Outlook Business | WoW 2019 Delhi - Nidhi Yadav
Watch Nidhi Yadav, founder of ethnic clothing brand AKS who built a 100 - crore brand in under 5 years, view to video to know about her inspiring journey!
#NidhiYadav #AKS #WOWO2019 #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
#NidhiYadav #AKS #WOWO2019 #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, building a business from scratch is not easy and building a business
00:09 of scale is doubly difficult.
00:12 Our next speaker, founder of ethnic clothing brand AKS, built a hundred crore brand in
00:20 under five years.
00:22 Please put your hands together, yes, for Nidhi Yadav as she joins us to take us through her
00:29 journey and share her secret of scaling up a business quickly.
00:36 Hello, good evening everyone.
00:50 I'll take you through my journey of a messed up girl back in 2008 to a sorted woman in
00:58 2019.
01:00 And it has been a very wonderful journey and also a roller coaster ride for me.
01:07 So back in 2008, I was a computer science engineer, I got placed into one of the top
01:13 four consulting firms, I was placed in Deloitte, I went working in Deloitte and that could
01:18 have been the best thing that could have happened to you know, any one of my batch mates.
01:22 So I had 650 of them and only 13 of out of 650 were selected, you know, for being placed
01:28 into Deloitte.
01:29 So I went there, I worked there for two years.
01:32 But then we have our mentors and you know, one day I was sitting with my mentor and he
01:36 asked me that when was the last time that you felt like coming to office?
01:40 So I said never in the past two years.
01:43 He said that then why are you here?
01:45 You have zero job satisfaction.
01:48 And what makes you come here?
01:49 I told him paycheck.
01:51 So he said that is not the only reason you should be working here.
01:55 So it took me six months to realize six months of self self intro, self introspection, watching
02:01 a lot of movies, reading a lot of books to realize that I'm made for fashion.
02:06 So that's where I decided to go to Italy to study fashion buying and merchandising.
02:11 And that changed the course of my life.
02:14 And I studied there for one year, then I did my internship for six months over there.
02:18 And I came back.
02:20 So by the time I came back, I was 25 years old already.
02:24 And as it happens in the Indian society, my parents wanted me to get married.
02:28 So I was like, okay, let's get first things sorted first.
02:32 So I got married.
02:33 And coincidentally, my mother was searching on one of the matrimonial sites.
02:38 And I got irritated.
02:39 So I told her that, you know, this is my LinkedIn profile.
02:41 And I think you should, you know, look out for other guys on LinkedIn profile as well.
02:45 So immediately she put on a filter for other guys, and they will do other guys.
02:49 And one out of them was my husband.
02:51 So we are professionally aligned couples.
02:55 So we got together, I visited his profile, and he found my profile also very intriguing.
03:02 And he immediately proposed to me within 36 hours of visiting my profile.
03:07 And I said yes to him within 26 seconds of he proposing me.
03:11 Without even meeting him, without even talking to him over the phone.
03:15 It was my instinct, you know, which told me that yes, he is the man.
03:21 So I got married, then I had my baby.
03:24 So when my baby was seven, so before getting married, there was one precondition of you
03:28 know, me getting married to him.
03:29 I told him that see, I'm not going to work.
03:32 I don't see myself fitting into a nine to five job.
03:35 So if you're looking for a partner who can work with you and you know, contribute to
03:40 the family finances, then I'm not the right girl.
03:44 So he said, I'm working well enough.
03:45 If you don't want to work, if you choose not to work, you can stay at home.
03:49 So I said, Okay, I'm fine with that.
03:51 But then he saw a fire in me.
03:54 So like, you know, I'm a true believer in mythology.
03:58 So you know, for every Hanuman, there is a Jambavan.
04:01 So for me, my husband is my Jambavan, he made me realize my powers.
04:06 He made me realize that yes, I'm meant for something.
04:10 And he pushed me to work again.
04:12 He said, if you're not comfortable working, by going to office, you can work from home.
