Leaders

The E-commerce market in India is not that ancient. However, the last 5-8 years have seen a massive expansion of the e-commerce space with many of the sellers now opting for selling products online through e-commerce. Even though it is more scalable and flexible than an offline venture, the e-commerce space has its share of hurdles and disadvantages. It can be a challenge for new sellers who are unaware of how to make it over the online platform. Nivetha Muralidharan, Founder of Newgenmax, is a dynamic leader and a trainer who left her Software job to start her venture as an e-commerce seller. However, due to her unfamiliarity with the e-commerce space, she had faced many hurdles in her early career. Despite all the challenges, she overcame them and today apart from being an entrepreneur, she also provides training to people to move their business to the online space and build a brand for themselves.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur, Nivetha shares about her prior industry experience, what prompted her to venture into an online business, and much more:

Shed some light on your early education and prior industry experience that you bring to the table. What motivated you to establish Newgenmax?

After completing my B Tech Biotechnology, I worked as a Software Engineer. However, my dream of becoming an entrepreneur made me start a part-time business. Once I gained confidence in my business, I quit my job and started my e-commerce venture as an e-commerce seller in 2013. When I started as an e-commerce seller, I had zero experience in the field. It created a lot of hurdles for me, but I made sure to learn from all of my problems.

As the e-commerce market space started expanding, many more people came out to sell their products online. I realized that there were many people with zero experience jumping into the online selling platform, and I thought of helping them. So, I started as a freelancer and helped people to venture into the e-commerce space effectively. The freelancing worked very well which made me start my agency Newgenmax. I hired people and trained them. Now, as a team, we are providing quality service.

Tell us about the varied expertise that you possess in the field of marketing and business development. What sets apart Newgenmax from its contemporaries in the market?

I exclusively specialized in “Pay-Per-Click” ads and driving sales through marketing. More than the product, I believe in connecting with the people and bringing out the emotional connection through all the products with which we are associated. I also help people in brand-building. As an entrepreneur, I am good at team management. I am not afraid of any failures. My whole life has been a roller coaster ride. Every time I fail, I work hard and bounce back. Newgenmax is an e-commerce related Digital Marketing agency. We help sellers start an online business and convert their offline business into an online business. The things that keep us way ahead of the curve are our coordination and transparency. Instead of giving fake promises, we deliver what we have promised.

What are the various roles & responsibilities that you currently shoulder at Newgenmax? Tell us about the challenges that you faced and how did you overcome them?

As the founder, I monitor all the work done. I am working on automating the entire process which will help us achieve more results productively. One of the major challenges I have been facing is balancing the team. If some team members are on leave, we need to take care of the tasks to balance regular tasks. For that, we are working on a process that will help us deliver a more balanced team.

“In becoming an entrepreneur, i was determined to set an example not just for me, but also for multiple women while inspiring them to take the same path”

What are some of the major milestones that you have achieved so far in your professional journey? What has been the driving force behind your success as an entrepreneur?

As a leading e-commerce marketing agency, we have served numerous clients. I have trained over 35000 people throughout India to start their e-commerce business, which is a huge milestone to train this many people in the e-commerce business.

I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and to be independent. In today's world, many women are not able to continue their job after marriage. By becoming an entrepreneur, I was determined to set an example not just for myself, but also for many women out there by inspiring them to take the same path.

How do you keep yourself about the changes in the industry? Any bits of advice to young women and girls aspiring to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

Upgradation and changes can be achieved through experiments. I am not afraid of experimenting, and I do a lot of hands-on personal testing. In case of any new technique is being tested, I involve part of my team in it to show them the reason behind it and its results. Once it is done, we explain it to our remaining team members. I also educate them regarding the new updates through Weekly meetings and WhatsApp.

I was really scared about my marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, and so on. I thought I should stop my whole venture because of all these. But I would like to advise all young women that they can continue with their dreams at any phase of life. Just make sure that you are doing it on a small model initially, prove yourself to your family, and then go for a large scale.

Nivetha Muralidharan, Founder, Newgenmax

To fulfill her dream of becoming an entrepreneur, Nivetha quit her software job and become an e-commerce seller and then opened her digital marketing agency venture, Newgenmax to train people in starting their own e-commerce based business.