We recently spoke to Ashutosh Kumar Gujarathi who is the founder of Gujarathi Empire Group. He is one of the emerging entrepreneurs in his domain.

Ashutosh Gujarathi is an Ex- Merchant Navy Officer – Previously sailed with Emas offshore Singapore and SIS Tankers, 2016 was the year when he embarked upon his journey of Entrepreneurship. He always wanted to build something of his own. Having completed his B.Tech in Marine Engg and did a sailing job on onboard vessel MV Lewek Atlas and MT Delight as an officer and very cleared with own responsibilities and management skills appreciated as well by Emas offshore Singapore.

But since he was not bound for shipping sailor job again he went back to old family transport business and from there came up with the idea of creating his group of companies with diversified business.

He had big dreams from the very start and he believes not just in dreaming but also working really hard for his dreams. Very early on, when he was in the marine world, he decided to be a shipowner since 2012 and now actually under his direction group is paving its way for to taking over the ship and making an entry in the shipping world.

He loves meeting with new people and looking for new business opportunities. Despite achieving so much, he is humble and ground, He often takes advice from senior key persons of inside and outside the group and always keep learning new things related to business which helps manage the group and increase its overall revenue earning business. Currently, also side by side taking education from an institute of chartered ship brokers and same time having marine industry experience also in hand. For shipping currently, his team is working in parallel with Jason Bulk and Proactive ship Management

 

Where do you get the motivation from?

As I said my source of motivation is my dream which won’t let me settle up and satisfied until and unless what they want.

Why should people choose your product/service? 

Everyone is going to say we are dedicated, committed and blah blah, we can say we are developing business relationships with our clients and that helps us to get more and more opportunities and retain them, they are having a feeling of a like family while working with us. our mostly products are B2B, and attending individual customer is of course part and parcel of any business

What is your Competitive Advantage? 

Here we can say both money and information, if you see export and shipping, there are different approaches needed while doing the business here you need to know technical aspects and risk management and its not a cup of tea for everyone, of course, finance is also crucial and plays a major role. These are the traditional businesses, your early entry and gaining market depth is the key to success. You need a lot of patience, in the beginning, the market here itself is an entry barrier for people, that’s why it’s not easy to be copied. If we talk about our IT products, they are having their own Unique selling points, so I don’t think it’s easy to copy, implement and captured the market which we have already.

What were the Obstacles in your journey so far? 

There is so much turbulence you can say till date that we faced in our journey, It includes problems from finance, Loss in business and personal loss as well, sometimes wrong decision and decision that are taken without consideration of risk and pros/cons etc. But we learned a hell lot of things from our every failure and try to avoid those mistakes, that is what you need to do stay calm, agree with our mistakes and noted the things. Just business is all about patience, if you are not earning revenue no issue keep on increasing your network and be the part of them actively, you will get much more opportunities. Empty Pocket and empty stomach will give you lessons of business

What are your expansion plans? 

Yes, we have some expansion plan in place. We are going to set up office in Singapore for shipping and export so that we can easily control over far east operation , Our IT company is looking for seed funding to expand our products to Pan India Level , so having all expansion plans already lined up and working on same , as we don’t want to stake our investor money

Tell us about your Failures and Bounce Back?

Yes, We have suffered failures in our export ventures and in our restaurants as well, But yes in business you have to bounce back immediately. you don’t have that much time to think over it again and again, the one thing you can do stop the things as it is thinking on it, its operating procedure, the establishment of operating procedures and then bounce bank with minimizing losses as much as possible

Failures are the part and parcel of business, hardcore businessman never stopped by such things, He/ She take it positively and keep moving on

Which one do you prefer, Money Or Emotion? 

I would like to share one story of me when my father expired I have 2 fleets for transport received from my father, and really as it was from late father I got emotionally attached with them, I spend on maintenance a lot to keep them as it is, we were really doing well in domestic transport , slowly the old one of it started consuming much more money in maintenance and I was reluctant at start to sell it out and but at the end I had taken that hard decision and sold it. What we learned exactly there is no value of emotions in business.

The second time when we suffered losses in our restaurant venture and as we came to know how it’s going beyond the control and every month you are burning you other business capital of 1-1.5 Lakhs then we took a decision to stop it there itself within no time. Both things are opposite money and emotion.  Do the business passionately not emotionally, otherwise, you will end up busting yourself.

How do you handle pressure & manage Stress?

By remaining calm and working though you are not getting results are very tough things here where you will get to see job mentality and business mindset. I worked on my hobbies like reading books, walking in a dense forest, going for forts and rope climbing etc. It gives me freshness and alone time to take things in another way and finding out a solution.

What is your advice for entrepreneurs who are just starting out?

In my life till date I have seen very confident business women who are really doing well and managing things, Just do not get obsessed with work, stay focus on what you love to doing.

That’s all signing off

 

 

You May Also Like – Interview With Sivesh Kumar| Founder Of Startup-Monk

 

 

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