ENTREPRENEURSHIP is not for everyone.
It takes mental toughness, resilience and unshakeable faith. It comes with long hours, sleepless nights, hungry days and years of hard work for recognition of your brand, let alone to make it a success.
YBMS BIOTECplus CEO and Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Business Champions of Business 2023 awardee Yasser Baksh along with his sister Mishaal Baksh know this all too well.
“I don't think anyone wakes up one morning and just says, ‘I'm gonna be an entrepreneur,” he said. “It has to be something from within. It has to do with where you come from mentally. You have to be driven and ambitious. When most people get tired, that's when an entrepreneur works the hardest.”
He said people don't realise that entrepreneurship is an investment of time, of the mind, finance and more.
But most of all, it requires vision – a core belief that your product, your business and yourself as an entrepreneur can change the world.
[caption id="attachment_1064004" align="alignnone" width="1024"] BIOTECplus products on display. - Photo by Ayanna Kinsale[/caption]
From visions to reality
Baksh and his sister built YBMS BIOTECplus from the ground up, turning their backs on comfortable jobs – Yasser as a medical rep at Smith and Robinson and Mishaal as a teacher – to make their vision a reality.
Yasser, an analytical chemist with a background in zoology, environmental studies and microbiology, always saw himself as a challenger.
He told Business Day his entrepreneurial spirit came largely from his desire to make the world a better place.
“I have always viewed myself as a person who would make a difference,“ he said. “I have never accepted basic, I cannot stand average. I have always challenged the status quo, because for you to change the status quo, you have to challenge it.”
Yasser started his business 14 years ago, and eight years ago began selling his product, BIOTECplus.
He said an entrepreneur is a challenger – someone who breaks the status quo and shows people what is possible.
“There have been moments where building this business was really tough. But I am a man of fate and faith, and in those toughest moments, I give everything to the almighty.”
Mishaal, an environmental scientist and biologist specialising in pollutant management, left her job behind as a teacher to support Yasser and YBMS’ vision.
“We wanted to revolutionise health care on a global scale.”
It is a company vision, she said. YBMS will achieve that vision by replacing toxic and ineffective legacy brands with sustainable, environmentally safe and effective all-in-one biomedical sterilants, disinfectants and sanitisers. Mishaal believes that for a company to truly be successful, it must take its vision and make it tangible and relevant.
“I think too many people go into businesses that don't fill gaps and solve problems. There are too many redundancies. You can make a quick dollar off them, but what are you really achieving? You didn't have a goal or a problem to solve.”
[caption id="attachment_10
