5 Lessons from 2015 Women Entrepreneur Winner

BENGALURU, India - June 15, 2015 - PRLog -- It’s around 6.30 PM and there is a crowd gathering in the KASSIA (Karnataka State Small Scale Industries Association HQ in Bangalore). Unlike any other meeting, this is an event to recognize the Women entrepreneur of the year for the state. The winner is announced and in walks an elegant lady clad in blue saree, soon the dignitaries on the stage gather around her and present her the award. It’s a great evening where a few other women are recognized for their contributions.

The elegant lady we are talking about is Mrs. Mamata Vishwanath Ladwa, the winner of the 2015 Women Entrepreneur Award.  When 22 years ago in India entrepreneurism was not even a word, she started her company and proved to the world that with a strong will, everything is possible.

Mrs. Ladwa started a business producing distilled water for batteries. She went on to be one of the largest suppliers of distilled water for Karnataka telecom department. She diversified into mineral oxides. The color oxide flooring products are sold all over south India today. She also gives back to the community through Ladwa Foundation initiatives.

Here are 5 lessons from her achievements for every entrepreneur.

1.    Start Now

Everyone is an armchair entrepreneur, everyone has an idea. Most of the ideas never see the day of light because the ideator never works on his/her idea. Mrs. Ladwa started soon, did not wait for right circumstances, right financial conditions etc. “There is never a right time” she says, the “Right time is NOW!”. With two young children and less than a few hundred dollars in her pocket and support from her husband Mr. Vishwanath Ladwa she started S&S distilled water. One thing led to another and she is now one of south india’s largest manufacturer of flooring oxides.

Key Lesson “Start Now, the good time is Now!”

2.    Persistence

The saying goes, an overnight success took 10 years to make! Mrs. Ladwa says, “Dogged Persistence is the key to success”. There was fierce competition in her marketplace, the market was a bargain hunting market and too many fly by the night operators emerged once the business model was established. “Produce the highest quality of product, offer it at a modest price, and establish a strong follow up and feedback mechanism with customers and channel partners” she says.

Key Lesson “Persistence pays long term”

3.    Financial Acumen

“Many entrepreneur’s fail not because they do not have a great idea or product, they fail because they do not understand the basics of finances”, she says. The math is very simple; there is income and expense. If your income is more than your expenses for the month you are profitable, if not you are under.  Many entrepreneur’s just fail to keep an eye on finances. “Review your finances every week, make adjustments to expenses, be frugal if your income is not keeping up”, Mrs. Ladwa says.  She built the business over the years with limited external funding. Loans were to procure assets that grew in value over time.

Key Lesson “Be positive on your income to expense ratio – always”

4.    Learn from Failures

“I treat failures as a lesson with a key learning, my knowledge is a sum of all the lessons from failures over the years”, she says. Mrs. Ladwa started producing distilled water for truck batteries, slowly grew the business to become the largest supplier of distilled water to state telecom (telecom exchanges run on batteries). She sold the business and diversified into mineral oxides for flooring and for use in primers. “There were setbacks every where” she says, “In the truck batteries distilled water business, the invoice payments were delayed all the time. There were times when we could not make ends meet, it forced us to look for new markets and we found telecom”. Most of the time a new opportunity comes in the form of a failure. Learn from it and it can open new doors.

Key Lesson “New opportunities come disguised as failures”

5.    Give Back

“The real power of wealth is in giving back” she says, Mrs. Ladwa and her husband started a free yoga center, making yoga and wellness available to anyone that desired to learn about it. They also started Ladwa Foundation; through the foundation they offer books and slates to underprivileged schools.  Work closely with Rotary club on conducting eye camps for the elderly.

Twenty-two years ago India was a very different place; there was very little place for an entrepreneur. Mrs. Mamata Ladwa showed us that if 22 years ago she with her husband could start on an entrepreneurial journey, wrestle with limited resources, finances, and opportunities, build a long-term sustained value company. There is nothing preventing someone with an idea to succeed today.

Her closing thoughts “I thank KASSIA for recognizing me with the Women Entrepreneur Award, I hope it serves as motivation to all the women and men out there to start something, be successful and give back to the community”.

We thank Mrs. Mamata Ladwa for taking time to chat with us and share an inspiring story. Start Now!