No one said building a company is easy.

But it's time to be honest about how

brutal it really is -- and the price so many
founders secretly pay.
 Entrepreneurial stress
If you run a business, that probably all sounds familiar.
It's a stressful job that can create emotional
turbulence.
For starters, there's the high risk of failure. Three out
of four venture-backed startups fail, according to
research by Shikhar Ghosh, a Harvard Business
School lecturer.
Ghosh also found that more than 95 percent of
startups fall short of their initial projections.
 Entrepreneurial stress
Entrepreneurs often juggle many roles and face
countless setbacks--lost customers, disputes
with partners, increased competition, staffing
problems--all while struggling to make
payroll..
 Causes of Entrepreneurial stress
• . Financial matters
• Finding funding, collecting receivables, payroll, burn rate, cash flow.
• All are very well known expressions for the entrepreneur. And also, all are
very well known sources of stress.
• 2. Sales issues
• And all the factors affecting sales: economic downturn, a customer loss,
finding new customers, dealing with demanding customers, etc.
• 3. Managing employees
• When you become an entrepreneur you also become the HR Officer in
Chief. You need to decide which fires to fight and which fires to ignore.
Making sure you have the right people to work with is one issue you can’t
ignore.
.
 Causes of Entrepreneurial stress
• 4. Scaling the business
• Or keeping it at the level where you are at. Sometimes scaling is the only option. And it’s when
you realize that all the knowledge you accumulated until you brought the business at the
current level, won’t apply to bringing the business to the next level.
• As Einstein was quoted saying: you cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.
• 5. Work overload
• You need to learn to delegate. But before you need to find the people to delegate to. And you
need to train them. And make sure they hold the same vision about the future of the company
as you do.
• Learning to prioritize is probably one of the most important lessons to learn. And fast.
• 6. Responsibility pressure
• You’re not alone in this. Your responsibility goes towards your employees, customers, suppliers,
your family. Enough already to raise the pressure?
• Related reading: They say, stress is like garbage, it creates problems when it accumulates. As an
entrepreneur, you need to deal with stress on a daily basis, but also need to keep your energy
levels high and your focus razor sharp. Good relaxation (stress relief) techniques are a must.
 Causes of Entrepreneurial stress
• 7. Balancing work and personal life
• Where do you draw the line? Is there really work life balance when you are an entrepreneur?
• 8. Wearing too many hats at once
• Until you can start delegating some of your activities you have to learn to change hats.
• And not fall in love with one hat in favour of the others (product development is great, but
don’t forget about sales if you want to stay in business).
• 9. Working alone
• You’re alone in this. At least at the beginning. You don’t have your colleagues anymore to
bounce ideas back and forth.
• It’s where “the mastermind group” Napoleon Hill was talking about comes in handy.
• 10. Dealing with ambiguity
• You start with an idea, a vision of a possible future. You have a plan, but you understand that
your plan is based on your assumptions. When you start executing the plan you realize that
what you do is, in fact, testing your assumptions.
• You have to be flexible and agile to be able to change course based on the results of your tests.
Transition from college to Entrepreneurship

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AS A CAREER OPTION
 Entrepreneurs
• A 2021 global survey of 267,000 undergraduate and graduate students
from 58 countries revealed that around 11% of students already own
and run businesses.
• At least 18% of students wished to become entrepreneurs right after
graduation and another 32% expressed interest to transition into
entrepreneurship within five years of their graduation.
• The study also shows that investments in early-stage startups have
increased from $72.8 billion in 2017 to $208 billion in 2021.
• As opportunities in entrepreneurship rise, universities have started
offering entrepreneurship courses, programs, and competitions.
• In the U.S. alone at least 17% of students operate their own businesses,
and another 16% plan to start one after graduation.
Exactly how..... Be passionate about solving real-world problems.

• An entrepreneur’s journey starts by

observing and defining a real-world
problem or pain point.
• These issues can range from the big
challenges of sustainability and economic
opportunity to more personal issues
around individual safety or entertainment.
 Entrepreneur Journey
• As you look around yourself, ask yourself:
• What are some of the issues I’ve noticed in my immediate
environment?
• Is there a solution that could benefit myself and others?
• Then, probe further: How does this struggle impact people?
• Why does the problem exist in the first place?
• Are there existing solutions for this issue in the market?
• If yes, how good are they?
• What may be some innovative, simple, cheaper, and more accessible
ways of solving this seemingly common problem?
• Taking the time to observe and analyze a problem is critical to finding
a meaningful solution — the first step to building a sustainable
business.
 Talk to customers and stakeholders.

