It was never my intention to write about all the failures I had along the way. But one day, when I was feeling particularly down with the remorse of not choosing a high-paying comfortable job and not being financially stable like my peers, my wife told me that each failure I had encountered was just life lessons. Similar to the ones I paid for during my MBA studies, it is just that these lessons were a whole lot expensive and painful.

She pushed me to write about what I have learned from my previous failed startups. She also pointed out that, each new venture I start, I was making it better than the previous one. That was code for “fail more and learn more”.

Including the current company, I have found four companies. And only one survives so far. But each subsequent companies moved further in the business life cycle and that is something I am proud of.

From my first and second ventures

I started these at the same time around six years back, one was supply chain management solution and the other one was an online healthcare assistant solution. We had the idea and we knew we could make it work. But…

1. An idea is not enough

Everyone has plenty of ideas. I get more ideas every second. But what matters is how to get the idea to take-off. The complexity of an idea is often not a factor in the success of the idea. Be it simple or complex, unless you make it work in the real world, it doesn’t have any more value.

2. People will invest in your idea once you believe in it

“Do you believe in your idea?”, was the first question asked by the business consultant during our startup incubation interview. We said, “Yes.”. Next question came, “Prove it.”. Yes, we did not have an answer. The expectation was that if we had believed in the idea, we would not be waiting to get incubated. We would have sold the product already. Investment or incubation should always be considered as assistance and never a dependency. We did not get incubated but we learnt a valuable lesson.

Why would someone invest their money in your idea? An idea which you are not willing to put your own money and time in?

3. Always start with the MVP

This is the combination of the first two lessons but mentioning MVP as a separate point is necessary. MVP or minimum viable product is the base product with the bare minimum features to prove that demand exists for your product. This has multiple advantages. Like us, you wouldn’t be stuck in developing the product forever. We spent an inordinate amount of money on preparing reports, developing applications and much more, without even understanding the demand for the product.

4. Move before you are too late

First-mover advantage does matter unless your product is exceptionally better than the existing ones. And for the sake of argument let’s assume your product will be average as most of the products are. That leaves us with the one option, beat everyone else to the market. When I write this article, there are hundreds of products in the same space where I wanted to launch my product. And 6 years back, it was nascent.

From my third venture

5. Never try something because someone said it is good

Precisely the opposite of what I did in my third venture. I heard about this amazing idea. At the end of every week, I would make thousands of dollars. I even talked to some people who successfully ran this. It all sounded amazing. All I needed was a good team and the money would start flowing. I put my savings into it, assembled a good team and started this amazing company only to realise it was not as easy as I thought. Fact is, the business was good only if you knew how to run it. The fault was not with the business but with me.

6. Do a background check of your vendors and business partners

Two weeks into the operations, I got some subtle hints that the vendor was not going to pay us for the service we offered. No reply for the emails, phone calls not returned. And when we pestered them multiple times, we got a mail showing that the payment has been made with the transaction details. We waited for a day or two for the payment to reflect in our bank account until we realised it was all a scam. And that waiting continues after 3 years. My suggestion is to have a background check of your vendors through other companies dealing with them. Get some testimonials and references if possible.

7. Always document any decisions taken by you, your business partners or vendors

My previous boss used to say, always put everything over mail. May not be the best advice but I wish I had done this with my vendor. I can’t even sue them because I did not have enough evidence to prove them guilty. More than proofs, these would also help you in keeping track of any major decisions, payment terms or any other business references.

8. Always do something you know and love

Basic mistake. I heard about someone doing something and I sprung into action. I thought it would be easy money. But one major catch here is, every business has a low-day. And if you are not passionate enough about your business then it is very difficult to go through that phase. You would almost immediately let it go. On the other hand, if you are passionate about the business then you will do whatever is in your capacity to make it right. So basic, yet so difficult to implement. In my case, I did not know even the basics about this business, I heard people make a lot of money in that and that’s all I heard.

Bonus tips, from my current venture

So far, I have implemented the lessons I have learnt from my past experiences. Like I had written in my previous post, learning is a life long process and here are some more of the lessons I learnt.

• Hire good people even though they are costly
• Think of multiple income sources and clients
• Clear out the financial aspects of your business with your partners before you start the venture
• Sometimes outsourcing is the right thing to do
• As a business owner, never try to do everything on your own. Always delegate

Final words

If you want to take away just one lesson from here, “Always do something which you know and love to do”. If you follow this one advice, then the other pieces will fall into place with ease.

Make sure you dream big and start small. Apply the concept of MVP in any venture you start, it will ensure you are moving in the right path. And last but not the least, fail often and learn from it. Never be afraid to fail.

Keep learning and keep adapting!