Senthilkumar Subramanian’s entrepreneurial journey spanned multiple ventures—from MLM and cleaning services to art studios and printing businesses—none of which he was truly passionate about. This lack of alignment led to constant pivots and a struggle for clarity. However, in late 2023, Senthil found his true calling: combining his SEO expertise with his passion for helping small businesses grow.
After achieving over a million dollars in revenue using SEO for his printing business and art studio, Senthil launched SEO with Senthil, focusing on helping small business owners succeed through effective SEO strategies. He shared how, during the pandemic, his art studio pivoted to e-commerce, and he leveraged low-cost marketing, like SEO, to recover. Looking ahead, he plans to focus on helping businesses in the health and wellness sector, driven by his personal health experiences. His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to “Focus on what you’re passionate about and make your product so good that marketing becomes easy.”
A Proven Path to Entrepreneurial Success
We started the interview by asking, “How did you overcome the common misconception that passion and profit are mutually exclusive, and what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are struggling to find their niche?”
Senthilkumar Subramanian replied, “You cannot make money doing what you love”
All my life, I have been hearing or seeing different versions of this statement from people around me that somehow I had started believing in it. Subconsciously, this sweeping statement became my reality even as I ventured into entrepreneurship.
– At 18, I joined a MLM company to sell “health”, beauty and anti-aging products.
– At 22, I started a cleaning services business.
– At 23, I started a notebook customisation company which pivoted into a printing company.
– At 27, I started an art studio.
– At 28, I started a spice mix company.
– At 29, I started a gift blog.
I didn’t have passion around any of the products or services I sold.
Either I was influenced by people around me about an opportunity that could make money. Or, I was pivoting from what “could not make money” to something that “could make money”.
That was my life until late 2023. I kept hopping from one business opportunity to another.
And the reason was because I did not love the product or service I was selling enough.
This led me to get easily swayed by people around me, get distracted by shiny objects, work on multiple projects at the same time and never have clarity, direction and focus in my business.
Finally, in late 2023, I decided to pursue something that excited me. Across running both my printing company and art studio, I had made over a million dollars in revenue using search engine optimisation.
I wanted to use my strengths in SEO to help other business owners grow their businesses as well.
Which is why I started “SEO with Senthil”, aligned to my passion and strengths.”
Overcoming Early Hurdles
What was the most significant challenge you faced when starting your first business? How did you overcome it?
Senthilkumar Subramanian replied,“For me the most significant challenge happened during Covid-19.
Government policies such as venue capacity restrictions and lockdowns hit my art studio hard. Our revenue plunged, slumping more than 90%. We were devastated.We still had loans we had taken for our previous t-shirt printing company, loans we had taken for our art studio renovation and high monthly overheads to pay for.We vacated our studio, downsized our team and pivoted our business to a 100% e-commerce model.The next 2 years were tough. 7 team members including staff and co-founders had to leave the team one after another. Only I was left to manage the entire business.
This made me reflect about the business – about the mistakes we made and what I could do to revive the business again. I implemented low cost marketing strategies like SEO and streamlined our business operations while minimising our overheads. With the right strategy in place, business began to slowly pick up again.
Today, I have sold my art studio as I focus my efforts on growing SEO with Senthil.
I share more about my 5 biggest business mistakes in life in this article here.”
The Secret Sauce
Can you share one of the most effective SEO tactics you applied early on that contributed significantly to your business’s success?
Senthilkumar Subramanian replied,“Write premium quality skyscraper content that engage readers searching for the keyword you are trying to rank for. This SEO tactic has worked for me across all my past businesses. Even recently, I wrote skyscraper content on the top 10 SEO Agencies In Singapore here. And my article is climbing Google rankings very quickly for the competitive keyword “SEO Agency Singapore”.”
Secrets to Rapid Organic Growth
You mentioned ranking on Google Page 1 within four months of launching your first SEO-optimized website. What specific strategies or techniques did you implement to achieve such rapid results?
Senthilkumar Subramanian replied,“The tactic that helped me the most to achieve such results was finding low competition SEO keywords. These keywords are keywords that may have lower search volume but also significantly less competition. This way, you can rank on Google much more quickly. Even my past clients in competitive industries (such as Ryan from Empower First Sg who was in the real estate industry) have achieved similar results to mine and ranked in as little as 4 months.”
The Future of SEO With Senthil
What are your future goals for SEO with Senthil?
Senthilkumar Subramanian replied,“I am pivoting SEO with Senthil to work specifically with health and wellness brands. It is an industry I am truly passionate about as I have been through numerous health challenges early on in my entrepreneurship journey. Now that I have overcome most of my health challenges, I want to bring my discoveries around healthy living to the world. I will do this through my own health and wellness blog called Vibrant Health Compass, and also by working with health and wellness brands that I align with for SEO services.”
Tips from Experience
Lastly we asked, “Looking back at your decade-long entrepreneurship journey, what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting out?”
“Find clarity and be focused on what you want to sell & why, and build something around what you are most passionate about. This way, you will keep going even when times get tough.
Also, make your product so incredibly good, such that marketing your product becomes easy!
If you are looking to learn SEO, you can learn SEO for free with my Strategic SEO Academy program here.” Senthilkumar Subramanian Concluded
Connect with Senthilkumar Subramanian on LinkedIn
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