By Saadia Muzaffar
@ThisTechGirl

The most common hurdle that all start-ups are concerned about is the lack of resources. Typically money and/or talent. And a lot of start-ups claim to have fizzled out because the right amount of capital and or talent wasn’t injected at the right time. And while that may be very true, not having enough can also be a great opportunity. Don’t believe me? Here are three reasons why:

Laser Sharp Focus:  Entrepreneurs in general, and start-ups in particular, tend to have hyperactive thought processes. They are creative and feed off of the ‘high’ building something provides. This could mean too many ideas percolating at the same time or too many features that sound great on paper but aren’t necessary for a great, sustainable product or business model. Being resource strapped creates deadlines, sets expectations and benchmarks that many would otherwise be too distracted or reluctant to enforce.

Evaluation Tool: Sometimes sacred cows make the best meatloaf. For a start-up to be successful, it needs to be lean, mean, and in a constant state of Nietzschean existential examination (Why am I here? What is my purpose?). Having little in the way of resources forces entrepreneurs to shed those extra pounds of nice-to-have features, rigorously seek what the end user won’t do without, and chuck the rest – especially at the launch stage of the business.

Sparking Creativity: I’m told necessity is the mother of invention. The necessity to stick to meagre/modest budgets or limited number of people necessitates creating solutions outside the box. Forces you to question why should there even be a box? Makes you go out on a crazy limb because that limb could make the difference between the launch of a successful enterprise or an addition to the statistics of failed ideas. Being resource strapped makes fair game of any and all ideas that could help.

So take pride in your brilliant, resource strapped start-up. The sharper your focus on what will rock your customer’s world, the faster you evaluate your failures and cut your losses, and the more creative you are in what you’re building, the higher the chances that you will graduate from being a start-up to a thriving enterprise with staying power!

Saadia joins the RIC team as the Operations Coordinator responsible for building and execution of activities that fulfill RIC’s mandate. She brings several years of relationship management, corporate communications and operations experience mainly from the financial services industry.