The fire was on, it was teasing him. He was ready to live the luxuries
to become an entrepreneur. Every night his mind fought the battle with heart
and mind won. But there came a day when he left everything and started
scripting his own journey. And we call it OYE PAPE.
Manmeet Singh Bhatia- owner of this new Punjabi Food startup
showcase a different excitement while talking about the venture, is extremely
humble and stay firm on maintaining cordial relations with people. As a part of
my Entrepreneurial Sabbatical, I talked to him about his new journey, how
difficult times were and how he enjoys cooking food.
Here are the edited excerpts taken at his new venture “ Jee Aayanu”……..
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| Visit here to gulp delicious Punjabi Flavor to everything they cook..... |
Firstly, talk something about your background
before starting this venture?
Before this venture came into
existence, I was into a job since year 2003. There was no element of
seriousness in me to do a job but landed up doing that when I was selected in Airtel
through an interview. I had no expertise in talking and dealing with people but
as the time progressed, my skills and personality groomed.
I switched companies
to work with telecom giants like Reliance, Idea, and Vodafone etc. In between,
I married and my package kept on increasing with the position. In a career
spanning nearby a decade, I worked hard to have a better corporate position and
did reasonably well.
Then, when the idea of setting up
OYE PAPE struck your mind?
Frankly speaking, by the end of
year 2010, I started realizing that the path on which I am walking on, I don’t
belong to this. I felt of doing something of my own rather than getting
satisfied by the corporate job that I had. My mind used to say “ Bossss, this is the wrong place you are
into”, while my mind used to counter the voice saying “ Jo hai sab achaa hai.”
The internal fire of doing
something of my own was on and it sparked a lot of times. My mind and my heart
were battling internally but my mind used to win the battle every time. I was a
Zonal Manager in Reliance, had a
handsome take home salary, life was moving at a steady pace but internally,
something was teasing me constantly.
It was very tough to listen to my heart,
but one day, my heart won the battle and I decided to resign from the job.
Initially, I had no exact idea about what I want to do but I knew whatever I
will do, it would be something of my own.
How tough was the decision to
leave the job and what were the challenges you faced?
The toughest challenge I feel is
to listen to the voice of the heart. It is very easy to suppress that but to
listen to that and follow suit is very tough because it tells you something
which actually tends to be true. You always have multi-faceted personality
these days, one which you show to the world unwillingly and another of your own
self.
To find the latter one and incarnate that is
one of the difficult things to do. That I identified and I thank Wahe Guru to give me the grit and energy
to do that. Once I did that, the same needs to be conveyed to my in-laws and
family members. The difficulty was that my passion was dominating my mind and
the same needs to be communicated to people around me.
Leaving out a job which was
giving me a good pay cheque and to follow my instincts was a gamble that I
wanted to play. The challenge that lied in that was the fear of failure and
difficulty in convincing my near ones. At times, I was scared about the
decision but the zeal that resided in my mind thrashed away every obstacle and
challenge.
How did everything transpired in
the days that followed?
After leaving my job one thing
was clear to my mind that I have an interest in cooking. I used to cook well
and gained a lot of appreciation from my bosses, colleagues and relatives. That
was when turning out my interest into profession clicked to my mind and I
decided to enter into food industry.
Initially, there was a bit of
dilemma about whether to go with veg food or non-veg food but after thorough
brainstorming, I decided to go with veg dishes. I visited a lot of places in
Indore, tasted their cuisines and realized that a whole lot of Indoreans’ were deprived of Veg Punjabi food as the quality
deteriorated.
“Jinka naam chal rha tha wo sirf goodwill k dum pe chal rha tha,
quality nai thi and the food was very expensive too.” I thought of cooking something good for
students and residents of Indore at an affordable cost. I chose the concept of
street food and that’s where started the journey of establishing OYE PAPE.
How you planned out everything to
turn your hobby into profession?
See, there was no dream of
becoming an owner of a hotel where you sit and watch the proceedings. I wanted
to serve people by cooking something delicious and to serve them with utmost
honesty. About planning, I think that my passion was so firm that day and night
I used to think about my venture.
I became an insomniac and cut out
myself from everybody. Every thought was channelized into my dream and it paved
the way for efficient planning. I honestly confess that there was no specific
planning and everything happened by god’s grace.
Wo kehte h naa ki kisi chij ko dil se chaho to puri kaynaat use milane
k lie kaam pe lag jati hai……… That was happening with me and everything was
at a proper place in terms of planning. I decided to open a street shop,
planned to take the help of family members and began the journey.
