This article presents the pre-requisites for start-up enterprises, and looks at the various aspects on which entrepreneurs have to take decisions while promoting their start-up enterprises. Four major deterrents for starting a new business are opportunity cost, ambiguity aversion, lack of capital, and cultural inhibitions. Testing the entrepreneurial potential in a promoter helps in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the person. The stages of business development, causes of business failures, and the pros and cons of a few aspects on which the entrepreneurs have to take key decisions are highlighted in the article. These are: (a) doing business in teams vs. solo; (b) taking loan vs. venture capital; (c) business school education vs. gaining work experience; and (d) innovation vs. imitation. The article suggests strategies for overcoming seven typical business crises, starting crisis, cash crisis, delegation crisis, leadership crisis, financial crisis, prosperity crisis, and management succession crisis. While suggesting that the severity of the crises needs to be minimized or preferably, the authors also emphasize that care should be taken to ensure that the crises do not occur, by effective planning. Along with planning, thoughtful execution and monitoring of key parameters form the main elements of the success of start-up enterprises.

“He never wanted to do a job”, said Mukesh Ambani in an interview with Pritish Nandy. Are you wondering about whom Mukesh Ambani was talking about? He was talking about his father, the late Dhirubhai Ambani, who created one of the largest and greatest business empires in India. Whether you are motivated by challenge, ambition, reputation, creating wealth or any other great thing, your entry into the world of business is going to have the same degree of difficulty.

One of the most important things a start-up entrepreneur needs to know is that no individual possesses all the attributes that are necessary for starting and building a great business. Hence, a start-up entrepreneur should not be discouraged by the results of an objective evaluation conducted by anyone including the entrepreneur himself or herself. The four major deterrents for starting a new business are opportunity cost, ambiguity aversion, lack of capital, and cultural inhibitions. See Table 1 for approaches to overcome the four deterrents for starting a new business.

If you intend to test your entrepreneurial potential, consider getting an objective evaluation of the attributes, which successful entrepreneurs and behavioral scientists consider important, in order to be successful in a business. Testing your entrepreneurial potential will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. This, in turn, will help in forming a well-rounded team. A well-rounded team will increase the chances of your getting funding, especially from venture capitalists. A list of the attributes that are used to test your entrepreneurial potential is given here (Exhibit 1).

Management Research Journal, Start-up Enterprises, Business Crisis, Product or Services, Entrepreneurial Management
Institute, Venture Capital, Industry Analysts, Small and Medium Enterprises, SME, Quality Assurance, Research and Development, Marketing Strategies, Entrepreneurship Development.