Amongst the chaos, some show the resilience to build a business while still being an undergrad.

One such student is Tanzim Islam Ushan from Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). He is the co-founder of GrinScreen Digital, a Bangladesh-based digital marketing agency, and Besh, an aesthetic clothing brand.

Starting from his school days, he has been part of many side gigs and business ventures, which led him to never be content with “just getting a degree.”

I reached out to Tanzim Ushan to know how an undergrad manages two businesses along with a part-time teaching gig, so that aspiring students can find a roadmap and understand that possibilities are not bound by age or degrees.

The early days

“During my school days at Saint Joseph, I probably was not among the brightest students, but I was quite involved in extracurricular activities. I loved quizzing, club work, and volunteer activities. Name anything except studying, and I have probably been a part of that already,” stated Ushan.

With a deep passion for quizzing, he won many inter-school, inter-college, and national accolades. He qualified for the Bangladesh Maths Olympiad’s national round twice after settling for only the divisional round in his first attempt.

“This made me realise that I probably was not that bad at quantitative problems after all.”

Ushan further mentioned, “My attitude, or maybe laziness, later encouraged me to sit for only two exams during my university admission phase, as both of these admission tests were aptitude-based exams. I failed to get into my dream university, but I am so grateful that I could not make it.”

Ushan added, “Later, I found the peer group that every BBA student can dream of at my current university, BUP, and I am more than grateful for it. I found business partners from the same peer group for all three of the business ventures I have been a part of during my university life.”

According to Ushan, despite not being a topper or a leader, his extracurricular roles helped him become what he is today. Sharing a smile, he said, “After every mischief during our school life, we used to get summoned to the discipline room to explain what we did, much similar to how we explain the rare hiccups we face with our clients at GrinScreen.”

GrinScreen Digital is a marketing agency run by Ushan and his fellow founders, his other business being a clothing brand named BESH.

Staying still was something Ushan failed to do even when the world shut down. He founded Upward Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ushan’s words, “We selected 50 to 55 applicants to be a part of the team from a pool of over 200 applicants. The diverse community contained students from class 9 to even the final year of university. I was extremely honoured and grateful to lead such a team as its co-founder and team leader. With the help of its energetic and active members, we collaborated with EMK Center, EducationUSA, BANCAT, Ektukhani Robotics, YSSE, YCC, and many more organisations. We conducted online-based workshops and courses even before selling courses online was such a common thing as it is now.”

A day in his shoes

Other than being an undergraduate student at BUP, he is currently working as an English instructor at Mentors’ Education. Being the co-founder and CEO of GrinScreen Digital and BESH, he says jokingly, “On paper, it may sound hectic, but in real life? Yeah, it really is.”

Not to mention, he is also the brand manager of Hot Box Burgers and Hot Cha.

Based on his semester routine, he wakes up early in the morning to attend classes. After that, he goes to Mentors’. As his brand manager role is a hybrid one, he oversees shoots on weekends and does the rest of the work at night from home.

Ushan says, “Managing these while being a student is pretty doable for anyone if they are passionate, as these are mostly part-time jobs. However, managing GrinScreen while leading a team of nine to serve some of the most renowned brands, including Pathao, Arabika, Crust & Beans, etc., can be a bit painstaking at times. As our team consists of undergraduate students only, we focus on flexibility in time and sit at night to get the work done. So far, the ride has been nothing short of a daydream, and I am hoping for only the best onwards.”

The team

After gaining a year of hands-on experience at Scratchboard Learning under the guidance of his senior, Adnan Khan, the CEO, he decided to focus more on his academics. Ushan noted, “But fortunately, Allah had other plans for me. Three months after quitting my job at Scratchboard, one day I was talking with Woking Street’s owner, and I was asked if I could help them with their marketing. With zero idea of what I would do next, I said yes. I called my friends, Farhan and Labib, to share this news and to finally create something of our own. On that same day, we came up with the name GrinScreen, prepared the logo, and sent a formal pitch to Woking Street. I am so grateful to Woking Street, as they trusted our vision even before we kicked off as an agency.”

The business has a total of nine employees. They started with only a team of four, three of whom were the co-founders and one graphic designer. Later, they expanded to nine.

Ushan further noted, “Keeping a team of nine might seem a luxury for a growing agency like us, but that very mistake helped us stay structured and organised during rapid expansion. Instead of increasing the workload for an individual by providing them with a higher salary, we decided to share the workload among more employees to get the job done more efficiently.”

When asked how they managed the necessary equipment when they initially started, Ushan shared, “Our creative director, Labib, has experience working in this sector for over four years, and initially we had to rely on his equipment only. Later, when we expanded, we started to purchase our own equipment based on the requirements.”

He also added, “We have worked relentlessly and reached out to multiple potential clients each month. The time and effort we put into GrinScreen while maintaining our academics is the reason that got us where we are with GrinScreen now.”

BESH: the clothing brand

Ushan said that he had a dream of starting his own clothing venture since he was a high school student. His clothing brand, Cyan Garage, from his college days used to sell hoodies and t-shirts. Ushan mentioned, “That was quite an easy journey, as we used to just buy t-shirts and print our designs on them.”

Starting BESH was a whole new journey for them. As the fabrics are sold mostly in Sadarghat, Narayanganj, and Gazipur, they had to explore these places to find the most suitable fabrics required for their designs.

The other necessary accessories were more difficult to find. As all the sourcing is done in different places, they had to research and explore a lot before finding suitable vendors.

After finding all these, came the hardest part, implementing the findings of their research. They spent hours helping the pattern master create patterns for each design, and after all these efforts, BESH is now available for nationwide delivery.

On choosing designs, Ushan said, “All our co-founders are social media doom scrollers, and we keep an eye open for upcoming trends that might be a hit. Scrolling through Pinterest does help with this as well.”

Ushan mentioned that this winter season was hard for their business and for competitors as well. The election also played a part. While other businesses had to lower their prices to survive, BESH decided not to compromise on quality, which resulted in comparatively higher prices than competitors.

Ushan was asked about balancing the creative side of fashion with the pressure of making it profitable.

He replied, “That is a tough one. But luckily, Ankit, my friend and partner at BESH, takes care of both the product unit metrics algorithm and oversees the designs. That makes it very easy for us and definitely a lot tougher for him.”

The mindset and the vision

Ushan mentioned, “Being the brand manager at Hot Box Burgers and Hot Cha was the first big step of my life. I got the freedom to experiment without supervision, and we had multiple pieces of content reaching over 100,000 views.”

In five years’ time, Ushan wants to have at least 100 clients onboarded to his agency and operate as one of the top five marketing agencies in Bangladesh. He is very hopeful about BESH as well and is hoping for the best. It is currently taking baby steps, but he hopes to put more time and effort into making it the go-to option for people looking for lifestyle products.

Giving advice to students who wish to start their own business, Ushan pointed out, “The key strategy is to be able to multitask without reducing your effort in academics. Experience is very important when starting a business, so it is very helpful to gain some experience, either from a part-time job or an internship, before starting.”

He also suggested doing a part-time job or internship first in the industry one wants to enter.

“Learn from the industry, gain more experience, and then try to start small with your own venture. It can be far more helpful if experience is gained beforehand in the sector. And most importantly, find a compatible peer group that inspires you to push your limits. Almost all my business partners are friends I made at BUP.”