Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sahishnu Majumdar, Founder of 3E Learning Studio, located in Vasai, Maharashtra, India.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

3E Learning studio specializes in designing immersive learning content for working professionals. We create learning content that is easy to understand and easy to apply to people and behavioral skills. We develop learning content focused on behavioral skills in the domains of Sales Decision Making, Business Foresight, and Collaboration. We explore contemporary ideas of thought leaders in leadership and management. We take these ideas and construct practical learning content around them, which helps working professionals translate these concepts into practical, usable, and measurable behavioral skills. We aim to keep our content industry neutral yet relevant and useful to all working professionals across industries.

Having said that, I want to emphasize that when we develop learning content, we particularly have in our mind the learning needs of professionals working in the MSME sector who have both potential and aspirations but rarely find an appropriate learning environment or professional learning opportunities at their workplaces. Fresh college graduates joining the industry are also our target customers. We help them evaluate their potential, identify learning goals, and build their learning arc to achieve their short and medium-term career growth.

Another key target customers are remote and solo working professionals who are not able to access guidance for progressing their careers and professional growth. In short, we want our learning content to be accessible to all working professionals who have the burning desire to learn and lead, but as corporate citizens do not get opportunities and as individuals cannot afford expensive executive courses or learning programs.

Tell us about yourself

I started my career in the early 90s as a sales representative selling security software. I am and will always identify myself as an accidental sales professional. As a student of Humanities and having majored in Philosophy, academics was my dream profession. So when I started off as a sales representative, I had the least idea of what I was getting into and what skills I would need to succeed in this career. Most importantly, I was not even aware of whether I had the potential to carve out a career in sales. I did not know if I was suitable sales material.

As I moved from software to paints and then to chemicals and finally into ready mix concrete, I discovered my potential and talents in bits and pieces that took over a long period. It was only after almost two decades of being a sales professional that I finally discovered that I was rather cut out for learning, training, and facilitating.

The fact remained that in spite of being a student of Humanities with zero technical background, I was moderately successful in industries dominated by technology. But it is also a fact that I learned more from my own failures than from any exposure to learning opportunities. This also helped me realize that a sustainable learning environment at the workplace, combined with consistent learning guidance and coaching, is crucial for a successful professional career. In 2010 and at the age of 40, I switched career goals and became a sales trainer. I admit it took me an unusually long period of time to discover what I must really do to enjoy a very satisfying, rewarding, and fulfilling career. I now know most of it was a result of my limited awareness, and sometimes complete lack of it, about my own strengths and abilities, competencies, and skills.

In early 2020 the pandemic struck, and I also lost my employment. Though not because of it. Only then did I realize that it was in hard times like these that people needed help and guidance the most. So much was needed, and so little was available. The pressure to stay in business far outweighed the pressure to help others learn and survive. I lost my employment but not my passion. I did not have a job, but I did have work to do. And quite a lot of it. I remember telling a room full of young engineers aspiring to join a large cement manufacturer in India that passion is something you continue to do even when nobody takes notice of the work you are doing, leave alone pays you for it. I took the same advice myself.

In this backdrop, I launched my microenterprise 3E Learning studio in July 2020. My goal is crisp and work cut out. I must help working professionals know what they must do and, more importantly, what they must avoid doing to stay relevant and successful in their professional careers. On 28 July 2021, 3E Learning Studio created and premiered its first learning video on YouTube about the Mann Gulch Fire Disaster in Montana (US). This video attracted 48 likes and some interesting conversations around leadership skills.

Every time we are able to create a learning environment and draw people into an enriching conversation, we believe we are a step closer to democratizing knowledge. Every time somebody comes back and tells us how he or she has benefited from the work we do at 3E Learning Studio, I gain more confidence that we are on the right path and there are people around who need more of our work.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Nothing to put on record right now, but I trust that moment is not very far when it will become worth noticing and mentioning. I can only say that we are working on a very interesting tool for sales professionals, and we believe we will be able to make some significant announcements around this before April 2023.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

The ability to become elastic with your skills so that you are able to devote enough attention and time even to those activities which are essential to the business but which you do not necessarily enjoy doing. Another very important thing is accountability. Since the only person verifying and cross-checking your work is you, it becomes very important to develop that critical eye where you are able to see your own gaps and shortcomings in the work that you produce and rectify them. Often in a rush to announce the next milestone, these gaps remain unplugged, which can and does lead to value erosion.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Passion and discipline for the work you do - each without the other is incomplete.
  2. Good is good enough. Aim for a balance between completion and perfection. Do not miss deadlines in your zeal to be perfect. Do not produce mediocre work in your rush for completion.
  3. Have patience and stay calm - nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.3elearningstudio.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahishnu-majumdar-3elearningstudio/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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