Hi myself Aakanksha Srivastava, I shall start my story from my childhood. My life was quite good as my father had a business. We lived a very normal middle-class lifestyle. We were the people who believed in “Finding happiness in small things”, but suddenly things got changed with a blink of an eye.
How would it feel when you are dragged out of the class in between the exam, in front of all other students, just because your school fee is not deposited?
Yes, this happened to me! I was in my 7th standard. Being the youngest among the 4 siblings I wasn’t always a priority. An innocent mind didn’t know that money is required for studies. I think it was the first inner call and motivation. But anyways all this happened as my father encountered a massive loss in business.
What a child could do after all this?
Sharing and crying in front of my mother? But this was even not possible because I had lost my mother at a very early age and here, the first stage of being strong alone started.
Dreams are the first thing that disappears when you go into a financial crisis. I wanted to be a singer but the dream died inside me. I started working in a small printing shop as a cashier on small monthly wages to support the family. Now imagine a 15-year-old girl who should logically plan her dreams and enjoy life was now bounded by the circumstances to do a time-restricted job.
While working there, the daughter of my rent owner tried very hard for me so that I can get a job as a receptionist in an Indian matrimony site named “Shaadi.com”. It was difficult as I was underage but my intentions were clear. I wanted to earn money and finally, I got a good pay job.
Again, I was so fortunate and because of one of the customers of shaadi.com, I got the job of a marketing executive in a brand “TATA-DOCOMO”.
Life gave a good chance to learn what the market is all about but a woman who is in a marketing field has to deal with many sick mentalities. This makes you stronger and increasingly gave my career a great accomplishment.
After some time, my career shifted to a new page where I became the HR executive in an IT company. It was overwhelming for me to see my background. While I was working and earning a decent amount, I decided to focus back on my studies. So, I opted for the distance learning program to study while earning.
As I wasn’t going to school, I had to join an academy to study further. It was that place where I met my support system, Piyush Singh. He became my first friend and supported me in every up's and down.
I didn’t realize when from ME and HIM, it came to ‘WE’. After we both completed our graduation, Piyush got placed in a company as a marketing executive and I already had experience of 8-9 years.
Life always has surprises, twists, and turns for you, especially when you think everything is going smoothly. I got a new twist in my life and that was an accident or you can say an incident that made it difficult for me to work. I was diagnosed with Spinal tuberculosis, which was affecting my 3 collar bones. I was on strict medication for 2 years and also had to wear a Neck Collar supporter because I could barely move my neck.
But Piyush, my company, and my willpower showed up the magic. My company allowed me to do work from home. After a while, I and Piyush dropped our jobs and started doing full-time freelancing for a language translation company ‘Day Translation Inc’ in the United States. We handled that project successfully for almost one year and it boosted our confidence.
When I look back, I realize that the time I spent at home because of the incident was good for our future. As we were having a great amount of experience and the motivation we got from handling ‘Day Translation’, I and Piyush decided to start our own company, and fortunately, we created a roadmap to start our own venture. It was quite easy to understand what digital marketing is about. We did a lot of freelancing just to fill the bucket of experience. We saw a dream and named it ‘The Aspiring CEO‘. People love to criticize and it came to us also. We believed in our dream and made it a reality. We started from scratch as we were new to the market so no one invested in our idea. But, we decided not to quit. So, with our laptops, we started doing our work and with God’s grace and our hard work, we create a team of 10 people within a period of 6 months.
Now we have expertise in digital marketing, virtual assistance, SEO, SMM, and Branding. We are successfully delivering our services in India, the United States, the UK, and Australia.
After running our first venture passionately, one thing deep inside my heart popped up. I felt, what I faced in my life many other women/girls may go through too. I decided to support all the girls who have dreams, ambitions, and passion hidden in them. Including me, there are many women who have talent but don’t know where to start from. So this thought evolved my initiative ‘She In Business‘. This is the platform that will remove every possible obstacle a woman faces on her journey to achieve something in life.
We created a platform “She In Business” – a business directory where women entrepreneurs can register their business and we will give their business a digital boost through ‘Digital marketing trends’. Our platform aims to reform and enhance female-oriented or female-owned businesses digitally.
No matter you’re an established women entrepreneur or an aspiring one. SIB business directory is for all women entrepreneurs.
As I and ‘She In Business’ believe, “when she wins, I win.”
