2023 marks the completion of 10 Full Calendar years of my Entrepreneurial Journey. In 2013 when I decided to move away from Professional Employment and pursue a Entrepreneurship, little did I realize I underestimated the Challenges that would one would have to face. The rules were different, competition was intense, what I was or I did the previous years hardly mattered, as I was focusing some new areas or domains to set my foot and at many times survival was a question.
Over the past 10 years tried several ventures - Industrial Distribution Firm, Property Management Firm, B2B E Commerce for Industrial Products, Engineering Services, Asset Valuation, Supply Chain Consulting, Electronic Gadget Review Website, Industrial Tools How to Use Website, Industrial Products OEM news Website, HealthCare Products E Commerce and many half baked Project Studies on Manufacturing of Electronic Products. Most of these ideas failed badly, some did not even start and few managed to survive and return a stable Income Stream till date and with long lasting relationships with really good Customers.
The 10 years have been learning new topics which I never did in the previous role and it is a humbling experience and lastly I have learnt that Finance is the least of worries in starting a venture. It is executing an Idea which makes or break as Business Initiative. In that aspect I have had support from friends who backed the ideas as technical partners and together we put great effort in stabilizing those business which stood the ground in the last decade. Over the year together we have built business across varied segments and managed to scale to 5 states in India. We hope to continue on that path and make them self sustainable. But at the same time also strongly feel the other ideas would also have been successful If we had people to support launching those ideas.
The greatest support in the last decade during the Entrepreneurial journey has been my Family and Friends from School, College & previous Work. They really backed me up and whenever I wanted to call it quits they said try some more time. 10 years wouldn't have been possible without their motivation to continue. In addition to the Business Side, I traveled to many places, in the process also embraced Spirituality.I love visiting temples, learning Indian history and get in touch with the Roots & Basics of Life & Living. Volunteering is another area which I started in 2021. Have reconnected with my college and got into mentoring College Students as they seek our their own journey in the corporate world. Have enjoyed sharing my experiences and guiding them with the opportunities that lie ahead of them.
Now back to present day scenario, 10 years later, I still feel there is a long way to go and the opportunities are immense but faced with newer challenges like how to Scale further, how to find the right people who will help us scale, how to put people & processes in place so could focus on newer opportunities or focus on building customer relationships. India is the new land of opportunities. With a Billion plus people and increasing aspiration levels there are enough opportunities here to explore and set foot.
I wonder how the next 10 years would be, but eagerly looking forward to it. There are a few ideas which are already brewing in my mind, hope I could find time and people to execute them. I have started on the process of rebooting myself, the need to de-clutter the areas which keep me occupied, invest in people, continue to find newer areas and keep the entrepreneurial spirit in me alive and continue all the good things from the past decade.
All in All, God has been kind and its been a rewarding decade despite the occasional setbacks.
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