Why does an entrepreneur start a business? There’s no “one” answer to this question. Every entrepreneur has a different story and a different reason why they decide to set up a business.
What was my story? What motivated me to get to where I am today?
If you’re visiting this blog for the first time, here’s what you should know about my journey towards being an entrepreneur.
Where it all began?
My story begins in 2010, with me coming to Delhi right after I completed my master’s in Computer Application and Industrial Training. At the start of my career, I was living in a paying guest room and interning for a company for a couple of months. After my internship, I worked with two companies as a “nine-to-five” developer.
Humbly speaking, I was good at what I did, so my seniors at work were pleased to have me on the team. I still had to face all the challenges that any executive would encounter at that professional stage, in that I was hardly ever allowed any day off.
Family Background
I come from a service class family, where no one has anything to do with business. In other words, I didn’t have anyone to help me navigate the corporate world’s challenges, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from my journey.
One thing you need to know is that when you’re on your own, as I was back then, you MUST be willing to take responsibility for your actions. Because when you get to make your own choices, you have to deal with the consequences yourself.
Luckily, I’ve always had my father, mother, and sister supporting me through all of the highs and lows… and I’d always be grateful for that.
But I never had the “My life, my rules” approach – I always counted on my family to support me and guide me in the right direction. So, i was always assured that I can take no misstep with them by my side.
The Idea Came To Me Accidentally
I was never in the pursuit of wealth. What I’ve always valued is the ability to learn something new. However, working with a company that has over 200 employees, I quickly became aware of some challenges and limitations to exploring new issues outside my position, since everyone had to follow a “hierarchical structure.”
I’m an inquisitive person, and creativity fascinates me a lot – be it in routine life, or in services or a product. I always look at the idea behind a creator’s mind: what’s their thought process, how it works, etc.
While on the job, I acquired a domain “tech-globe,” as a shortened form of “technology around the globe.” Though I bought the domain for blogging purposes – to share my codes and techniques with other developers and resolve problems during the implementation of my project, that wasn’t in trend at that time.
As I said, my senior management was pretty happy with me, so one of the seniors in the sales department – who moved to another company – shared my work resume with his director and offered me to switch to the same start-up. I was inspired by that person, so I just took the gamble and switched my job. I was happy that I’ll finally get to explore new things… but a few months later, tensions arose between my senior and the director, and my senior decided to quit.
Then, I gave him an idea of a startup together. Although he wasn’t ready to initially risk his financial stability, he got around and said yes after a lot of convincing. Once he said yes, I started communicating with my friends who are in the same field to join us, and soon two of my close friends were ready to join. Thus, we began a business partnership by signing a legal deed between me and my senior, and pursue with the same domain.
We rented a place and bought supplies and equipment needed to run the business. All of us worked around the clock to deliver the project on time. I still remember, when we received our first pay, we thought we had made it to the top.
As neither of us was born entrepreneurs, we were missing the basics while working together – and soon, all of us parted our ways.
Fundamental of business is to reinvest your funds again and again for long-term growth.
An honest and open relationship between partners is the foundation of any successful business partnership, so nothing breaks down a partnership faster than a lack of trust and differing values. And due to such personal issues, our partnership fell apart. My partner then set up a new company with a different name, as I was not ready to give up the “techglobe” domain because it was my brainchild, my dream. He then offered my friends a percentage in the company’s profit, so we got separated at a 3:1 ratio.
The main drawback of this separation was that my friends had access to all the connections that I built overtime on my own or while working with my ex-partner. As you would expect, they did not get any difficulty starting everything again because, for them, only the company name got changed but it all changed on my side.
Building my Mindset
Initially, all I had in my mind was bitter disappointment and frustration. But the worst part was that we were all still roommates because I didn’t have enough savings to rent a new place. Living there, not talking to anyone, I believed that Karma would happen and my time would soon change… I just needed to have patience.
But everyone pushed me to find a job again because I was told I couldn’t keep surviving and couldn’t crack clients. I had a different approach: I was a developer by profession, and I thought of that as my strength because I could grasp the size of the project and query better than any sales guy.
