work makes the dream work. It’s not all about the money that a partner brings in. Potential partners must be trust worthy. Good friends who share common values and responsibilities make good partners. 

Look out for partners who have the abilities that you don’t have. This will help in making better decisions as the knowledge base is more diverse.  Remember that the beautiful rainbow is made out of different colors and same colors. 

9. Revenue Streams:

A revenue stream is basically the income of a business. Your net revenue is calculated as the gross revenue minus discounts or returns you had during that year. 

In business, a revenue stream is generally made up of either recurring revenue, transactional based revenue, project revenue, or service revenue. 

 10. Scalability and Potential for Automation:

It is important to keep up with the times and work towards what is best for the business. Automation helps in higher production at lower costs, more efficiency, better quality, more safety, and it helps in reducing the unnecessary expenditure of the business. 

Zomato Gold – What is it? How to install? And its Benefits

Zomato Gold is an initiative of the company to pamper its foodie customers.

It is the company’s premium plan that allows subscribers to have free food / drinks as a part of their orders in restaurants, bars and lounges across the country. 

Zomato has also expanded this offer for home deliveries also now. However, NRAI refuses to support Zomato Gold on food deliveries.

How to get Zomato Gold Membership?

  1. Open the Zomato website or app.
  2. Click on “Dining Out” or “Nightlife” tab.
  3. Click on the option, “Zomato Gold”.
  4. Purchase the plan that is best suited for you.   

List of cities where Zomato Gold membership is valid:

  • Bengaluru
  • Delhi/NCR
  • Mumbai
  • Pune
  • Chennai
  • Hyderabad
  • Kolkata
  • Jaipur
  • Chandigarh
  • Ahmedabad.

Advantages of Zomato Gold:

  • Zomato has partnered with more than 3500 restaurants in India. This gives all the foodies an opportunity to try new restaurants and new cuisines at an affordable price.
  • For benefits on food, you get the second most expensive dish in the order as a complimentary. 
  • For benefits on drinks, you get one complimentary drink for every drink you order, up to a maximum of 2 complimentary drinks. The complimentary drink will be the same as the first drink ordered.