What is comfort?

A pleasant feeling of being relaxed and free from pain. 

Mental models

Most people think if they get a job with a decent company with a good salary & designation, it gives them comfort. Till some time back people believed the same is enough for them to manage their life. To some extent they started feeling secured when they had a job in hand & they had certain assured commitments based on their job & earnings. Everyone was trying hard & aiming for the same due to that reason.

People are trying to adopt a safety- first approach & they want to live a comfortable life which they believe is possible by working in a company. It is risk free & secured for them is the feeling carried by them all this while. On a fair context if we want to describe the no of opening with such type & companies will be 30 out of 100, which means the remaining 70% of them should look for what suits for them to get their own comfort. 

In this search they fail to understand that it is very limited & only few, who fulfil certain set criteria get through. The criteria changes time to time, company to company, role to role & bosses to bosses.  It also targets, key deliverables, performance matters a lot due to competitive environment & most of them realise that what they felt was Comfort, is not so. It throws great amount of challenge to people like any other STARTUPS.

Observation

World has changed a lot since the past 10 months, bought many things on wheels again for customers to choose from. Textile/Apparel industry has no exception to it. Bigger the players, bigger the impact. Larger the format, larger the dents in business. Same goes with individuals too, you be an experienced employee or fresher the challenge remains same for both.

Pandemic had proven that the risk of being the employee of the company & entrepreneurs remain same except the working capital investments (only on those cases who is managing their business with heavy investments not for everyone).

Fear   

People believe that being an entrepreneur is highly challenging & not giving comfort , which is not so. Everyone thinks & worries about the investments, they strongly believe without investing heavily they can’t make a startup business in textile/apparel business. If we choose the right path & make smart moves with the right tunnel, it is very much possible to manage the business without much of an investment. UBER is a classic example which does not own a single vehicle still one of the largest taxi fleet.

If we go back in history, couple of generations or more, most of them preferred to be owners who wished to do things & manage the time as they desired. They were willing to take risks. Number of people who wanted to work for others were limited.  Today the scenario is vice versa. People are limiting their focus & not applying themselves on STARTUPS. When I closely review the primary reasons behind this are 

• About comfortable living
• About questioning
• About helping others
• About failures

Also, they want to become successful in no time. The examples they look at, the desire to be successful in the beginning itself is creating additional fears & doubts in their minds about their capabilities of becoming a successful STARTUP.

Present Scenario

With the recent changes in consumer mindset lot of small & medium scale businesses have gained confidence. Especially the one’s who are closer to their customers have gained great advantage & they have built trust with their customers during these challenging times. The pandemic created a challenging environment, which we cannot deny, but at the same time it has given a big opportunity to the STARTUPS. Every “challenge comes with an opportunity”. It only requires a fundamental change in approach.

Challenge? a call to someone to participate in a competitive situation & Opportunity? a time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.

Need of the hour

Everyone looks to benchmark with a famous, large & leading organized player when they begin, what they fail to understand is the time they took to reach that level with solid foundation & fair business approach.

One who wants to STARTUP, they should focus on the medium & small entities who are successful (MSE- STARS) not the larger players, till they stabilize.

STARTUPS can not only help the individuals grow in terms of economy & scale, it also allows the industries GDP growth. What we need today is 5000 companies which does the turnover of 10 crores/year not 10 companies which has an annual turnover of 5000 crores. This is the fundamental change in approach which we should realize while we talk.

A tree starts with the seed

Whether you are an industry experienced person or a fresher it’s the right time to focus on STARTUPS with diversified business approach. Focus should be more on innovative business ideas & thoughts. To become successful, it’s wise to learn the art of business from experienced hands, those who have been doing business in a fair & ethical manner from quite some time. Get associated with small shops & formats (MSE), help them grow, do your bit to enhance their business with your knowledge, apply what you have earned & learned over the years through experience & education.

Say for e.g.: get associated with the small dry cleaner struggling to compete with the big laundry players. Guide them towards success

• by giving a new look & feel to the shop which is in line with present customer taste
• by teaching them the art of arranging for the online pick up & delivery through apps
• by recommending them for acquisition of advanced machinery to beat the competition with better service.

Spend adequate time with them so that you in turn learn the art of doing business without Fear and with Integrity, Humanity, Morality, Rational thinking, Self-reliance etc., these things hold the key to the success of any STARTUPS. When these things merge with your knowledge & experience, it can make your STARTUPS grow faster with flying colors. Let’s burn the fear with our fundamental change in approach. Comfort has a different meaning which varies from time to time depending on our understanding levels.

Time has come to kick start something new, let the STARTUPS journey begin during this pandemic time. Hope you agree that a tree starts with the seed & it’s time to seed the STARTUPS thoughts, as it shows the path for potential growth for the individual as well the nation.

Note:- the word “beginnen” is the similar word for “startup” in dutch language.

RELATED TOPICS:#Apparel,Ramesh Gunasekaran