Bringing Innovation in Business
Amena Khatun, winner of Innovative Project of the Year at the CPBW Awards, has grown her business since the year 2000, into a mountain of success, with a simple idea that rattled the minds around her. Tamima highlights her journey as the innovative, young woman entrepreneur she came to be.
When I say ‘Successful Woman Entrepreneur’, the last thing that would typically come to our minds would be a heavy machineries business. That’s what makes Nila & Sons, a yellow equipment contracting company, stand as a truly innovative success story. With a few thousands from her personal savings, two employees and one equipment in her inventory, Amena began her startup about 18 years from now with the hope that one day, she’d reap what she sowed. And despite what others may have thought, that’s exactly what she did.
To her surprise, her business reached breakeven within a short span of one and a half years. Today, her company employs 150 people, and Nila & Sons managed to amass a capital of BDT 174.55 million with a turnover of BDT 16 crore.
Amena, acting Vice President of the Heavy Earth Moving Equipment & Machinery Owners Association of Bangladesh, got awarded Innovative Project of the Year by COLORS for her outstanding dedication towards her unconventional startup. This award, which falls under one of seven categories of the COLORS Platinum Business Women’s Awards, focuses on highlighting women entrepreneurs who manage to succeed in unorthodox areas of business by breaking through unsolicited barriers. Despite the drawbacks that come with being a woman in the industry, Amena managed to secure a well-established position for herself, and her company. Nila & Sons stands as a symbol of her dedication and justifies the motto that ‘Anything is possible with a little faith and perseverance.’
