“I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.”:) – Jonathan Winters

Monday, November 17, 2014 marks the 5 years to 30TH FEB, a dream rush it has been. Like a marriage I wasn’t too sure that the love will be so deep – even if you have bad days, all you want is to stick together. 5 years is not too long but it tells that we have a reason to celebrate survival, progress, honesty & optimism. We could stay and we will be able to stay much longer now!

Like any business here too we experience difficulties, I was often wondering & trying to differentiate between free-lancing, solopreneur, a big agency etc. But we reached to a point that we aren’t a start-up anymore. We learn to value our time & effort and we got a direction. And during this course of action, we had moments when we wondered what winning must be like! We embraced changes, took challenges, failed at times, shined at times and we learnt some lessons too, here are those we would gladly be sharing with you,

Definition of Success:

“Being successful starts with knowing what YOUR definition of success is. It’s not always defined by dollars.”

The definition of success matters a lot in a start-up story. It could be money, projects, people, consistency etc for different people & different teams. Our Definition of success was simple – we had to sustain and that would happen only if we have work in hand, the idea was not to sit idle, joblessness was a challenge and answer to what will make this effort successful. After 2 years of launch, the definition changed for we realized some of the projects were not paying as per the effort. We needed to grow in terms of Quality of projects, the profits we are making, and the work we are delivering. That changed our definition of success. We now work for Brand Satisfaction – in overall terms.

Success as it seems is quite simple to people who applause you and judge you at times. You know the complications & challenges, the complexities & hurdles; you know it is been really- really hard. But if you know your definition of success, you sure know it is worth it.

Cash Inflow Matters:

Our Panic moments have reduced but we know Cash is still the king. It is not only about work but it is also about the payments. You don’t want to work for months for a petty payment. You want to take this up, finish it up & get paid. That keeps the momentum. But what mattered more over last 2 years was to stagger the payments and make them monthly assignments, retainer mode offered more security and consistency.

Quality & Quantity – Balance Matters

All growth & opportunity begins at the end of your comfort zone. Learn to say “no” to the status quo so you can say “yes” to your very best.

5 years have pushed me to understand that quantity of work helps you sustain but it is the quality output that helps you grow. There are many times when we need to take up projects which are not as exciting & worthy as per the effort required but they are equally significant for they provide the required push, the momentum and the consistent cash flow. So we need to remember that to keep going is more important at times then just to limit ourselves with preferences.

Specialize

It is good to keep the positioning straight and specialize. Doing lot of things takes away the focus and that is why the work loses it shine. It also means lack of focus and works both – as we are ready to accept everything at out sleeve. We need to specialize, it helps in positive manner and it also builds credibility & conformity.

Clients are always happy to receive measurable work. And if we are a specialized agency, we will be able to deliver more insightful and more meaning work. The issues such as mis-briefed, new industry and many more irrelevant reasons won’t occur as you are specialized in handling such assignments.

Keep the Attitude of Learning

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

Entrepreneurs should never be satisfied or even come closer to ‘know it all’ approach. Instead, they must take each opportunity as a learning opportunity. To specialize is one significant aspect but the willing to learn more & more through projects, conventions, people & networking is a must for any entrepreneur. One must not stop learning.

Delegation is good for Growth

When I started, it was more like a freelancer/solopreneur. Still small in terms of infrastructure but we could grow in terms of projects, the challenges, the assignments. All this because I decided to delegate and explore new teams and that is how newer projects.

If you need to grow business, you need to grow in terms of teams, brains & ideas. There comes a phase when each entrepreneur wants to learn it all – that could be because of the cost issues or some bad experiences. There is nothing wrong in learning it all – if you want to become a ‘freelancer’ but an entrepreneur must chase more challenges and hence delegation is good.

Acceptance

Acceptance of failures, of success, of challenges, difficulties and solutions works best for businesses. Entrepreneurs, we particularly who are in the stepping stones shall learn to accept. Be it a feedback from client, an eye-opener from a friend, a mind-boggling launch by a competitor or the missing links in your offing, the sooner you accept there is a lacuna earlier will you start working on a solution for the same and this believe me – make you Go Strong!

Constraints are Challenges

Develop this attitude, make peace with the above said. Constraints are not something to stop you. They are the challenges and should be seen that way. Complaining attitude drives panic, often leading to inaction and a typical ‘what to do’ situation even when we have pending tasks are drooling around. I recommend starting thinking of such situations as your first day in a class where you have come to study a new subject, walk step by step and see how best you can deliver. The words like not big enough haven’t done it before, small team should not be seen as constraints but instead the project shall be well received as a challenging one.

Keep Good People Around

It is very important that we always have good people around – in the form of clients, friends, mentors, associates, employees and vendors. If you have good people around – they will help you in keeping faith, give you direction in finding solutions, inspire you to stick around and remind you of your baby steps and how you excelled. They will not allow the faith drop so keep them close.

Like the say, to enjoy a life of distinction, it is vital you surround yourself with people who respect where you are but recognize where you are going.

Alas, I would like to thank our clients, our critics, our friends, my team and all the well-wishers who believed in us, who believed in #30TH FEB.

Like it is said, A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. 

To know more about 30TH FEB and our start-up story, you can reach me at, jigyasa@30thfeb.com