At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of that endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur and leader Saurabh Dashottar this week to know more about his inspiring journey. He is a Chartered Accountant, Analyst, Mentor, and Founder & Managing Director of SFS Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Let’s learn more about his journey, way forward and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I am born and brought up in Nagpur (Maharashtra). I completed my B.Com and became a chartered accountant in the year of 2012. Post that I joined Ernst and Young at Hyderabad as my first job. I worked there as an Associate Consultant for some time and switched to PwC as a Consultant. After that, I joined Deloitte. So, I was fortunate to serve 3 out of 4 Big 4s accounting firm of the world. They all groomed me as a Professional. I am grateful to each of my senior from these firms for all the learnings (good & bad) I have gotten.
I always wanted to start my own company. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj has a huge influence on my life. And I always want to create my own corporate “Swarajya” like him. Hence, I created “Swarajya Financial Shelter – SFS” into my mind when I was in the job. Once I was riding towards my office and just this name flashed into my mind. I always used to think that why any Indian firm is not in the top big 4 firms. All the top best Indian firms were either dissolved or took over by these big 4s. Hence, I decided to start a professional company which will give the highest quality services within the four corners of the law to the clients.”
I started my company in 2015 and there was no Make in India or Vocal for Local concept back then. But you can now relate my company to it! 😊
I had made a plan to complete 5 years (at least) in the job, get some good work experience and accumulate some capital and then one fine day I will start my company (These are the most common thoughts for every person who wanted to start their own venture but do not have any financial backing and want to play safe as well).
But life had some different plans for me. After completing approximately 3 years in service, one day, I just ended my job career and started my entrepreneur journey. When I put down my papers at the job, I didn’t have any client in my hand, I was married and my wife was working (BTW She is also a chartered accountant).
Without her support, I would not have left the job and lived my dream. Also, it was like my wife was earning way too high than me at one point in my life. And the truth is that never bothers either me or her. I was and am still passionate about my dream to make Swarajya as world’s biggest professional services company. Further, I believe that there is no one-man show, its always a team-work. I am fortunate to have a good team of professionals (CS, Lawyer & CA) who joined me in my journey since the beginning.
In 2015, I started Swarajya financial Shelter as a proprietorship firm and got my first client for whom I filed his income tax return @ Rs. 750/- only. That was my first business sales income. I am still grateful for it. After one year, I converted it into “SFS Advisors Private limited” and became the Managing Director of it. It is an accounting BPO and a consultancy company. And now after completing 5 successful years, my wife has also joined me into my business and quit her job.”
You have seen many ups and downs in your journey so what keeps you going?
One thing I learnt so far is Success always lives out of your comfort zone and only comes to those who are willing to take risks.
Positive Mindset, Attitude of Gratitude and Self Belief are the major key factors which keep me going.
You have to take the risk and conquer it.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
Entrepreneurship is a big sky. It gives you a lot of opportunities to groom yourself as a professional and as a leader. Let me explain you in a CA language- Its always better to be a profit/loss in your own books rather than an expense (salary expense), into someone else’s book.
I always wanted to work for myself and manifest my own dreams. And entrepreneurship gave me that freedom. Its an addiction in a good way.”
You will be the sailor of your own boat and hence its risk and rewards both belong to you only.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
The only challenge was to convince my mind that If I follow my dream, I will be successful and will be able to do something worthy of myself. Trust me, the only battle you have to win is with your mind.
Once you conquer and win it, other things will not even bother you. I started feeding my mind with positive self-talk and suggestion. Hence, I was able to overcome it. Otherwise- Challenges and Rewards are part and parcel for being an entrepreneur.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
Money with ethics – That’s my mantra. Being a Chartered Accountant, my first job is to protect the law. And in any circumstances, the law should prevail. Hence, I always follow ethical practice. And will always earn money with ethics. So, this emotion of being ethical drives me to earn money righteously.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Certainly, my work has a lot of pressure as I need to meet several statutory and clientele deadlines. Within those deadlines, I shall have to maintain the highest quality of work. So, to manage the stress, I practice discipline and avoid procrastination. I make work plans for every client and me and my team stick into that plan only.
What has worked well for you so far?
Clarity of vision and determination to materialise the vision. Let me explain to you with an example, if anybody wants to go Hyderabad from Mumbai by car, what he will do is he will put to and from in the google maps and start the journey and while driving his car he would be confident in his mind that he shall reach their because he knows where he wants to go. The same logic applies to your dreams and vision.
If you know what you want to do and you are determined to do it then it will happen. Further, I always stay committed towards my work 100% and passionately do it. I was fortunate enough to realise my passion for client service and provide innovative and cost-effective solutions to my clients and hence, I am enjoying my work and that worked well for me so far.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
It will be too soon for me to give Gyan on it 🙂 and I am still a learner and I would like to be a learner in my entire life as it gives you more scope for self improvisation.
However, I realise one thing is that life should be lived one day at a time. If you live each day in the present and if you are able to accomplish whatever to-do’s you have for that day then it’s a successful day for you. So at the end of the year, you shall find that all the 365 days were successful for you.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
I just wanted to say that if you are clear about what you want from life and have confidence in your idea then I don’t see any reason which can stop you. Risk is everywhere, so it’s unavoidable. But if you are in a job and “YOU WANT TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR” but you can’t take the risk of losing your fixed-income plus job security and you ain’t leaving the job then you are already a failure as an entrepreneur by not attempting it but if you attempt it and it doesn’t work out then nobody can take back the satisfaction from you that at least I tried.
There is a very nice saying that if you fail to achieve your goal and you still believe in that goal then you change your plan through which you had tried to achieve it and draft a new plan with the experience of the previous plan but you don’t change your goal. If plan A doesn’t work then the alphabets have 25 more letters.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
