Crises–Learning For Small Entrepreneurs!

Simon Sinek, in his much watched TED talk, reminds us that there are three frames of our action - the ‘WHAT’, the ‘HOW’ and the ‘WHY’. Typically, we are guided in that sequence as well. We spend time on ‘What’ we are to do and the mechanics of ‘How’. What we neglect is the ‘WHY’! ‘Why’ is the raison d'être of our existence. It is the sole reason we are in business, our larger purpose and our objective to spend most of lives! It is like a calling rather than employment.

- Rajesh Nair

Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, recently mentioned in a podcast of the Stanford Business school, that when you are a small entrepreneur, there is a crisis every day and a ‘Jesus Christ’ at the end of every month! While the wording and the chutzpah of the assertion make you smile, it is a stark reality too. It is not an easy life, and life is a series of insecurities in the formative years as an entrepreneur.

Business plans are something a lot of entrepreneurs work on nearly every day of their waking life as a busy entrepreneur. It is often a dynamic document, and the shelf life of these documents are diminishing. It is not just the vagaries of the business landscape and the complex machinations of competition, but also the forces of nature which disrupt the best-laid plans. Business risks have never been new to the entrepreneur, and every business has an intuitive feel of the impact and the extent to which they need to be looked at and planned for. The recent spate of floods in Kerala is a classic example of disruptions. No data prepares you to expect such a Black Swan event – first in a hundred years!

So is there a point in all these planning? There is, and there is more need than ever before. For starters, it is increasingly clear that climate presents challenges more than ever before. While a flood of this rage and fervor may not be a yearly reality, it is best to expect force majeure more often than not. A standard business plan, which looks at your product and service, stresses on the financial health, the sound marketing plan, futuristic resource plan, and an ambitious fundraising plan. But, we often do not look at concepts like Insurance.