04:18 So he said, online is booming right now.
04:21 So why don't you start working from home?
04:23 And at that time, my daughter was seven months old.
04:25 Yeah, I used to travel with her.
04:28 I used to travel with a seven month old baby and my husband who used to work in another
04:32 company and you only used to get to travel over the weekends.
04:36 So it was very difficult.
04:37 So starting a business with a seven month, months old baby and with a small capital of
04:44 three and a half lakhs, that was the savings we had in our bank account.
04:48 And we wanted to start with that money.
04:51 And we will like, you know, doing brainstorming on what to start.
04:57 So I had this concept of Zara in my mind because I was studying Zara for six months when I
05:02 was studying in Italy.
05:03 So it was one of my projects.
05:05 So I was like, I want to do something in fast fashion because there is no fast fashion brand
05:09 in India.
05:10 And clearly, since I was inspired by Zara, I wanted to do in Western wear.
05:15 But he suggested me that there is a clear cut space in ethnic wear.
05:19 Why don't you get into ethnic wear?
05:21 So we did a lot of research.
05:23 We did research for three months.
05:25 And then yes, it worked out well for us.
05:27 Then we decided, yes, we will venture out into ethnic wear space.
05:31 And that's how it started.
05:32 So it's difficult for everyone, like how you start, you know, initially people don't believe
05:37 in you.
05:38 You are having very less amount of money.
05:41 People actually used to throw us out of their factories.
05:45 So we chose Jaipur as our, you know, place where we wanted to source clothes because
05:51 that is where you get all the kurtas and all these, you know, ethnic wear clothes.
05:56 So we went to Jaipur and people were not entertaining us because I had small amount of money.
06:00 I wanted to buy 24, 25 pieces in a style.
06:03 So they used to throw us out of their factories, even with a small baby, they used to throw
06:06 us out.
06:07 They were like, no, no, no, we don't entertain less than 200 pieces.
06:10 If you want more than 200 pieces, then we'll entertain you.
06:13 So it was a big challenge.
06:14 You know, money was a big challenge.
06:15 Then space was a challenge because I wanted to work from home.
06:19 So I was not having a proper warehouse.
06:21 So if you don't have a proper office, if you don't have a proper warehouse, it's very difficult
06:25 to get employees on board.
06:28 People don't want to work from your home.
06:29 They don't understand the concept of working from home.
06:32 If they are a full-fledged employee, they want their space and, you know, they want
06:35 their cubicle, which I didn't like.
06:38 So I had all these challenges.
06:41 So we kept on, you know, overcoming all this.
06:45 And for one year, for the first year of operation, I was not having any employee on my company.
06:51 I was the only employee.
06:52 I was doing sourcing.
06:54 I was doing designing.
06:55 I was doing cataloging on websites.
06:56 I was doing dispatch also.
06:58 Each and everything, I was the only one who was doing.
07:01 Then at the end of the one year, we could manage some money to get a warehouse, which
07:06 was out of our home, and then we managed three employees.
07:10 So this is my first year's journey.
07:12 At the end of the first year, we closed at 1.5 CR.
07:16 We started from 3.5 lakh seat capital with 936 units.
07:21 And at the end of the first year, we closed at 1.5 CR.
07:28 So it's a very different journey.
07:31 You know, you don't hear...
07:34 I mean, I've never heard in India that husband is supporting wife.
07:41 But my husband has been my backbone all throughout my journey.
07:43 Can I have water?
07:45 He has been my support system.
07:48 He has been constantly encouraging me.
07:50 If he wouldn't have realized, you know, the kind of talent I have, if he wouldn't have
07:56 made me realize, I wouldn't have been here.
07:59 I'm so sorry.
08:00 I have a bad throat.
08:09 So as it is with everyone, journey from 3.5 lakhs to 100 CR is not that easy.
08:17 And it cannot be done without a good team.
08:22 So definitely, I had a very good support system back at home and also at work.
