Today at ‘Expert Speaks‘, we have Sonal Sinha, the Founder of SKT Themes – Who has created over 10,000+ websites in his life span.
In this Interview, Sonal talks briefly about his success story, his passion for WordPress, and much more inspiring thoughts for those who want to follow his path.
We thank Sonal for inspiring us with his words of wisdom. We hope you guys enjoy going through his journey.
Hello Sonal, welcome to LearnWoo. Can you tell us something about your background and the journey till now?
Hi, thanks for your kind invitation.
My journey has been full of ups and downs and surprises, and I would say I have been blessed by the Almighty a few times too.
My name is Sonal Sinha and I have done Engineering for my graduation and MBA for my post-graduation. I received my MBA degree at the worst possible time (2008 recession). There were very little jobs for freshers and very few companies came for campus placements. Luckily, I got selected in an Internet Marketing company. Within a year I was managing PPC in both Yahoo and Google search engines as well as email marketing.
After a year and a half of working in that company, a website design company gave me a better offer to join as Business Development Manager for their sales of Website Design and Development.
This is where I got exposed more to doing websites as a service. While doing sales most of the time I used to sit with the Project Manager to understand the process involved in building websites.
Within 6 months the project manager left the job and the company had a hard time finding replacement, which is when the company asked me to do project management as well. This is when I learned quickly and within a year, I left the job to start my own company (Shri Krishna Technologies) in my hometown Nagpur.
It was year 2010 when I started my own firm. While it was doing great many clients back then used to demand us installation and customization of WordPress themes, which is how I got the idea to start SKT Themes in 2013. Since 2014 we are very active on WordPress.org and have been popular since.
As a founder of Shri Krishna Technologies & SKT Themes, you must have a number of responsibilities. Which aspect of your job do you enjoy the most?
I keep on hopping from one thing to another. But mostly customer support is the one thing I love the most. Apart from that I like to have team meetings with my developers and programmers and brainstorming on launching new portals and doing client projects successfully. Everyday I get to learn something new in technology.
So, how do you see your company changing over the next two years, and how do you plan to create the necessary change?
I plan to expand by having more enterprise projects and also get into hosting and other parallels like mobile app development and web apps. I have already taken a place and am planning to build a large office, subject to approval from local authorities. Once that project gets approved, I shall start working with building plans and of course the expansion will come thereafter.
What are the pros and cons of working for yourself?
Pros…
I can take a leave whenever I want.
I don’t have to report to anyone else.
I don’t have fixed timings so that means if someday I am late at the office, I don’t have to think about it. (Of course, my employees also get flexible timings)
I can think about my own plans of expansion, cost cutting or spending, and can execute them without having to take approvals or permission.
Cons…
Sometimes you become lethargic and lazy, because no one is there to motivate you.
Not all days are sunny and you feel pressured especially in the few months of COVID-19, when we lost a good number of clients who were from the tourism industry.
What do you love most about the WordPress ecosystem?
It is open source and hence one can easily get inspiration from other products and services, and enhance the plugin and launch their own plugin or add more features. They can also launch addons based on the original product/plugin.
Similarly themes also get enhancements as more and more developers contribute to the system.
Lastly, WordPress has tons of videos and documentation, and there is answer for all types of features and functionality tweak you can do in a WordPress website. So, nothing is impossible.
What’s your greatest weakness?
I devote unnecessary time in design and development of client websites sometimes instead of focusing on how to create more cool products and portals. I hate to waste time but end up wasting time myself.
Tell me about any incident or any kind of experience that makes you effective in the role of a CEO?
I manage the office timings properly. So, it’s strictly 10 am to 7pm and no longer than that. If a person is late and arrives late at 10:15 am, he/she can leave by 7:15 pm no matter how much work remains pending. This adherence to strict timings means I deliver my client deadlines also on time and I do understand before and after office hours people have their own life, own family, which is very important.
What is your normal day like?
I get up a bit late around 8 am, and after doing daily chores, come to office. After office I regularly hit the gym in order to remain fit (not for bulking up, just cardio). After dinner with family, I like to watch movies on Netflix or Prime or any other OTT platforms. If its Friday, I watch a late-night movie till 2 am.
What keeps you motivated? Any inspirational figures you look up to?
Yes, I follow a lot of motivational speakers like Dandapani, Gaur Gopal Das, Warren Buffet. I follow Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos regularly on Twitter. I maintain a diary where I write my goals for next year, 3-5 years and my long-time vision. I also read a lot of self-help books and watch lot of YouTube videos to have my daily dose of motivation.
What have been your greatest achievements so far in your career?
I have been able to remain debt free. I have 3 cars, 2 bikes, big enough house, own purchased office, 2 kids and yet I am debt free. Also, for my office expansion and new business ventures I do not need to borrow money from bank or parents, which is a big enough advantage. Being debt free reduces your stress as well because you remain calm in unsure times like the being hit by a pandemic.
As a WordPress expert for over 12 years, what do you think is the best thing to have happened to WordPress?
WordPress has come a long way from being a blogging CMS to a complete CMS which can now be used for eCommerce as well as large enterprise websites. Since it is very easy to manage and maintain WordPress, its overall acceptance has increased and hence it has the highest market share giving us access to 43% of all websites being developed in it. So a lot of customers who either need maintenance, optimization, redesign and development can become your potential customers.
Any advice or words you really want to share with those who want to follow your path?
Everyone is different and one should follow what their heart and mind leads them to. They should also enjoy the work they do and reflect upon each day what they learned.
