After passing my intermediate exams, I knew that my life would change significantly. While most of my peers went off with dreams of receiving higher education, I had to leave it all behind so that I could earn to support my ailing parents. This was not only my first step towards adulthood but also my first taste of life’s many struggles. But it’s the hard times that shape us, so I am glad that I went through all those challenges as it has brought me to where I am today.
Fresh out of school, I was desperate to find a decent-paying job. With the intense competition and dwindling job prospects for newcomers, I had to make do with several odd jobs, drifting from one industry to another. Eventually, I landed in the light engineering sector, where I was employed to assemble machinery parts for production. Factory work was strenuous and taxing on the body, but years of hardships had taught me to grit my teeth and persevere through the hurdle.
The pain and sacrifice paid off as I learned new things and became more proficient at my job. In due time, I moved on to better opportunities in the sector until I became a manager at one of the popular workshops in the Rangpur area. I worked there conscientiously for several years, but with each passing moment, the desire to start my own business grew until I couldn’t ignore it anymore. On the one hand, I was well aware that being an entrepreneur would be full of risks and sleepless nights, but on the other hand, I knew that it would be all worth it in the end.
By pooling my funds with a bit of assistance from my previous employer, I established Shuvo Engineering Workshop in 1992. Initially, my factory only manufactured brick burner parts for brickfields in surrounding areas. But as business started booming, I even added motor car repairing services to our list of value propositions. My customer base is mainly in Rangpur, and occasionally, I get orders from other regions. Even though the company is successful, I often have difficulty running the operations smoothly due to financial constraints.
This issue was further exacerbated with the advent of the covid-19 pandemic, which threatened to obliterate several workshops in our industry. By utilizing my funds and hard-owned experiences, I have somehow coasted through this crisis. Nevertheless, it has drained a significant chunk of my business capital ( around BDT 8 lacs) through paying salaries and fixed expenses.
To revamp my business by injecting fresh capital, I had applied to several governmental NGOs and banks for small loans and financial assistance to no avail. And so, it was a blessing from the Almighty when LightCastle Partners visited our factory with offers for marketing and business development support. After conducting several meeting sessions with them and participating in the B-SkillFUL training programs, I have seen considerable positive growth in my business. By implementing this new knowledge and skills, I streamlined our operations and generated positive cash flows for our firm. I have even seen the development in my workforce, who now work more diligently and efficiently after receiving the training. Overall, I hope that this upward trend will continue, and soon, I will be able to secure the much-needed funding to secure and grow my business.