Dechcept Presents "Local Startup Stories" | Episode 12 | Ms. Pawani Khandelwal, Founder-Aatm Nirbhar

Hi everybody my name is Pavni Khandelwal and I am a social entrepreneur based out of my hometown in Madhra. My venture is called Aatnerpur and you would be surprised to know that we started Aatnerpur much before Modi Ji launched the Aatnerpur Bharat Pyaan. That's right. And what we do at Aatnerpur is extremely extremely simple. We teach women how to drive scooty through female trainers. So we are a scooty driving school for women and by women. We started from Madhra and since then we have expanded to seven cities that's Bharatpur, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ali Gurud and Lucknow. And we've trained over 55 hundred women in these cities and having employed around 150 women who all come from very marginal backgrounds. We've also started a nonprofit organization which is called Aatnerpur Women's Association which is building an ecosystem for women entrepreneurs. Our objective is to actually build an overall ecosystem when it comes to easy access to mobility for women and being able to venture into entrepreneurship. And my deep experience with these women in the last three years has helped me evolve as a thought leader in the field of entrepreneurship and mobility for women. My background is that I am a graduate. I am a bachelor's in business administration, BBA from Symbhaiya Srispune. I started or I should say I was the member of the founding team. I was the co-founder of fitness startup from the very first year of my college. By the end of my college I realized that I was not a lot of a fitness person and when the idea of Aatnerpur came into the picture because my mother wanted to learn how to ride a scooty. So when that idea came in from that because she always used to say that when I ride a scooter I feel like I am going to get stuck in my bunk. So it was a very. it was a thought that was very liberating as a woman and it was something that I wanted to do for every women. So when the thought came in I jumped right into it and I think the probability reason why I just didn't give my thought and jumped right into it is because in general when I think about it now entrepreneurship is not something that I have to put in a lot of effort into. It comes in very naturally that's probably because I come from a business family but it's always felt like entrepreneurship was the only career option that was ever made for me. And every day in your entrepreneurship journey is an eye can do moment. I can tell that for sure because at least that's true for me. Because entrepreneurship is a very rocky road like there are so many speed bumpers every day. There is not a single day where you can just be like today was a smooth day. So I think every day is an eye can do moment. Sometimes it's the small things. It's very small things that give you so much happiness, that give you so much joy and sometimes it's like really big challenges that make you very happy about you doing them. And when we talk about art network I would generally initially I was very confused about what to call it because in my head calling it a school driving school for women by women sounded very cliché and sound it sounded too you know like whatever. But I think over the period of time I've realized that you should keep it simple positioning up in the game. But the explanation of what you do is it should be simple. It should be something that should be very easily understandable to your customers number one and even to your other stakeholders which could be your investors which could be your employees. You don't really have to make it sound very fancy. We wanted to position it differently so that we could get you know a better pool of employees to work with us. But then you realize that ultimately you know the people who really believe in the actual you are the ones who are going to stick with you are the ones who are going to invest in you and be your stakeholders. So don't try to make it something very fancy stick with what you do keep it simple. I don't think that being an entrepreneur really impacts my life my life not not sure about everybody and not true for a lot of people that I know. But it doesn't really affect a lot of my personal life and probably the reason behind that is because everybody else in my family has always been an entrepreneur and people around me my friends are entrepreneurs. So we all kind of have a hang of each other's lifestyle and we don't have a lot of expectations in terms of time commitment but this does not hold true for other people. I guess I'm the blessed one when it comes to this particular balance and as a woman also at least until now it doesn't affect my life because I'm not married and all the other things and I want to keep it that way. Even after a particular moment in my life one of the core values that really drives artminer is making women self-reliant. Artminer is also self-reliant and everything that we do is based around the central idea that we are able to make even one woman self-reliant because of that let's do it. So I'll tell you an example we are planning a expanding pan India and while we were trying to figure out how to be really expand we wanted to go the franchisee model. Even though it was less profitable but the reason why we wanted to do it because when we're going the franchisee route we'll actually be able to create more women entrepreneurs on the way. Meaning we'll be able to make more women self-reliant via entrepreneurship and that's when I was like you know this is what we need to do. So yeah self-reliance making women self-reliance is something that lies at the core of every decision that we make. My bonding with the team has been an ever evolving sort of topic. It did not start very well to be honest. One of the reasons that it did not start on the right foot was because everybody in my team like I said are women from marginal families and there was a certain gap that we all felt was there which kind of stopped them from sharing. A lot of things with me being honest with me but over a period of time we've cultivated a culture of infusivity. We've cultivated a culture wherein they respect me I respect them. They trust me and I trust them. So it's a very you know give and take relationship like it's not a one way relationship at all. It's a two way relationship of trust, of honesty, of mutual respect. And it keeps getting better every day but it is not always it was not always this way and even today we have times when it gets a little rocky but it's always about coming back and restoring that relationship. Just like you would in any other relationship. It's the same with your employees. Your employees are your extended family to be honest. The entire idea of art is very involved because my mother wanted to learn how to write a school like I said. And when she used to say that I'm a scutie she would get my tongue. So I thought I should give to every woman in my head and never really thought that writing a scutie could be a real challenge. I thought this is a very natural thing. This is a cycle of scuties. So it's a very easy thing. So that is when I realized when we started doing market research that no you know it's it's not such a easy thing and most women do not know how to write a bicycle and they need professional training in writing scuties. And that's when we started with what we do currently. My entrepreneurial hack is that I always create a true list before I sleep. So I before I sleep I always know what is it that I have to do next morning or those true list. I kind of divide my task into two parts. One of the tasks are the tasks that are logistical and operational in nature that often take up a lot of your time and your mind space. So I always try to complete those like by 11 a short 12 wish or before lunch. So that I have complete mind space for the rest of the things that are planned out for the day which could be related to decision making or you know other other things are not operational or just call in nature and that can actually help you grow. So this is what I do. Another thing that I do is that I often sit with my team. So I have a separate office but I like to sit for at least a couple of hours with all my other employees and be at their desk and sit mom. So when they're at their desk and they're working even if there's something that I realize this is not right. I tend to keep quiet at that moment and I often give them feedback later on constructively. And one more thing that I do is that I always I'm very quick to figure out what I'm good at and what I'm not good at. For all the things that I am not good at, I always try to get somebody who is good at. I always try to get somebody who is good at. source. So I don't try to spend a lot of time trying to learn it and then you know figure it out and do it. I try and outsource it if I can. I want people to remember us as the company that bought dreams of millions of common Indian women. Women like your mother, my mother, our sisters, bhabis, you know common common Indian women. Probably who are making lunch or dinner right now as we watch this video transform their lives. That is what we want our neighbor to be remembered as make them our neighbor that's it. That's that's all we want to do. And for all the entrepreneurs who are watching this a couple of things that I would definitely tell you not to do is number one, don't hire people you're not convinced about. There will be a lot of people where you will think you know I'm not sure if I should hire this person or I should not have this person. You're skeptical. You're hard to sing something else and you're mind is sing something else whenever it comes to people listen to your heart. Interval as many people as you can so that you have a lot of choice but always listen to your gut and never ever pay for PR. That's it guys. Thank you for listening and watching. Have a great day.