It was a great opportunity for Interview Times to have a good conversation with one of the most successful entrepreneur of Odisha and a Bitcoin influencer, Mr. K. Sanjeeb Patra. Mr Sanjeeb told about his diverse businesses and his love for Bitcoins. This is how the interview went
Can you brief us about yourself to our readers?
Hello everyone. I am Sanjeeb Patra, a Post graduate in Commerce. I ventured into my business in 2002. I used to work as a travel agent to gather investment to start my own business. I used to work in a small 50 sqft garage. I also got married to an established professional Company Secretary CS SUNITA MOHANTY. I got married to someone way above my stature, but she never saw me like that. She always encouraged me to harness my full potential. Even when I didn’t have the money, the power, she loved me; she was my rock, when I needed her. After we got married, we both managed to work in a small 50 sqft garage at Acharya Vihar. She was practicing as Company Secretary and I was involved in tour & travel business. The business was slowly picking up. I used to manage around 50 taxi’s in those days, but I was still not satisfied with my work. I knew, I could do better. Once my wife and I were on our way to Bhadrak on some business endeavour, where we met with a road accident. That was the push, I needed to quit my travel business, maybe it was the turning point.
Mr Patra, how did you start your own business?
After I quit my travel business, I saw an ad in a magazine that the income tax department would be privatized. I saw it as an opportunity waiting for me. There were four major income tax agencies at that time. We got connected to Alankit Assignments, one of the Delhi based company as Franchisee of TIN(Tax Information Network) at Bhubaneswar. I saw a great potential in this business.
After the business started flourishing, we approached the MD of the company to provide ten more licenses to open branches in all major district headquarters of Odisha. The obstacle was that we didn’t have the security amount to pay for ten licenses. But the MD, Mr. Alok Agrawal, was satisfied with our work, and he granted us ten licenses. Then we travelled to different district headquarters of Odisha looking for workspaces and started setting up our offices. We started to distribute brochures of our business to different government offices and other places. Eventually, our business started thriving, and within a year, we established around ten more offices throughout Odisha. Presently we have 40 offices all around India. We also started to slowly diversifying our business; we went into the verification service sector. We are now East India’s largest verification company. We have our own brand Justverified, which is a Background Verification Company.
We are very much diversified – We are into Background Check, Corporate Consulting, Healthcare, Cryptocurrency Portfolio Management, GST & TDS Consulting, Call Center & BPO services, Digital Signature Certification & e-Tendering to name a few.
How was your experience with the pandemic?
I enjoyed lockdown with my family. With the growing business, I did not have a lot of time to spend with them. This was the first time in years that I had taken a vacation. I relished the first fifteen days of lockdown that were work-and-stress free. However, after fifteen days, I was concerned about my company. I was not sure how long this lockdown would last. So, I contacted few landlords and withdrew the tenant contracts as maximum of our backend employees worked from home. We saved a lot of rent money, especially in the big cities. The entire company was restructured and now it seems, we had taken a good decision.
We wanted to do something productive even during the lockdown period. Therefore, we focused more in our health start-up “Ask4Test”, a blood test aggregator business. We did a lot of Covid-19 tests. The blood test organization is still flourishing under the brand name “Ask4Health”. Our aim is to provide health care and blood tests for poor and underprivileged people at a reasonable price, service at door step and in a digital way also.
During last lockdown in April 2020, I got an opportunity to join a referral marketing business as I had plenty of time then and the business was 100% mobile business, I could see a great opportunity in that and without wasting any time I joined and with a very small one time investment I could earn more than a Crore of Rupees within a year time. From there, I use to get my earnings in Bitcoin and I got fascinated towards Bitcoin & Altcoins – The entire Crypto currency Market made me passionate and I started researching on Crypto currency and Blockchain technology. I am not a tech guy still I learned everything from YouTube & Tedex.
The story of Bitcoin no doubt will make anyone astonish: ‘One Bitcoin in 2010 was worth one cent and now in 2021, it has touched INR 50 Lac’.
The best part is anyone can buy Bitcoin or any other crypto currency as it is available in small fractions. There are 1000’s of crypto currencies other than Bitcoin. Presently I have my own office which deals in Crypto currency and now I manage crypto portfolio for many investors.
Mr Sanjiv, as you said that you have about 7-8 companies. How do you manage them all? It must be not easy to manage so many companies at the same time!!!
Well, yes, I am not alone, my wife CS SUNITA MOHANTY and a great team of managers are with me to take this business to next level.
There are many conflicts about cryptocurrency. Can you brief us about its benefits?
Crypto currency is a decentralized concept. The problem in India is that crypto currency is not very encouraged here. You can buy and sell Bitcoins and other cryptos, but you cannot buy yourself a product through Bitcoin or any other crypto currency. It is very hard for the government to track crypto transactions and impose a tax on them. But Government can’t ban it, as it can’t ban the internet. Crypto currency is a billion-dollar market. Bitcoin is the leading crypto currency. After Bitcoin there is Ethereum, the second leading crypto currency, considered as Queen of Crypto. There are thousands of Crypto’s, each of them having their own problem solving functions.
So, this market is a growing market in the globe at present. Everybody wants to make good and earn money during this pandemic sitting at home. I would suggest to my readers, keep some portion of crypto investment in your portfolio.
Make a habit to buy in every dip, focus on few top 10 Crypto’s, watch them regularly and book profit as and when you see and don’t be panic at the time of market crash. Be a disciplined investor and put your surplus money in Crypto only.
What, according to you, is the strategy to deal with cryptocurrency because of its volatile nature?
I would suggest to invest in mutual funds also, preferably SIP. There is also virtual real estate investment. There are many places where one can invest. I would endorse not putting all the eggs in one basket, not investing all the money in one place, and diversify your investments. That way, when there’s a loss at one place, there will be a gain in another.
What advice would you give to the new entrepreneurs?
I would advise the young generation to research and survey their topic thoroughly. Of course, focus and determination is important. Even when you’re losing your hope, remember that there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. Remember always to choose your teammates carefully. Also, it is preferable not to involve family and business. Don’t listen to those people, who don’t have knowledge to guide you, may be your friends, family member or any other office mates. Your dream is your dream, try to achieve it by making your own strategy or even by following many successful business entrepreneurs.
What is your dream at present?
My Biggest Dream: I want to fulfil my employee’s dream, for that I need plenty of money and I am seriously working on that and I expect by 2025, this dream will be fulfilled.