08:28 So like what usually people say is, how do you get a work-life balance?
08:33 I don't have work and life, which is different from each other.
08:36 My work is my life and my life is always at my work.
08:40 So my kids are at my office.
08:42 My husband is at my office.
08:43 So that's how I manage work-life balance.
08:46 You have to find your way out.
08:48 So in the second year of operations, I had three employees.
08:52 In third year, I had 10.
08:53 And then in fourth year, I had 32.
08:56 And now I have 57 of them.
08:58 And also, initially, people are not selling us.
09:02 So we went to Jaipur every weekend.
09:05 We identified some captive units in Jaipur.
09:07 We made them captive units.
09:09 They were sick units in Jaipur.
09:10 And we identified they were not having work.
09:12 We offered them work.
09:14 We said, we promise you work.
09:15 They had investment.
09:16 So they had invested in us.
09:18 And then that's how we could manage to get to this scale.
09:22 Because we have always met right people.
09:25 I've been lucky.
09:27 So that has been there.
09:29 And in the second year of operation, we finished at 8.5 CR.
09:32 In third year, we finished at 23 CR.
09:34 In fourth year, we finished 48.
09:36 And this year, we'll be finishing around 120 CR.
09:40 We're going at a run rate of 120 CR.
09:44 Next year, we plan to go--
09:46 we plan to finish around 300 CR.
09:48 That is my aspiration for the next year.
09:51 But then it doesn't come easy.
09:53 You need a very, very highly efficient team.
09:58 You need very good relationships with your suppliers,
10:01 with your vendors.
10:02 So for doing business, I don't believe you need money.
10:06 You need relationships.
10:07 And you have to end cash on relationships.
10:09 And how well you end cash on relationships,
10:11 that is how far your business can take you.
10:14 And if people wouldn't have believed in me,
10:16 they wouldn't have given me stuff for three months
10:21 without even any payments.
10:22 We have a payment cycle of 90 days with people.
10:24 If they wouldn't have believed in my word,
10:26 if they wouldn't have believed in my vision,
10:29 they wouldn't have been supporting me.
10:30 But I've been having good relations
10:33 be it with my suppliers or my buyers.
10:36 I've been having very good relationships.
10:38 Second is you need a very good team, as I've said earlier.
10:42 And you have to keep that team lean.
10:44 When you are a bootstrap business,
10:46 you cannot afford to spend too much on your team also.
10:51 You have to train your team in doing multitasking.
10:55 So you cannot assign a single person
10:57 that you have to do this and you cannot do this.
11:00 So I train my team to do multitasking.
11:03 And we have kept our organization lean right
11:06 from the beginning.
11:06 That has helped me also to manage
11:09 the expenses of the company.
11:11 And by keeping lean, if I tell you,
11:15 I have never taken out a single penny out of the business
11:18 up till 31st of August, up till my husband was in his job.
11:23 So our house was run on his salary.
11:26 We never used to take out any money from the business.
11:28 And that is the beauty of a startup.
11:30 The moment you start taking out money from the business,
11:33 it loses its flavor.
11:35 You cannot scale up.
11:37 You cannot scale up to this level.
11:39 If you think about profits in initial two, three
11:42 years of business, you really cannot scale up.
11:45 You have to give it back to the business to make
11:47 it sustain for a longer time.
11:49 And if I want to take it to a 1,000 CR brand,
11:51 I definitely have to have a vision
11:53 and I definitely have to manage my payables,
11:56 manage my receivables.
11:58 So that is the game.
11:59 And I think my support system is the key
12:04 which has made me reach here.
12:06 And I'm really happy and lucky to have a wonderful family.
12:11 [APPLAUSE]
12:16 Thank you so much.
12:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:20 Nidhi, thank you so much for giving us a firsthand account
12:27 and, of course, lessons of how to scale up
12:30 a small to a big business.
12:31 Ladies and gentlemen, a loud round of applause.
12:34 Thank you very much.
12:36 [APPLAUSE]
12:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]