3 Basics of Starting a Business
Being unsure of how to start your business is a common anxiety. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to sit down with Anshul Rustaggi, ex-IIT, IIM, and now Founder at TotalityCorp.
In what could be possibly the simplest breakdown of the most essential points for starting a business, here’s what I gleaned from Anshul Rustaggi’s crystal clear vision:
1. Feel out the ‘Market Gap’
While recounting how he decided to start his first business, Anshul mentioned that vaping and e-cigarettes constituted a ‘white space’ in India. This is a pretty neat way of saying the territory was completely uncharted.
When market saturation is tiring out customers and throttling growth, the market gap is crucial to keep in mind when developing your business idea.
It’s exactly what it sounds like. Market gap refers to any space with a problem but with a lack of solutions to counter it.
Anshul emphasized how he was hooked by the idea primarily because it was still in its nascent stages, with the promise of exponential growth lying ahead. Looking at the industry’s success in London, US, and China, he recognized this would become a booming business and decided to take the leap.
Lesson?
If you want to strike big in the gold rush, dig where nobody’s thought to look yet.
Business opportunities are everywhere if you’re adventurous enough in the search.
2. Find the human link
The next most crucial step in the process is grounding your idea. Sure, you’re filling up a lack in the market. But how does it relate to consumer behavior?
Human behavior tends to a certain degree of laziness, of favoring pleasure over pain. While e-cigarettes and vapes weren’t the beacons of health, they were also proven 95% healthier than traditional smoking options. With people usually beelining for anything that minimizes harm and increases their pleasure, it was a no-brainer that business would flourish.
Lesson?
Once you have your market gap solution, figure out how it syncs up with your prospective consumers’ behavior patterns.
3. Align your factors to the end goal
The final — and perhaps most crucial — part of the process is charting your course with the utmost care. Do all your factors fall in line seamlessly all the way up till your final objective?
For example, you have a strong idea. What does the market demand look like? Does the distribution strategy make sense? Does the business have growth potential for later years? Every step needs to be linked up to the next so you’re fully covered when it comes to defining early-stage logistics and benchmarks.
If you’re as intuitive as Anshul, you’ll ensure to have all of this aligned before starting the business; he was chalking this out even in the early planning stages.
Lesson?
It’s almost exactly like building a road map. While giving you an idea of how far you can go, it allows you to spot inconsistencies and patch up weak spots in your strategy.
Anshul has an insane amount of experience under his belt, so it’s no surprise that this is only a fraction of the insight he dropped in our stimulating conversation.
Watch the entire podcast here to check out the rest of his wisdom nuggets.
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