The appealing aspect of entrepreneurship is often centred on creativity, independence and the prospect of success. However, this glamorised story conceals an unsaid reality—operating a firm is a challenging task. In India, being an entrepreneur is a challenge that tests the founder's willpower and ability to fulfil all these three aspects.
Social pressure and Risk aversion
A common challenge faced by entrepreneurs is social pressure and risk aversion. Today, many Indian founders are young and they started their businesses with minimum experience. To a large extent, society and families consider entrepreneurship as a last choice only in the absence of a paid job. The pressure from society and the need to show their worth at every step make it hard for new entrepreneurs.
Lack of Planning
Another significant challenge for entrepreneurs is that most of them begin without a well-formulated idea and business plan. Without it, there arise issues like missed opportunities and failure to grow. Moreover, businesses struggle to change directions and solve issues due to a lack of clear goals, market research, MVP and alternative plans.
Talent Crunch
It has become very difficult for startups to attract and retain skilled employees. Despite India being a talent hub, building talented teams for the long term is quite challenging. This is because many employees prefer stability and benefits from big firms, making it challenging for startups to compete. As a result, employees leave the organisation and the cost of recruiting new staff is increasing, making it challenging to build teams.
Increasing cost & Increased Competition
Furthermore, startups face higher operating costs and strong competition in the market, leading to serious funding problems. While you might have had initial money to start a business, it won't help you survive for a long time unless planned well. Steady cash flow is important for organisations to endure, and you always need to have extra funds to take care of critical days. In order to deal with these concerns, you may have to cut pay or reduce hiring, compromise the MVP, reduce customer engagement opportunities which impacts business, development, talent availability, employee morale and productivity.
Market Diversity
India is a diversified, cost sensitive and complex market. The business owners are expected to understand different cultures, languages and regions to reach and serve their target customers effectively. It is challenging to develop strategic business plans, products and messages to fit the different tastes of customers and financial strength to enter the market.
Holistic Ecosystem
Also, India's entrepreneurial system does not have the ecosystem, platforms and infrastructure required for the comprehensive product development, manufacture of smaller number of products and market access. This makes it more challenging for founders to translate innovative ideas into products ready for the market, thus limiting their potential impact.
In conclusion, the journey of starting a business in India depicts the strength and creativity of founders who face many challenges. Entrepreneurs have to deal with social pressures , unreasonable market expectations besides overcoming talent, fund and operational challenges. They need to be creative, experimenting and finding alternatives to be successful.
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