How was the initial response of
people for OYE PAPE?
Initial response was magnificent
and something which we had not thought off. Within a week or so, I realized
that the shop was small according to the people that poured in from every
corner of the city. Whoever tasted our dishes, their response gave me an idea
that my job was good. I got love, affection and money from everybody who ate
what I cooked.
Earning money was not my aim from
beginning because I knew that when I will serve people with tasty food, money
has no limit for me. Also, I was not a professional cook and never took the
training of the same. Operating a live counter where bunch of people see you
cooking something is lot different from what I used to do in my heydays, that
is, to cook for my friends and relatives. The feeling was very nice and it was
great to make people happy by cooking something essential and meaningful for
them.
What about the marketing strategy
that you applied for your start up?
It was a zero marketing cost
setup and we focused heavily on customer service and satisfaction. Mouth
publicity became our main weapon once our taste was appreciated by people. I
still feel that rather than investing in these tantrums, one should invest the
same money in maintaining the standard and quality of whatever you offer. That
speaks much louder than any kind of marketing. My way of talking is very sweet
and good and I know 80% of my customer by their name which keeps me ahead of
others’.
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| Manmeet Singh Bhatia- a fire that he followed....... |
What is the current challenge
that lies in front of you?
No major challenges apart from
the competition which we conquer by our service and affordability. Since, for
this kind of business, we bank a lot of efficient supply chain it also becomes
a bit challenging at time due to timely unavailability of the ingredients.
What is experienced and admit as
a challenge is the expectations of people or our customers. They want bouquet
of dishes at one point. They had a habit of going to big hotels where product
range is wide; they expect that from us also.
It is very difficult because our core
competency is Punjabi Food and
whatever we do, we innovate something by adding that Punjabi flavor into that.
Hence diversifying is pretty challenging because our items are unique and needs
a thorough preparation before it reaches to anybody.
What about the initial capital
invested in the business?
It is yet another example of low
cost setup. I had invested my money somewhere else which I lost completely and
was totally bare handed in terms of capital. I thought of operating a lorry to
start with but fortunately got this small shop on rent.
The total corpus invested was
Rs.45000 which includes Rs.30000 as rent. Remaining 15000 were invested in
buying all the essentials. I collected all the useless and wasted utensils from
my house, brought them at the shop and started without investing huge capital.
What are the innovations that you
have come up with and how do you innovate?
I used to give innovations to
every dish at home which everybody used to like and that’s how we entered with
unique dishes such as Punjaabi Pasta,
Chatni Idli, Tandoori Paneer Tikka, Tadka Idli, Cream Cheese Pasta etc. I
am the only sardaar serving Idli
which has become a backbone of OYE PAPE. Currently, we are coming up with two
dishes every week which has uniqueness in taste and flavor. This is our new
venture which has started a month ago which has another variety of Punjabi
Dishes such as Chole Bhature, Chole Kulche, Paneer Sabji etc.
How the name came to your mind
which is a well-known Punjabi slang?
Since our start-up was basically
aimed at Punjabi Food, I thought of giving it a Punjabi name and suddenly OYE
PAPE struck my mind. The tagline for the same was decided as Khalis Punjabi Hath ka swaad because I am
Punjabi and was cooking the dishes.
What is one unique thing about
OYE PAPE?
Our unique thing is the Punjabi
touch we give to every dish which gives a new dimension to them. With that, all
my family members work as a team here and there is no outside workers. Also, we
still have 5-6 own handmade ingredients which we use in cooking.
Personally speaking, I don’t allow
my passion to decrease and try to spark it time and again so that our
uniqueness remains forever.
Give a message to budding
entrepreneurs?
Listen to the voice of your
heart. Wo ek moment ki baat hoti hai…….ek chote se second ki…….When you
determine yourself to do something big. There resides an internal power which
says leave everything and that moment
you start following your instincts. Don’t think about what others’ will say,
just become extraordinarily passionate about that and don’t fear of struggle
and challenges.
Give some time to everything you
do and don’t expect quick results. When you perform Pooja, it seems boring to you initially but as you devote much more
time you enjoy the same. Don’t underestimate any type of work.
Bhale hi cycle ke puncture banao……par dil se
banao. I am assuring you, you will be famous in that too. Stay grounded;
don’t overrate yourself at any point of time in life. If you think yourself of
a big man, you won’t be able to do small works and when you don’t do small
works, you can’t be a successful person.
