Entrepreneurship

This is my most recent update, and I hope to share it will help people in management who are struggling with putting their company on the right path and making sure their employees are getting the recognition and reward they deserve for their efforts. On September 17, 2008, I started my first e-commerce business called Extreme-Seo.net. Since its inception, we’ve acquired more than 14,000 international customers and over 120 local Sri Lankan customers. We’ve also delivered over 28,000 link-building project reports in the last five years.

From May 2012 to July 2013, I faced so many challenges in my business as well as my personal life, but I believed every problem had a solution. I knew it all depended on my mindset and strategy. If you’re an entrepreneur, then you know that’s the attitude you have to have. However, if you’re a well-educated businessperson who follows strategies you get from a book, then unexpected problems are going to be harder than ever to solve. You have to find something within yourself to solve these problems, and it doesn’t come from any book.

Failure is success if we learn from it

In the past two years, I have won several Sri Lankan and international awards such as “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” and “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year”. I took all my past problems as opportunities to overcome them and learn something about myself in the process. I did overcome all my obstacles. I even achieved my 2013 goal before the 5^th year anniversary of Extreme-Seo.net.

I had a tough situation to deal with at first, but I had a meeting with all my staff members, and I shared all the facts with them without hiding anything. A lot of people in management positions miss this very important stage. Every business will go through tough times. There is obviously some information that you can’t share with your staff members or stakeholders publicly, but as the captain of your ship, you have to share information sometimes, or the whole crew will sink with the boat.

Be Transparent with your Staff Members: Explain the problems you’re having with your staff members because these people are in a position to help offer you advice and give you feedback as to what to do in a crisis situation. They are intimately familiar with your organization. You have to be transparent with your crew because they are the ones who are maintaining the ship that you’re captaining. If they aren’t aware of a problem, then you could all sink. You might have to eventually eliminate staff members who are unnecessary to your organization to cut down on expenses. If you do so, make sure you offer a stunning recommendation letter for the staff member so that they can get a position at another company instantly. Keep giving positive updates to your stakeholders during this time so you don’t lose any funding.

Create a Product that sells itself: Instead of spending time copying everyone else, make your own perfect product that the market demands. Give some trial or discount offers for your current customers who are already connected in a business relationship with your company so you can get some feedback. You’ll be able to enter the market with some feedback from existing customers

Don’t forget to Reward the People Who Helped you: If any of your staff members or stakeholders helped you reach your goal, just make sure that you don’t forget them. Reward them according to their contribution. Make sure you give them plenty of rewards for what they’ve contributed.

Alone We can do so little, Together we can Do so much

Inevitably, some staff members are going to jump out of the ship in the middle of the sea and swim to another destination to secure their careers. That is part of the process. You have to learn to accept it.

However, there are some staff members who carried a lot more passion than those who swam out. They told you they would stick by you, and they did. With those staff members’ support, they finally reached their destination, and at top speed, and they’re all smiling now. It’s critical you give a reward to the people who stuck by you with promotions, insurance, pay raises, etc. With the support of the people who stuck by you, your company succeeded, so these people need to be recognized for that.

Employees: If you are an employee, and you are thinking about leaving for another company, don’t do it. If you are confident with your skills, then suggest some new ideas to management to make and deploy new products and services to show off your contribution.

Employers: If you are an employer, and you find yourself in a situation, look at it as a challenge and come up with a risk mitigation strategy. Don’t let your business go down fast. Believe in your business, and never let it sink.

I wish you all the very best!

A few months back, I had a meeting with the higher management of one of the Sri Lankan Private banks. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss project funding as well as another business proposal. I myself and the company General manager Nivethan met them and explained everything about our project concept and functionality.

Almost instantly we were discouraged by the bank officials for some irrelevant reasons!

The reasons they gave were entirely irrelevant with respect to my business concept. I would have accepted their reasons if they were anywhere close to my project concepts. Having said so, they gave a completely different explanation from unacceptable angles.

The reasons that they gave are as follows:

The project concept came from a Vavuniya based company and most importantly we proposed an unrivaled innovative world-class start-up concept.
The person asking for the fund (Me) doesn’t hold any traditional Degree and yet plans to conduct the business in a professional manner.
The third reason is totally unacceptable and most Sri Lankan Tamil entrepreneur’s start-up proposals are rejected for this reason.

We let them talk and they said lots, but none of the reasons they provided are related to our project concept. Normally, I love people who discourage me and my strength! I take their words seriously and try to work out my weaknesses.

My biggest motivation is Just to keep challenging myself! A few weeks back, I received an award from the Asian Pacific Entrepreneurship. The award was given to me for being the “Emerging Entrepreneur of The Year 2013 “and every Colombo-based Sri Lankan daily newspaper had my photo and company name on it. Today, I received a letter from the top management of the same bank; saying that “Hi Sharanyan Sharma, We wish you all the very best for your success and if you need any financial support please contact us we are ready to help beyond our boundaries “.

My Response for The Bank Who Rejected Me

But all I can say now is,” Sorry it’s too late “! Because the project is already executed and launched with a different source of funding. And YES! Still, I’m from Vavuniya, the very same uneducated guy and still having the third common reason. What has happened to you now? Why are you guys looking at me?

I’m not complaining about the Bank or the Management, I’m trying to say “To run a business or to launch a product, education and ethnicity is not important; you need to have a clear vision and confidence about your concept “ Prepare to die for your concept!

I would like to say to this Bank is, “Thank you very much for your wishes, Still, I’m living in Vavuniya and I didn’t get my degree yet, most importantly I’m still a Tamil! According to your “Bank policy”, “I am not eligible for your financial support and I’ve decided to NOT to learn more about your offers and I’m also not going to move from Vavuniya and I can’t change my ethnicity. So, the choice is yours.

“As bill Gates said ” It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure”