Barinder Hothi became an entrepeneur due to a family crisis. She was made redundant from her sales job at Microsoft and a few months later, her three-year-old daughter, Amrita was suffering from pneumonia.
While her daughter recovered, Barinder Hothi and her husband, Dilshad decided to become their own bosses. She said, “We both had a natural entrepreneurial spirit and thought it was a good time to do something for ourselves.”
They both founded Knowledge Academy in 2009, and her husband left his job to become the chief executive. Knowledge Academy offers training courses for IT professionals. The company is based in Bracknell, Berkshire. It now provides 5,000 training programmes in business, finance, law, HR and project management. Having employed 170 staff, Knowledge Academy takes pride in having clients, such as Rolls-Royce, Disney and British Gas. The sales reports in the year to March last year was £14.9 million. Profits are expected to be £25 million this year.
Hothi states, “Fortunately, we both had very well paid jobs before we started the Knowledge Academy. We were brought up with the belief that if you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t buy it.” The Hothis invested more than £750,000 of their savings in the business.
While advising entrepreneurs, she stated, “Don’t dive into business without being mindful of the ultimate outcome, and allow yourself the time and funds to be successful without pressure; stress hampers your creativity. If you have the opportunity to work with family members, it’s a great strength.”
