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A path to self-discovery lead to the plain and simple truth of Life….Life is Beautiful. Balancing family responsibility and kids with career growth, active social life, self-development and health looks seamless today thanks to a solid support system. Support from your spouse, parents, in-laws and the extended eco-system around you.
While I progressed, I saw steady progress of the ecosystem around us. Financial independence, social empowerment and a window to a beautiful life was what I aspired for and that’s when I realised that I need to also provide similar window to those around me, who supported me. My cook and house-help became independent a year back, capable of earning outside my house. With their skills, it is a choice they make whether they would want to work for me or add to their incomes by leveraging the skills they developed on the job.
With this real-life ‘home grown’ example, I chose to take a bigger stride and start a small home tiffin venture with an objective to establish a ‘social enterprise’. Idea is to take small yet solid steps by first investing in ‘human resource’, augmenting their capability such as financial literacy, creating goals for self, finding that larger purpose for self-drive and engaging them by helping them create small wins which will go long way in shaping their entrepreneurial skills.
Slightly reverse approach from one followed by Start-up, corporates! Management wisdom says first identify your strengths, market potential and then organize finances. Recruitment, training and marketing to follow in 2nd phase, while employee engagement, inclusive growth, sustainable development is the ‘nice to do’ if business does well.
Having spent 15 years as HR across industry, I have seen organizations spend nearly 50 % of their time and resources on building Brand reputation, managing productivity and still trying to find answer to what will engage their customers and employees! Whereas markets are waiting for them for expansion with lot more scope for innovation.
Being in business of food, home tiffin services, I know I cannot claim to be different from what the lady next door can offer to a busy working couple or a home sick spinster or a bachelor who is missing the taste of home cooked meal. However today I am building capacity by investing in building team strength at the cost of not expanding the customer base only to create a business model which is robust, sustainable, capable of multiplying and most important one which can create entrepreneurs internally who can manage larger network by themselves. Maths is simple there exists need to cater to growing consumer base for home tiffins, however can I create 100s of ‘Me’ to expand 100x times? The best of the technologies and strategies will still leave scope for managing internal challenges mostly focusing on managing growth and managing ambiguity associated with growth.
I belong to a community which runs Udipi restaurants and corporate canteen. Henry Ford’s famous words which I heard during my MBA days is what I have seen many hoteliers follow. “You can take my factories, burn up my buildings, but give me my people and I'll build the business right back again”….reinforces the fact that organizations especially start -ups should consider their human resources as a key differentiator.
If during the incubation period of my start-up if I focus on my strength and capabilities, market I can cater to, my funding options, developing my entrepreneurial ability, I would be creating challenges or road blocks or limiting scope for expansion. I am bound to face challenges of productivity, lack of good people to manage growing complexities or pain of losing customer base and a bad reputation with every dissatisfied customer!!
When I speak to people who have started their own business perhaps 2 or 3 biggest challenge they face once they start especially in service section is manpower – both hiring right talent and retention, driving productivity and sustaining their unique strength. The problem is same at all levels …large corporates and start-ups. I kind of cracked this by developing my team in-house…from my home resource team! Today my cooks (current and past), my house care-taker, my vegetable vendor are all part of the strong army that I am building before I take the bigger plunge. We as a team have given us 6 months for learning the business on the job, building our strengths, overcoming challenges on home front and with customers be it pricing or customer’s outlook towards perceiving a catering business run for women empowerment vis-à-vis a branded, funded enterprise!
We have gone through our own challenges! Running a social enterprise with mobilising resources from grass root meant overcoming challenges related to mindset. ‘Why should I pay more for desserts prepared by someone who comes from BPL (below poverty line segment), I would rather pay premium and buy desserts from “Home Chef” or a branded Bakery even if it costs 3 times the cost! I am happy paying advance to my cook if she asks money for her kid school uniform’. Definition of welfare is very feudalistic in our society. Inclusive growth is of least importance.
Desafío nº 1 – how do we translate shared value to our consumer. Should we target consumers who align to our mindset or should I shape consumer mindset. We prefer to choose the later part since that’s what will lead us to a sustainable growth. Path is difficult but that’s the motivation running a social enterprise with woman entrepreneurs (from BPL segment) at the core of business – marketing, development, planning, execution ….in area they are all expert at preparing “Home cooked meals”
Desafío nº 2 – how do I transfer Management practices such as Inventory Management, Cost optimization, Marketing, Key account management to my small yet motivated army of food entrepreneurs. My biggest learning was I can automate these or hire a B School intern to support here but what they needed was financial literacy - basic mathematics, opening bank account and managing the surplus they create. Part of my entrepreneurial training includes basic maths, teaching basic financial transactions and exposing them to disadvantages of investing hard earned money in some ‘schemes’ which promise quick returns.
Desafío nº 3 – creating that sense of purpose with same intensity. Easy when one has a job which pays you Rs 8000/- p.m….Why should I earn more? What is the consequence of absenteeism if I am upset post fight with my in-laws or if prefer to visit my native place for every religious occasion. Difficult to bring in transformation when socio- cultural practices are deeply ingrained in me thus manifesting at times in my attitude and behaviour. Lack of vision or perspective to a brighter future, I tend to look only at today! Changing the attitude, creating a shared vision is something which will bring impact and thus sustain the enterprise in its true spirit.
In a context where challenges are basic yet fundamental in nature, perhaps approach to focus on developing human resource and not just deploying strategy and funds now looks more logical.
Further with a humble turnover of Rs 5 lacs p.a., with 3 Home-entrepreneurs, in-house development sourcing partners, the challenge is not gaining markets but sustaining the initiative, building mini home entrepreneurs across the Mumbai with same vision and passion, operating an enterprise which aims at value creation for them and for the people they service.
Road map is to make profits, shape consumer mindset towards inclusive development and empower the home entrepreneurs in truest sense. It is not about they merely earning…its about they managing resources, planning their
I do not have a ready success story based on this model but I know for sure Shivaji followed the same strategy. Build your army by focusing on your team’s strength, go for quick wins and then build on your strengths in a systematic, strategic manner. We are blessed with automation, reach through social media, a society which is much more aware of rights and social cause and open to eating not from a Modern Woman Entrepreneur (we have enough examples of these!) but from army of Home entrepreneurs from economically and socially underprivileged background.
…..And if the business you have started is built with objective of inclusive growth with focus on productive employment as a means of increasing the incomes, empowerment and financial literacy of a section of society for raising their standards of living, there is no reason why one cannot see millions of faces living the promise …Life is Beautiful.
Sulaksha, fundadora de Tiffins & More
The startup delivers home cooked food to the customers. They skill housewives to cook mass meals, in controlled hygienic environment and collaborate with farmers to grow organic food and source them at market price. The customers can select option as per their palate and preference like diet meal low on carbs, south India, Marathi, punjabi, light course, combos.
