Starting up a business in our early 20’s was never really what we had ever planned to pursue. Me (Navel Nazareth) and Anjali Hegde first encountered each other in our first year of bachelor\’s in mass media class, and honestly speaking no one would have even imagined that we could be friends.
Destiny had its own part to play in our friendship as even though we never had much in common, we kept crossing paths and eventually became a part of a college project group. Out of the many things that are different in us, the most essential one was our working pattern. While she had a very systematic pattern towards approaching her work, I on the other hand was a bit carefree, but the only thing which was common in us was that we always attained our goals.
During the last year of college, there were many fellow classmates who had decided to plan and start up a business together after they graduate, and it all felt like something which we would never actually be able to pursue. Once we graduated, slowly but steadily we both were individually very happy in our jobs, we used to meet each other as and when we could. It would be either for some dinner in an elaborate restaurant or trying out some local snacks nearby from where we work, which kept us in touch.
Through that year, we worked in various reputed organizations and professionals and things were functioning well. As we were getting more and more well-versed with our work, we started getting freelance projects, which kept extra pocket money rolling in. As time passed by, we professionally started facing many problems at our workplaces like not getting paid or credits for what we contribute to the organization.
Neo Aeon Media Solutions also issues like office politics which day after day made us more and more inclined towards leaving our jobs. Incidentally, that was the time when we got approached by one of our professors for a new job opportunity and it was like working in the same company for different positions. We scheduled an interview on the same day. It was after that interview when we sat together and we were discussing our professional lives and that day, a spark for collaborating together became an obvious solution to our temporary unemployment.
Within a few days, Anjali got approached by a friend who wanted to hire some freelancers to handle the public relations for a recently launched restaurant in Bandra. As she was in need of a content writer, she approached me and I agreed to work on it. Working for one project led to another and soon we realized that there wasn’t really a need for us to look for a job, as we were quite happy and satisfied by doing these small projects. Soon there came a point where we realized that we could no longer call ourselves freelancers and decided to call ourselves a ‘Digital Marketing & Public Relations Agency’.
When we thought of Neo Aeon Media Solutions, we still had to keep all of this a secret as we come from a working-class family, neither did we have the funds, investors, or the experience to initiate our own startup. But working on these small projects made us happier than working as an employee for a huge organization. We personally faced a lot of challenges because of our age, as when we would go for meetings with new clients, it was challenging for us to make a lasting impression because, even though we had a strong portfolio, we would usually get doubted or questioned because of our age.
This went on for quite a while until we got some great clients who entrusted us and gave us the opportunity to prove to each and everyone who rejected us on the basis of our age. There was a time when a lot of our family and friends also questioned our abilities and has asked us to choose a stable job over this start-up, but we decided never to give up and tried our best to prove with our work that even though things are not that great at the moment, but if we dedicatedly work, we could make it a success.
The next major challenge we faced was during the pandemic as PR came to a standstill as the circulation of newspapers and journals halted for a while and even to date, most journalists are only focusing on pandemic-related stories. We thought our agency will have to be shut and we will have to start looking for other employment opportunities, but thanks to a few of our supportive Public Relations and Digital Marketing clients, we were able to tackle the first wave, and all the dedication and hard work of working from home, made us stronger and stronger, and today from the money which we earned from our business, we could afford to rent our own office space and we officially register our agency as an LLP.
Personally, we have many things to achieve in life, but in terms of our startup, we are working day by day towards making it a workspace where each person is respected and credited for their contribution. We started this company with 4 individuals all under the age of 25, and we someday aim to be employing and empowering hundreds more.
Insta ID’s
Neo Aeon Media Solutions LLP- namsolutions10
Navel Nazareth- navelnazareth
Anjali Hegde- anjalih25
Website- www.nams.co.in