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“You are an excellent salesperson”
“A star performer”
“You’ve earned the most incentives in a year and received good customer feedback”
“Adil’s team is the best’
“He is a very good people’s manager”
“A good leader”, have been a few comments I have heard on multiple occasions from my seniors, team members and peers all throughout the first 10 years of my Journey as Sales and Marketing employee in individual roles and as a team manager. From a marketing trainee with a leading training organisation to Resident Manager in the middle east in a Software Export organisation, based in the UAE and Oman. It was not until I returned to India from Muscat, on promotion, with a couple of lakhs in savings and a piece of Land, that I started feeling I have arrived in life and I am gods gift to the corporate world. I thought that if I work for myself, I will be better off than working for someone else.
This thought drove me towards starting my own business. “Business!!!!! No-one in your family has ever done business. It is very risky and you are a married man with a new born. Even your wife is not earning”, said all my dear ones. But, am I not an excellent salesperson? and a people’s manager! How can I fail?, was my reaction. Standing up to my reputation of being a rebel, I resigned from a well-paying job, served the notice period and ventured into my first business in mid 1990s.
Business Center, now popularly known as Co-workspaces, was an excellent project with tremendous business potential. Newly initiated reforms under the leadership of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh lead to many Foreign Multinationals pouring into Bangalore to set up shop. Not directly investing in real estate but operating from Business Centres. I found the opportunity to initiate my journey into the world of business. It sounded so Rosy!!!
As a Salesperson my focus was more on closing deals, and why not? That was the way it had to be. I searched and finalised a space on rent, for the Business Center in a prime location. No proper planning due to lack of experience or guidance hit me right in the beginning. On top of that, the feeling that I knew everything, made it worse and did not allow me to get guidance or listen to unsolicited advises that came through once in a while. I Withdrew a hefty amount to pay the Security Deposit for this rented place. Showed the place to prospective customers and started closing deals even before the infrastructure, facilities and interiors were up and operational. I soon realised, the business needed to be registered under the law.. Getting even the phone connection took days or months at the time. Running pillar to post getting basic infrastructure in place.
Meanwhile, I had already paid the architect to prepare the blueprints. I then applied for a loan at various banks and KSFC, only to hear same thing repeatedly. They needed collateral to process the loan. I didn’t own any property in Bangalore then. 4 months went by paying rent for the place and I was not able to see hope of getting any loan to invest in interiors, office automation and salaries. I Had no idea about other funding options. My savings were receding. That is when I saw an ad in the newspaper from a Chennai based Trust, offering private loans. I contacted them and initiated the process. The deal was that I pay them a security deposit of 2 Lakhs to get a loan of Rs.13 Lakhs. I sold the only land I owned in Hyderabad to pay the deposit. It took multiple visits to Chennai before I got the Loan Cheque. I returned home and celebrated that night with my family and friends. When I deposited the cheque the next day the bank, after 3 days, informed me that the cheque had bounced. On contacting the Trust I was told that an expected payment was deposited late and I should present the cheque again. It bounced again!!! My visits to Chennai started again. The main person was not available, and I was sent back on some pretext or the other.
6 months had gone by!!! I had exhausted all my savings. After a month of following aggressively I was told that the Trust was booked under FERA for illegal activities and the main person was put behind bars. Apart from the loan amount of 13 L, I lost my security deposit, property and all savings lost. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I LOST MY CONFIDENCE TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS. My journey from Rosy perception to Ghori Reality ended There.
6.5 months into the self-employment and I had failed miserably!!! Sense prevailed and I got back into the Job. Thanks to my good relations with former bosses. It didn’t take me long to get a job of my choice. But WHY DID I FAIL DESPITE HAVING ORDER LETTERS FROM CUSTOMERS TO OCCUPY THE SPACE!!! By now, you all must have guessed it and are working out what I should and shouldn’t have done. What sequence I should have followed, etc. Well! I will let you know my learning a little later in this article
I spent the next 12 years working for Startups and Multinational Companies in India and international markets of ASEAN countries dealing in different industries, products and services. I bought multiple properties in Bangalore and traveled across the world. Everything was good! My love for travel prompted me to again jump into the world of Entrepreneurship and promote the concept of Home-away-from-home. The only thought that troubled me throughout was, WHAT COULD HAVE I DONE DIFFERENTLY AND NOT FAILED IN MY FIRST BUSINESS AT A PRE-EARLY STAGE? Well! Here are few learning points from my experience as an Entrepreneur/Self employed person.
1. I had no holistic view about what goes into the ideation to implementation stages of a business project. I didn’t have any guidance.
