The Arts Graduate Who Runs Her IT Venture
Ms. Manisha Sharma – Founder, Ekennis Software Service Pvt. Ltd.
With absolutely zero knowledge or experience in IT, this entrepreneur took 4 years to learn it all and manage her firm independently.
Being runner-up of “Entrepreneur Award” from HRD Ministry in 2019, Manisha Sharma, the founder of Ekennis Software Service Pvt. Ltd. is the epitome of passionate entrepreneur from a small town in Rajasthan making a mark in business in India’s Silicon Valley. Just 3 years into the business, she has already created a niche for herself. A keen learner and an avid traveller, Manisha has made her struggles worthy to reach at the helm of her career.
She started her own venture just prove herself and to take control over self. On her entrepreneurial journey she says –
“You wake up every day knowing that you’re steering your own ship and the path you take is entirely up to you. This autonomy leads to a powerful sense of self-confidence and also leaves no room for excuses.” It wasn’t easy though, but her persistence, hard work and customer focus garnered all the triumph.
She has been efficiently managing her venture after some initial hiccups. However, she has learnt the tricks of trade through her experiences. She says –
“You must learn how to create and balance a budget, market and sell your idea, manage your time and workflow, build relationships etc etc… the list is seemingly endless. With this learning you get encouraged that you as individual is also unique in this world.”
In her first year of business she received a severe jolt in form of a loss value of around 20 lacs and filed IT returns with negative value, which caused a hindrance in receiving further business loan. She was quick to take corrective action – changed the business model and took lateral entry who are good in communication and paid from own pocket to train them and made them as own employees. Once they were trained, proper services were provided to the clients. Now she has 150+ employee who deliver solutions to SAP, Microsoft and Oracle technology. Ekennis Software Service is now a 7 Crore turnover firm.
Though it all looks beautiful at the top, the road to success wasn’t full of roses. During struggling period, due to shortage of funds, she even took gold loan to pay salaries to her employees. Even lack of knowledge on GST liability, TDS Liability and other compliances e.g. PF, ESI, Insurance etc troubled her a lot. But she paid and regularize the same in short time and were proud to be 100 % compliance today.
Losing her father at an early age was her biggest setback. Her maternal uncle took care of all her sisters. Being MA she had no IT background, but was quick to learn things in Germany during her husband’s onsite trip. Her mother, maternal uncle and husband has been supportive and inspiration throughout her entrepreneurial expedition. Today she independently manages the business with cumulative profits and is an inspiration to the youths.
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