Is Your Start-Up Ready To Go Global?

Imagine waking up every morning with the biggest smile on your face and an eagerness to get to work. 

Imagine the first thing coming out of your mouth to be: “Woohoo. Bring it on, World!” Imagine actually looking forward to work pressures and deadlines, when they don’t get you down, but get you excited. Yes, that’s how it feels when you discover your true passion. If you haven’t found your passion yet, do it. You will be so much happier and content. Here’s how to go about it:

You must love something

What is it that you love doing the most? What is it that gets your motors running? Gardening, singing, teaching, selling, writing? What is it that you lean towards the most? Do you want to open your own restaurant or a coffee shop? Do you like to build things? Do like carpentry, meeting and talking to people, reading books? What gets you excited? What do you dream about most at night? If someone tells you, “Hey, Tom, we’re heading to a writing workshop,” will you bolt to your friend’s home before he replaces the phone, or disconnect your phone so that he won’t call you again? Get a piece of paper and pen, or head to your laptop or PC and start typing. Make a list of your skills and talent and find out which comes closest to making you smile. If the list doesn’t help, ask your friends and family to help you identify things they think you’re good at. Or you can always take an aptitude test to figure out where your strengths lie.

Where do you invest most of your time?

I knew I wanted to be a writer long back, when I was still in school. But it took a more solid form once I completed my studies. When I decided that I wanted to write professionally, all I did for hours and hours together was to browse for universities that offered a Masters program in writing. Monitor where you spend your time. Which websites do you surf the most on the internet? When you go to a bookstore, which section do you rush to? If you’re in the midst of a discussion, which topic gets you jumping up and down, like a child going to Disneyland. Film making? Acting? Directing? Scriptwriting? Stand up comedy?

Trial run

There you have it – your passion. But hey, don’t go bonkers over it yet. Do not hand inyour resignation right away. There’s a lot of work still to be done. Give your hobby or passion a trial run. See how it goes. Have it going on the side. See whether you truly are passionate about it. See this as a training ground, a sort of skill building phase, if you will. Continue to research on how you can become the best in your field, how you can introduce things that have never been taught before, whether you need to upgrade yourself through a course or a workshop. And continue to practise. Get real good at it before thinking of turning it into your full time profession.

Roadblocks

It might be possible that you don’t find your passion immediately. You might have thought this is it and then found yourself getting bored within a week. Don’t worry. You can still pick one thing at a time and put it into practise. Once you start discarding the ones that don’t excite you, you will soon be left with things that do. But the key is to not stop trying. Ever. Keep at it. You never know, but you might have multiple passions in life. So give yourself time to explore all of them. Even if you’re not making money off it as yet, don’t quit. Success takes time, but when it comes, it comes at the speed of a torrent.

Put everything into finding your passion, because once you do, there will be no looking back. The glow on your face will never leave. You will feel so much more content and fulfilled, as though you’re serving your life’s purpose. So keep looking.

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Business is chugging along at a fast clip, the cash register is cheerfully ringing and happy smiles greet you at the office every morning. It's all good, right? We don't mean to burst your bubble but here's the thing - you might be getting complacent. Many start-ups that have had the big-bang beginning have taken their growth to the next level, and they got there only because they didn't kick up their heels and bask in the good times. So if it's business as usual, it might actually be the right time to go international. And guess what? It's not all that difficult. In the age of globalisation, expanding internationally gives you access to other economies and a wider client base. This increases business opportunities by leaps and bounds. Don't get bogged down with the complexities of dealing with international regulations, the language barrier or cultural differences.  Remember, you'd be headed where millions of others have gone before. Wasn't Facebook born in a college dorm? So if you are thinking about taking that next big step, here's something you might want to consider. STEP 1: It's All In Your Mind Most start-ups that have bootstrapped feel intimidated by the mere thought of going international. Here's a typical thought, "Oh! We're too small to even consider globalisation." You couldn't be farther from the truth. Technology has made it possible to take your business international from a nascent stage. In fact, the world has been taken by storm by a host of micro-multinationals that went global on day one. STEP 2: Choose The Right Market You cannot give the globe a spin and build aspirations out of thin air. You have to carry out enough due diligence and decide which market is best suited for a product like yours. Most start-ups make the mistake of entering a market because they have know a local distributor or two there. While it may work in some cases, this is not the ideal way to enter into a market. A better way is to identify one or two geographies that are best suited to your expansion plans and then look for local distributors or partners. With a lot of information available on the internet today, it's not difficult to research this yourself. STEP 3: Acquaint Yourself With Local Rules & Regulations This is the trickiest part. You will need to research the regulatory environment in the country you target. Every country has different trade regulations, import duties, etc that could be cumbersome and time-consuming. Simple processes might get stuck in red tape or a logistical whirlwind. For instance, you could be either required to pay very high import duty to ship ping your goods there or bribe your way to make inroads. This is not only stressful, it will end up burning a hole in your pocket you cannot afford. STEP 4: Figure Out The Payment Node Here's a detail you are likely to miss while doing your groundwork - payment. For start ups that are likely to have smaller ticket transactions, it's is a good idea to create a PayPal account or make use of American Express FX International. These are the most widely used options when it comes to overseas payments. If neither works for the country you're entering into a trade agreement with, find out what the mode of payments are upfront, so that there aren't any rude shocks later! STEP 5: Get A Lawyer To Draft Your Contract The distributor you choose probably represents many others like you, and you don't want your product being ignored because of a competitor's product. You can hire a lawyer who can draw up a contract that mentions specifics such as sales targets. Negotiating yourself could be hairy if you do not have experience in this area. Finding Help If you cannot find the right resources or simply do not know where to search, use social networking platforms. You can find quite a few groups on international trade and regulations that are appropriate. Join a group like LinkedIn, which will lead you to like-minded people who can help. While this is the most cost effective way, you may also hire an international trade consultancy firm. This is an expensive option as fees range from Rs 2-5 lakh, depending on the country you want to do business in. Fusion, finance and economic recovery Climate action has steadily climbed the political agenda in the past decade and this year’s coronavirus pandemic has put it even more firmly in the spotlight. That’s because an increasingly loud lobby is telling policymakers that any economic recovery measures must include an increased drive towards clean energy. One of the few welcome side-effects of the worldwide lockdown has been a significant drop in carbon emissions. If the opportunity is seized, these reductions could be the blocks on which to build a whole new low carbon global economy. That of course, is a very big ‘if’. A major advocate of these measures is the International Renewable Energy Association. It has published a global clean energy outlook for the coming years, and we unpack its contents and recommendations in our article in the latest issue of PEi magazine. Indeed, the issue offers a wider focus on some of the latest trends and technologies in clean energy. We focus on tidal energy, which is riding a wave of optimism that’s taking it out of demonstration projects and into commercialisation. Digital technologies now go hand-in-hand with power engineering know-how, and we examine the gains to be won by utilizing data analytics for the monitoring and control – in real time – of renewable assets, particularly windpower. Of course, no power project gets off the ground with financing, and so we also explore the trends in ‘green’ power purchase agreements, both in the US and in Europe. And our cover story offers a deep dive into one of the most tantalising forms of next generation electricity – nuclear fusion. What was once science fiction is gradually becoming ‘science fact’ and we speak to some of the players in the sector and profile key projects. Hope you enjoy the articles – and do please let me know what you think.