OK, let me admit. I am not sure if you can call anything a fringe benefit of being an entrepreneur, simply because entrepreneurship is so very different from the destination-after-a-long-journey model that you cannot classify the benefits as principal and fringe.

I, however, would persist with the word to signify that this set of benefits is distinct from what we typically imagine as the benefits of entrepreneurship to the entrepreneur.

Also, some of what follows might talk about stereotypes. This, in no way implies that all Chopra Jis or all government officials are what the stereotypes describe.

Now, getting down to the business:

a) Every now and then, you get to pamper the geek in you:

Whenever you have to explore a new technology to customize it to bring maximum benefit to your customers at minimum effort on their part, you have to delve deep into it. One week you are racking your brains hard over PHP-MySql code snippets while the other, you might be sweating over new VoIP tools or rich media technology.

Not that that’s a requirement, not that you don’t have a team to do that - just that you have a hardcore nerd somewhere in you who doesn’t want to let go of the opportunity to deal with something tech; hands-on, yes but if that energizes you and helps enhance the value to the customer, so be it.

b) Negotiating with Chopra Ji for reduction in the advance for his for-rent office premises

Chopra Ji is a generic name. He could be any of the Kalra Jis, Malhotra Jis or Kaul Sahibs. Bottomline is, he is a hardnosed business man who earned his spurs either in real estate deals or with government officials over a government building electrification tender or Karol Bagh traders. He would typically be noisy though sweet talking and loves the sight of cash more than anything. Not one to give any quarters, its a thrill to get him to agree for a less than the norm upfront security amount.

c) Dealing with the government Sahibs

Yes. He would be an official in a government agency to promote entrepreneurship in IT/ITeS or a Director with a government backed finance corporation. With all the trappings of a something-important-happens-here office, what with the AC (instead of the ubiquitous noisy cooler you would associate with a government department), the visitor tag and three layers of solemn looking security guards to be satisfied before you get to see the god once, the ambience of serious business is right there.

The god would be a gutkha chewing middle aged man with a huge drawl and a somnolent demeanor. He is authorized to judge the merits of your business projections not because he is an expert in technology business, or an experienced hat but because some 10 years back, the government decided it had to promote entrepreneurship in IT/ITes so there had to be a department and a slew of officials and by some twist of events, he happens to be sitting on the chair which is somehow believed to bestow the power of discernment and the authority of decision making on to its occupant.

Typically however, they are well meaning people and as long as they believe they are getting the respect they deserve by the virtue of being a government babu, they will not create serious hindrances and may even facilitate a couple things for you. Nevertheless, its a pleasure you know only when you experience it.

d) Playing Big Brother to your team

This could range from developing their career plans with them, helping out in a personal crisis to playing angry young Amitabh Bachchan to get the critically ailing new born of your office staff member admitted to the only speciality government hospital with the equipment necessary to treat him. Of course, the real payout in the last example is when the kid returns from the hospital hail and hearty. All smiles.

e) Thinking like a navigator

Here is the map and here is where we want to go. We will take this route, reach the hills there, cross the jungle to the left, swim across the river and reach the destination. Strategic thinking, if you will.

Only, in entrepreneurship, the hills, jungles, rivers, brooks and planes keep changing their locations as well as their forms. So, if you plan for a river, followed by a hill followed by a tunnel and then, let go of the sight of the map, you might realize that the river has actually become a jungle by the time you reached there. Therefore, you need to keep refreshing the map continuously.

Now, wouldn’t being an explorer in a land which keeps changing every so often that you just cannot “plan and forget” be great fun?

f) Thinking like a mechanic

Lets switch the analogy now. Instead of crossing rivers and jungles, lets now be sailors in the high seas. Also lets assume being a Captain, you are doing a good job of navigating the ship and keeping track of the changing map.

However, you need to make sure that all engines, levers, hulls even the nuts and bolts are working fine. So, while you need to keep an eye on the map and the road (err, water) ahead, you also need to keep your ears open to any unnatural humming which may indicate your machinery is not working as it should.

g) Picking yourself and rebuilding piece by piece

Some days would be frustrating. Things might take longer to happen, a big customer would take longer to close or it would just be one of those blue-days. No worries, just grit your teeth, clench your fists and plough on.

Rock on. That’s the mantra.

It gives me great pleasure to share that eTutelage has been nominated in TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards, link here, but more than that, the support of our friends and well wishers has been overwhelming.

We are getting good wishes and congratulatory messages from far off friends, peers, old classmates, friends of friends, eTutelage team mates, site visitors and customers. It is an overwhelming feeling and we are savoring every moment of it - more so because entrepreneurship can be painfully lonely at times.

Thanks everyone for your support. It means a lot to us all and it gives us the strength and conviction to plough along when the going gets tough.

For those of you who haven’t already voted, voting is on, you can either go online and vote or send HOT 374 to 56767 through your mobile phones.

Time for your typical consulting assignment kind of analysis - all the data captured throughout the whole of last year pertaining to every activity that lends itself to be captured in numbers being put on the table and thought about in every conceivable way. Plans for next year including growth financing, marketing, recruitment, product launches everything being put in place.

They say you already know all that there is to know. It’s amazing how almost every answer you seek is already there with you - some of them may be quite evident while some may be hidden and disguised in the layers of numbers and spreadsheets and charts that capture the story you have been.

Last year has been one of frantic activity and essentially, validating a lot of our practices, processes and beliefs in the market. The almost fanatic focus on customer satisfaction has served us very well resulting in zero dropout - Our first customer and everyone who enrolled since then has been associated with us. It is a testimony as well as our biggest asset. It delights us as well as alerts us to be extra cautious while scaling up to preserve the customer orientation even as the numbers increase.

