Woman Entrepreneur: Anurita Ghoshal | Patisserie Chef

She’s donned many hats, boldly changed jobs and never shield from experimenting or taking risks. From a client servicing executive in a leading advertising agency, to setting up a recruitment agency ‘Catalyst’ as a Partner. To fulfilling the demands of motherhood and pursing studies to “convert my passion into a skill”, Anurita has whipped up verve and zeal into everything she brought to the table, quite literally! As a qualified Le Cordon Bleu Paris patisserie chef, a cap that fits her best, she has gone way beyond baking “brownies for friends.”Mumbai-based Patisserie Chef Anurita Ghoshal’s says: “We’re driven to earn money because it provides us with a sense of well being, security and the promise of a secure future. I think that’s really the critical driver of money. I’m driven to make money because I do want to have a very easy, happy and secure future for myself and my child. It’s a means to an end for me.” Money has been a ‘means to an end’ for Anuritto be financially empowered; to pursue her passions and secure a life that’s seen highs and lows in equal measure.

A successful entrepreneur, she has deftly managed two careers simultaneously because, “if you are passionate about something you find time for it”, while abiding by her “ very middle-class values” to ‘work hard, enjoy the fruits of labour, be financially independent and save for a rainy day’. And she’s managed all this with the help and support of her husband, whose risk-taking qualities “rubbed off on me. Together we’ve done okay.So it is fine.” This is not to assume that things happened as easily as with the wave of a magic wand! There were challenges galore, especially financial ones, beginning with quitting a decade-old full-time salaried advertising job to taking a year off to nurture her baby, battling frustration, joining friends to run the recruitment agency ‘Catalyst’, and then finally setting up her own little confectionary ‘Eighth’ to emerge as the entrepreneur she was always meant to be!

It’s challenging when you leave a secure job. It was hard for me to quit the advertising industry. It had become a significant part of me.

That one year at home I was so frustrated, joined yoga but nothing calmed me. I’ve always been used to my financial independence. Even as a 16 year-old, I never took money from my mother, preferring to earn my own. I could have asked my husband but I did not. I’m someone who is not happy to ask for money, but I also need to have an agenda, a plan for making my own money. Though I had a decent amount of savings, I was restless. Nurturing a two-year old baby was also important.”“I missed the people, the interactions and intelligent conversations,” she says. However, this loss was somewhat compensated when friends invited her to “join Catalyst” as head-hunter.

“The security of a salary vis-à-vis the transition to business can be difficult at first. You need to have stability, patience and a strong stomach to sit out the waiting period before the financial balance finds itself,”

she says. But “Working for recruitment, gave me something I am very grateful about—flexibility. I don’t think I can ever do a full-time job again. As a mother I wanted to be with my daughter. I would not trade that with anything. Clear that she “wanted to study past formally,” for her international degree Anurita enrolled at the “best patisserie institute in Paris” because “Paris is inspiring, has fantastic chefs and great past all around,” but is also very expensive!

“I am very conscious about money. It plays a significant role because I’ve always had to work hard for it. I lost my father early so the importance of money was always there.

This was a very important aspect of my life, so I went to Paris and spent over `20 lakh on one module. I returned as I did not have another `20 lakh for the second module. But I wanted to invest my remaining savings into something and also convert my art into money. Never a homemaker, I was not going to bake from home…so I needed to invest in a separate space and infrastructure. It just started from panic ‘let’s make money’ and one thing led to another.” Justifiably happy,she says she achieved this with “my own savings. In two years ‘Eighth’ was paying for itself, it covered my costs and le¬ me some money to put aside. I wanted to go back to Paris and needed `50 lakh to study some more, travel and intern at a Michelin restaurant in Spain. Now ‘Eighth’ pays salaries and is growing at a consistent pace.We never wanted to take a business loan. We’ve done well without the stress of financial loans. I am not averse to taking loans for Eighth, but I wanted to generate my own money and build it myself, though people told me ‘it is stupid to run business this way,” she adds. Regarding Eighth,

“I don’t want to put my own money any longer. I have done enough in the last four years. Now I need an investor to come in, or I’ll need some courage to take a loan,”

she says, admitting that she is “not aware of the different kinds of loans, financial institutions and what they offer. But for me, it would be the ease of accessing the loan. Sometimes people make it so difficult to get loans. That process and excessive paperwork puts me off. I’d choose a product on the basis of who can make the process easy for me and explain the financial jargon in a way I can understand. I’ll also look at how easy it is to repay the loan, the interest rates, the stability, growth and reputation of the institution”. Call it my advertising hangover, but I’d go with an established international bank rather than a small bank around the corner.”Though Anurita and her husband may come across as ‘risk-junkies’, changing jobs frequently and even sitting it out for an opportune moment to strike out on their own”. couple are careful about savings, insurance and investments which are jointly planned and implemented.Savings are about “mutual funds, SIPs and life insurance. I don’t have an education fund put aside for my daughter, but we’re saving in a thought-through way to be able to use that money for her education and future. There are no pension plans but utilizing spare funds or reinvesting in property, especially in Mumbai, seems good but my husband is absolutely against property investment.”We research before we invest. For guidance we turn to friends and our banks we have grown to trust over the years. Le¬ to me, I would only have fixed deposits. If I had extra money, I’d put it in fixed. I did that for a very long time until I realized, we are growing old and need to grow our money. Growing money happens when you invest in the market. I don’t study money or stocks or markets, I leave it to my husband. I trust him and his choices. All the decisions are led by him, not me.”Insurance is important, especially vehicle and health insurance for all family members. “I am aware the role investment plays in insurance and whenever possible I will insure the business also. Baking in any commercial kitchen comes with its own hazards…it is important to insure the business and the people who work for me.”Fortunate to have been able to ‘monetize’ her ‘alternate passions’, Anurita says “some things you don’t do for money and that’s important. Some things you do because it makes you feel happy. As a practicing Buddhist, I chant and pray with people, it makes me very happy. It doesn’t translate into money; I never want that. So, some things you do for joy and something you do for money. But you always do things that you want to do. That’s important.”

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• Initiating mutual fund or SIPs can help you build a significant corpus for a secured future.
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• Setting up an educational fund for your child that will help parents to fund for child’s higher educational needs.

The information contained herein is generic in nature and is meant for educational purposes only. Nothing here is to be construed as an investment or financial or taxation advice nor to be considered as an invitation or solicitation or advertisement for any financial product. Readers are advised to exercise discretion and should seek independent professional advice prior to making any investment decision in relation to any financial product. Aditya Birla Capital Group is not liable for any decision arising out of the use of this information.