These circumstances shaped me, and taught me how to deal with patience, emotion, and trust.
My Entrepreneurship Journey
At first, the struggle of making it big was taking a toll on my health. On top of that, I didn’t have enough money to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch. So, I began to self-isolate myself and became distant from friends and family. I was determined though that I wanted the same freedom that I craved at the start of my professional career – a freedom that can help one groom and find their inner self to grow in life.
The company grows when the team grows.
I’ve always offered the opportunity to the creative and talented, who never got the chance to prove themselves. During my initial struggles, I learned some basic marketing and client relation fundamentals from a colleague in my last company. This was the time when I got to learn new things that I actually wanted.
So I started approaching domestic and international customers with cold proposals and shared what I can do for them. Initially, I did some freelancing as well to make my ends expenses meet, but moreover, I tried to save as much as I can for my worst days. I’m an Indian, after all — saving money is in my genes.
After a lot of patience, I finally closed my first deal with an Indian customer after meeting with him in person. I delivered the website application project, working day-in and day-out at the office, without having a team and received my first paycheck. They were happy with the work I delivered, so I got a new contract with them for a whole year. And then “TechGlobe IT Solutions” came to existence. This is when I rented a 10×10 office space for an official address and registered the private limited company in July 2013. Once we were set up, I started closing deals with international customers on calls and various other sources back to back through which I have approached. This way I am getting the result and started making myself available to the customer at any time zone.
But this bought me health issues and I got hospitalized. 10 days on the bed I have enough time to think so I realized I have to start increasing my hands and assign the roles and responsibilities to others.
Running a business you can’t control everything single-handed you need more heads as well to deliver the best customer services and to hold the customers.
I learned a lot from the property owner whose office space I’ve rented. He’s an MBA and has years of experience in the private sector, so his management skills guided me while expanding my business.
So now I moved to phase two: building a team. It was tough to recruit the first team members without a fancy office, so I had to be very transparent about everything. After all, these people have decided to invest their futures in the success of my company. As such, I had to assure them that they will not end up losing anything if anything goes south, whether it’s their time, money, or knowledge. After I had built up a development team, I started mentoring and leading them in one direction with a mission and vision.
In a startup, only two things matter: A vision behind the idea to hold the people and the money to invest in brilliant minds.
Once I got a regular stream of income from one service, I started exploring more services to become a one-stop agency for our customers as they began to trust us. It was a jump to the next level, and it also helped me gauge my capacity to work under pressure. Then, I started hiring more people to other departments.
I believe in sharing. If you help your customer to succeed in their business, they will help you to succeed in your business. The more you give them strength the more you get closer to your goal.
This way, I have built 4 departments for different services to help businesses across the globe. Whatever I learned is because of failures that I faced by the time implementing skills over the ideas.
Being entrepreneurs, we look at 30 days as an opportunity in the month to crack something big, which empowers us to face any ups and downs in the business.
Every client and team member plays a vital role in making a successful professional journey. I still retain some loyal customers and team members with whom I started the journey with.
Now I am a Husband and a Father in my personal journey.
I am still building a balance between both of them to face new challenges in the coming years.
Moral Of My Story: The Lessons I Learned So Far
- Never give up! Be in the game… time will change soon.
- Always give some extra challenge to yourself to push your limits.
- You must believe yourself and the team on which you invested.
- The entrepreneurship journey is not of a single person; it’s made by the timespan of all those who shared the time with you.
- If you don’t have a portfolio to impress, Showcase your knowledge to crack the deal.
- Keep reinvesting in your business to get one step closer to your goals.
- You can’t be selfish while being an entrepreneur.
- Groom others to grow with the company.
- Be ready to perform several roles simultaneously.
- Don’t be a boss. Be a mentor to lead.
- Open up with and educate your customers for better bonding.
- To achieve results, carefully review the customer business model.
- Don’t just run after profit build the relationship.
- Every person teaches you a lesson that counts in your experience.
- 30 days in a month means 30 more opportunities to crack a big deal.
- Believe in hidden power that controls everything around you and be thankful to it every day.