Vishal Jain knew that he wasn’t cut out to work for anyone. At a young age, he already knew what he wanted to become, so he dropped out of college despite his parents’ disapproval. He had no business skills, no money, and no investors. What he had was only a vision to start his own business.
Vishal Jain is now the founder and CEO of Sunshy Digital Media Agency and two Instagram-focused marketing companies. What did this young man do to become an accomplished entrepreneur?
Learning from YouTube and Quora
With zero skills and no money to start a business, Jain turned to the Internet for help. He searched for ways to make money online and found several freelancing sites, so he decided to offer virtual assistant services on some of these sites.
It was then that he saw the increasing demand for social media marketing services. Jain decided to start his own SMM business, but he didn’t have enough funds to pay for online courses or advertise his planned business. Jain says that his biggest resources were those found for free on YouTube and Quora. He watched over a hundred tutorial videos on YouTube, and looked for SMM-related answers on Quora.
Aside from SMM, he also taught himself website design and SEO, which made his business quickly turn from a social media marketing company to a broader digital marketing company.
The entrepreneur’s initial investment amounted to only $25 for the domain name and hosting service for his website. This goes to show that you don’t need that much money to start a business. Jain’s advice to entrepreneurs who are only starting is to stop thinking that they need someone to give them the money to start a business. You can earn the required money by learning important skills through YouTube and then work as a freelancer on Fiverr or other websites.
Instagram-focused business
Instagram is at the core of Jain’s businesses, mainly because Jain himself found most of his clients through Instagram when his business was just starting. For him, Instagram is the most effective platform for brands to increase their reach and create awareness. Instagram’s features make these goals easy to achieve. Among the tactics that Jain uses for his clients are:
- Relevant hashtags
- Targeted comments
- Influencer marketing
- Instagram power likes
Jain looks at everything this way: He makes money by helping his clients make money through brand awareness and influence.
Instagram isn’t only for international businesses or those that offer worldwide shipment, although most people have this misconception about Instagram. Jain says that 90% of his clients are local businesses, and Instagram marketing has proven to be just as effective for them as it is for international brands.
According to Jain, The biggest mistake is for brands to spend most of their marketing budget on traditional media instead of social media. Businesses that are on social media are further ahead of those who aren’t.