I have always been intrigued by the story of two salesmen of a shoe making company. One of them was sent to a part of Africa to do market evaluation for starting operations. He came back to report that while the population was large and people had decent money, the culture of wearing good shoes had not set in and hence the idea should be junked. The company was not satisfied. Hence it sent another salesman. He saw the exact same scenes but delivered a report which said ‘amazing business potential, set up immediately. Also connect with a garment making company for collaboration and set up’. It is hence all about perception and positivity.
I truly believe Indian entrepreneurship is all about finding an opportunity, striving to achieve resources to target that opportunity and persevering till the opportunity is accomplished. When I was a part of pwc, world seemed to be at my feet. The work was amazing, people were amazing. I was travelling the length and breadth of the country. It was a wonderful range from the starred hotels to unique geographies like remote parts of Chattisgarh. I travelled abroad and was promoted twice in under 4 years time. I had just got married and was starting another beautiful journey. However, God had other plans. My mother passed away quite suddenly. I decided to return to Goa, my hometown. Amongst the emotional upheaval I had to decide to pursue my career and find opportunities as an entrepreneur. One way of looking at it was like the first salesman, Goa was not the geography to contemplate mergers and acquisitions. It was on the world map of tourism but not taken seriously for business. Going to Goa meant going on a holiday. I decided to change this perception. I asked myself. Why not add another ‘B’ to Goa. After beauty, beaches add business advisory. Hence, I formed MARC, with M being a tribute to my mother Mangal.
What I realised very early however was that I had to create awareness. If I could sell the purpose my services would automatically be sold. Hence the first 3 years was about setting up a solid base. It was more like if you want to sell Bisleri, create awareness of how mineral water is better for health. I recollect the first few years were challenging. Many locals wrote me off. They believed I would not survive as an entrepreneur. But I had conviction. I knew that there was a need. In the initial years business came from non Goans who trusted more. However, Goa as a market was a good learning experience. Very less data was available. Hence, we learnt how to collect data from virgin locations. This later gave rise to a service called ‘market research‘. We could help business start operations venturing into niche products or virgin locations thanks to this early challenge and learning. Our latest amazing assignment was conducting viability of route evaluation for Fly91, India’s newest aircraft.
However, an Indian entrepreneur is always restless. Hence, once business in Goa was settled and also realising that Goa had a limited market, I thought let us target other tier 2 and tier 3 cities of India which are largely untapped and have tremendous business potential. We collaborated with like minded CA firms in these regions and looked to serve the clients in these areas. We have now scaled up to a total of 15 locations and through these offices have served 10 Indian states and over 30 Indian cities including metros. Covid was another amazing lesson. While India went into a stringent lockdown, I realised this required another pivot. Hence, I looked for opportunities in USA. With back breaking efforts over the dark covid months we today have about 20% of our business from USA and within 3 years time our USA office was born.
This is how an Indian entrepreneur is. Finding opportunity in adversity.
