American actor and singer Milton Berle famously said: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
And that’s what entrepreneurs do, day in and day out.
Starting a small business can be overwhelming, considering the many hurdles and obstacles the process brings. But despite the many stumbles, there is no dearth of entrepreneurs across India.
Week after week, SMBStala bring you heartwarming stories of small, medium, and large businesses that show entrepreneurial spirit, passion, and hope. As 2022 draws to a close, we summarize the top 10 stories we ran on SMBStory this year.
Graduation Chaiwali
“Opening a tea house is not a new thing. A lot of people do that, but a girl, especially a graduate of economics, sells tea on the street], and maybe that’s what made me famous,” the story which Priyanka Gupta, aka Graduate Chaiwali, in an interaction with SMBStala.
Priyanka started a small tea house in April 2022 outside the Patna Women’s College in Patna, Bihar. Within four months, he opened another tea house in the city, selling about 400 cups of tea every day, and earning about 1.5 lakh in profit.
In August, actor Vijay Deverakonda, who was in Patna to promote his new film, visited Priyanka’s tea house.
While Priyanka’s specialty business is growing and growing with two other stores in the city, but two-three months ago it was difficult for Priyanka when the village of Patna his shop.
In a recent interaction, Priyanka said that she is rebuilding her store and the challenges have motivated her. “The problem now is not money. I just want to stand firm in my vision and expand my business,” he said.
Read the full story here.
Avimee Herbal
When Vinita Agarwal developed a hair loss problem during the second wave of COVID-19, her parents RK and Shakuntala Devi Choudhary—known as Nanaji and Naniji—decided to natural oil at home.
Today, the couple has become an internet sensation, especially since the business was able to recently buy Nanaji his first car at the age of 85.
From one to two orders a day, Avimee started getting thousands after their son Siddhant Agarwal and his wife Ambika posted about the hair oil on Instagram. and create a page for them.
Nanaji was also invited to Indian idol because of his inspiring story.
The brand has even expanded to five more product categories in the last three months and has achieved a sales value of Rs 25 crore, Siddhant said.
Read the full story here.
Farmers of the Sunrise
Second and third generation owners of Sunrise Bakers (left and right)
In a busy market street of one of the oldest cities in India, Dehradun, stands Sunrise Bakers. More than 60 years after its first establishment, the bakery, expanded and opened a second store in the city in December 2021.
The expansion was notable as it came after a very difficult year for the family-owned business, with the deaths of Amarjit Singh Jolly and Harmeet Singh Jolly, the second entrepreneurs to carry on the legacy from their father is Harnam Singh Jolly.
Talk to SMBStalaRishika Jolly, third-generation entrepreneur and daughter of Amarjit Singh, despite the challenges all these years, the bakery has been successful since its inception.
In 2022, Sunrise Bakers came up with happy baskets. The company also launched new collections and is coming up with a D2C website soon.
Read the full story here.
Dupatta Bazaar
From the quality of the fabric to the color, design, and length, finding the right dupatta to match an outfit can be daunting. And, this is where Dupatta Bazaar, run by Gaurav Garg, bridges the gap.
Gaurav’s a-ha moment came in Mumbai’s Crawford Market where he saw a woman struggling all day to find a dupatta that matched her clothes. Welcomed from a family involved in the textile industry in Rajasthan, Ajmer, he was shocked. “I thought that artisans and shops dealing in dupattas in Rajasthan are struggling to get customers and here customers are clamoring for the same products.”
She decided to start a one stop shop for all dupatta needs. In 11 years, he completed more than seven lakh orders and created a presence beyond the borders of India. The business has grown by 300% this year, Gaurav said, adding that the number of artisans working in the back has doubled to close to 1,500.
Read the full article here.
The Tea House
Ten years ago, 22-year-old entrepreneur Shashank Sharma decided to open a tea shop on the lines of a popular coffee shop.
“I was inspired by Cafe Coffee Day (CCD). People used to pop up at CCD for business connections, dating, or whatever. After graduation, I thought of a business idea and discussed my plans with my friends over a chai tapir. We talked about the success of CCD, and I [thought] why can’t I open a tea shop?” Shashank said SMBStala.
In 2012, there was already a tea brand established in the Indian market but it was operating outside a big city, said Shashank and added that he thought of bringing a tea shop with a lot of sacrifices in his own city-Indore.
