Running a business successfully is what we all want. However there are different challenges we face on the way from having an idea to develop it in to a profitable idea, its implementation and sustainable working. While starting my own business I learned these things from my mistakes and experiences. Whether I should focus on the product development, or business development or marketing or even strategy development is a big question. It is difficult to focus on everything at the same time, hence I believe some help in all of this is a great idea. And, I decided to help others making their businesses sustainable and profitable
I have been a curious kid like many others. I studied multiple streams in education not because I didn’t like the other but because I liked them all, however never chose to continue with any of them as a career. Being born as a girl in India, there were a lot of things around me I observed which never felt right to me. It is never late to know your worth and live a life you love. Few years back I realized the fact that I have always wanted to work for myself and change things around me which I never approved of, and I took action to take the charge of my life. It changed things for better. Of course it wasn’t easy but I had people who believed in me and supported me always. I made my own decisions, failed many times and struggled to make them right. Even though the life was a mess, I enjoyed it because it taught me the lessons worth all the struggle.
Technically I have been doing business since I was a kid. On a fun side, I used to charge my mom a commission to go out and buy things she asked me to get from the nearby shop and I used to keep a count of that earnings. Officially I started my first business at the age of 18, in between my studies. That was coaching kids up to 10th standard. Though I was just in college, I received a lot of appreciation for my work which motivated me to do more. I also ended up creating an awesome business model to scale up my coaching business. However for further studies and family requirement I had to move to another city and that business had to stop. The city I moved in was Pune and it actually gave my dreams a boost. As I like doing new thing to gain experience, during my senior college, I started coaching 2 kids again and also to work part-time at an Ice-cream parlour next to my college campus. The job wasn’t great but it directed my attention towards the system of working. The vendors, suppliers, kind of raw material bought and the value the product was sold for, the workforce required and few more things. It was all business in my mind. Whereas, in college I was studying geology, it was a fortunate accident. Not because I got some great job later, but because I loved every bit of the time I spend studying that. I wasn’t a perfect student and like many others I was very much confused about what should I do with my career next. Should I go for masters, look for a job or do some course, are all the questions I had. I decided to go for masters by the end of my final term, but unfortunately I had some setbacks in life which forced me to get out and look for a job. I got a job very easily considering my first ever interview in life and I was in. In a few years when things got stable, I knew I was at the wrong place, 9 to 5 wasn’t my life goal.
I was employed and professionally stable, when I decided to start my own business, the motivation behind it was just a simple thought that ‘I can do it’. But trust me when I practically started my own company, in first few years I asked myself at least a hundred times if my decision was right? And because I don’t belong to a filthy rich family, and I suffered heavy losses, most of the times the answer I used to get was no. Yet I continued with my decision because I was a super stubborn being. Practically, I was able to see being stubborn wasn’t helping my business to earn profit. It was just an attitude without action while right attitude is not to give up and take the action. I learned it the hard way, being stubborn may help sometimes but it is not right when it comes to run a business, it takes a lot more of you. Which led me to start my journey from being a businesswoman to becoming an entrepreneur. I also learned a very important lesson, no matter how old you are life is about continuous learning and growing. May it be your personal life or professional, constant learning is the key to grow and it’s never enough. It is not important that we should always learn from our own mistakes, but learning from other’s experiences is a wise thing to do.
As a child and teenager I never liked certain social practices and I was highly motivated to change things in the society and transform the world around me. But as I grew older my focus was fluctuating between my personal life and career as becoming independent was the first priority. And in that career chasing phase I almost forgot my motivation, I didn’t understand the importance of having it back then but later I realised, it was something I valued very strongly all my life because I never found a motivation stronger than that. And when I lost that, I actually lost a part of me which made me an emotional human being. There were several times in my career chasing life when I felt completely lost because I didn’t have a vision to look forward to. Yes I loved management and wanted to have my own profitable business. Money is important of course but the feeling of being successful is not always about earning more money. In the feeling of being lost, I realised the fact that what thrilled me the most was actually my teenage thought. The thought of changing things around me. That is something what motivates me from the core and it helped me grow overall.
I believe entrepreneurship is more than just running a business. It is about creating a legacy, and positive impact in the society. I want to help entrepreneurs to find their edge, create a legacy and an impact to make the world a better place.