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Entrepreneurial Story of Rekha Chandu Lal who founded Courseloka Learning Private Limited located in Bengaluru
About:
- Be very positive. Rekha Chandu Lal, Founder Director, B.Tech from IIT Delhi, PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad, ecommerce entrepreneur, author of the book “Ecommerce Unmasked: Hidden secrets to fight online battles”, worked in Equities and Operations consulting.
When Started: 14/07/2016
Location: Bengaluru
Tell us about your Business
Courseloka has an online language learning platform with a mobile app and website. We sell easy to learn online language learning courses with practical lessons at affordable prices. You can learn a language with your language of choice.
Tell us what an average day in your life looks like.
I start the day by checking emails for important and urgent ones. Every day is a new day. I prioritise my diary’s ToDo list and focus on the most difficult or urgent work. I work on the tasks of the day which may be technology, courses development, resources hunt, acquiring new skills, working on Go To Market. I maintain a To Do list which I continually update and check. I update bulleted minutes of the day, at the end of the work day. I take breaks every 30-45 minutes. I take a daily walk outdoors in the evenings for 20-30 minutes to work off the day’s build up stress. I work 7 days a week.
One particular skill you got right and gave you best results.
DIY- Do It Yourself
What have been your biggest challenges in running your Business so far? How did you overcome these challenges?
1. I have developed the technology platform having 2 websites with an android and iOs app by learning how to and a Can Do It attitude. It was not outsourced and I googled everything.
2. I struggled with how to teach a language online and platform features for 6 months to come up with a product. I interviewed people and did a round of fundamentals (problems, solutions, value proposition) to come up with a prototype and a business model.
3. To keep costs minimal, I bootstrapped and developed skills in Courseloka.
4. I am not from a marketing background. I attended 50 online courses on marketing to gain confidence to do marketing.
What have you found the most effective way to get new clients?
Marketing and sales are yet to be started properly.
What advice do you give to other business owners?
Work on the fundamentals. Be very positive. Keep on executing. Be organized, disciplined, and focus. Think big but act at every step on every detail.
How did you keep motivated through difficult times?
I focused on the core formulation, I remained very positive, and I delinked from negative minded people.
What are your Marketing, Funding, and Team Building Strategy?
Marketing would be multi-pronged and multi-channel.
My funding strategy is to bootstrap, fund from my savings and government grant, and revenue generation.
The team is sourced for activities they are suitable. Only those who have faith in the core proposition remain in the team.
Your Achievements?
Product development (tech platform with 4 languages).
Winner of Elevate-2 Grant and support by the Karnataka Government.
What’s your favorite quote?
“When you speak to a man in your language, you speak to his head. When you speak to him in his language, you speak to his heart” Nelson Mandela
Who inspires you?
Nobody
