I Vikas Panjabi, was always going to be an Enterpreneur. Even at primary schools the signs were there, “I use to organize garage sales to raise money for appeals”. I was good at selling from childhood days. It does not run in the family.
As a child, I have always enjoyed coming up with new ideas, but it can be a curse. Most places I go a restaurant, shop, airport whatever my head’s busy thinking of ways to improve things.
I set up my first venture at 16. “I was ahead of the game,” “I was buying old mobile phones and selling them to recyclers. I wasn’t making vast amounts but it was a profitable business model. Loads of businesses are doing it now. Perhaps I should have stuck at it…”
At University I considered a career in IT, but was never totally committed. “I ended up reading ancient history at uni, which I enjoyed, but I knew I wanted to run my own business.
In 2007, I moved back to India from Australia to be with my family and came with a concept of The Chocolate Room. It was a unique concept because no one knew in particular what a hot chocolate was all about everyone used to consider hot chocolate as another bournvita or drinking chocolate blended with milk and served as a hot chocolate. And across India there was a coffee culture spread across. So when I thought of getting The Chocolate Room to India I got all the negative vibes as no one was expecting a chocolate café to do business in India as everyone thought that café means a coffee place, but going against all odds and listening to what my heart said I launched the chocolate room in 2007 October in Ahmedabad and launched an era to create a new chocolate culture in India, And to our liking the chocolate room somehow hit a chord with the customers and our confidence boosted and after one year we started our franchising operations across Pan India and in 12 years we have set up 351 cafes across India and presence in 9 countries.
We have set targets and goals for our brand such as : We would want to have 500 plus stores of the chocolate room by end of 2022.
I would also like to set up my own charity. “Many charities could be run much better. Some day, I’d like to use my money, creativity and know-how to do good things in the community.”
How much is the young businessman driven by money? “I’d be earning much more now if I had become a IT Consultant, “Obviously, I want to make money, but it’s not everything. I like the freedom and satisfaction you get from working for yourself… deciding your own destiny. I couldn’t work for someone else now, however good the money was.”
I admit that I still make the classic mistake of working within my businesses, rather than on them (“However minor a customer enquiry or complaint, I can’t rest until it’s sorted out”). I can’t recall any low points in business so far, while I bluntly cant talk about high points.
“At 40, I’ve only just started. OK, perhaps there aren’t many people my age with two successful businesses to their name and one just recently launched – certainly where I come from – but I’m excited about the future, not the past.
“Who knows what I’ll be doing next year, let alone five or even ten years down the line. I’m forever learning. I might not achieve my ambitions with the businesses I’m running now, but at least when I come up with the idea, I’ll have the knowledge and experience to make it into a really successful business,”