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Aug, 06 2018

COUPLE ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA : HAVING THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Up close with some enterprising couples who have built up very sound business ventures through an integration of understanding, trust, acumen and good chem- istry, both at home and at the workplace, writes Tanya Krishna.

COUPLE ENTREPRENEURS  IN INDIA : HAVING THE BEST OF  BOTH WORLDS

The world is familiar with this old cliché that one should not mix business with pleasure. Keeping business afloat is in itself a challenging enough task. Mix it with the pressures of marital life and one can easily expect things to go all chaotic. As such, couple entrepreneurs have to find a balance between their personal and professional life which intertwines at some point sooner or later. And in the face of all these glaring challenges, finding the right balance and a way to still be successful and content in both personal and professional life at the same time is extremely commendable.

Luxury at your Doorstep
Sahil Malik and Shivani Malik, Da Milano

Today, many couples who met in college or B-schools are taking the invigorating walk down the entrepreneurial aisle and Da Milano’s Sahil Malik and Shivani Malik are one of them. They reckoned that if living together was possible so was working together. “We met at London School of Eco-nomics and Political Science (LSE) and eventually in two years, we got married. Sahil started Da Milano with one store and then we opened the second store post our wed-ding,” informs Shivani.

For Sahil, what triggered this entrepreneurial journey was his and Shivani’s common dreams, understanding and different areas of expertise that helped them create “something magical”. While the two definitely had their share of challenges, the couple tried every way possible to keep the interest of the brand above everything else. The duo consider franchising as a fast though tricky way to scale up the business. Talking about rough times, Shivani asserts, “There are times when we have arguments, but ultimately the decision is in the hands of the person handling the division. We have a very independent and at the same time very dependent way of decision making.

Spinning Education Anew
Siddharth Chaturvedi and Pallavi Rao Chaturvedi, AISECT Ltd.

College romance has its own charm for couple entrepreneurs, it seems. Such was the case with AISECT’s Siddharth Chaturvedi and Pal-lavi Rao Chaturvedi who met at Mumbai’s SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, got mar-ried, explored their career opportunities and later joined forces to bring renewed AISECT to the Indian market. “Our journey together as entrepreneurs has been an exciting and exhilarating one. We both knew that skill development and education was going to see massive boom and that’s when we decided to take over AISECT. We are blessed to have respect and acceptance as co-workers which is what keeps us moving,” maintains Siddharth.

AISECT has moved from 6,000 centres to 20,000 technically-equipped centres across 29 states and three UTs. Pallavi informs, “Rolling out the entire rebranding campaign across such a vastly distributed network was an extremely lengthy process. Occasional clash of viewpoints and opinions is very natural. To overcome it, we analyze each other’s point of view and look at the overall perspective. Also, our areas of work and operations are clearly demarcated. We work by ‘Organisation - First Policy’.”

According to them, the advantages of working together are many, ranging from understanding work-related stress, trust in the business partner that comes naturally, more openness which leads to discussions bereft of inhibitions, etc.

Shine and Sparkle
Vishwas Shringi and Jagrati Shringi, Voylla

This love-cum-business partnership started when Voylla’s Vishwas and Jagrati Shringi met in the US while pursuing their academic and career interests. The idea of working in the fashion jewellery industry came to Vishwas during the early years when he shopped for these from India as gifts for Jagrati. “These jewellery items faded even before she agreed to go out on a date. This somehow sparked the idea for our business venture. The poor quality and also the potential of the branded jewellery market in India marked the inception of Voylla. I and Jagrati moved back to India in 2011, launched Voylla,” informs Vishwas.

He travels extensively to interact with his franchisees and employees in order to get better insights into the segment.Just a year later, Jagrati joined the business as the chief technology officer. While Voylla started as an e-commerce firm, the duo decided to go offline soon and later, in 2017, went ahead to launch another line of jewellery, Dare, which caters to men. While the duo has come a long way, the picture was not always rosy.

Jagrati asserts, “There is a lot of mutual respect and at the same time we believe in giving each other the kind of space required to thrive as professionals and individuals. Teamwork, a sense of balance, professional commitment and maintaining the highest ethical, moral, professional code of conduct is our priority.” Voylla is full of possibilities wherein it is fine-tuning its online presence and at the same time focusing on reaching out to Tier II and Tier III cities through its franchise and retail network.

 

Creating Clothes, Naturally!
Sandeep Kapoor and Sheetal Kapoor, Shree – The Indian Avatar

 While we hear a lot about the college romances ending up into an entrepreneurial union, Sandeep Kapoor and Sheetal Kapoor from Shree– The Indian Avatar spent a good 20 years of their wedded life before taking the plunge. Before 2008,Sheetal was a homemaker who would spend her time managing household affairs in Delhi. She stepped into
the business when her children grew up and went abroad for higher studies.“Unsure of what to do with her time, Sheetal beganaccompanying me to my office. My firm used to makegarments for large retail chains. In 2009, we thoughtof starting our own brand together. Sheetal had avision to create products which were need of the hour– garments made of natural fiber. That’s how Shreewas born. We started with an online business andlater in 2015, launched our offline stores. Franchisinghas historically proven to be a rather efficient wayof expanding the business and Shree today boasts anumber of franchisees,” informs Sandeep.As the husband-wife duo moved forward together,Shree grew as well with their relationship and thebrand now owns 32 exclusive stores while there aremore than 2,000 dealers selling its products in India.

However, there were rough times as well,which they passed through with their mutualunderstanding and support. Sheetal says,“While we have different spheres of work, we
never hesitate in taking each other’s opinions.We also had our share of arguments and therewere times when we would be critical of theother’s decisions. But I think that’s the bestpart of working together – an honest critic. Wehave a great chemistry, good teamwork and itsgreat working at an atmosphere which is more
like home, more like family.”

 

 

 

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