Life is adventurous with all its mysteries and challenges. I love to see how one thing leads to another and life unfolds itself. My journey towards entrepreneurship has also been nothing short of a mysterious journey. I had never planned to become an entrepreneur. Not that I did not know anything about the business. I had a fair amount of knowledge about the aquaculture business because my father had been in this sector for a while now, but I never knew I would enjoy being an entrepreneur this much. Even though I haven’t completed my studies yet, I have figured out that this is what I would love to do for the rest of my life. 

Since I did not have any hands-on experience about aquaculture, I attended many training programs with my father to understand the intricacies of fish culture. Our local government representative held a training session that gave a sneak-peek into many different techniques and skills needed to succeed in this business. However, the biggest inspiration came from Oxfam and LightCastle Partners. In that residential training, I learned about the initial steps, accounting knowledge, and marketing strategies to start a business. And through these training sessions, I gained much confidence and from 2019, I decided to go solo with some new projects.

In addition to the ancestral ponds and farms that my father and I manage together, I bought a new pond. My father always helped me in every way possible, and I could not have come this far without his continuous support. With his guidance, I released some carp minnows for culture. After a few months, I got the result I was hoping for. The production was excellent for my first try, and I made a decent amount of profit from the local market. It was a time of joy and hope.

However, with the widespread terror linked with the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for fish started to fall in the market. We, the entrepreneurs, could not grasp the situation quickly. The sudden spike in death, the lockdown, limited transportation, all of it was too much to deal with at once and everything was going out of our hands. Before the pandemic, I used to make 20-25% of the profit from my businesses, but in the last one and a half years, I only dealt with losses. There were very few initiatives from the government as well. But giving up was not an option for me. So, I continued striving to increase my sales. And now that most of the people are vaccinated, I am hoping for a new light that would show us the path to a better future.

I still have my final examinations for my last year at university. I am not sure if I’ll pursue higher studies or not, but I’m confident about my entrepreneurial skills. So, I want to continue what I started and expand the businesses in every sector. I am currently looking for new ways of marketing that would allow entrepreneurs like us to get the right prices for our products. Also, I could not open the dairy farm because of the pandemic last year. Hopefully, in the next year, I’ll be able to achieve my dream without any problem.