Respect Investors' Money, Remain Committed to Brand While building a profitable business model is extremely important, entrepreneurs should strive to serve users and solve their problems

Building a successful start-up is not easy. One needs to put in days and nights of hardwork to build and nurture ventures. While building a business model good enough to be profitable is extremely important, entrepreneurs should also keep in mind that they need to serve their users, solve their problems and make their life easier.
"Once you are in a business, you have to commit yourself to serve the society," said Ramani Iyer, co-founder of JustDial, while speaking at Startup Summit 2019 organised by Franchise India.

Agreeing to the idea, Greg Nathan, founder of Franchise Relationships Institute added, "Entrepreneurs need to have a philosophy where everyone can make money, contribute and have fun together."

Here are some of the aspects entrepreneurs need to keep in mind if they are looking to build a successful start-up.

Value The Funding

Raising funds is an essential step to scale up a business. While speaking at the Summit, Iyer emphasised that entrepreneurs should value the funds being entrusted to them by investors. "More than looking for valuation for your business, create value for your business," Iyer said. He explained investors put in their hard-earned money to help a start-up to develop and thus it is the responsibility of the entrepreneur to give them good returns. "If someone is investing in your business, putting in their hard-earned money for you, value and honour it," Iyer added.

Address The Market Need

While speaking at the Summit, Iyer said any business can do good if it addresses the need of the market. Citing example from his own journey, Iyer said JustDial was launched after they identified a crisis in the wedding space as consumers were confused where to purchase required things. Thus a start-up should identify a crisis and work towards solving the issue.

Commitment Towards Your Franchise

Nathan explained that it is extremely important for an entrepreneur to respect commitment towards business. Losing that commitment with time can cost dear. "Respect the commitment that your franchiser places on you. That's how you will grow," Nathan said. "I have been in franchising for 25 years and worked with 500 brands for more than 20 years and the still growing ones are those which have commitments towards their brand," he added. Nathan also explained entrepreneur should always follow the philosophy of giving back to clients and users.