I believe I always had the entrepreneurial spirit within me. When I started my career as a promoter at  Polashbari Veterinary, I could feel the urge to start something of my own inside me. But I was not one-hundred percent sure that I could take the risk of starting something of my own without having a stable source of income. Because I had a family to look after. I was not afraid of risk but I was concerned for the future of my family. I was having sleepless nights when I was feeling torn between my dreams and my responsibilities. I worked in multiple jobs later in my career. Finally, in 2018, I took a leap of faith and decided to start my Veterinary Pharmacy.  I was still doing my job when I started my business. 

I was having a really hard time while balancing my job, business and my personal life. At times, 24 hours felt very little. Even though I was under a lot of stress, I was motivated to keep going for the sake of my own dreams. In those moments when I felt like quitting, I kept thinking to myself, what if I grow old and lose my ability to work hard as much as I do now and never be able to realize my dreams? This thought kept pushing me forward all the time. I did not want to spend my whole life under someone’s control and get stuck in what ifs.

I saved up from the little that I made to start my own business. With an investment of only Taka 40,000, I started my journey. From then onwards, I never looked back. In the early days, I sold my products from my own house. I had no office or shop to sell them because I could not afford to have any. I did not spend much on promoting my products either. The quality of my products promoted itself. And my business kept growing steadily.

My experience in the veterinary industry helped me a lot in building my own business. I had made effective connections with people who were already involved  in this industry. I got access to a lot of useful advice and guidance through them. Besides, they helped me in finding leads for my suppliers and customers. 

Everything was going well until the dreaded pandemic hit us. It dropped my sales quite a lot. The first few months felt like a punishment when I could see my dreams getting shattered in front of my eyes. On top of that, my business was my only source of income. I left my job when I started seeing a reasonable amount of profit in my business. So, I had no one to turn to if I went broke. Those days were indeed a test of my patience. But by the grace of the Almighty, things started to look good towards the end of the year 2020 and I could revive my business successfully.

I was a part of WorldFish’s IDEA project. That’s where I got to know about LightCastle Partners. The journey with LightCastle Partners has been nothing short of a delight. I benefited immensely from their training programs. I learnt the concepts of bookkeeping and could better grasp the idea of managing a business. It was truly life changing for me. 

I believe that I have come a long way. The initial journey was full of uncertainties but I never gave in to my fears. And I can see the result of my sacrifices now. It feels good to live in reality knowing that I could build a successful business from scratch on my own. This inspires me to dream even bigger and expand my business more. Right now, I am looking for an investment of around 3-5 lacs taka to expand my business. If I can make that happen, I know for sure that my venture will reach new horizons.