WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR .. Overcoming adversity
A new book tells
the inspirational stories of 12 alpha females, homemakers turned entrepreneurs
who succeeded against all odds
In the foreword to their new book, Millionaire Housewives: From
Homemakers to Wealth Creators, published by Penguin Ebury Press authors Rinku
Paul and Puja Singhal say the firstperson accounts they selected for this
anthology are bound together by a common thread. Not only did all these women
have to rise above seriously tough circumstances, they also had to learn to
block out, “the perpetual voice of naysayers.“
Some of the inspiring stories...
AMBIKA PILLAI
Acclaimed hairstylist and make up artist; founder, Ambika Pillai
Brand of Salons with a turnover of over Rs 10 crore
MOMENT OF TRUTH:
Walking out of a loveless marriage of seven years, with a small
child in tow
At the tender age of seventeen, my life took a decisive turn
when a prospective groom came to see me. I didn't even know his name. He had an
MBA degree, and I gave up my world without any reservations to follow him to
his. In retrospect, those seven years were one of the scariest times of my
life. Kids should not get married as young as I did; at that age, you don't
even know your own mind, forget the other person's.
In my seven years of marriage, I hadn't acquired any skills that
could stand me in good stead. I wanted to stand on my own feet, but in the
absence of any skills, I saw all doors closing in on me.
I saw an advertisement by Shahnaz Hussain in the local
newspaper, inviting students for a hair styling course in New Delhi. I made up
my mind to join it. I landed in Delhi, a totally unknown city, with my daughter
in my arms, terrified of what the future held.
Upon finishing my courses, I took up a job at a small two seater
parlour, which paid me Rs 2000 per month. I paid Rs 1000 as house rent and
tried to stretch the balance to take care of my child. One day, the owner of
the salon, impressed by my English-speaking abilities, asked me to man the
billing counter. I was quite taken aback to see that a salon made as much as Rs
30,000 in a single day. This was 199091 and Rs 30,000 meant a lot of money
then.This is when I spoke to the hair stylist and I suggested that we strike
out on our own.
One day, when I was walking down a street, I happened to bump
into Harmeet Bajaj, a fashion choreographer who knew me from my salon days. She
asked me if I was available to style some models' hair for a show. It didn't
take me a sec ond to reply in the affirmative. The next big show I remember
doing was with fashion designer Hemant Trivedi, for which I flew down to
Mumbai.After styling the hair of the models, he asked me if I could do their make-up
too. I had no idea how to do make-up at the time, but gutsy as I was, I said
yes.
One thing led to another, and I landed the role of doing
Aishwarya Rai's make-up for the movie Taal. I remember Karan Kapoor (Shashi
Kapoor's son) calling me up and ensuring that I was sitting down before he
broke the news to me--I had won my first IIFA (International Indian Film
Academy) Award for Make-up.
Somewhere along the way, I set up my own salon-this time in the
rented accommodation I lived in, with a friend as partner. With my
determination and god's will, I have twelve salons today, with a total staff
strength of over 200. My daughter is now fully involved in the business too.
SAVITA CHHABRA
Vice chair person and director, Hygienic Research Institute
Private Limited, manufacturers of Streax Hair Colour and Super Vasmol 33 Kesh
Kala, with a turnover of Rs 400 crore
MOMENT OF TRUTH:
The untimely death of her husband that led her to step into his
shoes, though she hadn't so much as operated even a bank account earlier
Perhaps the only dream I harboured as a young girl growing up in
Chandigarh was to get married. This dream came true at the tender age of
nineteen. I went on to complete my studies post wedding. In fact, I appeared
for my final-year examinations when my son was about a year old.
I went on to build a happy home; and with two sons born in quick
succession, our lives were nothing short of blissful. My husband was a
second-generation entrepreneur who ran a hair-careproducts manufacturing
company along with his brother. Set up by my husband's father in 1957, Hygienic
Research Institute (HRI) was one of the oldest companies dealing with cosmetic
products in India. Having started off small, the company now had a turnover of
around Rs 23 crore and our lives were happily chug ging along.
On a cold day in December, after having spent twenty blissful
years together, life changed forever.
The circumstances demanded that I forget my own loss as a wife
and stand up as a strong mother for my sons. My family was extremely worried
about me and it was a unanimous call made by my family and my in-laws that my
elder son drop his studies to step into his father's shoes. This is something I
could just not allow. My son was brilliant at his studies and I did not see any
merit in jeopardizing his future. I made up my mind that I would be the one to
take over.
