Support from Family Members for Entrepreneurs

Sometime back I wrote about 6 Key Aspects before Quiting your Job to start at your own which includes one key aspect "Financial commitment & support". The support of family-members and friends during initial days helps a lot to keep the ball rolling. Any startup venture has initial gestation period before tasting success. For first generation entrepreneurs the time-period may be even longer. I am detailing few scenarios in which you get support from family-members & close friends:

1. Scenario 1 : You went out to meet a potential client, to pitch your product/service. He listened to you for few minutes and then moved out suddenly saying he need to attend a meeting in next 2 minutes. He asked his subordinate to keep a copy of your presentation. You forwarded the presentation and came back to your office. You felt that the boat drowned even before sailing for some time. The potential client was strategic and your mood was offbeat due to the series of events. You came back to your home, but still your mind was processing the same data. Your spouse & kids anticipated that you are feeling low. Your spouse discussed few general things and positive things happening in life. Your kids gave a cute smile and asked silly questions. These things helped you to come-out of bad experience. You discussed the whole episode with your spouse and she said its OK, losing one potential client is not the end of your journey. Next morning your batteries are recharged, and your are geared-up for next business meeting.

2. Scenario 2 : You hired a very good software engineer few months back and he was doing great job for your company. One fine day he came to your desk and informed that he is leaving your company in next 15 days. You felt a lot of pain, since a lot of deadlines were associated with this chap and now all estimations may go haywire. Somehow you convinced that guy to stay for 1 month. You were thinking, what to do next and suddenly you thought of calling one close friend. After few minutes of casual chat you discussed your problem with him. He said that he got few references and passed on the details to you. You talked to them and got a good candidate within next 2 weeks.

3. Scenario 3 : Today is last day of the month and you need to pay salaries to your employees. A few employees need to pay EMI of their home-loan, hence a single day delay would mean some financial loss for them. You are getting monthly service fees from your client ( which is around 50% of your total revenues) and normally you receive it by 25th of the month, but this month they won't be able to pay before 05th day of next month. Now you are stuck? The current reserves can take care of 60% of your requirements, but still you need 40%. You give a call to one of your old friends who is running his own business and he assured you to give 20% immediately. The amount is credited to your account in an hour. The rest 20% you manage from your close family-members. On receipt of money from client you return the money with BIG THANKS.

So in short you get financial support, emotional support, strategic directions , feedback and lot of other good things from your family-members and friends. So keep them involved to make your venture successful.

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