• To truly find a solution that’s useful and

relevant, you need to know whether your
idea, product, or service can be converted into
a good business. That starts by understanding
whether the issues you’ve identified resonate
with people. This is a process known
as “customer discovery and validation.”
 Talk to customers and stakeholders

• Make a list of people who you think are

impacted by the problem that you’ve
identified. Start with your family, friends, and
peers, professors, and mentors in your
immediate network.
• You can even strike up conversations with
people working on your campus.
 Talk to customers and stakeholders
• It’s worth listing out potential customers or
stakeholders outside of your network as well. Where
can you find them? What’s the best way to reach out?
Look into trade fairs, conferences, companies, or
events that are related to your area of interest.
• Online forums such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit
groups, or Twitter are also great places to consider.
Make sure to find people across diverse backgrounds
who can offer you varying perspectives.
 Talk to customers and stakeholders

• Here, you want to accomplish two things:

• First, identify who could become potential
customers or stakeholders for your product or
service.
• Then, validate how the customers experience
the pain point that you’ve identified, and
gauge their reactions to the solution, product,
or service that you propose.
 Validate the problem
• The next step is to reach out to the people inside and outside of
your network more formally to gather data surrounding the
problem you want to solve.
• Start with a hypothesis or an assumption you’ve made about the
problem.
• To test your hypothesis, reach out to at least 50 to 60 people and try
to understand their perspective on the pain point you’ve identified.
• Your goal is to figure out whether it’s “big enough” to invest time in.
• Prepare a list of questions for your potential customers and
approach them — via email, in-person, or through social media —
to see if they’re willing to participate in a short survey or
informational interview.
 Validate your solutions.

• Once you’ve confirmed that the problem you’ve identified is

impacting a large group, it’s time to check the temperature
on your proposed solution.
• Go back to the people you originally talked with, and ask for
their feedback, either through another survey or an
interview.
• The questions that you ask at this stage will depend on the
solution you’ve designed.
• Whatever product or service you’re proposing, your list of
questions should be robust enough to give you a sense of
whether a customer is likely to use it. Design questions that
will help you test what potential customers find both
exciting and problematic about your solution, as well as any
hesitations they may have.
 Validate your solutions
• Keep in mind that testing, gathering data, and re-testing
are part of the learning process, and key to building a
sustainable startup that resonates with customers.
• If you can validate your hypotheses and your
respondents find your ideas useful, relevant, and
financially feasible, you should feel confident about
bringing the product or service to the market.
• If you don’t hear satisfactory feedback, you may need
to tweak certain aspects of your business model or
pivot to a new one.
Network with other entrepreneurs
• When you have little experience in entrepreneurship,
connecting with people who work in the industry you’re
interested in pursuing is critical to your success. Even if you
decide that your idea is viable, you need mentors, advisors,
investors, and sometimes, co-founders to help you get it off the
ground.
• Network with people who are more experienced than you, and
who have gone through the process you’re about to embark on.
The more connected and influential the person you chat with,
the more leads they will be able to generate for you. Or they
could connect you with contacts who may help grow your
business grow now or in the future.
How can you find and talk to these people?

• When you’re still in school, one of the easiest ways is

to look for student entrepreneurs or alumni who
have already launched their own ventures.
• You can find them through your alumni network, on
LinkedIn, or by attending on-campus events such as
hackathons, college competitions, and guest lectures
from new and emerging entrepreneurs.
• In addition, you should stay updated about events or
happy hours organized by accelerator or incubator
programs in your city.
 When you meet new people — whether
virtually or in-person
• — make a quick introduction to get the conversation
going and gauge their interest in your idea. You can
say something like:
Hi! My name is [name]. I’m a student at [university]
and I’m currently working on an idea around [a
short pitch about your startup]. I realize that you’re
an experienced entrepreneur. I’d love to connect
with you to learn more about your journey. Would
you have 30 minutes for a chat sometime this
week?
 If they agree to speak with you, prepare a list of questions to ask them

• How long did it take you to launch your startup?

• What were some of the obstacles that you observed along the way
that you would advise me to look out for?
• What do you like, and dislike the most about being an entrepreneur?
• What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d known as you were
starting your journey?
• What entrepreneurship programs or accelerators would you advise
me to apply to?
• What are the top three things that I should and shouldn’t do while
launching and growing my start-up?
• Who else do you suggest I connect with? If you know this person,
would you be open to making an introduction?
 How to raise funds
• Angel investors
• Venture capitalists
• Banks
• Government schemes
 have emotional support. A lot of it.

• As a part of your work, connect with other

entrepreneurs to build a community that you
can lean on. And as you grow your business
and require people with more specialized skills
and talents, don’t hesitate to seek out a
partner or a co-founder to share the ride.
• .
• .
• Save money and raise funds.
• Make sure you have emotional support. A lot
of it.