Top 8 Rags to Riches Stories of Indian Entrepreneurs
- Karsanbhai Patel: Nirma
Karsanbhai Patel is the founder of Sabki Pasand Nirma that is one of the leading names in India when the whole detergent niche in India was owned by the MNC's like Hindustan Level.
He
began his business by making detergent in the backyard of his house and door-to-door selling off his self-produced product. To beat the MNC competition, he offered a 1 kg packet of detergent for Rs. 3.5 when the cheapest
packet available in stores was Rs. 13 per kg. Besides, he also offered a
cash-back guarantee to give the customer reassurance.
This strategy helped him build a customer base which also showcased his excellent entrepreneurial skills. The market strategy of Patel was also ingenious.
He took a risk by dumping huge stocks of Nirma in the market and for a month focused on heavy advertising. His strategy paid off and the ads became a sensation. They created a huge customer base for the brand. Patel flooded the market with Nirma and today it has become a synonym of detergent powder.
2. Sid Naidu: Sid Productions
Among
the top rags to riches stories of India entrepreneurs, Sid's journey is also
very emotional as well as inspiring. At the age of 11, he lost his father. To support his family, Sid started distributing newspapers every morning before going to
school. He would earn Rs. 250 per month. The financial situation of
the home was pathetic.
Sid
Naidu was keen on entering the fashion industry as a model. After
completing the class 10, he started working in a small company earning a
meagre sum of Rs 3,000 monthly.
After his ten years of struggle, he finally decided to become an entrepreneur and leverage the network of fashion industry stakeholders he had slowly built. He started Sid Productions, a venture that produces fashion shows, events, TV commercials and films.
Rahul
Narvekar: Indianroots
Rahul
Narvekar is the founder of Indianroots. During his early years, he had to work as a ward boy, delivery body, take tuition and many such jobs to earn and contribute towards his education.
Rahul was among brilliant students in college but he had to juggle between colleges
as he did not have enough money to pay his fees. Inspite of these challenges, he completed his
bachelor's degree and enrolled in a business entrepreneurship course. After
completing his education, he worked for TSN and also became a part of Asia's first
music channel- Oxygen that could not survive.
Later, he co-founded fashionandyou.com, an eCommerce store but due to personal issues, he had to leave it. That time, Rahul got in touch with NDTV, the channel wanted to start an online portal to sell ethnic and traditional Indian wear. This led Rahul to launch indianroots.com that broke even within eight months of its launch. Indianroots went on to become one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies in India.
4. Srikanth
Bolla: Bollant Industries
From birth, Srikanth was blind. When he was born, neighbors in the village suggested that his parents give him away. It was better than the pain they would have to go through their lifetime. However, his parents followed their own heart and cared for him just like a normal baby.
However, he continued to face discrimination and rejection from society due to his blindness. He fought for his right to education and became the first blind student to study engineering at MIT. He decided to start his own company with the vision of creating employment opportunities for the disabled and underprivileged.
He
considers himself the luckiest man alive, not because he is today a
millionaire, but because his parents took care of him without hearing any of
the advice given by people.
5. Ramesh
Babu: Ramesh Tour and Travels
An
ordinary businessman, with extraordinary wealth, Ramesh Babu is a star in his
own league. He runs the business of cutting and styling hair. His acute
business acumen has shaped his life into one of the quintessential rags to
riches stories. He barely managed to pool his savings and bought a Maruti Van
for rental purposes. After two decades, he owns 200 cars out of which 75 are
luxury cars including BMWs, Audio, Mercedes, etc. This Bangalore resident,
Ramesh Babu is a billionaire today and owns a rent-a-car fleet of 67
alternative cars.
Initially,
he started as a barber, just like his father. After a lot of
hard work and struggles, he gained a reputation as a hair-stylist. It was a matter of chance that he started renting his car to people who needed them and this laid the foundation of Ramesh
Tours and Travels.
Soon,
his business started growing and he added more fleet of cars to his business.
In 2004, he decided to add luxury cars to the rental business, it was a big
risk but his bet paid off.
6. Prem
Ganapathy: Dosa Plaza
Prem Ganapathy is the founder of Dosa Plaza, a chain of restaurants that serves 104 varieties of dosas.
Prem had just passed his 10th Standard exam when the responsibility of his poverty-stricken family fell on his shoulders. With the hope of earning money, he migrated to Mumbai with only Rs 200 in his pocket. He was cheated by his travel agent who promised him a job in Mumbai and was left alone in the city. He worked as a dishwasher and a tea vendor to survive. He learned how to make dosas and started his own stall. He experimented with different flavours and ingredients and created a loyal customer base.
It became the unique selling point of his business and hence his business grew. Finally, he saved enough to start his restaurant and that was the beginning of Dosa Plaza. This business has grown very well, and presently, it has 45 outlets spread over four countries.
7. Kailash Katkar: Quick Heal
Kailash Katkar has a very humble beginning. He did not have a great interest in academics and opted to work when he completed his 10th Standard. He started working in a shop which repaired calculators and radios. This job helped him gain some technical skills. However, he would also use his time to enhance his accounting skills. When he gained enough confidence, he decided to start his own business and opened his own calculator repair shop.
It was the time when the software industry was booming and Kailash Katkar decided to step into this field. He realized that the demand for personal computers was increasing and hence started servicing computers. During these days, Kalish found that a large number of machines coming for servicing were infected with different viruses.
This led Kailash to persuade his young brother, a computer science engineer to create an antivirus software. The software was developed over a couple of years. They named it Quick Heal and sold it for Rs. 700, one of the cheapest options available in the market which was generally ruled by the foreign players. The low price and attractive buying options led to an increasing customer base and today their business has spread to over 50 countries across the world.
PC. Mustafa's father was a coolie and his childhood was spent in poverty. He was not interested in studies and failed in Class 6th examinations. However, a realization dawned upon him that education is important to succeed in life and he appeared for the exam again and passed it. Gradually with his hard work and dedication, he joined NIT Calicut for his engineering. He wanted to pursue higher studies and took admission in IIM Bangalore.
During that period, he started a kirana store in partnership with his cousins. One day, he was in the shop and saw a lady buying butter that was not packed and was of low quality. He decided to sell good quality packed food. Accordingly, he invested some amount in that business. Initially, he conducted an experiment by making butter and distributing it among the people with the intent to receive their feedback and develop the product accordingly.
Today, his company is selling its product in eight cities and it is continuously growing.
What can we learn?
These are very inspiring stories but what can we learn from them?
1. Do not be satisfied: You cannot choose the family and the environment in which you are born and spend your childhood. Most of us are satisfied with whatever they get, some keep complaining that life has been bad to them but don't do anything. Some dream for bigger things and work towards that goal. It is they who achieve greatness
2. Take calculated risks: To make the next big leap in life, one has to take risks but the risks need to be calculated and based on some analysis.
3. Hard work: There is no substitute to hard work. You may have a great idea but to develop that idea and make it into a sustainable business requires months and years of hard work
4. Accept failures: None of the above mentioned individuals found success in the first go. They did small jobs to earn a living and experimented with ideas. Most of the ideas failed but the failures did not deter them. Maybe, it made them stronger and more resilient. To be successful, one has to accept failures and learn from them
5. Be ready for opportunities: Opportunities knock on your door only once. All the above mentioned individuals kept their eyes and ears open. They kept learning new skills. This helped them identify a need in the market which they tried to fulfil through their innovative product, pricing, marketing strategy etc. Be open to opportunities.
Coach Ram
Life is awesome
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