Rigorous recruitment process has really helped, being there for the teachers has really helped, liberal compensation policy has really helped and above all, our passion for what we do has really helped. From the content team to web team to teachers to accountants to marketing - the sincerity of effort borne out of passion to make a mark has been a constant thread throughout and this has been our most powerful propeller.

The second year begins with new challenges. Growth is happening, we need to manage it and expedite it. Robust systems and structures need to be put in place to handle the demands of increasing scale. Systems need to be up and running to make activities less individual dependent and more scalable. New opportunities for greater growth need to be generated and exploited and the pursuit of defensible differentiation needs to be taken up in right earnest.

Opportunities, challenges, excitement - that’s what the second year of an entrepreneurial company entails.

Just back from a two day trip to Ahmedabad. The event: IIMA Entrepreneurs’ Meet.

Good fun. Good to see so many of the off-roaders meet and share their experiences. Sanjiv Bikhchandani (naukri.com), Deep Kalra (makemytrip.com), Shantanu Prakash (Educomp) and a host of other successful entrepreneurs - the event had to be an enriching experience.

A lot of beliefs corroborated and most important amongst them was that wisdom cannot be transferred. It had to be experienced and everyone has to find their own path.

Questions like what business to start, when to start and how to start are the questions no one can answer for you. Infact, if you still believe you need someone to answer these questions or even guide you in the quest of these answers, you are not yet ready for entrepreneurship.

A very interesting question came up during a general conversation with a fairly senior alumni. “What was the source of motivation to be an entrepreneur? What made you certain that you wanted to be an entrepreneur?”.

It may look an innocuous question but its actually difficult to answer. What made me think I wanted to do it, more so, so early in my career. I quit my campus job in 4 months knowing from the day one that it was not for me and then joined a startup IT services company. My next job was with a small IT products company and all these moves were just to prepare myself better for eventual plunge that I was going to take. The question is how come I knew I wanted this in my second year itself.

The fact is, you just know. It is an instinctive feeling that that’s the only thing you want to do. External factors do help, for example, the biggest contribution of Prof Sunil Handa is that he shows you that you are not the only one to have to pass through a tough phase thereby rationalizing the pain and making it easier to bear. The economic environment helps, supportive spouse helps, encouraging friends help, even Maniratnam’s “Guru” helps - but finally, its that queer little voice in your belly that screams.

It’s something like fire can only burn, it has to burn for that is it’s Dharma or destiny or whatever you may call it. A scorpion HAS to sting and an eagle HAS to prey. Similarly, an entrepreneur HAS to do that, he’s got no choice. The queer little voice inside would not let him do anything else.

At least that’s what happened with me, though being true to my craft of entrepreneurship, I cannot suggest to anyone that that’s a model scenario and that’s how it has to be. Find your own truth - for that is the essence of entrepreneurship - finding your own path.

Oh yeah, the secret sauce, the silver bullet, the magic mantra. But actually, like most of the things that work in life, its no magic at all. Infact, reams (or, more recently, GBs) have been filled with gyan extolling the virtues of this magic pill. Every business professional swears by it, though that’s not always reflected in the way things get done. The idea is so simple, we miss it becuase of just that.

Let’s keep the fun going for a little longer, let’s keep the secret sauce, a secret for a little longer. First, let’s take a look at how we buy stuff.

I will be using the word “product” to mean both products and services. Of course, both can be as different as chalk and cheese depending upon the context, but for the purpose of this post, they essentially work similarly as vehicles of value delivery.

If it’s a repeat purchase, we draw upon our previous experience with the product. Typically, we buy from someone we’ve had a significantly positive experience before. The marketing razzmatazz by a competitor has limited value here, unless there is some significant additional value on the offer in which case, it becomes more akin to a new product purchase.

In case of a new product, something we’ve never experienced before, we try to draw upon the experiences of those we know and trust.

Thus, we tend to go more by positive experiences, whether our own or of the people we trust, rather than being completely taken in by carefully designed communication coming out of marketing departments.

In case of a new product or service, positive experiences of innovators and early adopters create the ripple effect which galvanizes the majority to adopt the new offering, and, a new product reaches its profitablity potential only when the majority adopts it.

The only case that’s left now is of such a new product which does not have enough users, a very new offering. There too, marketing campaigns focussed on creating awareness will create a critical mass of earliest adopters which would subsequently drive the adoption by the majority making the product innovation successful.

Thus, the strongest theme in the purchase process across the board is the positive experiences with the product, which, when shared with customers feeling the need generate the bulk of sales.

In other words, it’s an army of happy customers that’s your strongest marketing tool. Yeah, so much of ado for just this little thing.

Let me now trade my analytical hat with that of a hard nosed entrepreneur leading a start-up. You have to see the quickness, ease and cost effectiveness of a new sale driven by a happy customer’s referral to believe it. Nothing that you read or analyze will get you to really appreciate the magic that happens here.

However, what’s interesting is that so few of the businesses realy internalize this truism and pursue it as a strategic goal.

I am not talking about customer delight being a part of the vision and mission statements; not even about it being a part of an yearly employee training program. I am talking about customer delight being pursued as a strategic objective of the organization as a whole, infact, strategic objective number one. Marketing, Operations, Support, Management - everybody has a significant role in this.  

The other instruments of marketing should facilitate the positive experiences of a few being shared with many and in turn, many more.

That’s what your worldly wise billionaire uncle (if you had one !!!)  will tell you - make your customers happy. If you are in business, that’s the only way to be happy.