WA migrant Nilesh Makwana vividly remembers cycling through his hometown of Rajkot in India, where cows often sat on the road, to sell toasted sandwich-makers and mixers to local residents.
He was just 12 years old.
However, as Mr Makwana told The West Australian, his entrepreneurial journey started long before that. In fact, he closed his first business deal when he was seven, thanks to a packet of glow-in-the-dark stickers.
While he might have been making a name for himself in the playground by selling stickers to his fellow students, Mr Makwana admitted he wasn’t doing quite as well inside the classroom.
“I was failing school. I wasn’t interested in all the subjects, and I wasn’t passing exams because I was always selling stuff on my bicycle,” he said.
But pursuing entrepreneurship rather than high school academics appeared to be the destined path for Mr Makwana.
Now aged 40, he is the chief executive and co-founder of Perth-based ICT company Illuminance Solutions — an award-winning Microsoft gold partner business that aims to bridge the gap between technology and people living with a disability.
He co-founded the business with fellow immigrant Vincent Lam in 2015, a few years after migrating to WA.
Mr Makwana said he was inspired to move to Australia while completing his education in the UK and working at Heathrow Airport’s terminal 4 for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which gave him the opportunity to travel to 54 countries.
“When I grew up in India, diversity was viewed differently. You had certain stereotypes. When I traveled the world, that’s when I learned to connect with people from all walks of life,” he said.
As a result, Mr Makwana developed a passion for diversity advocacy — something he ensured was deeply embedded in Illuminance Solutions’ culture.
The business — which has 36 employees — focuses on hiring people from different nationalities, people with disabilities, Indigenous Australians, women, seniors, and young people, despite not having a set diversity quota.
“People say, ‘How come your business is so diverse without a quota?’ It’s because we know what it’s like to be a migrant,” he said.
“We know what it’s like to be an international student or refugee. Running a business with a diverse team that feels valued and respected can sometimes be more attractive than the money.”
Mr Makwana acknowledged that much more work needed to be done to ensure marginalized groups felt empowered to start their own businesses.
“For example, there is a major push for people with disabilities into employment, but many of them want to be self-employed too. They want to be entrepreneurs,” he said.
“If you look at the history of migration, many migrants have started their own corner shop, business or restaurant to overcome difficulties such as language barriers or to fight against discrimination and racism.”
Mr Makwana said he hoped his new book titled ‘Terminal 4’ — which was launched by Premier Mark McGowan on Thursday at the WA Museum Boola Barlip — would help empower future entrepreneurs, regardless of their background.
Mr McGowan said in a statement that the book was an example of the positive impact Indian migrants had made to both WA’s business sector and the wider community.
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