Hi myself Aakanksha Srivastava, the founder of #SheInBusiness and co-founder of #TheAspiringCEO. I believe that women are already empowered, it's just they need to realize it.
I am here and you're reading this story of mine because I chose to feel empowered, and when you feel empowered your actions become the same.
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 could a child do after all this?
Share my feelings with 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 which disappear 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 of 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 market is all about but a woman who is in a marketing field has to deal with many sick mentalities. This made me stronger and increasingly gave my career a great accomplishment.
Due to financial straits, I worked in different niches because my only motive was to earn money. There was no place for 'career plans' in this process. But I got to realize my goal when life gave me a chance to work as an HR executive in an IT company. This was the turning point of my life. This gave the correct direction to my career. It was exciting and overwhelming at the same time as I have worked only for money without caring where I was working.
While I was working and earning a decent amount, I decided to focus back on my studies. So, I opted 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 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 an experience of 8-9 years.
Life always has surprises, twists and turns for you, especially when you think everything is going smooth. I got a new twist in my life and that was an accident or you can say an incident which made it difficult for me to work. I was diagnosed with Spinal tuberculosis, which was affecting my 5 collar bones. I was on a strict medication for 2 years and also had to wear Neck Collar supporter because I could barely move my neck.
This unfortunate accident resulted in a lockdown for me.
Let me tell you, it is very difficult for a person to deal with a situation where he or she is asked to stay at home, who works daily. Doctors suggested me to be at home. It was the worst ever situation for me to handle. I started getting depressed, irritated and scared about whether it will be possible for me to work again.
But, when I look back, I feel so lucky that I got such loving and caring friends and family. Sometimes when medicines don't work, the kind words and support from your surroundings heals you.
I will also be very thankful to my company as they allowed me to do work from home.
I was working from home, Piyush was working for his company, but we both felt something was missing. No matter what was my condition at that time, there was an aspiring girl inside me who was continuously telling me that I have to achieve more.
I and Piyush decided to do some freelancing work, which will add more experience to our personalities. We knew that this freelancing for a few hours is also not sufficient for us.
So, 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 as ‘The Aspiring CEO’. People often ask us the reason behind this unique name. So, there is a story behind it, in the name 'The' came because of some astrological reason. 'Aspiring' came as we both were very aspiring about our careers and it was decided to include this word in our company's name way back.
'CEO' came, as we wanted to target only the aspiring CEOs and the founders of the companies. 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 and currently we are inhouse team of 20 and 6 as freelancers.
Now we have expertise in digital marketing, virtual assistance, SEO, SMM and Branding. We are successfully delivering our services in India, the United States, 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, many women have talent but don’t know where to start from. So this thought evolved my initiative ‘She In Business’. This is the platform which will remove every possible obstacle a woman faces on her journey to achieve something in life. She In Business is not only about the Business Directory, but it is also about women helping women to rise. That's why we also added a 'Story' section on our website. In this section, women entrepreneurs who have faced struggles and beaten them can share their success stories.
This will eventually inspire and aspire other women who are in dilemma of 'HOW TO START?' This business directory is a podium, 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 the 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 the women entrepreneurs.
As I and ‘She In Business’ believe, “when she wins, I win.”