Shashank went on to build Tea Factor, which now has 300 stores worldwide in UAE, Canada, UK, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
Read the full article here.
MBA Chaiwala
“Karna tha sangharsh toh road pe chai banaya (As part of my struggle, I made tea on the roadside),” said Prafull Billore, popularly known as ‘MBA Chaiwala’. Prafull is not a foodie or a great cook, but he has built a multi-million dollar business selling chai (tea) across India.
Hailing from Dhar, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, Prafull lost his passion for MBA, which he pursued from Ahmedabad University since 2017. However, reading books and learning from quotes by famous business leaders that inspired him.
Fast forward five years and the 25-year-old is now a multi-millionaire entrepreneur who built MBA Chaiwala, a Rs 4 crore turnover business (as on FY21) and more than 100 stores pan India.
Read the full article here.
Raheja Solar Food Processing
One way to reduce food waste is to freeze fresh produce. Varun Raheja, Founder of Raheja Solar Food Processing Pvt Ltd, says the global demand for dry fruits is $70 billion.
Varun, a 25-year-old businessman from Indore, said the inspiration to launch the company came when he learned about sustainable living and practices at the Jimmy McGilligan Center for Sustainable Development, an NGO in Indore. .
His interest in solving the problems of farmers led him to research solar drying. A few years later, in 2019, he opened his own company. Since its inception, Varun says the company has been able to reduce the loss of 250 MT of crops by farmers across India.
Read the full story here.
EcoCushion Paper
For 40 years, Mahesh Agarwal worked with his cousins in their family business in Delhi. However, during the illness, Mahesh went to Mumbai to be with his children.
During the restoration process in 2020 Mahesh noticed the amount of plastic used as protective packaging.
“There was plastic everywhere on the floor,” said Mahesh Varsha’s daughter, adding, “We all know plastic is bad for the environment but when we saw the amount that is used just to leave our house, and the big problem that will come to the environment, we thought about the total use of plastic every day by people all around us.”
The incident gave Mahesh a reason to start a business again in his retirement years.
“We moved to Mumbai and he spent the first six to eight months on research. Then he came up with the idea of making postcard packaging to replace plastic packaging,” says Varsha. .
By June 2021, they set up a manufacturing plant in Navi Mumbai and started the business through a B2B website. They invested around Rs 50 lakh to start the business. In July, they received their first order from a small business and since then, EcoCushion’s journey has been on the upswing. Within a year, EcoCushion Paper has equipped more than 2,000 small and medium enterprises including Aadvik Foods, Upakarma Ayurveda, The June Shop, Mars Cosmetics etc., and corporations such as Westside, Nestle R&D, 1MG, and other things.
Read the full story here.
IoTechWorld Aviation
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The journey of IoTechWorld Avigation, the first kisan drone company, began in 2017 when Deepak Bharadwaj and Anoop Upadhyay decided to enter the drone market that is reaching India.
While Deepak was initially exposed to the defense space, the duo decided to focus on the agriculture sector after seeing the need for technology to help farmers improve crops and improve farming practices. The duo invested around Rs 6 lakh to Rs 7 lakh from their personal savings to set up the foundation in Gurugram.
Between 2017 and 2020, the company sold 200 drones to farmers.
Things changed in 2021 when the government laid out the budget for the drone PLI program and even wrote the rules for production. Since then, the group has seen an increase of more than 200 people entering the growing space.
IoTechWorld Avigation now manufactures 55% of its hardware components at its Gurugram facility. In the next two to three years, it is aiming for 100% indigenous production by setting up another unit in Hyderabad.
Read the full story here.
NavAlt
While it may seem like a cleaner way of transportation, most ships run on diesel—a very harmful fuel.
To help solve this problem, Kerala launched India’s first solar-powered ferry boat ‘Aditya’ in 2017. Promoting the use of clean energy, the boat prevents burning of the 35,000 liters of diesel each year and help to reduce the use of carbon dioxide.
Sandith Thandasherry, Founder and CEO of Kochi NavAlt Solar and Electric Boats, said the boat has saved 100,00 liters of diesel so far. But the innovation didn’t stop there; he is engaged in building RORO (cargo boats) as well as commercial boats which are cheap and easy to use.
Read the full article here.
