Leaders

No one is a born leader, instead leadership is a quality developed over time through hard work. Yashu Sharma, founder of NeoWise Business Solutions (an exclusive boutique of end-to-end HR Solutions) and Crafters Yard (a retail company based out of Vasco, Goa providing people a platform to showcase their talents) truly substantiates this statement.

Juggling between getting admissions into PCB so as to pursue her passion in biotechnology, she eventually ended up doing Bachelors in Business Administration, but little did she know about her impending career glory back then. An HR professional with 12+ years of progressive experience working in diverse organizations from startups to industry leaders, it was her tenacity to do something that led her towards becoming a successful entrepreneur.

To know more about her & the two companies she leads, kindly peruse the exclusive conversation between Yashu & Women Entrepreneur India.

Tell us about your inspiration to becoming an entrepreneur and entrenching two successful ventures, crafters yard & neowise business solutions, significantly? Also, how would you summarize your journey so far?

My early educational journey is very interesting. As I was a science student, I always wanted to get into the field of biotechnology, but, failed to do so because of not getting PCB in my 12th standard. I eventually pursued BBA, and it was from the first year of my degree I start-ed off with my career journey too. That sort of gave me some confidence, but not being good with English vocabulary, the graduation seemed to be a milestone for me. Though, post its completion, I realized my bent towards HR field & went ahead to pursue my MBA and received scholarship too. HR is what I have been doing for 13 years throughout my career journey. But, about entrepreneurship, I had no idea. While NeoWise Business Solutions relates to my professional expertise, Crafters Yard was incepted during my maternity to quench my passion for art & craft.

The journey has been extensively satiating so far, as I am encouraging & promoting talents through my retail art platform Crafters Yard and leveraging end-to-end-recruitment under one roof through NeoWise Solutions.

Tell us more about Neowise and the differentiating factors about the company.

NeoWise is not alike other consultancies who provide one specific service such as recruitment or more through their enterprise, instead it's a complete boutique of HR services that basically covers everything right from recruitment, strategic HR management, employee engagement, social media handling, payrolls, to counselling, and more. We do offer everything separately, but our endeavour is to provide it all as a complete package. Hence, our basic USP is, building up an entire HR system to run your startup or even for a company which is already established, and add value to the first level employees hired there. We want to spread the word that HR is a diversified field and that every organization has a lot more to explore when it comes to giving certain benefit to employees.

What were the major challenges that you encountered during the establishment of your companies?

First of all, I would say about Crafters Yard, I wasn't at all prepared to start a platform, wherein I had to try to attract talent from the crowd. My being an introvert made it even more challenging. But, getting through it, surfacing talents (being gender neutral) from rural as well as urban areas I realized that it wasn't impossible. Now, I network, socialize and connect with people and I have turned out to be an extrovert to bring all under one roof and materialize our purpose to create and grow through Art & Craft. This endeavour is for my passion and it has nothing to do with profit generation.

Same goes with the NeoWise; I want to inspire start-ups to head up and lead the companies strengthening their HR system and adding value to their employees' journey right from the start.

Throughout this journey, what were some of those principle philosophies or mantras that guided your approach to entrepreneurial leadership all along?

About leadership philosophies, I would say I'm still new to the entrepreneurship world, but I've taken some in-spiration from my mentors I had worked with. I believe commanding is not something that can get things done, instead a leader needs to inspire and motivate the work-force to do things in a fun way. Being strict and making employees adhere to strict guidelines is not something I do at my company, but I try to add value to their career journey by encouraging them to do better and appreciating their creative ideas. This is what inspires me and I would urge other leaders to do the same.

Crafting is your passion, as we already know through your venture, but is there anything more to your hobbies or passion?

Crafters Yard is not just about myself doing crafts, but it's my sincere efforts to help people from all walks of life, especially arts & craft to showcase the littlest of their talents through my progressive platform. Hence, in my free time too I pursue it as my hobby holding events across Goa and giving them a platform to sell their products for example currently, I am busy coming up with an event, helping them sell their products for this festive season be it for décor, lightings, handmade crafts, arts and more.

“I believe commanding is not something that can get things done, instead a leader needs to inspire and motivate the workforce to do things in a fun way”

I have a wonderful five years old boy, a very supportive and encouraging family that consists of my father, my sister, my husband and in-laws, who have been along with me in this dedicated journey. And, with their support, I want to keep continuing leveraging my platform to reach all, including children.

What advice would you give to aspiring business leaders and entrepreneurs?

I will be specific about it. I have a very positive approach towards life, I don't plan things in advance and don't think what is going to happen three years or five years down the line. Hence, I suggest the same to everyone, `Live in the present!'. Think broad, just keep your mind focused, and always live to realizing your passion or smallest of the idea that intrigues your existence & capabilities. It's the basic mantra that will actually help you to manifest your dream into reality.

Yashu Sharma, Founder, Crafters Yard & Neowise Business Solutions

An artist at heart, Yashu is people's person helping promote art & craft talent country-wide and promoting human resources to help companies entrench a better workforce to relish profitability.