Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Monday, 24 June 2013 00:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Organised by the Rotaract Club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura in collaboration with the Department of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Commerce, the forum was sponsored by SL2 College.
Inspiring the fully-packed audience to have their own internet start-ups, the forum featured three eminent personalities in the field of social media, e-commerce, and platform developers.
With Google Inc. Country Consultant for Sri Lanka Rohan Jayaweera, Anything.lk CEO Riza Zarook, and YAMU.lk Founder Indi Samarajiva as speakers, the forum served as a platform for undergraduates to step into entrepreneurship as it addressed important elements of internet start-ups such as entrepreneurial social media initiatives, management of online tools and resources, content creation, and marketing aspects of online business through social media.
How to initiate a start-up
While to start or not to start may be the question, according to Zarook, just as a business is about gaining money, it is about losing as well.
“If you don’t know how to get about your finances, you most certainly will not make it. You don’t have to rush to start your own business. I recommend learning first, so they when you are faced with difficulties, you will know how to tackle them,” expressed Zarook.
He stressed the need of solving problems with a business proposal, since according to him, if a business doesn’t solve a problem, it will never grow.
Zarook recommended the use of the ‘Lean Canvass’ model to help optimise a start-up. This one page business model helps address questions such as; the problem that will be solved with the proposed business, already available solutions for the defined problem, key matrix, unique value proposition, unfair advantage, channels, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams.
“The key is to fill this model with little words as possible. Being able to do so means that you have understood your proposal well enough to take it forward,” stated Zarook.
Encouraging the undergraduates to talk to others regarding their business idea, Zarook said that by being connected, “most ideas can have great input from real people”.
Stating that an elevator pitch is what one should aim at, “if you cannot explain your idea in two minutes, it simply means that you don’t understand the concept well enough yourself,” asserted Zarook and added that while one cannot launch a business with 25 ideas in mind, an entrepreneur should focus only at one problem at a time.
Emphasising the need to test a product before it is introduced, Zarook pointed that there is no guarantee that any product or service will be a hit in the market. “At anything.lk, we fail almost every day. My opinion is that learning through failure is important. After all, success is 90% failing,” he opined.
Rohan’s 7s
“Entrepreneurship and innovation have been the hot topic for the past few years. While it may sound fun, it certainly isn’t,” started off Jayaweera.
Having his own online business while serving Google Inc, he pointed that, although running one’s own business is challenging, its positives overweighs the negatives.
Allowing the undergraduates to learn from the mistakes made when he started his own venture, Jayaweera presented to the audience ‘seven challenges and seven answers’, which he calls “Rohan’s 7s”.
Seven challenges:
1. Fear of failure: Stating that in Sri Lanka it is common and unfortunate that everyone knows everyone, he said: “the problem here is that if you fail, you find it difficult to face people. It is important that you get to the point where you should be able to deal with this situation.”
2. Raising capital: Jayaweera pointed that in Sri Lanka, the reality is that business plans presented by undergraduates will seldom get funded since majority of the nation’s finance institutions are unwilling to take a risk on a rookie. “While there aren’t many who will fund your proposal, with bodies such as Angel Network and Venture Capital, you all have better access, and this is something I wish I had when I was an undergraduate,” he said.
3. No plan: “People who go to the extent to make a business plan will succeed even if they don’t stick to it, and they will be better off than the ones who do not have a plan at all,” Jayaweera said while stressing that a plan of some sort in imperative for any business.
4. Opportunities to be employed: Opportunities to be employed are tremendous when one has a degree in the bag. Noting that this is a challenge for entrepreneurship, Jayaweera said that majority feel secure being employed than taking the risk of running their own business.
5. Lack of big ideas: “No one really comes with a big idea in Sri Lanka,” Jayaweera said. He elaborated that people tend to set limits and fail to realise the opportunities that are before them. “It is important that we think free and big,” he added.
6. Culture norm: Acknowledging that there is a culture of having undue respect for elders in the country, Jayaweera opined that one has to realise that he should be able to challenge the traditional thinking and move forward. “In our culture, if what you are doing is against the wishes of an elder, you tend to give up on that idea without second thought. It’s time we moved away from this mentality,” he stressed.
7. Lack of inspiration: stating that there are many success stores in Sri Lanka, Jayaweera noted that many do not come forward to speak about it. “Inspiration is what you need, and inspiration is what can drive you to do great things,” he said.
Seven answers:
1. Find your passion: “Depending on the background you come from, you will have more or less options in life, but you will never be at a ‘no’ option level,” Jayaweera said. He went on to say that the right levels of interest need to be set and this can certainly be achieved through entrepreneurship.
2. Build confidence: Pointing that confidence is what is lacking among the people of Asia, Jayaweera stressed that students need to put in serious work to build this important element into their character.
3. Develop yourself for free: Stressing that the younger generation of today’s world are not making use of what they have, Jayaweera said: “If you really believe in building yourself, you should put an extra effort. You will be surprised with the outcome.”
4. Find the problem, not the solution: For an ideal business concept, similar to what Zarook mentioned, Jayaweera said that one should indentify a problem faced by a consumer and then find a solution for it. “When you decide to take entrepreneurship seriously, you need to look at the problem you need to fix,” he stated.
5. Learn to ride waves: Stating that this is not one of those elements that can be mastered overnight, to be successful, Jayaweera stressed that it is important to understand market trends and adapt to it.
6. Learn to embrace ambiguity: “There is so much dynamism and unpredictability in the work you do,” Jayaweera said and added that one needs to be able to make meaningful interpretation of what is happening around him.
7. Learn financials: “It is an absolute must to know the basics of financials. If NPV and IRR make little sense to you, you should make an effort to learn these since running your own business is also about managing your money efficiently,” Jayaweera said.
Internet property, the value of users
“Internet property is all about and territory and exploration. And what is exploration? Simply put, it’s about extending boundaries,” said Samarajiva, founder of YAMU.
Samarajiva explained that exploring the internet is no different from exploring the business mind. According to him, having an innovative and creative online business allows one to explore ‘wants’ of consumers before they even realise that they require it.
“Before Steve Jobs came out with the iPhone series, no one wanted a touch phone. Similarly, if you are able to find new ‘wants’, that will be new territories and will be worth a lot of money,” Samarajiva said.
Taking the success of Instagram as an example, Samarajiva pointed that the zero revenue making network was brought for US$ 1 billion since it was “building relationships”.
Commenting on YAMU, Samarajiva said: “Running YAMU in the beginning was more towards doing reviews. Now, by managing to capture the pulse of our readers, we are doing reviews on what our readers want.”
He added that every ‘like’ and ‘share’ has a value and is worth money, and making money takes time.
Moving on to speak about his experience in setting up his online business, Samarajiva pointed five mistakes made.
When building one’s ship, Samarajiva stressed that one should do things correctly from the beginning. To give identity to the business, he stated that having a registered name, logo and trademark is important.
To be on track and to measure the actual performance of the new venture, he stressed the need of maintaining accounts from day one.
While it is equally important to have the right people steering the ship, Samarajiva said the temptation to have a close friend as a business partner should be resisted. “You will regret it down the line. It is easier to get people in, but it is just the opposite when you want to get them out,” he pointed.
With money being the fuel to one’s business, Samarajiva stressed the need of doubling it whenever necessary and recommended using one’s own money for a start up since it helps to retain the equity of the business.
Emphasising the need of establishing good relationship with shareholders, he said: “They might be critical with their opinion on how you do your work, but no matter how good or bad it is, maintaining a good relationship with your shareholders is a very important aspect.”
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