2. The Attitude of ‘I know everything’. Not been open to learning.
3. No understanding of how to manage money.
4. No prior understanding of what is required for securing a loan from bank or the Karnataka State Financial Corporation(KSFC).
5. No prior understanding of other safe ways of getting investment/funds etc.
6. No understanding of legal compliance.
7. Not seeking help.
8. Not having a Mentor for Myself and my business.
So, lessons learnt from the past helped in starting my second proprietary business venture in the niche space of Home Stays, Serviced Apartments and Holiday Homes. The most important step I took was to get a Business Mentor and an Industry or Domain Expert for myself. With my knowledge, expertise, experience and the guidance from my Mentor and industry expert, my business flourished in India and Southeast Asia. It Won some awards too. Had it not been for my business Mentor, I may have crossed the pre-early stage of my business, but it would have been difficult to cross the early stage to reach the growth stage. There were lots of Finance, HR and Operational Issues that I couldn’t have handled well if not for my connect with them. At this point, I became content and was spending more time on the Golf Course, Traveling and spending time with family and friends. For 9 years I enjoyed the fruits of my hospitality business. I then slowly lost contact with my Mentor because I didn’t think I needed to remain connected anymore. Everything was going well. I did not see the storm that was waiting to hit!!!
Large, funded travel portals who initially entered the market for Flight and hotel booking, sensed business potential in the space of Home-away-from-home business. Started contacting my business associates and tying up with them directly. In about a year, associates who didn’t have many marketing arms other than my organisation, now had close to 25 travel portals listing their properties and providing booking in much lower commissions. Suddenly the niche business became a highly competitive field. Different Digital Marketing Consultants/Vendors seemingly did their work but the results were not showing up. In no time there was drastic drop in inquiries and my business started making losses. I was waiting for some miracle to happen for reversal!! That’s when I went back to my Business Mentor.
They made me realize how I could have avoided a fall and scaled my business. Few of my learning at the growth stage are listed below.
I enrolled myself for an Advanced Digital Marketing course with one of India’s top Digital Marketing Training organisations. It was a classroom training, 4 days a week and 3 hrs per day for 3 months. It like felt school. This course made me appreciate the work done by the freelancers and organisations that worked on promoting my travel portal and also made me realise how many took me for a ride! 😊 Well! More importantly, I now knew how to move forward with my Travel Portal using Digital Marketing. While this business is undergoing re-positioning and re-branding, I sensed business opportunity in starting a Digital Marketing Agency. This idea was floated by me to few other brilliant students while getting the Certification course. Few showed interest and my 3rd business venture was on!!! We registered it as a Private Limited Company. It is One and half years young startup in its growth stage. It gives me tremendous satisfaction not just to skim the cream in the emerging and evolving industry of Digital Marketing but also helps me educate the startups on Digital Marketing so that they do don’t suffer due to ignorance as I did.
My Mentor had better plans for me! He said “ Adil, you have had 22 years work experience as an Employee and 12 years of running your own businesses, from Marketing Trainee to Vice President to Proprietor to Managing Director, Worked in different industries, worked in the domestic markets and the international markets, you understand the traditional marketing and Digital Marketing. Is it not time for you to give it back to the Startups Community? Why don’t you become a Business Mentor yourself”? It was a coincidence that the then MD of Startups Club that had the largest membership from the Startups community invited me to take up a Certified Course in Business Mentoring. Both these instances were very motivating and encouraging. I became a Certified Business Mentor. My journey as a Business Mentor for 0 to 3 year old startups started in 2018. I was declared the Star Business Mentor by Statups Club with in 6 months. I was invited by GINSERV (Global Incubation Services) to be on the panel of jury to select and Mentor the innovative startups for one of their accelerator programmes called Ginselator (initiative of Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and GINSERV). I was selected as one of the 5 Lead Mentors among the 20 Mentors invited for this program. I was also invited by TiE Bangalore Chapter to become the Chartered Member.
I have completed almost 150 hrs of Mentoring in the space of Business & Digital Marketing. It gives me immense satisfaction to give back out of my varied experiences to the Startups Community and become a part some success stories. It makes me humbler to see so many written, Audio and Video testimonials from my Mentees. I am thankful to all my Mentors and Mentees for all the learnings I have had from them and applied to my businesses. It helps me handle challenges in my businesses too.
Like they say ‘ IN THE WORLD TODAY, IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO BE IN THE POSITION OF INFLUENCE THAN BEING WEALTHY’. I feel blessed to have both! My gratitude to all who have been part of my Journey. Thank you!!!