"Be An Entrepreneur To Live Your Dream, Not To Become Rich Fast And Easy" : Prithika

Pritika Chatterjee, Co-Founder and CEO of Tidy Homz an e-commerce company, a young lady who took a bold step to move out of her comfort zone and started something entirely different talks to Sonali Karande Brahma about how her life changed completely when she took a decision to start something on her own.

“I have been born and brought up in Aurangabad in Maharashtra and despite it being a small city, I’ve been very lucky to get the best of everything thanks to my parents and family. After Class 12, I went to the UK for my undergrad degree in Accounting and Finance. Later, I moved to Singapore to work for a big audit firm called Moore Stephens where I worked for 2 years as a tax consultant. During my time in Singapore, I also started and finished my Chartered Accountant degree from ISCA (Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants). 

I was just 23 when I started Tidy Homz, back home.

Tidy Homz is based on the concept of utility and we design and create products which are not easily available in the market. In fact, I discovered that I myself needed certain things and could not find them after searching for them high and low. That’s when I decided to step into the market and started manufacturing.

Our parent company being a big export house- it was easy for us to manufacture. Ours is a B2C business and we were very sure that we did not want to get into a marketplace kind of selling and so we set up our own e-commerce platform.

This way, we got a clear edge over the others in the price we offered and a greater control on the quality and deliveries that met with the customer’s expectations completely.

Being from a business family, entrepreneurship came easily to me and I have a great Co-founder to support and help in taking this journey forward.

Meeting the clients and answering “difficult questions” and also the stares

When I started working on Tidy Homz, I was 23 and all communications over email/phone always went well. But as soon as I had a meeting with someone face to face, the first question would be, are you sure this is your business? Are we speaking to the right person? (You are sooo young!) Do we have to speak to your dad instead of you? It made me laugh and cry at the same time. It was kind of hard and funny at the same time seeing how everyone thought I was still a college student and how everyone probably wondered if I could handle a business (!)

And other set of challenges

Then there were the challenges like the shift from an office environment in Singapore to a manufacturing setup/factory in Aurangabad. It was hard for me to adjust and also for the people around me to accept me as their boss or someone they have to listen to.

They were not used to taking orders from anyone except my dad and now they had to listen to me. It took some time to get them used to it, to let them know that I can be good at what I am doing and make them believe in the concept of E Commerce and Tidy Homz. Aurangabad is a very small city and we are the first E Commerce company from here so people are still taking time to get used to new things.

An entrepreneur cannot say that I will only stick to Plan A and make it work. In most cases, Plan A may not work and hence you need to have a backup plan ready. Doing good business is about taking risks and deciding what works for you and what doesn’t. Sometimes a plan looks great on paper, but just won’t work for you and sometimes an unexpected decision might hit it! So, we are trying to do new things, innovative things and taking our journey forward.

At Tidy Homz, we have adopted 2 girls whose education will be sponsored for the next 5 years and we hope to increase this number year on year.

I have been so lucky to always get more than I have asked for and I want to give back at every chance I get.

I feel women can achieve a lot only if we think ourselves as equal.

My success mantra 

Being successful does not always mean being happy but if you are happy with your work and doing what you love, you are going to make it big and be successful. Entrepreneurship is not easy. It’s about believing in your idea and following it.

Before you go out there and convince someone to buy your product or service, you need to be sure of what you are doing. Making easy and fast money is not what entrepreneurship is about. It is about turning your dreams into reality, making a difference and helping the society grow.