The Third day of Spark Week 2017 was held at the Westminister Hall of Islington College, Kathmandu. It shed light on the importance of growing an idea into a successful venture. Once the service/product is introduced into the market.Once the service/product is introduced into the market. The real work actually begins there. Customer development, finding the right market, growing productions, are just a few elements of running a startup. Saying this, no matter how good a product/service is, it would be a waste if the business doesn’t grow. A business must grow in order to sustain and thrive.
The discussion focused on how an entrepreneur must expand their startup. The key elements that were discussed were about accelerating the growth, realizing when a company needs more funds, how to use it efficiently, etc. The Panelists for the session were, Dr. Bishal Dhakal, Health to Home Foundation | Ravi Phuyal, Innovative Nepal Group |Tasnessm Shahani, Tasneem’s Kings Kitchen | Mr. Vidhan Rana, Biruwa Advisors Pvt. Ltd moderated the event.
TALKING POINTS and KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Dr. Bishal Dhakal
Dr. Bishal Dhakal, a doctor who’s an entrepreneur, expressed that business as such was not an idea for him. He had a Doctor’s degree, so he had options for working either at home or in hospitals. He wanted to come up with something new that didn’t already exist in Nepal. That’s what made him establish Health at Home Foundation. He feels that growth is a very philosophical value where one has to be in judgment side if he/she is in the decision making position. It’s about quality and dedication so the responsibility of numbers is crucial. Based on his experience, he shared that there’s not just one face of success or one face of a milestone. If one is really doing well, the market is big enough. Hundred thousand people are still there in the market who have not been catered which shows that there’s wild space to grow. He believes that he has done a remarkable job as an individual with an individual idea with so much commitment. Right now there are probably 50 different home health care agencies in operation when he started the number was zero. When seen from the futuristic value for health care driver, where they were was definitely groundbreaking and a very big pride for Nepalese to look back, maybe in 10 years time, that we did something right in health care. He stressed the importance of making micro mistakes in order to not fail. When one makes mistakes calculatively on a micro-level, he/she will make fewer mistakes. He stated that failure doesn’t have to be a teacher, success is the best teacher as it gives recognition.
Mr. Ravi Phuyal
Mr. Ravi Phuyal shared the journey of how he helped Informatics College evolve to what it is today. When he, along with his partner, took over Informatics, which was a small computer training center back then, the institution was bankrupt. He believes that growth is the mixture of numbers and brand value and it is something very situational. He went on to say that the path of business is always different and undefined. When they took over, they were young and it was too early for them. The number was frustrating but they kept on participating in educational expos to get more students. They explored cities outside Kathmandu and conducted series of promotional events. After a lot of struggle and dedication in the journey of nearly two decades, now Islington College has 5 branches in Nepal. He expressed his views on managing growth focusing on the importance of building one’s capability and strength and developing resilience power over time. He ended by suggesting upcoming entrepreneurs validate the ideas they’re working on and to check if the market really needs it. He also stressed on sitting with mentors, seniors, experienced and non-experienced people to validate one’s idea as their inputs would be crucial to minimizing the risk.
Ms. Tasneem Shahani
Ms. Tasneem Shahani shared her entrepreneurial journey of 15 years. She had started from small scale by taking orders from home for 11–12 years. After a certain period of mine, the question, ‘What next?’ struck her mind and it led her to open up her own restaurant. Growth for her is something to be innovative about. She talked about the difficulties she faced particularly during the earthquake and the economic blockade. She stated, ‘when you go through such severe problems, you have to decide for yourself if you want to continue or give up.’ She expressed how after managing to get through those 8 months during the economic blockade and also the post-earthquake stage, they’re now ready to face any situation as they’ve come out stronger and believe there could possibly be nothing worse. To conclude her remarks, Ms. Shahani stressed the importance of passion and innovation for managing growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Three things are essential for being an entrepreneur to grow; being crazy and stupid, thinking differently and applying one’s passion.
- Being an entrepreneur is not an easy job unless one has a passion for what he/she is doing and is willing to get up every morning and follow the same routine again and again.
- If one is trying to grow, not doing things differently would make it difficult to generate goodwill in the market.
- Making calculative mistakes on a micro-level helps an entrepreneur recover quickly.
- Every entrepreneur has his/her own set of targets and vision. The path to achieving the vision could differ. Sometimes the path changes and there are unforeseen circumstances, so an entrepreneur needs to be ready for any kind of situation.
- One has to entrepreneurial in everything he/she does in life to solve problems or to see the gaps and hit it right. It is important for managers to understand that what comes next has to be calculated, only then there is the potential for growth.
- Perseverance is important for growth. One has to persevere through all challenges and obstacles in order to grow.
