Time for your typical consulting assignment kind of analysis – all the data captured throughout the whole of last year pertaining to every activity that lends itself to be captured in numbers being put on the table and thought about in every conceivable way. Plans for next year including growth financing, marketing, recruitment, product launches everything being put in place.

They say you already know all that there is to know. It’s amazing how almost every answer you seek is already there with you – some of them may be quite evident while some may be hidden and disguised in the layers of numbers and spreadsheets and charts that capture the story you have been.

Last year has been one of frantic activity and essentially, validating a lot of our practices, processes and beliefs in the market. The almost fanatic focus on customer satisfaction has served us very well resulting in zero dropout – Our first customer and everyone who enrolled since then has been associated with us. It is a testimony as well as our biggest asset. It delights us as well as alerts us to be extra cautious while scaling up to preserve the customer orientation even as the numbers increase.

Rigorous recruitment process has really helped, being there for the teachers has really helped, liberal compensation policy has really helped and above all, our passion for what we do has really helped. From the content team to web team to teachers to accountants to marketing – the sincerity of effort borne out of passion to make a mark has been a constant thread throughout and this has been our most powerful propeller.

The second year begins with new challenges. Growth is happening, we need to manage it and expedite it. Robust systems and structures need to be put in place to handle the demands of increasing scale. Systems need to be up and running to make activities less individual dependent and more scalable. New opportunities for greater growth need to be generated and exploited and the pursuit of defensible differentiation needs to be taken up in right earnest.

Opportunities, challenges, excitement – that’s what the second year of an entrepreneurial company entails.