My Entrepreneurial Journey

 I am Dorji Tshering a student of BBA (entrepreneurship) from Gaeddu College of Business Studies, Royal University of Bhutan and an entrepreneur from Bhutan. I come from Gyalgong, a remote place with no road, electricity, and telephone line connectivity. However, the free education policy of Bhutan has made all the difference and I am no longer a resident of remote area. My zeal together with the government’s education policy has paved my way of success and to pursue further my dreams aligned with my mission to establish a market access for a common man from Bhutan.   Bhutan is a small country in the Himalaya’s where our fore fathers has gifted us with pristine environment and better known having become a subject of curiosity for way in which our development process in the last three and half decades has been guided by the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH). GNH is based on believe that the purpose of development and the role of the state is to create conditions within which people can pursue and find what they aspire for most in life happiness.It is holistic development paradigm to make human society resilient. It motivate an individual society to consciously balance material wants with spiritual growth wherein the needs of the body and those of mind are addressed in equal measure within a stable and sustainable environment business. So, keeping this philosophy in my mind, Dorjee Souvenir Shop, Environment friendly business has been established.    With the sole objectives of helping others and to gain experience in my life, I decided to be an entrepreneur. Starting and maintaining business at my own and meeting the challenge of unemployment amongst the youths of Bhutan that has gained the highest attention of the Government was not easy.I always had social mandate of my life to help others in my own little ways. The bitter flashbacks of early days in my schools made me to emerge as a young entrepreneur in the college. I cannot imagine me walking 5 hours on daily basis to reach to school for my primary education. Such hardships and experiences only dictated me to look into the possibilities of making life, hereon, better for myself and for others. To become an entrepreneur is not only for making profit but also to help and support society at large by providing what is meaningful to the societal needs along with the philosophy of GNH. Therefore, I chose to become an entrepreneur in making it happen.Dorjee Souvenir Shop was established on 13^th March 2015 and formally incorporated on 19^th August 2015. To preserve our culture and identity, Dorjee Souvenir Shop has been come up with an idea of supplying beautiful varieties of souvenir items like Gifts, Bhutanese Indigenous Handicrafts and label printed items.

Beside the souvenir items I have observed that students had been facing several problems with regards to printing and photo copy as It was mandatory for the students to submit minimum of five print outs in a week for assignments, case study, business plan, reports and projects to their respective mentors and thus an urgent need for printing and photo copying facilities in the college. So I added the provisioning of Printing and Photo Copying facilities at my small shop in the campus of my college which was proved to be beneficial not only to the students but also a boon for the community around.   Gradually, I started looking at myself as a successful entrepreneur down the line ten years from now with the following Vision, Mission and Objectives. Vision: To provide a eco-friendly services and to meet the day to requirements of the people.

Mission: To capture the market access through preservation of culture, pristine environment and customer friendly service by 2030

Objectives
1.To create employment opportunities

2.To create learning platform for the youths

3.To make availability of products and quality services for the people of Bhutan

4.To preserve culture

 I identified the need of the villagers which in turn and opportunity for me to open up a General shop in remote area where people use to travel three days to buy one kilogram of salt. However, the financial challenges where there and I was also challenged by time management as I was to look after business together with my continuing education.Besides, another challenge was to maintain the link of supply chain and the logistic requirements owing to the fact that shop was to be operated in remotest area. However, I did not give up and I continued with endeavor having taken small support from the local financer, family and friends. I said my priorities and allocated my time accordingly to operate business and study. I made proper notification the business hours and availability of goods in the stock. For the logistic support I tied up my business purchases with the local transporter on fort nightly basis.  In order to utilize my time while being in the college campus  and having noticed several problems regarding the telecommunications network in the college, I thought of extending my business into communication segment. I started working as Tashi Cell Agent (a private telecommunication agent dealing with mobile SIM cards, data cards, memory card, hand set phones, net connection, etc). The challenge I had while starting Tashi Cell agent was to get the approval from college management and support from the Tashi Cell Company. However, I convinced college management teams and Tashi Cell Company in terms of benefit to the student and community at large. My initiative not only addressed the issue of net work problems but also gave the community an alternative for enhanced telecommunication services. 

The glimpse of business that I have carried out so far can be obtained from the financial statement and the growth as mentioned below.

 In my business, I prioritize in making timely payment to supplier and attending to the customers’ complain etc. Taking the customers’ feedback constructively helped me improve my business and deliver the services unfailingly. Financial discipline is also important because business fund and owner’s money should be considered separately. So I don’t divert the funds meant for business for personal uses. I adhere the policy of fair pricing and thus always charge the just price. I gained several entrepreneurial skills by coordinating and taking many enterprising initiatives in my life. I have coordinated and constructed one stupa worth Nu. 25, 00, 000 (Twenty Five Lakhs). By coordinating this project, I learned to manage and engage the labors in an effective and efficient manner. It also taught me to become a competent manager in mobilizing and managing project funds and materials in most accurate way. My creativity, patience and how to communicate with different classes of people kept enhancing.Having established a general shop, my learning experiences kept blossoming. In addition to this, I inculcated entrepreneurial qualities such as having patience, commitment, persistence, perseverance, coordinating skills, leadership quality, and financial discipline, how to maintain book keeping and most importantly it made me a risk taker. With this business, I learned to provide unfailing services on time which helped me not only retain the customers but also attract more of them.Besides, my voluntary works in conducting awareness programs on affect of marijuana, consequences of night prowling (which was a common man to woman approach in remote Bhutan), fund raising activities through showcasing cultural events are some of my foundational values for building confidence and public relationships.While advertising for my business I found out that human behaviors are not same. Just advertising is easy but convincing them to buy the goods and services is difficult. Different people have different taste and preference for the products and services. So I have learned the skills to convince the customers to buy my product. To convince them one has to be honest to customers; one has to show proper attitude and have to be committed to customers.Having understood the intricacies of business and also having realized that immense opportunity are lying to run profitable business with all corporate social responsibility and also having realized my business strength as established brand name of my business I am looking forward to have franchisee retail counters in remote areas at my standards and parameters with my business values and ethics I have invited for the later of interest for which I getting a good response from the interested parties. So 2016 I am hopeful to have ten retail counters across Bhutan and I am sure I will be able to provide ample guidance to the franchisee retailers and the same will be replicated in years to come.  

THANK YOU

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