Finding ways to support others, himself | Maryland Daily Record

Born and raised in India and educated in Michigan, Rajan Natarajan moved to Maryland after his spouse landed a job working for the federal authorities.

As a small businessperson, he’s glad he did.

Maryland, he defined, is an effective place to be in enterprise. “They’ve helped us quite a bit,” noting the state’s dedication to making sure alternatives for small and minority-owned companies.

His firm, International Alliant, a Columbia-based info know-how consulting and software program growth agency, is concentrated on the well being care sector. He based it in 2016, however whereas he’s one thing of a newcomer as a solo entrepreneur, his info know-how (IT) roots run deep.

Natarajan earned his doctorate in Biotechnology, and his MBA from Michigan State College, and has labored for tech firms for 15 years.

His curiosity in well being care can also be not new, stretching again to when he was working for a biotech firm in Michigan. There he discovered that bringing a brand new drug to {the marketplace} prices a mean of a billion {dollars}, and takes seven years to develop. Natarajan wished to determine the right way to make the method “sooner and cheaper.”

After his transfer to Maryland in 2003, he labored for a few small start-ups, after which served as a deputy secretary of state for coverage and exterior affairs and commissioner of transportation for the state of Maryland. He left public service and returned to the personal sector – however this time, to work for himself.

“After rising three small firms into mid-size firms for another person, I figured, ‘Why can’t I begin my very own?”

In 2016, Natarajan did simply that, launching International Alliance. From the beginning, his aim was to ensure all of the tasks he took on had been completed on time and inside finances. Up to now, he says, the corporate has succeeded in that.

It additionally has succeeded in rising at a powerful price. International Alliance’s annual revenues have elevated steadily yr after yr, from $900,000 in 2018 to $30 million in 2022, and the corporate’s workforce has ballooned to 200 staff.

Natarajan sees extra progress sooner or later with some 70% of its enterprise within the well being care area, however he plans to department out into safety, homeland safety and protection work.

That attachment explains his many connections to the state. Whereas now not a state worker, he’s on the College of Maryland’s Board of Guests in addition to a board member of each the Maryland Cyber Safety Council and the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

Each Natarajan and his firm have been honored typically for his or her accomplishments. The Small Enterprise Affiliation’s Baltimore District Workplace acknowledged him as its 2022 Small Enterprise Individual of the 12 months, and the Maryland Tech Council named International Alliant, Authorities Contracting Firm of the 12 months.

Inc. Journal acknowledged the corporate because the quickest rising small enterprise within the state and the sixth fastest-growing firm within the Mid-Atlantic area.

Success doesn’t imply he doesn’t face difficulties as a enterprise proprietor, and the pandemic introduced new challenges to the floor. Discovering and interesting a talented workforce tops the record. Workers wish to work at home, or not work in any respect.

“It’s exhausting to rent folks,” he mentioned. “Lots of people are simply not coming again to work.”

Sustaining a correct steadiness between maintaining staff glad and maintaining clients glad is an ongoing concern for practically each enterprise proprietor in at the moment’s post-pandemic setting.

“It’s a steadiness,” he mentioned. “However you must do it – fulfill your clients and your staff.”  Natarajan delivers what he guarantees to his clients and tries to exceed their expectations, whereas attracting and retaining a talented workforce with what he described as a beneficiant wage and advantages package deal.

Challenges or not, Natarajan is dedicated to Maryland’s small enterprise neighborhood. “I reside right here now,” he mentioned. “I’m hooked up to Maryland.”

Increasing Alternatives

This text is featured within the 2022 version of The Day by day File’s Increasing Alternatives Useful resource Information for Small, Minority and Girls Companies that was revealed on Sept. 23. Printed together with the Governor’s Workplace of Small, Minority & Girls Enterprise Affairs, Increasing Alternatives explores range, entrepreneurship and innovation in Maryland’s small enterprise neighborhood. Learn extra from Increasing Alternatives or learn the digital version.