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Techpreneurship: Seven Things You Should Be Doing
November 21, 2012 Editor 0
It is a skill that individuals have practiced either in a bid to stand apart from the society, or to improve the society. The word itself connotes innovation and creativity – coming up with something new or improving it.
Me and three of my friends decided to start a start-up company, Synacor, we all had the same path of thoughts and our different careers made us quite a team. Thus we decided to head into the entrepreneurship world, and this is what has made us to be Nokia Do Good Hackathon Winners, just 8 months into the business. We run by three things, faith, perseverance and determination… one must always be looking for ways to enable efficiency and improvement of your product. Douglas Injugu , Techpreneur.
Here are a few tips I have come to learnt in my last few years as an entrepreneur:
Hope and Faith
As an entrepreneur you need to have faith. These are times when you trust your guts, and when such times come, you need to have faith, you need to believe in somewhere inside you, it will work, and it doesn’t hurt if you fail, at least you tried, and got to know why it failed.
One thing I always say is that, the worst thing you can do as an individual who is starting a company is not taking risks involving your new product, the one you want to be your companies flag bearer, fear is the worst thing an entrepreneur can have. Thus hope and faith, with this two you will get to trust your instincts at least.
Trust Your Instincts
Always trust your instincts, at times you will be the only person believing in your idea, and yes at times it might lead you to some failures, but again you will learn from them.
Never fail from believing in your product, if you took the time to do your research, write up a business plan, make Pitches, enter into competitions, then that means you see some future in your product, that’s why you went through all that effort you have gone through and still are going through. Is it worth it? Yes it is, at least this would show someone, (like an investor) that you believe in what you are presenting thus he is more likely to trust you with his money if he sees how much sacrifices you have made for your product.
Know People
Some of us would love to seem modest when starting a particular project or a product on their particular company, last week me and my team were in Helsinki Finland to participate in the Nokia Do Good Hackathon, where we won first prize on open data category. One thing I learnt? Know people, tweet, call people, have friends…so kick out that so called modest approach, and shout out about what you do, and what your company does.
Be Open To Change
At times you may be not be convinced that your particular product needs development. But something you should know is that every day is a change. You should be looking at whatever you are offering at far much larger scope and scale, you should be skeptical to changes but rather embrace them, take changes, be it in the market, the country or the industry.
Customer Satisfaction
Always take your customers views. It is better to have one satisfied customer than 10 customers who are not . When you are launching a product in the market, always put yourself in the customers’ shoes: would they like it? Is it quality? Individuals, be it the investors or customers, will only be satisfied if the developer has answered this question first. Seek to be the best at your particular field; this gives your clients a reason to keep your product in the market.
Positivity
Something which I think is essential to all entrepreneurs is: Learn to be positive. As the leader or entrepreneur you should learn to embrace positivity and take risks, that’s your nature as the entrepreneur. Learn it because in the future products that stand out depend on how they were raised or the level of attention they got during the start of the company.
TeamWork
Building your company on a great team comes with great success. Different individuals challenge your thought process, and you don’t have to be committed to far too many things that at the end you might fail to achieve, or come to terms with. Great teams bring together strength when needed and the energy.
A good team brings about a good leadership, which brings about successful development of a company.
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