Tell us about you and your background?
My name is Harry Ramsay, and I’m the founder of Zenquest Digital, a tech company that specializes in the Digital Marketing & Digital Transformation space.
Originally, Zenquest Digital started as a company that offered Digital Marketing Services – which included things like Managed Media Buying on Facebook, Google, YouTube & Other platforms to an all-encompassing tech company that aids organizations in their entire Digital Journey & experience.
What did you do for graduation/ Post graduation?
I completed my graduation in BBA at a regular community college, and now I am pursuing my MBA with a leading Business School.
In my line of work, over the years, I have completed various Certification Programs in Marketing & Marketing Technology, and it would be hard to name them all.
What inspired/made you become a businessman, How is your business career?
Ever since the age of 12, I had this desire to *make money*, and one of the first things I started doing was selling computer games and formatting people’s computers for a small Rs. 50 – Rs. 150 commission charge in the years 2003 – 2005.
Although it was successful as a hobby, it wasn’t lucrative enough so I left the business.
In 2007, when I was 14, I stumbled upon Affiliate Marketing & I began marketing other company’s products by creating my own websites and ranking them on top of Google, and that’s how my Digital Marketing career was involved.
Nobody knew about eCommerce back then, and I was one of the first few people to get started in this entire Digital eCommerce space in India.
Which was your first/challenging order? How did you handle that?
I’d prefer to go with a Challenging Order.
The most challenging order was an SEO project I had taken up with an Overseas SEO agency. We had white-labeled our service offering to them and I was handling almost 8 of their Client Projects.
At that time, I was just 18, and I was a solopreneur and didn’t have any staff. I was handling it all alone.
The project would involve writing nearly 30 articles daily for SEO purposes, doing a bunch of SEO activities such as link building, web 2.0 setup, and many other things.
The most challenging was the 30 articles – I had lied that I had a team to get the order, but I was doing it all by myself.
Each article would be around 350 – 400 words, and so I’d be writing nearly 10,000 words a day, Monday to Friday.
I made my laptop keyboard obsolete by hard pounding every day.
The best part of this journey was that the 4 – 6 months I did this, made me an exceptional writer.
What were the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced is dealing with the Changes in Technology and Algorithms.
This is the biggest pain point for most people in my industry as a feature/a tactic/process goes obsolete every month or so and as a result, you have to continually put a mechanism in place to develop NEW SOPs/Processes/Systems.
For example…
Many of our clients would use Mailchimp/Infusionsoft/similar services for their Email Marketing to communicate to their prospects.
The problem was over the years, Mailchimps/Infusionsoft algorithm got flagged and the email deliverability became incredibly poor to the point of hurting our customer’s business.
We had to innovate and find better ways to increase that deliverability – even if it means getting rid of these legacy systems.
So one idea we came up with is to use plugins/tools Top Salespeople who write cold emails use – even if that meant manually moving the Leads List from CRM platforms to CSV files that we can drop onto the Cold Mailing software.
So that happens literally in every area of our work almost every week and it requires a regular mechanism in place to study performance and invent new methods/strategies.
How do you describe Failure and Success in business?
I see business as a GIANT/FERRIS WHEEL.
When you’re at the bottom and start, you are a NOBODY and therefore, you can:
Easily drop out
Go hard in, innovate and start growing up
Now as you start growing up, you become bigger and better and get more and more recognition until you hit a saturation point.
Your systems/processes become legacy and your downfall begins.
There is another innovative startup who’s starting and he’s going to start outsmarting you with a more resourceful team and more relevant technologies – while you after systematizing are beginning to fall.
This happens in every industry, regardless of the shape, size, or nature of the organization.
Microsoft/Nokia/Nikon are prime examples, and I have lots of stories in smaller industries of companies as well.
In my opinion, if we don’t want to deal with the setback or the eventual fall, we need to build lean teams that continually adapt to customer tastes/needs (rather than what you/your team thinks you need to offer).
Take Apple for example…
Why are they still #1?
They develop products based on changing customer tastes instead of trying to shove down something they think is correct for you.
Everybody sold MP3 players with memory cards, but they came up with the iPod and iTunes and changed the game.
Likewise, they were the first ones to come up with the Airpods (although many others were selling Bluetooth Headphones) and now, every other provider is trying to sell a rip-off version of the Airpod.
What are all your running projects?
We are handling Paid Media Advertising for a few University/Online Training Academies and are involved in their Lead Generation campaigns to help them recruit students to their programs.
We are Consulting with 3 companies acting on their Digital Transformation efforts and helping them and their sales teams embrace.
Besides, we are helping a few other companies with Digital Technology Consulting & Support.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you?
Although I would LOVE to share, I, unfortunately, cannot share this specific project as I have signed an NDA.
What is your burning desire and what are all your plans to fulfill the same?
I want to scale Zenquest Digital to its full potential in the next 1 – 2 years and launch a new company that develops Digital Products/SAAS based on products in a few verticals.
At the stage I am in right now, Financial gains don’t motivate me as much as Social Service and Spirituality.
So my burning desire is along the lines of Service and Spirituality right now and I use Business as a Vehicle to help me fulfill those ambitions.
How does your work benefits society?
Although we don’t have an official CSR department, a portion of our Profit does go to NGOs and other charitable trusts that help individuals with disabilities and the education of orphan/poor children.
The more profits we make, the more we transfer onto these activities.
From an ecological perspective, in the Digital Transformation space:
We save people’s time.
This time, in turn, the staff of our clients, our clients – can in turn use to spend more time with their families, do social service or simply go out and play Golf.
While we are impacting each organization that has 10 – 20 employees, the net effect considerably increases as we had more clients over the years.
Your advice to business people based on your experience?
1] Build a Team.
A business owner cannot do everything. The sooner you can build a team and delegate/transfer your workload, the easier it will be for you to focus on your business growth.
2] Go For Professional Education
The benefit of COVID-19 is that it has made Universities and other Institutes take up many of their programs ONLINE.
This is an advantage for those who are hungry to grow.
Get certifications and training from valuable institutes/academies as it always helps because it opens your eyes and gives you multiple use cases.
3] Respect The Divine
Stop falling for the personal development/media that brainwashes you with the idea that it is your hard work alone that creates success.
While hard work and efforts contribute to success, I believe Divine Providence plays a bigger role – especially in Business.
In Business – you deal with the masses – and succeeding amongst the masses requires a lot more than just hard work or brute force.
So respect and surrender to the Divine and let it guide you in your journey.
