Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in training and education but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Rakesh Chaudhary, Founder of Dojo Labs Inc., located in Basking Ridge, NJ, USA.

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

I run a consulting practice called Dojo Labs, and we primarily cater to Sales and Marketing divisions at mid-to-large-sized B2B tech companies. Providing effective training for onboarding and up-skilling sales professionals is critical to the success of these companies. However, developing engaging and customized training programs for the various sales roles is a challenging and costly proposition.

At Dojo Labs, we use design thinking to uncover learning needs and define training solutions. We then use agile methodology to test and develop innovative solutions in a cost-effective and timely manner. This results in learning programs that lead to real sales outcomes.

Tell us about yourself

Until 2019 I worked at Akamai Technologies - a truly game-changing cloud services company - for almost two decades in a variety of roles, including product and sales. One thing it instilled in me was an appreciation for the enormous challenges facing the sales leadership team in marshaling their resources to meet the company’s revenue objectives while at the same time continuing to invest and develop their talent.

I quit Akamai in 2019 with the idea of starting something on my own, and I focused on the area of learning and development for the sales professional. The key insight I had was that the reasons why most training initiatives underperform are the same reasons why most big transformational projects fail - due to poor definition of the problem statement, centralized decision-making, low participation from target users during the development phase, and misalignment with business objectives. Over the last three years working with some pioneering clients, I have been able to address a lot of these issues by adopting design thinking and agile as guiding principles for developing learning experiences.

What motivates me each day is the knowledge that there is always a slightly better way to solve any problem, especially when it comes to learning & development - my role is to help business leaders find what that slightly better way might be.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Just starting a business would rank as a big accomplishment, especially after more than two decades in corporate jobs. The appetite for risk and discomfort definitely goes down with age, and I can assure you starting a business provides you with a healthy dose of both!

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

The all-encompassing nature of it is challenging, especially in the early days when you have to wear multiple hats simultaneously. There is a cost to context-switching - e.g., coming up with a creative marketing campaign uses different parts of your brain compared to the deep work required to deliver on a client’s deadline. I have come to terms with the fact that I need to expand my team and not stretch myself too thin - it is the practical and smart way forward.

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

  1. Pick a business idea that marries your capabilities, business viability, and your enthusiasm to work in that area for the next ten years.
  2. Start building a team through hiring or partnering sooner rather than later.
  3. Dedicate time and effort to learning and developing new skills continuously.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.dojolabs.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rakeshdojo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rakeshchaudhary/

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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