Cliched as it may sound, I never planned to be an entrepreneur. Yet, today I am the CEO of Me n Moms, a company that has grown 40% year-on-year for the past five years, posting a turnover of Rs 50 crore in 2010-11.
As a child, I wanted to join the armed forces, but despite having cleared the entrance exam, I could not live my dream because of poor eyesight. Then my father suffered a stroke just as I completed my graduation in 1982, and I found myself taking over the family business. I continued to sell sari falls for the next five years, and though it wasn't the most glamourous of jobs, it was a source of income.
I also got married during this period, and in 1987, my first daughter, Mamta, was born. With her sprang the idea of a brand new business. Like any other father, I wanted to buy a whole lot of goodies for her, but even though I lived in a metro city, I had to visit several shops before I could get all I wanted. This got me thinking and I decided to open a shop that would house all the things related to toddlers under one roof.
Me n Moms had just been born, but only in my mind.
However, during the late eighties, setting up a shop was much tougher than it is today. To begin with, one could only get a lease if one happened to know the owner. Since I had never been an aggressive entrepreneur, I sat on the idea for two years, taking time to muster courage to launch the venture. Finally, in May 1989, Mamta Collections, a 50-sq-ft shop, opened for business at Santa Cruz, Mumbai, with a seed capital of Rs 5 lakh. As envisioned, the store, which was manned by four employees, catered to all the needs of a newborn.
Over the next five years, the shop grew in popularity, attracting customers from across the city and our turnover shot up to Rs 60 lakh. Despite the steadily increasing sales, the small size of the shop proved to be a big deterrent. My customers wanted me to shift to a bigger space, and I obliged in May 1994. I bought a 350-sq-mt shop at Juhu and renamed it Me n Moms. It was located in a relatively posh area and was air conditioned, not common in those days. This helped increase the flow of customers, especially the well-heeled, which resulted in a higher turnover. However, a few things remained unchanged: I ensured that I carried my original team with me since they had a very good understanding of the market, products and customers. More importantly, they shared my passion for the brand and wanted to see it grow. I increased the employee count to six to cater to the increased footfalls at the new shop. Prior to the advent of malls, a shop's brand name was its lifeline and to make fresh inroads into a market, one had to constantly generate new ideas. This is why customer feedback was so important. I realised that a lot of customers, especially working couples, did not get enough time to shop since almost all shops remained closed on Sundays. So I decided to rotate the staff and kept Me n Moms open all week, a rare option in those days. This proved to be a masterstroke and increased our sales substantially.
