by Sheela Narayanan

IT WAS not Mrs Puja Gill Saxena's plan to be an entrepreneur.

In fact she was quite happy in her career in the IT industry, having carved a niche for herself in sales and business development and had no intention of joining her husband's company, IDeall Group which deals in lifestyle goods, chemicals and information technology.

But a family crisis put the 34-year-old on a different path eight years ago. Her son was diagnosed a blood disorder and she was forced to quit her job and be a full-time mother to look after him.

Mrs Saxena, who has been in Singapore since 1996, said: "As my son's illness was taking a toll over my sanity, my husband decided to rope me into the business to distract me. This was the beginning of my journey as an entrepreneur."

She also had her family's support to head IDeall's IT division, IDeallss, and credits her father, an officer in the Indian Army, for his tough love.

"I remember when I was emotionally down and out due to my son, it was my father who shook me and said 'come on, you have a company to run' and he sent me packing, back to Singapore. At the same time my mother has always kept me firmly rooted to the ground by imparting values like unconditional love and compassion towards others," she said.

However, making the transition from a star employee to running her own business was tough. She recalls her first day on the job in IDeallss where she had to prepare and present documents for an export letter of credit, which went wrong.

"Coming from an IT background, where everything is done on e-mail, preparing huge sets of documents was quite an eye opener for me. I was not at all aware of what was in store for me and I made a total fool of myself on the first day at work. I still keep those documents as it reminds me to be humble and how perseverance can overcome any obstacles," she says.

Now she dubs herself the "official troubleshooter of the company" while her staff calls her "the great wall of IDeallss" as she tries to keep problems at bay.

The company, which started in 2002, has a US$15 million turnover with offices in India, China, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. And it gives Mrs Saxena, a member of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Sicci), such a great sense of achievement that she would not trade in her life as an entrepreneur for anything else.

"There have been times when I have received very attractive job offers in terms of money, but nothing has been able to attract me to leave IDeallss - my family," she says.

Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to have clear fundamentals and goals.

"When you jump into the entrepreneur mode, a small problem can also prove to be a stumbling block. Having done complete project planning and checking on the viability, if they have complete belief in their venture, I would definitely tell them to go and chase their dreams.

"One more thing to be wary of is, having become an entrepreneur, you can never say 'sorry, this is not my work'. An entrepreneur has to be always ready to get his hands dirty."