There were many instances where I undermined my own capabilities
and people, of course, continued to be sceptical of my talents. In the early
days, a driver once flung aside the vehicle keys, telling me that he did not
want to work for me when I asked him a lot of questions in a bid to understand
the logistics chain.
In my experience, most restrictions on women are self-imposed.We
end up second-guessing our own abilities, perhaps because of what's ingrained
in us from an early age. I am often asked what have been the proudest moments
in my eventful journey. There are several; receiving the National Award for
Business Excellence is certainly one of them.
JYOTHI REDDY
Founder, Key Software Solutions Inc., a software development and
information technology consulting firm with a turnover of Rs 96 crore
MOMENT OF TRUTH:
Hearing her child cry `Amma' just as she was about to take her
life, followed by the realization that the onus of providing a better life for
her children lay entirely on her shoulders
I am not an orphan and yet I spent over five years of my life in
an orphanage in Warangal. My earliest childhood memory is of the seven of
us--my parents, my four siblings and I--sleeping in a single file on a mat in
our one-room home. My father was an ex-military man who gave up his career in
the Army to become a farmer, but unfortunately could not make a success out of
it. There was barely enough money to feed all of us.This extreme poverty forced
my father to look for free accommodation for my sister and me.
Eventually, he decided to put both his daughters in an orphanage
where we would get food and basic education, while his sons continued to live
with him. It was a hard life to say the least; I used to walk barefoot to
school every day and I remember being envious of children who had socks and
shoes to wear. My biggest dream those days was to own a school bag. If I
thought that life at the orphanage was tough, the next phase turned out to be
even worse.From being a schoolgirl, I became a homemaker overnight, at the age
of sixteen, when I moved in to live with my husband and his family. Not only
did I need to work in my husband's fields, very often I had to work in other
fields as well for a paltry sum of Rs 5 daily. One day, after a particularly
bitter fight with my husband, I felt as if I could not go on any further. I had
barely walked a couple of steps towards the well with my elder daughter, then
aged only two and a half, when my one-and-a-halfyear-old younger daughter,
sensing something amiss, cried out `Amma' in alarm. That one word broke
something in me.
I learnt of a typing class nearby and decided to enrol there.
Later, I so desperately wanted to change my fortune that I enrolled in computer
software classes. I now help technology graduates secure a job in the land of
their dreams.
PATRICIA NARAYAN
Director, Sandeepha chain of restaurants that has a turno ver of
Rs 7 crore
MOMENT OF TRUTH:
The thought of ending her life as she was in an abusive
marriage, and then choosing to live for the sake of her unborn child
I met my future husband in my second year of college, and my
carefree existence took an unexpected turn. Our friendship grew and, before I
knew it, barely three months since we met, we were getting married. I was only
seventeen then.
We rented a small flat, and this brought me face-to-face with
the harsh realities of life in ways I could never have imagined. It was only
after I started living with my husband that I saw a side of him that I could
not have even envisaged during our courtship period. I realized that he was an
alcoholic and was into drugs.
My husband could not hold a job down on account of his many
vices. The sense of hopelessness that pervaded me made me even consider ending
my life. Only the thought of the unborn child growing within me stopped me from
taking any drastic step.
Because I was barely educated, I knew that finding a job would
not be easy. To support myself, I started doing the first thing I thought I
could.
In this case it was making artificial flowers out of satin. I
had no machines to help me with the cutting and pasting; it was just me sitting
through the night making the roses and pasting them together.There were nights
when my spine would refuse to straighten, what with all the work I had put in.
Despite it, my daily income was meagre. I knew I had to look for something more
scalable than this. It was during this time that my thoughts turned towards my
passioncooking. I had a natural flair for making jams, pickles and squashes, so
I decided to try and sell them commercially.
The first lot got sold out instantly and demands started pouring
in for more. My limitations came into play again-there was only so much that I
could prepare even if I worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The
lack of guidance and inexperience limited my ability to take it to the next
level. My children were growing up and so were their needs. Hard work, pluck
and a little bit of luck opened up many more doors for me and I took up
catering assignments at many other institutes like the National Institute of
Food Management.I started pitching to other universities and colleges, and
landed more assignments.
MM7AUG17
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