Every entrepreneur knows what it’s like to face adversity. It teaches a lot in terms of how to handle challenges, fickle customers, belligerent investors and unpredictable economic downturns.

The best entrepreneurs tackle these one at a time without losing their stride or their passion, just like Kunal Bahl, the co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal.

"We had witnessed adversity in early 2013, when we had one month of money left in the bank," wrote Bahl in a LinkedIn post on Monday.The 34-year old Bahl, who co-founded Snapdeal along with his school friend Rohit Bansal, faced several upheavals in his professional life before launching the e-commerce platform in February 2010.

Bahl recalled an instance when a well wisher messaged saying that a VC told him that "Snapdeal will not see a day of 2018, and will definitely shut down before the end of 2017".

Yet, Snapdeal is thriving today beyond all odds.

If you’re one of the entrepreneurs who have started their own business or have begun the process of starting it, then you might be thinking down the road about how to make it even more successful.

Here is what Bahl and his team learnt about building a business:

Focus Focus Focus. Build one high quality business before doing too many new things

One successful business helps build others, but in a sequence, not in parallel

Clear communication to the team is the best antidote to anxiety

Consistent execution gets better results than spiky achievements

Aim to drive improvements every day, the step functions will happen

Keeping costs low is everyday work, not a periodic initiative

Nothing that sells at a loss can be finally good for business. The business will run into a wall eventually

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First Published:Oct 10, 2018 8:00 AM IST