Helping Leaders to Reimagine Leadership

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in leadership development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Basav Ray Chaudhuri, Founder of Coach with Basav, located in Bucharest, Romania.

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

I am a Leadership Coach. My customers broadly range from senior executives of multinational corporations to medium-sized business owners. I also coach business executives transitioning out of their corporate careers and trying to define the next chapter of their lives.

Tell us about yourself

After a 30-year corporate career during which time I lived in 7 countries in Western and Eastern Europe as well as Far East Asia, I felt it was time to do something different. When reflecting on this period, I realized that watching my team progress – both, in their mission as well as in their individual careers - gave me great satisfaction. This realization then led to discovering the coaching profession and a decision to formally train to become a credentialed coach. Understanding people and what drives them to succeed remains an endless source of motivation and inspiration for me.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My last country of assignment in my corporate career was Romania. As a family, we decided to continue living in Romania because we really like the country, and we decided that as I pursued my transition to becoming a coach, we would not disrupt the rest of the family.

To start and build a business in a foreign land is probably the greatest accomplishment for me as a business owner. To have long-term clients, as a coach, represents the highest reward.

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

Very early on, I decided that the primary motivator for me was “to coach”. It was not to build a business enterprise. For example, I had no interest in hiring other coaches and building a large coaching business. My offering as a coach would be limited to what I could do myself.

This being the case, it was clear that my "brand" was me - and for that, people had to know I existed. Creating that recognition in the market was (and remains) quite challenging – and this challenge was exacerbated during the pandemic.

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

Not necessarily in order:

If, like me, you are transitioning from a corporate career to entrepreneurship, get used to not having the luxury of a month-end cheque!
Give yourself enough time (and, therefore, the financial resources) to build the business.
Start - getting the first client is always the hardest, but things get better after that.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://coachwithbasav.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/coachwithbasav
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/basav-ray-chaudhuri-b590435/

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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