“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” – Roger Crawford, Tennis Player, Motivational Speaker & Author.
Challenges are a part of life. How we respond to them decides the course our life takes. While some are intimidated by them, some embrace them and find them motivating. For Deepak Kankekar, creative and challenging projects motivate him and fuel him with an urge to beat his own records. So without second thoughts, he knew he was cut-out for entrepreneurship.
As the Founder & Director of Ecstasy Events & Entertainments, Deepak races on in this competitive world. He shares his thoughts and ideas.
Why did you choose Entrepreneurship over a regular 9-5 job?
Successful people inspire other people to become successful. The monotonous and routine working 9 to 5 wasn’t able to feed my burning passion for creativity and innovation. Also the nature an average job doesn’t seem rewarding to my aspirations. I believed that becoming an entrepreneur will allow me to network with people who have already built great business. Really speaking I didn’t like the idea of having people in superior positions, managing my work and looking over my shoulder. I believe that by becoming my own boss is the only way I can work effectively and happily.
Tell us more about your company- Ecstasy Events and Entertainment
I started my dream company in November 2016 as a corporate event management firm with a team of 3 members and within a span of two of years we have flourished into a team of 10 members. We have expanded ourselves from an operating from home cum office business to a proud establishment with dedicated office & considerable godown space.
What challenges have you faced as an entrepreneur? How did you overcome them to establish yourself and the company?
My very first challenge is to manage the time. We have only so much time in the day to get the work done.
Then we had to have frequent meetings with clients for convincing them to accept my services. Marketing is the backbone of a business. We did in appropriate time to establish our brand, starting from limited circle of client expanding outwards.
Since I had limited cash in hand in initial period I had to keep tab on my business as well as personal expenses. I only hired employees who shared my vision for creativity & innovation irrespective of their academic qualifications.
How do you lead your company and help it sustain in a competitive environment?
I believe that a company can be driven better if everyone in team drives towards same Goal. Hence, I started by developing vision for company & aligning it with business ideas.
To sustain in competitive environment, I have taken definitive steps like assembling an efficient business team, Finding the right business locations, Outsourcing to vendors with a vision or even aligning them to our vision, keeping us updated with market trends & having a healthy relationship with competitors.
As a business leader what is your opinion on the current landscape of business given that the pandemic has been adversely affecting every industry?
Yes. The strongest economies around the globe are struggling to cope up with the situation in the wake of an unprecedented shutdown of all key economic activities that drives growth. The tourism & entertainment industries are one of the worst hit sectors as it is directly related to man movements. I believe the situation will recover to some extent given time; however the pandemic will leave its mark on the industry trends.
We must appeal to the Government to direct the relief package to hospitality sector who in immense need of support to survive.
Social media is an inseparable part of the daily life of youth. Your thoughts about it and how do you leverage its power for the company?
In recent years or few months the importance of social media in business has increased manifold. It is booming like never before. With such amazing growth, it has become a necessity for every business today engage in proper social media channels & utilize them best possible way. We have ensured that our Social media channel is regularly updated. There should always be new content available to increase the engagement on our pages.
What are your future endeavours/objectives and where do you see yourself in near future?
Like all business, I vision Ecstasy Events & Entertainment to be a leading event management firm pan India. Creating new ideas and leading a creative team is a living dream and a destination in its own right.
I am an aspiring entrepreneur in the field of Events and Entertainment. I have ambitions to achieve financial freedom, sketching and apt business plans, hiring and renting a skilled workforce. Aligning marketing and sales. Generating greater ROI, online positioning. Last but not the least Growth, Growth, Growth.
