Kuldeep Singhania - Keep Your Employees Happy, Don’t Treat Them as If They Are Working for You but as If You Are Working for Them (Entrepreneur from India)

A lot of people ignore the power of building the right connections but trust me, the right connections can just skyrocket your business in the blink of an eye.

1. Tell us more about your company and your journey.

So the company is called The - K - Factor productions and it professionalises in creating digital ads for brands, corporate videos, real estate content, portfolio shoots, etc. It's one of those businesses that I wanted to start since I was 19 and the production house is currently the top-rated production company in Jaipur on Google.

Regarding the journey, the journey has been an inspirational one. From being a complete outsider who started working as an actor in Balaji telefilms, Zee Tv, Star Sports, Channel V despite not having a single contact in the industry, to getting digital advertisements for brands, to having millions of people consuming our content, to opening a production company that gives a platform to outsiders, who don't have any connections in the industry. Life definitely has come a full circle

2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?

The idea came during one of the auditions for the dominos pizza commercial that was happening in 4 Bungalows Andheri West. There was a humongous crowd in the audition room like it was jam-packed. I went there at 10 am and my audition came at 7.30 pm and I was standing there without eating and drinking anything for hours and then when my audition came, the casting assistant said, the camera battery is dead, auditions closed. I even begged in front of him to allow me just 30 seconds of screen space but he didn't listen.

And I got so pissed off that I literally cried while coming back home thinking if this is how things keep on going, I'll probably die out of frustration of not even being able to show my talent to people and that's when I decided that enough is enough if opportunity doesn't knock, build a door and I started learning all the other aspects of film making including direction, editing, scriptwriting, casting, costume, production, set design everything and that gave me the confidence to start something of my own and give a platform to all the youngster who is not from Mumbai and not getting the right platform to showcase their talent and have a dream of working in the media industry.

3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?

Probably making my parents and society understand what I wanted to do. Because when you say that you are not going to college and you won't take a job or work for anybody, it comes as a shock for parents. They start thinking, to phir paise kaha se aayega, and then when you tell them that you want to be an actor/influencer/entrepreneur and have your own business they again start thinking to uske liye paise kaha se aayega . 

Being from a middle-class family it gets really difficult to make your parents understand your vision. And I am sure a lot of youngsters face this issue a lot. But how I was able to overcome that was by giving them small results every single day. Like if I would create any short ad for a brand I would show it to them, any photoshoots that I would do I would tell them. 

So it's basically Rai ka pahad banana in the beginning. You achieve 1% but you show as if you have achieved 100% to your parents. That kind of worked and they gradually started supporting whatever I was up to and once I got their support, things just skyrocketed, because the fear of losing just went away.

4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?

I think Patience, Smart Work & Building the right connections. A lot of people ignore the power of building the right connections but trust me, the right connections can just skyrocket your business in the blink of an eye. Focus on building the right connections and have patience, you never know what life might offer you the next moment.

5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?

Keep your employees happy. Don't treat them as if they are working for you but as if you are working for them. Because remember all of them are working to make your dream a reality, not theirs. Also making sure that all of your employees are emotionally healthy by conducting regular meditation sessions, motivational talks and taking them for an outing from time to time. 

It's basically a bond that needs to be developed between a boss and his employees. Make sure you build that connection as early as possible, otherwise you never know people leave companies on a drop of a hat these days.

6. What are your tips for first-time and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Just don't hop onto your parent's heads saying I am leaving everything because I want to become an entrepreneur or start my own business. Trust me it will get very difficult especially if come in from a non-business class family. So start small, be it while you are in school, college, or while you are in a job. Start small and see the results, take feedback from people, build the right team and eventually when you become profitable, feel free to drop out of college or a job and take this as a full-time career.

7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

That's one issue 90% of entrepreneurs face. See we have to understand nobody and I mean nobody (including our parents) will shell out money for something until they know it is going to be worth it. That's how the human mind works. So first of all stop cribbing about money and whatever it is, that is possible from your end, start doing that and show that to your parents and prove it to them over and over again that what you are doing is not something that is just for fun, this is what you want to do. 

Once they start seeing small, small results, their faith in your idea will start developing and that's when they'll be ready to invest and the same goes with your friends or your colleagues. Everybody wants to know the result, if you show them the results and make them believe in your vision, you'll have no problems in getting investors for your startup.

8. How do you manage to be an actor, influencer and entrepreneur at the same time?

To be honest, It's not that tough probably because my brain functions in that way. You know what they say Jack of all trades, master of none. I am kind of that, but I am happy being the jack of all trades because my mind gets very sluggish and unproductive if I just keep on working one thing for months and years, day in and day out . In the end, we've all got one life. 

That's why I own 7 businesses so that I can shuffle between them quite easily, make productive decisions and leave. And trust me, over time when you'll develop multiple sources of income and money getting credited to your bank account every other day, that's when you'll understand why I was saying " I am happy being the Jack of all trades ".

Kuldeep Singhania

Entrepreneur from India

Interviewed by Ronak Jain