Hemendra Singh is Director and Co-founder of The NineHertz, an IT consulting company headquartered in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Over the course of 12+ years, the company has gone from a little-known startup to an award-winning mobile and web development firm with offices in the US, UK, Australia and Dubai.
The who:
How did your business get started?
Started my career as an IT expert and, after getting to know how the system works in an organization, decided to run a business.
I made up my mind to set up an IT firm with my partners.
We started our journey in December 2008 and today The NineHertz is a leading IT consulting company in the IT sector.
The how:
Tell your company story, from startup to now.
In December 2008, we sowed the seed of an IT consulting company with our partners. Within a year we managed to deliver 1000+ web and mobile app projects, thanks to the dedicated efforts of 200+ young passionate professionals on board.
The very next year, we spread our roots globally by inaugurating offices at five different locations-the USA, UK, Australia and Dubai.
Further, we expanded our reach to the gaming industry and received recognition by the International Game Developers Association in 2011.
We kept on growing and reached the milestone of 450+ clients worldwide in 2012 and an 85% repeat client ratio in 2014.
By the year 2015, we had served 15+ countries worldwide. For the four consecutive years (2015 to 2019), we continued to register our brand for various recognitions like:
- Top Rated App Developer globally by AppFutura 2016
- Top Rated App Developer in India by GoodFirms 2017
- Top App Development Company in the US by Good Firms 2018
- Top Beacon App Development Company by Mobile App Daily 2019
In the year 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world and we were bound to stay at home, we came up strong as a team working remotely. We enhanced the firm’s credibility for serving clients in such unprecedented times as well.
Now when life gets back on track, we are aiming high and looking to set newer records in the development sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic:
How did COVID-19 affect your business and how did you respond to the challenges?
Well, COVID was an unprecedented time in history. Every business owner was unaware of how to manage a business in a lockdown situation when we were bound to stay at home.
We implemented a Work-From-Home strategy and continued our services working remotely. Our work ethics — timely delivery of a bespoke product within optimum pricing — and online reputation maintained a continuous flow of work throughout the pandemic sessions.
We came up way stronger as a team. Not only we generated great revenue, but also grew as a team by hiring when companies were laying off their staff.
All in all, in terms of business, COVID-19 brings fortune for us.
Has there ever been a time when you thought a project/your business might fail?
I won’t say that any business would run seamlessly throughout its journey. There’s always been ups and downs. Sometimes you would generate good revenue and sometimes witness loss.
There were lows with us as well, but we never get stuck in such negative thoughts like any project or other circumstances can cause trouble to our business. Since every failure or mistake comes with a life lesson.
Also, our positive attitude, determined mindset and ability to sail out through odds made us continue this successful journey.
The tools:
What online tools do you use for your business?
Our 575 dedicated professionals perform their roles effectively using different sorts of tools. To begin, there are a host of products from the GoDaddy catalogue without which we cannot think of The NineHertz. This includes:
- Domain name
- Web hosting
- WordPress site facility
- SSL Certificates
- Managed SSL Service
Project Management Tools
- Twilio- Twilio is a cloud communication platform as a service. Our developers utilize this online tool to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication functions through its web service APIs.
- Trello- Trello is used for project tasks management as it comes with built-in collaboration tools that allow users to collaborate within a project and complete it utilizing joint efforts.
- Active Collab- Another project management solution that supports professionals complete projects by splitting them into tasks and subtasks. Further, these tasks can be shortlisted concerning the due date, assigned users or other custom labels.
Digital Marketing Tools
- Semrush: Semrush is an online visibility management SaaS platform that is used to check the online behaviour of our website, webpages, content and our competitors as well.
- Ahrefs: Ahrefs is used for analyzing website link’s profile, keyword rankings and SEO health. In addition, our experts utilize this tool for keyword research and find out the content that’s performing well in terms of social shares or links on a given topic.
- Ubersuggest: Ubersuggest is used for developing keyword ideas to improve and expand our content marketing strategy.
- Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a web analytics service and our experts use this tool for tracking and reporting on website traffic so that an improved strategy for search engine optimization is formed.
- Google Search Console: Our digital marketing experts utilize Google Search Console, a web service from Google for reviewing indexing status and optimizing the visibility of our website.
- Yoast: Yoast is an SEO plugin for WordPress. Our experts utilize this tool for real-time content assessment so that it can be optimized as per SEO guidelines for generating better results.
Development Tools
- W3C markup validator: Our developers use the W3C markup validator to check HTML documents as they are in compliance with W3C HTML and XHTML Recommendation or other HTML standards.
- Sublime Text: Sublime Text is a source code editor which our developers use to create a user-friendly interface, amazing features and functionality in any software since it supports many programming languages and markup languages.
- Visual Studio: Visual Studio is another online development tool in our arsenal. Since it enables developers to create websites, web apps, mobile apps and software as well.
Designing Tools
- Canva: Our designers use Canva an online graphic design platform to create posters, presentations, social media graphics and other visual content.
- Figma: Figma is a web-based designing tool our designers used to create graphics, sketches and other UI/UX designs. Either online or offline as Figma facilitates working offline as well.
What difference have these tools made to your business?
Utilizing above mentioned tools, our business witnessed significant positive changes. It became easier for our dedicated professionals to deliver projects seamlessly and ultimately achieve desired goals.
Consequently, the overall productivity and performance of our business increased to the next level.
Also, we remain able to cope with the changing market trends and ensure our position as a leader in this competitive development niche.
The fruit of your labour:
Have you received any awards or honours?
Yes, we have received so many accolades and recognition throughout our journey over 12+ years in the development industry. Following are a few of the feathers of our cap.
- Clutch: Top Mobile App Developers 2021
- BusinessOfApps: Top Mobile App Developers 2021
- AppFutura: Top App Development Company US
- GoodFirms: Top 30 Mobile App Development Company in World
- CrowdReviews.com: Top 5 Based on Client Reviews
Do you have any advice for someone who’s just starting a business in your field?
With the digitalization across the globe, the development sector is observing the arrival of new players each passing day. It is because every business nowadays is looking to mark their presence online via a visually appealing, responsive website or user-friendly mobile apps.
A significant growth in demand for web and mobile apps post-Covid is alluring new players to give it a chance.
Starting a development company can be easy, but governing it successfully is the main task in this cut-throat competitive market.
For those who are willing to start a company in the IT sector, my only advice for them is don’t jump into the market without any fool-proof plan.
- Conduct thorough market research
- Gather required resources
- Always have a backup budget
Startups can lack in projects for a few months or longer due to the brand’s less trustworthiness and reliability in the market.
Are there any mistakes you made that other entrepreneurs should try to avoid?
Entrepreneurs should never make hiring decisions based on cost.
But somewhere, in the end, you have to pay a little extra for someone who is an expert in their work.
Always be sure to do your due diligence to find out you’re paying competitive rates. Since employees are the backbone of any endeavour. So hire wisely.
What one thing do you wish you’d known when you were starting your business?
I wish I would have jotted down my challenges, failures and successes faced while starting my business. And, save those notes in cloud storage or on paper. A life story of mine would have been written by now. Since it’s easy to forget things that made you and what you have become.
Offer any closing words of wisdom.
Always have a positive and never-give-up attitude, and keep improving your skills to bring out the best in yourself.
Stop by Behance or Dribble to see what’s new with The NineHertz.
