This story is part of our 1,000+ Stories campaign. What’s your story?
Name: Monisha Sudakar
Business: Pastry Maniaa
Location: Chennai, India
Industry: Food & Beverage
Reason for starting? The story behind the starting of Pastry Maniaa was to bring out my passion for baking and to do something which I love and it turned into my career. Baking has been my passion since childhood. I wasn’t a 9-5 job kind of person and wanted to do something on my own and in simple words, I wanted to be the boss!
I was doing my second year of college when I started Pastry Maniaa. At the time I was an arts student and had a lot of free time which I wasn’t utilizing, so the idea of starting a home-based bakery came up as I had already learnt baking professionally. Being in my early 20’s I loved the word, “independent,” so if starting up a business would make me independent and also let me do what I love, it was another reason to start. I will always be happy about the first step I took towards establishing myself as an entrepreneur and to follow my dreams.
Related: Read about another Food & Beverage entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? Success to me is very simple, having a set of goals can be success but achieving goals is success. “Failure is the stepping stone to success,” is a common proverb but that doesn’t work with everyone. Success might hit you at your very first attempt and the way you carry it with you is what makes you a successful person.
Biggest success: To date my biggest success would be winning an award from Zomato for the best home baker 2015. That day I realized I have a long way to go and this success was a starting step. The award was based on votes from the public, so I took home the victory with the help of my friends, customers and well wishers. My venture was just 10 months old when I won the award.
What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? The top challenge that I experienced would be to establish a name in the market and to gain the stability after starting up. Being a startup and gaining customers was a challenge. The next challenge is to make them repeat customers. Social media like Facebook, Instagram and friends were my catalyst in overcoming this challenge.
Related: TSE Quick Take: Enterprising Artists Get a ‘Fair’ Shot
Who is your most important role model? All of us have a role model in our life. Mine is not one but many, because I have admired and wanted to follow quite a few individuals to make myself a better person. One of these people would be my French teacher Mrs Gayatri, she is an amazing person and I have never met someone like her with so much determination in life to follow their dreams. She brings that positive vibe when we’re around her and the way she motivates us makes us feel we are half way to reaching the goal or target. Fathers are always superheroes for any daughter; being a daddy’s gal always made me admire my dad in what he did. He was a simple hardworking person with so much of patience and always told us to do what you like, but do it to your best ability.
[box_light]Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pastrymaniaa
Instagram http://instagram.com/pastrymaniaa[/box_light]
Tell us your story!
Read about another entrepreneur here.
Edited by The Story Exchange