Shoaib Aslam (pictured) , Founder of Start My Business, EventsX, and a number of further businesses, sat down with European Business Magazine to discuss his latest venture, business launchpad Start My Business.
What inspired you to found Start My Business?
Through my experience starting several businesses, I have realised that there are a number of elements required to launch a successful venture, and there was no one quality platform which allowed me to launch a business entirely with all the tools and resources that I needed.
Additionally, when creating each business, I found myself having to create a tick list in excel every time I wanted to launch, such as: have I got a company setup, thought of a name, got a website – and failure to action some of these decreased the chances of success.
Tell us about your backstory
I’m a qualified Charted Accountant who set up his own practice, having previously worked at PwC. I’ve come from humble beginnings in one of the smallest villages in Pakistan and became one of the youngest practice owners in the country.
I’ve become a serial entrepreneur, launching a number of successful but also unsuccessful businesses. Experiencing failures in past businesses has provided a lot of lessons to learn from and they have inspired me to launch Start My Business and tech unicorn EventsX.
Outside of founding and managing multiple businesses, I have spoken for several multinational countries and SMEs, as well as writing a book on Amazon titled “What other successful accountancy owners won’t tell you.”
What gap is there in the market for Start My Business?
Starting a business is a complicated task, and it is very difficult for entrepreneurs to think of every element they need to launch a successful business. Having relied upon excel for checklists for other businesses, there is a need for knowledge, resources and a checklist to supply entrepreneurs with the keys to start a successful business.
There is also a large expenditure required to launch a business, so to help keep costs low, Start My Business offers a plethora of free digital tools to help SMEs connect with everything they need, without the high-cost burden.
Also, there is a lack of quality, reliable vendors, which forces SMEs to waste valuable time to select independent vendors at the cost of running the business. Start My Business is designed as an all-in-one hub to make entrepreneur’s lives easier.
How will the cost-of-living crisis affect entrepreneurs, and how can Start My Business help?
Uncertain economic times off the back of the pandemic, and most recently the cost-of-living crisis, are shredding the essential costs for launching a successful start-up. There is great strain on entrepreneurs to manage the launch process at little to no cost, a task which proves very difficult.
Start My Business offers a solution in this space, providing free tools and resources to ensure entrepreneurs who wish to launch their dream business will still have hope to do so, and can get started at minimal cost.
How does the product compare to rivals?
We like to see ourselves as the Amazon for all the services we offer, but we are different in that we are a service provider rather than a marketplace. Truthfully, Start My Business is a unique proposition due to the free digital tools on offer and the free checklist and resources to help entrepreneurs launch their business in a cost-effective way all in one place.
Where do you see the company in five years?
We are a very unique business with several features and offerings to startups as well as established businesses. Small businesses hold the key to the business economy, and we are confident of becoming a major player here, becoming the next unicorn within the next 5 years or, hopefully, sooner, as we are in parallel looking for funding to propel our growth.
