Sagar Sethi has built a successful digital agency, named Xugar in Melbourne
An Indian-born entrepreneur has opened up about how the sudden death of his drug-affected father forced him to go from a carefree party boy to successful businessman.
When Sagar Sethi, 34, landed in Melbourne in 2006 he had less than $800 to his name and little English.
But now, 14 years later, he has managed to build a digital marketing agency, ‘Xugar’, which generates $1 million a year.
The agency helps businesses create a long-lasting online presence, helping them modernise their digital presence and find digital success.
His road to success has been far from easy. For a start, Mr Sethi moved from India to Australia by himself when he was just 17.
With no real plan in place, he was just searching for a better life than the one he left behind.
His mother had died of cancer four years before his move, sparking his father’s descent into the world of drugs.
‘I was just running away from India because of the way things were at home. I just wanted to break out of that,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Sagar Sethi has opened up about how the sudden death of his drug-affected father forced him to go from a carefree party boy to a successful businessman
When Sagar Sethi, 34, landed in Melbourne in 2006 he had less than $800 to his name (Pictured shortly after arriving in Melbourne)
Growing up in India, Mr Sethi had a far more privileged life than most of those around him.
His father owned a hotel in Agra, in Uttar Pradesh, near New Delhi, which looked set to ensure he led a relatively comfortable life.
But beneath the surface, his father was deeply unhappy.
When his mother died in 2001, his relationship with his father deteriorated to a point where the pair were no longer speaking.
But the impetus that saw him make the bold decision to move to the other side of the world was watching his sister forced into an arranged marriage.
Mr Sethi didn’t want to be next.
He decided he needed to escape a life that had been planned for him and try to make it on his own.
Some close friends had moved to Melbourne to study hospitality, so he thought he would do the same.
His goal was to start his own hotel in Australia and be more successful than his father.
He booked a flight and arrived in Australia with less than $800 to his name.
As a teenager, he admits, he had very little knowledge of how the world worked.
‘I was not very conversant with conversion rates and I ended up spending $80 on a taxi on the first night,’ he said.
The cash-strapped teen managed to find a work at a restaurant quickly and began enjoying his new found freedom.
He said he found making money was far easier than he thought – but he spent it just as quickly.
Sagar Sethi (Pictured in 2009) spent his early 20s partying too much, he says he was on a downward spiral
Shortly after his dad’s death in 2010 he decided to make a change and started focusing on digital (Pictured: Sethi in 2012)
‘I followed the same sort of pattern as my dad,’ he said.
‘I did, at the time, get involved in some bad stuff. It’s something I’m not proud of, but it happened.’
From 2006 to 2010 his life consisted of studying, working and partying 24/7.
He was drinking and going out to nightclubs most nights.
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But it all came crashing down in 2010 when his dad died.
‘That’s when I realised that it’s not going to work out. This lifestyle wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Hospitality wasn’t doing much for me.
‘It was just work, work, work and then party hard.
‘That’s when I got into digital. I have always been interested in digital so I got a job working for a company selling websites. And from there, I started to learn the back end as well.
From 2006 to 2010 his life consisted of studying, working and parting 24/7. But it all came crashing down 2010 when his dad died (Pictured: Sethi in 2008 working at a call centre)
‘It kept me busy, I saw a scope and that’s when the whole thing started.’
His focus then began to change.
Instead of finishing work and going out to party, he would stay home and learn new digital skills.
He is completely self-taught in digital marketing.
In 2016 he set up his digital agency, Xugar, which now has 12 staff.
The company has had a strong start, making about $1 million in revenue each year.
But like many businesses, the coronavirus pandemic saw revenue initially drop by 30 per cent as clients tightening their purse strings amid the economic uncertainty.
His life changed when his dad died in 2010, he was forced to make a change (Pictured: Sagar Sethi at his citizenship ceremony)
Mr Sethi said he hopes to continue to be able to help other small businesses to succeed and inspire others to turn their lives around
But business has since started to bounce back, he said.
‘For a lot of small businesses – and that’s a lot of our client base – overheads are tight and anything seen as not being an essential cost is struck off,’ said Mr Sethi.
‘But we’ve seen over the last little while with social isolation that there is still a lot of demand and that an enormous amount of it has gone online. So in fact, if you want to survive in the COVID-19 environment, you have to have a digital presence.
‘We help connect our clients with that demand. We help them get found, rather than their competitors, and that’s what we’re emphasising to old and new clients.
‘Digital done well should be the last thing to drop off.’
Mr Sethi said he hopes to continue to be able to help other small businesses succeed.
