Life at IMDR

Vaidehi Kulkarni Pendse

Alumnus PGDM 2011-13

Live your passion

I have read somewhere that ‘Passion is priceless’. Here I am going to write about entrepreneurship, my passion.

Like every motherhood is different and every child is special, the same way every startup is unique and every entrepreneur is great!

I started my journey in 2016 with 3 years of experience and a concept to provide sustainable hygiene to all working men and women.

Sustainable hygiene is a need of the time. It is an exciting field, but before the idea got converted into business, a lot of market research was required. While I was working with a pharmaceutical company for development of Ayurveda products, I started studying product requirement, gap in the market, market size etc. Being a woman, I faced various difficulties to maintain hygiene while traveling. And hence I decided to get into personal hygiene segment. For starters, I focused two distinct segments such as non-menstrual intimate hygiene and sweat management. That is how my entrepreneurial journey started.

During this journey, I met different people like distributors, retailers, and manufacturers and learned that if a person needs to be a successful entrepreneur, one needs to be patient; business takes a lot of time to build. Be a good listener, their struggle will help you to understand dos and don’ts.

Dedication is the key to being on top of the game. Irrespective of whether the situation is favorable or adverse, you should work with the same motivation and focus.

After I was done with market survey, the next hurdle was to identify the suppliers. Supplier identification plays a key role in determining the success in your business. I was introducing the idea of pro health sweat management and non-menstrual everyday hygiene, which was new to the Indian market. Initially, I decided to import the products. But this resulted into no control on the supplier. Either I used to end up with huge inventories or delays in shipments, which resulted in very low / zero inventories. Here, I learned a lesson, where one ought to control the process on which your revenues are dependent. And to reduce dependency, one should build capabilities. One day, when I lost a big order due to lack of supply, I decided to back integrate every process for my products. It took time, money, patience and trials. But today, we are one of the only companies in the country, which is making sustainable hygiene products. Taking risks is part of an entrepreneur’s life, but your conviction will get you through difficult times.

It is always said that an entrepreneur should think ahead of time. I agree! But this ability has come to me after working on the ground, after making a lot of mistakes, after losing money! Your venture will teach you to be perfect with time. Be a good Student, always!

While starting your own venture, everyone thinks of “Vitamin M”. Money is certainly an important factor but business model, prototype, segment of product/service are in an entrepreneur’s capacity. Small scale self-run projects are proof of an entrepreneur’s confidence and capabilities towards executing the project. If a pilot project can be validated with a soft launch, then expansion money can be brought into the company in different forms.

During my journey, I have learned that if you want to win the game; then you will have to be in the game. Don’t think of shutting down your startup when you face failures and difficulties. It might be a bend and not the end! Being an entrepreneur is a tough job! So keep yourself physically and mentally strong with regular exercise and meditation.