“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you”, John C. Maxwell. It is true that a person’s life is determined by the choices he/she makes. Neha Malhotra (Co-Founder, VN Global Edu Consultants) made a career choice of moving into entrepreneurship and establishing an overseas educational consultancy & training firm and creating for herself a meaningful way of success.

Growing up, Neha was a brilliant student and has been a top performer all through her academics. She has pursued her B. Tech in Electronics & Communication Engineering. Her strong interest in the field of business management brought her to VIT University Chennai where she completed her MBA with dual specialization- Finance & Marketing. As a marketing expert, she has excelled in leading the retail industry while being the Operations Manager for top brands like Fab India and Future Retail Ltd. For the last four years, she is gladly sharing her learnings on leadership, innovation, and marketing prowess with aspiring young candidates and enthusiasts to build effective futures for them. In a recent interaction with Women Entrepreneur, Neha shared more about her journey. Let’s hear from her.

Tell us about some of the most unique features of VN Global Edu Consultants.

When we began in 2017, we were more focused on providing academic projects, internships, workshops, and seminars in engineering colleges. When I joined the firm full time in 2019, we started focusing completely on assisting candidates to achieve opportunities to study abroad. Today, we are more connected towards education and we are grasping the abundant scope in the market in overseas education to build a successful business as well as help candidates live their dreams. We are unique because we are one of the few consultancies that provide end-to-end counseling to students, guiding them as per their profile to which country they should be going and then helping them in the entire process. The mission of the company is to provide aristocratic consultation to students and help them carve their careers through education.

As one of the primary leaders of the organization, what are the different responsibilities that you shoulder on a daily basis?

As the founder, I wear multiple hats and believe each role is equally relevant. I am responsible for building long-term strategy, securing the necessary resources (human and financial), setting the company culture & values, and maintaining team morale. Amidst that, the entire process team for the countries we cater to is headed by me. I also drive digital marketing platforms engaging with teams to come up with excellent marketing strategies and promotional marketing activities. I head the business development team as well to build new partnerships nationally & internationally & also nurture the connections we already have. Apart from that, I also take part in the counselling of candidates.

"The mission of the company is to provide aristocratic consultation to students and help them carve their careers through education"

While taking care of all of these different responsibilities, where is it that you face some of the most difficult business challenges and how do you overcome them?

I believe founders do not have just one specific job description, but many, and this can make the role quite challenging. The biggest challenge is being able to distribute time effectively to all sectors of the organization. It requires a lot of multitasking. I make it simpler by bifurcating tasks according to the priorities. I pick up the ones that need urgent attention and give all my time to get them done. This helps me to complete tasks before the target date.

How has VN Global Edu Consultants’ growth journey been so far? Tell us about some of the key milestones achieved by the firm since its inception.

We began our operations in 2017 by assisting two students for overseas education in the first semester and 50 students in the second semester same year. From there we have seen quantitative growth in a way that today we have a track record of assisting 800-1000 students per year . Our strongest accomplishment is the high visa acceptance ratio we have for our candidates. We have around 100% acceptance ratio for some particular study destinations. And this growth has been possible because of our quality services and our ability to convert the most difficult files into visas. We as an organization started with very low investment but our exceptional business strategies have helped us to generate profit which eventually helped us to convert our startup into a large-scale business. This has been the greatest milestone of VN Global Edu. Apart from that other major accomplishments are the positive reviews from our candidates. Furthermore, we also take pride in that 95 percent of our cases are of B2C business which helps us have a lot of grip on our business.

Drawing from your personal experience as a business leader, if you had to give out advice to other young women who also aspire to create something great in their life, what would that be?

Girls from a very young age should be motivated to continue their education with a purpose in mind; the purpose of building their careers. They must not be discouraged by the voices around them and make sure to defend their rights and never give up on their dreams. I strongly feel women should not leave their hard-earned careers mid-way; they must take a step forward and start working for themselves. We, women, happen to be great multitaskers; hence can make anything happen if we wish for it and put the right efforts into it.

Neha Malhotra, Co-Founder & MD, VN Global EDU. Consultants

Neha is a proactive leader & a strong marketing professional. She is a proven Operations & Marketing Manager with a degree from VIT Business School and significant experience in Retail and Overseas Education.