A leap of faith.

 My journey began after I completed my masters from London, I was quite independent when it came to decision making for myself but it became a task for me when I had to join my dad’s business. Not that I didn’t want to help my dad with his business but the fact that I had to build something of my own was urging like a fire within me. I started hoarding thoughts for different ideas to start something of mine while I managed my dad’s business but no idea clicked me unless the idea of manufacturing sanitizers popped in my head. 

It was the initial time when Covid-19 was still not taken seriously in India and our population was still not aware of the significance of sanitization. 

The motto was to start something of my own while doing a social cause to the society and that was there right at my table. And then it started.. taking a leap of faith while my dad was hesitant about this idea; I made sure I put in the capital all by myself which I had saved all this while by doing different jobs at different places. I started my market study the very moment and with help of my sister who has her M.pharm degree we started with the manufacturing of sanitizers on a very small scale following the process, guidelines, and formula given by WHO and government. 

We made my small cabinet office into a manufacturing unit, I got all the required materials and making of the sanitizer began. Where we produced sanitizer in liquified form the production for gel sanitizer still a challenge. At this point, the hunt for researchers began, and one evening while discussing this idea to a friend of mine we got a jack which led me to two pharmacists who were ready to assist me in building the gel formula. Meanwhile, during this whole process, it came into my attention that the prices of raw materials were hiking every day by 40-50%. I succeeded in making the gel form of sanitizer but there were a lot of obstacles which I had to cross every single day, for me new day - new challenge became the new normal. 

When there was availability of raw materials, packaging material was not available due to the lockdown, and when both were at par the problem for availability of staff and labor was difficult to get.

Where I was hurdling each day with a different obstacle, my diligence was prepping me up to enter a new phase in my life. Where the demand for sanitizer was high and supply for it was low, it was tough to gather everything under a certain budget. And when gradually everything was falling in place, the government had announced a massive fall in the prices of sanitizers and with complete lockdown, it became difficult to trade and the graph of demand went down. But I kept my foot down, I was firm to supply my product in the market; my dad’s word kept hitting me constantly that ` one has to experience a loss to make a better come back in achieving profits. 

It was difficult to understand what quality people liked and what was their requirements. With the responsibility of mixing their likes with what was essentially needed l never compromised with our quality, when test results came back l was beyond happy to know the quality of sanitizers was as good as the other branded ones; My product was now ISO certified. With little marketing and through word of mouth l started suppling sanitizers to hospitals and expanded my boundaries. Even with low-profit margins, l never compromised with the quality and l think that's why this idea turned out as a great success and it's still a start. I realized that this was a success when my friends and family from Mumbai and Surat told me how they have been buying my products from the local chemist. Along with this being a success, it taught me a lot of things while giving me an experience of a lifetime. It also helped me turn into this courageous person and not fearing loss. This idea shaped me into being a responsible person and that's what this is all about.

I am now supplying on large scale and have a small factory set up to run my business, I started by making 50 ml and now I am supplying all types of packaging from 50 ml to 200ltrs. 

My leap of faith made my dad proud and that is a plus to my success story.

My advice to young entrepreneurs would be:

 If you think you want something in life if you want to achieve something desperately - take leaps, put your 100 in it, study every tad bit of it, don’t fear failures and focus on stepping with your business with pride.

Written by,

Siddharth Agrawal.