Challenges faced by start-up entrepreneurs in Manipur

Dr. S. Keshorjit Singh *

Today entrepreneurs are occupying the central role in all economic activities and development of a region or of a country. This is because of entrepreneurial energy, creativity and motivation that trigger the production and sale of new products and services. Entrepreneurship has assumed super importance for accelerating economic growth both in developed and developing countries. It promotes capital formation and creates wealth in the country. It reduces unemployment and poverty and it's a pathway to prosperity. So, it is hope and dreams of millions of individuals around the world to be entrepreneur.

According to Peter F. Drucker , "Entrepreneur is an innovator".

Yes, Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or service. It is transformation of creative ideas into useful application that results in new products ready for commercialization.

A simple way of differentiating an entrepreneur from a business man is 'innovation'. An individual doing business with innovation is known as an entrepreneur, without innovation is a business man.

Starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur is both exciting and challenging. Exciting because he will become a boss, achieve financial independence, enjoy creative freedom, use his skills and knowledge and so on…

On the other hand, starting a new business entrepreneur faces many challenges too: such as instability, stress, negative mindset, overwhelming feelings, lack of supports, competitions, problems of raw material, problems relating to marketing, outdated technology, lack of infrastructural facilities, lack of skilled labors, financial instability and many more.

General Challenges faced by Start-up Entrepreneurs in Manipur:

Raising Capital
The biggest challenge that the entrepreneurs in Manipur face when starting a business from scratch is raising needed capital.

There is more to raising capital than just simply asking for money. Most investors want to invest in already established businesses with minimal risk and they want to be sure that they get returns for the risk they took. Most brilliant business ideas never scale through the venture capital stage here because the entrepreneur is either not prepared or lacked what it takes to raise the needed capital or lack of capitalists.

Business Idea
Developing business ideas and selecting the best idea is the first true task of an entrepreneur.

The main business challenge is the ability to forge an opportunity into a business idea. This is a business challenge because the process of transforming problems into business opportunities is like trying to turn copper into gold.

An entrepreneur needs to be ahead of his time or else he will lose his relevance. He is the one who brings future into present. So the business idea needs to be futuristic in its applicability and uses.

Competition
Competition is the next challenge an entrepreneur face when starting a business. There is cut throat competition in business and market. New entrepreneurs get sucked with market credit policy and price war among business rivalries'.

Competition is good from another perspective; it is the main engine that stimulates innovation and production of quality products at affordable prices. Without competition, there will be no innovation and without innovation, there will be no entrepreneur. What is more worried in Manipur is unhealthy/unfair competition, which steals customers' confidence and market values.

Entrepreneurial Culture
There is lack of entrepreneurship awareness and business culture in Manipur. Our society at large lack supports to young entrepreneurs rather encourages white color jobs. This culture brings instability, stress, negative mindset, overwhelming feelings to the start-up entrepreneurs in our state. So, it is the responsibility of all the stake holders to develop a positive the mindset towards building a strong entrepreneurship culture in our state, Manipur.

Employees
< Only business owners know how difficult it is to find a hardworking, trustworthy employee in Manipur. The side effect of lack of work culture is reflected in the minds of employees who want to work less and get paid more. Employees in Manipur wanted themselves respected more than their earnings.

In this situation finding a good employee who will be passionate about delivering his or her services is quite challenging.

It is the fact that employees are the representatives to customers and the outside world. They are a reflection of the business culture and ethics. If an employee is bad or rude to customers, it is going to portray a bad image for the company.

It is also a customary in Manipur context that the entrepreneur ends up hiring his near and dear ones instead of searching for right employees.

Customers
Another challenge that an entrepreneur will face in the process of starting a business is finding customers. Various marketing strategies need to be used in order to attract and retain customers. Reaching the products to the customer is expensive and time consuming. The entrepreneur needs a good marketing team to sell out the products or services that the organization is producing. The success of entrepreneurs dependent directly on the number of satisfied customers.

Unexpected Occurrences

Entrepreneurs in Manipur face many more typical challenges as compare to their counterparts elsewhere.

Some of the unexpected challenges are:
Disturbing state of laws and orders
Attitude of state players and non-state players towards businessman
Bad debts from customers
Government policy
Loss of market share
Inadequate stock or inventory
Logistics and Transportation bottleneck.
Family problem
Problems of obsolescence of indigenous technology
Employee turnover

These business challenges are very sensitive and fast, if not handled properly can ruin the plan to build a successful business by the budding entrepreneurs in our State. Dynamic Manipur, Globizs & MIMS, MU join hand-in-hand for Lean Startup Workshop to encourage and guide our budding entrepreneurs prepare both mentally and physically to overcome their business challenges.

We all come together here to create the right environment for success ensured entrepreneurs by accessing the right skill, smart capital, enable networking and exchange. A workshop series on Lean Startup workshop will surely help our aspirant entrepreneurs learn to face and tackle the common start up challenges.

Such workshop series would be guiding the participants how to drive a startup, how to steer, when to turn, and when to persevere-and grow a business with maximum acceleration by eliminating uncertainty, work smarter not harder, develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), validating the idea before investing in the business. Lean Startup is globally accepted and validated process or methodology of validating a business idea. In short, it is a must tool for every entrepreneur.