Vishnu Doerga: helping to grow Guyana’s economy, one business at a time
Business Owner. Business Coach. Business Activist. Farmer. Family man. Feminist?! Vishnu Doerga is all that and more. The ‘Action Coach’ is passionate about spreading abundance, sharing the tools he has learnt in 17 years of entrepreneurship to help others attain business success.
“Abundance is for everyone, we don’t have to kill each other to survive,” he observed pithily. Like his dream mentor Mahatma Gandhi, Doerga is bent on achieving social change and betterment for all, through business.
The happily married father of one, who advocates working hard and playing hard and is currently working on his doctorate in entrepreneurship and his basketball jump shot while helping business owners discover ways to make their enterprises better and employees ways to maximise their capacity, was born in Nickerie, Suriname to a Guyanese father and Surinamese mother.
The trilingual Doerga petitioned his parents to move to Guyana in his high school years after realising one summer vacation in the Corentyne while sitting in on his cousin’s classes (since his started in October) that “it was easy”. In an early sign of the strategic thinking that would come to characterise him, the young Doerga also realised that he would be able to transition straight out of high school into university, without going to college as he would need to in Suriname. And easy it was, although he now admits, with no regrets, that the Dutch way is better. After graduating with good grades, including the only Grade One in English in the school, Doerga went on to the University of Guyana to complete a diploma in mechanical engineering . But business was his destiny and continuing a 100 years-plus tradition for the men and women in his family, at the age of 19, he opened Doerga Business Enterprise, which continues to thrive today. His wife, Davitri then quit her job to take over with that business and the ambitious UG grad focused on private sector development as President of the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce.
Throughout his entrepreneurial and business career, the driven high achiever has been involved in the processing, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, health and beauty, environmental, education, advertising and other industries. In 2011, he was awarded the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Young Business Executive Award.
After growing successful companies, Doerga retired at 27, determined to try new things (among them lawn tennis which became his favourite hobby), but he soon found himself sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience with other entrepreneurs.
Recognising that he had a gift for helping others build thriving enterprises, the passionate community-minded business advocate decided to combine the entrepreneurial acumen passed down in his father’s family and the educational prowess inherent in his mother’s to open a business consultancy to formalise the help he had been offering. Later, after some five years of research, he realised that he could extend his reach faster with ActionCOACH, which he described as the “best business coaching system, offering guaranteed results”.
ActionCOACH’s main appeal, beyond the guaranteed results which Doerga stressed, was that it had proven successful in the Caribbean – growing many regional businesses, and had an Australian mentality: work hard while enjoying your life – “the business should fund your fun”. Doerga’s stellar combination of academic qualifications, financial resources, and proven business success set him apart from his competition for the local franchise and now some two years later, his brand is growing. His clients range from agro-processors to importers, and he is trusted by the Small Business Bureau, Scotiabank and other organisations to help the entrepreneurs they finance, succeed. The process of joining ActionCOACH is a thorough one: first, prospective clients take a free assessment after which there is a free one-on-one consultation with Doerga. Based on your responses and commitment to your own success, together a decision is made on if you are ready for any of the many courses offered; if you are not, he will advise on the next step forward.
A firm believer in the transformative power of business to improve families and communities, the business coach encourages his clients to aim for the stars and build exceptional companies that can function without the owners.
Vishnu Doerga
Pointing out the strategic value of ActionCOACH , Doerga says he never wants clients to feel that they wasted their monies but that they make many times the amount spent in new revenue.
ActionCOACH is incorporating new ideas to hand clients in effect a crystal ball to determine the future trajectory of their business, added Doerga, who says his brain is his most important gadget. He plans on growing his franchise into a world leader, incorporating all the tools the parent company has acquired. This means the training of more local coaches, expansion of the already highly regarded business and busier days for the acknowledged business leader. Spinning his laptop around to reveal his Google Calendar which basically has his life planned out…every meeting, every vacation, even two hours set aside every night for studying, Doerga says his secret to juggling 29 things at once is time management.
The most important traits for entrepreneurs, he noted, are being organised and disciplined. “Be committed to you own success…work with all your might, obey the laws, hold yourself to a standard….”
He further advised that would-be entrepreneurs try to convince strangers of the merits of their business idea, as family and friends are supposed to encourage you and are often not the best judge of what would be a viable product. “Take the time to see if your idea is viable, and adapt to the market (if necessary)… to what customers want.” Stressing the importance of innovation, high standards, marketing, business training and complying with the law, he says persons should not “try” a business, but should put all of their effort and brainpower into making the enterprise a standard bearer – and that is the edge foreign investors have over most locals. Doerga added that business owners should not complain in the face of challenges, but focus instead on innovating and improving their companies.
Highlighting another barrier to success, the serial entrepreneur, who is also the President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a member of several other business and social organisations, said Guyanese have a tendency to want to own all of their business.
“There is nothing wrong with using investors’ money to finance your idea and giving them a piece of the business,” he stated.
Doerga also cautioned against starting “sunset businesses” – which have a low threshold requiring little money, knowledge or skills to start, because anyone can start one and they have a tendency to quickly die. In sharing more of his wisdom, Doerga said companies should not prematurely market their products. “… companies market too soon and can’t deliver and in the Facebook age that can be a death knell for business as one bad review – “don’t buy from that business” – gets a thousand likes …”
In revealing yet another obstacle to business growth, Doerga, who says that his grandmothers who accomplished much in their lifetimes, working harder than any man, were his biggest influence and his daughter, his biggest inspiration, stated: “Discrimination against women is rampant in the business world.” The visibly worked up Doerga, who moved to Georgetown so that his daughter could have access to the best education in Guyana, said he wanted her to be whatever she wanted to be, and explained that for change to happen, women have to extend themselves as far as they could go and model themselves on female leaders and CEOS like Beverly Harper and Patricia Bacchus… “but more than ever, women have to do for themselves, even if I, we , did nothing to stop discrimination; like my grandmothers, women have to go out and do.”
For Doerga, success is simply “happiness”, that is his thoughts, words and deeds being in sync. And he is dedicated to continuing to achieving happiness and showing others the way.
Contact: 122 Parade Street, Kingston, Georgetown; 592-223-5583; [email protected]