Bliss-Girls

In the previous post, we learnt that Sahana started a stationary store, within an year she had to face her first challenge, that her shop landlord asked her to vacate. We saw how she gracefully handled the challenge and in few years time she was successfully running 3 stores. Part 1 ended with her attending a franchise event. In this post we will discover more about her journey and challenges an entrepreneur is likely to face.

Opportunities are abundant. If you are awake and aware of present, you will find them. Sahana being a true business woman, knew that that here was not many eateries near the collage where she had her shop. In the franchisee event, she found a perfect business which she could operate. She signed up for a franchisee of Pizza da dhaba. For all those who know how franchisee system works, the franchisor provides franchisee with operating material and training. Sahana began franchisee operations in 2014 and continued to do so until 2021.

Until now we have covered the story of how Sahana grew her business. But is it all alluring as it looks? In the next section, lets look into some deeper challenges she faced and how she handled them.

Struggles and Challenges of Business

Every business has to face challenges as long as it runs. Only an entrepreneur will know how hard it is to keep it all going. Sahana shares some of the challenges she faced and how she dealt and is dealing with.

People Challenges: Out of the blue, when she least expected it, Sahana received a call from her head chef at pizza da dhaba that she would quit her job immediately. Sahana tried to talk through but the chef had made up her mind. Business was doing well at the time and it was out of question to stop operations for a while till new chef was hired. Sahana rolled up her sleeves and took charge of the kitchen for few days parallelly training another eligible staff for the chef role.

Key takeaways:

1. Know your business well, so you fill in for emergencies
2. Know you staff well including their strengths and weaknesses so you know who can pick up new roles

External Challenges: Many business across the globe suffered due to COVID. When lockdown was announced in India Sahana had to shut down her eatery business. She remembers giving away loads of items at half price and also for free. She had invested heavily into the interiors of eatery, so that was a loss too. She had to let go her employees. Financial losses were high too. But while her eatery business was plunging low, her organic store was seeing a rise in business. Because her store had lots of organic products, demand was more and hence the business. Eventually Sahana had to completely close down the eatery business. It was quite an emotional ride for her.

Key Takeaways:

1. Diversify – Having a portfolio of business is an added advantage in a very dynamic world like today’s
2. Build resilience. Do not stop when something fails, keep trying.

A key character which any entrepreneur should embrace is Adaptability. It is an internet era and Sahana has launched a website that provides flexibility for her customer to make purchases from the comfort of their couches.

Shop online at https://auntyxerox.org.

Aside from her business, Sahana actively participates in social welfare services. She is an active member of Mission Disha. Mission Disha does lot of community activities like running blood donation camps, cleaning campaigns, donation drives to help schools and much more. She has also been a yoga practitioner form young age and dedicates 30 minutes of her day for Yoga.

Dear reader, I hope you have enjoyed reading about Sahana. I would like to conclude this post with few other very important learnings to take away from Sahana’s life:

1. Nothing great gets built overnight. It takes years of hard work and persistence to grow and be successful.
2. Never stop learning and experimenting.
3. Take one small step at a time towards your bigger goal.