Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with S Manish Singh, Managing Director of PROGILENCE Capability Development Pvt. Ltd., located in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

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

We are a full-service Learning and Development Consultancy company that offers services in Holistic Skills Development across corporate, government, education, and the social sector. We offer services such as programme/intervention development, skills gap market studies, occupational standards development, curriculum and content development, capacity building, and developing learning and skills frameworks, among other related services. Our key clients are government bodies and corporate and educational institutions.

Tell us about yourself

I have worked across the corporate, education, and social sector, with over 25 years of experience. While in employment, I have worked with leading national and international organisations in their respective areas. I first got the idea of working on the business to overcome the limitations of employment when it comes to wanting to work on diverse areas of interest and passion. Having seen the many problems around various aspects of society, using my sensitivity, ability to think about complex issues in depth, and problem-solving orientation, I decided to see what I could do to help address some of those issues. Central to all problem-solving is a human endeavour, and therefore I knew that central to our efforts too had to be to develop people with the objective to sensitise and enable them to identify, commit and solve problems to create a better future.

What motivates me every day are the problems and consequences that I see in society, which cause immense, avoidable pain and misery in the world around me. What also motivates me is the fact that I see meaning in efforts that are focused on solving these problems rather than merely just work to keep the wheels chugging for the sake of it or merely limited, often meaningless, selfish goals.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I do not think we have achieved significantly yet, but the fact that people who know us value us for our inherent values, competence, and quality of work gives us short-term returns that keep us aligned with our objectives. We have helped improve education and training systems and highlighted to people in government, education, and corporate how to achieve better across our many interventions. Tangibly we have created over 250 occupation standards-based qualifications and learning material for over 50 qualifications/occupations across 18 different sectors, including in path-breaking areas such as AI for Schools and Industry 4.0 for the industry. We continue to research, explore and ideate to think about problems deeply and create frameworks of solutions valued by our stakeholders and have immense potential to make a large-scale difference; this is the achievement we seek and meet every day.

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

Limitations of capital have been an issue, especially with the challenging COVID environment disrupting the flow of business has been hard. But the other hardest thing is to access stakeholders who are committed to solving problems and willing to do it at a fair price in a conducive environment. Getting skilled professionals with the right value set.

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

  1. Do it for the right reasons and to bring about positive change.
  2. Secure substantial capital if you can, as it always takes more than you think. I did not and have suffered for it.
  3. Prioritize learning and developing world-class competence, also understanding the full scope of the impact of what you do; it helps make the right decisions, decipher complexity intelligently and avoid counter-productive activities.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: http://progilence.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PROGILENCE/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/progilence/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProgilenceD
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3iF9nad

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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