Hero Packaging CEO Anaita Sarkar reveals how she went through business failure | The Pay Off with Sylvia Jeffreys

Everyone wants to be their own boss – until reality hits.

In Australia, the dream of ditching the 9-to-5 grind has never been more popular. In fact, recent data shows around 70 per cent of the population aspire to have their own business, with 84 per cent of 16-24s having entrepreneurial ambitions.

With the growth of online businesses, flexible working arrangements and the romanticisation of ‘life as a successful start-up founder’ splashed across social media, these numbers shouldn’t come as a shock.

But the reality is, around 20 per cent of start ups fail within their first year, and up to 60 per cent don’t survive beyond five years.

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So what’s it actually like to start a side hustle or start up, beyond the Instagram highlight reel?

In the latest podcast episode of The Pay Off with Sylvia Jeffreys, Anaita Sarkar, the co-founder of Hero Packaging and author of Sell Anything Online, speaks candidly about her own struggles creating a company.

“You make the world of entrepreneurial business so accessible to people who are afraid of it,” Sylvia begins.

To listen to Episode Four of The Pay Off with Sylvia Jeffreys, press play below:

“I do think you should be a little bit afraid of it. Maybe I’m making it too accessible,” Anaita responds.

When it came to pursuing her entrepreneurial spirit, she says it came down to a gut feeling.

“I just felt different. I didn’t want to follow the same path as everyone else… Everyone was trying to get into certain career paths.”

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Despite knowing she was destined to pursue the life of a CEO, it wasn’t a clear-cut journey. 

“I’ve failed, I would say, two major times at Hero [Packing]… One really big time”, Anaita reveals.

“When I was going through it, I couldn’t eat and I couldn’t sleep. And I still had to be a happy mum, show up to work with a team of people, and act like I was OK.

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“In late 2022, in December, we had someone come to us who was meant to grow our business.

They looked into our numbers for three or four months and they sat us down before the Christmas party and said, ‘You have to go out of business. You have no money left. It’s so bad that you can’t even pay our bill, so we won’t charge you for this month. You just have to go and wind up the business.’ 

“I was meant to go upstairs at that moment to the Christmas party. I said, ‘Look, I’m going to go home.’ I had to process it. I called our accountant, and she said, ‘Oh yes, I’ve been trying to tell you for a few months now that it’s not looking that good.'”

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Whether it’s long hours, financial pressure, constant self-doubt, and little to no initial payoff – starting a business is clearly not for the faint-hearted.

Anaita’s story isn’t meant to discourage aspiring business owners – in fact, she turned things around, and Hero Packaging has grown into a thriving business with over 73,000 customers.

Failure is almost always part of the founder journey; it’s how you navigate this that matters most.

“I wanna tell everyone this… A few months of bad decisions will take you two to three years of getting out of that,” Anaita says.

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“It’s not going to work straight away… It’s about persistence and consistency”.

Anaita’s journey is proof that success isn’t instant – and it’s rarely glamorous.

Starting your own company is hard, but for many Aussies, it’s worth every late night, every risk, and every step forward.

The Pay Off with Sylvia Jeffreys is out now and a new episode publishes for free every Thursday. Search “The Pay Off” in your podcast app or tap here.