This week we spoke to another passionate social entrepreneur Divej Mehta to understand more about his startup, his vision and his entrepreneurial journey so far. But first, more about Divej – He is the Founder of Tergus Works Pvt Ltd which aims at training & rehabilitating the labouring inmates in hope to facilitate a second chance for them so they can dream to live their lives with dignity in future. Let’s read more!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Divej:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;
I am a 27-year-old Social Entrepreneur (Mumbai, India) with an MBA in Marketing from Singapore trying to sell premium leather Kolhapuris. My objective is working towards rehabilitating life imprisoned Inmates in Indian Prisons by developing leather footwear manufacturing skills, offering them a permanent job post-release to ensure their economic stability and infusing in them the dignity of labour to ensure their success in the afterlife. Hence, the name of the venture: ‘Inmate’
It started in the year 2017 when Tergus Works Pvt. Ltd. took up the initiative to rehabilitate the Inmates of Central Prisons in India and within 3 years we have empowered more than 250 inmates in 2 locations,
Pune- Yerwada Central Prison and
Chennai- Puzhal Central Prison.
Byinmate.com is an innovative outcome of a group project converted into a business model which justifies a win-win for all the parties involved. The customer feeling proud of their purchase, the Inmate being able to restructure life and becoming a provider again with the wage earned and the Government to meaningfully engage the prisoners while serving their sentences.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
While pursuing my MBA in Singapore, I came across the concept of Inmates in India working inside prisons in various industries, producing multiple types of products that included furniture, incense sticks, pickle, footwear, metals and much more. It struck me at that moment and raised questions in my mind, what if a private company with over 4 decades of experience in a particular industry got them to work. It solves a lot of problems on paper. Labour-related issues, cost-related issues, ever-increasing overheads and much more.
At that time, I was offered jobs from two companies in Singapore with good packages and amazing opportunities for the future, but there was something about this concept that appealed to me.
As a consumer when you pay a premium for any product, there has to be some X factor to it right?! There are variants of every commodity in the market but, why do we prefer to stick to some specific brands? It’s due to an X factor.
When I buy something at a premium, it’s either the brand story or something I can always relate the product with. I couldn’t have a better opportunity than “Byinmate” to tell the story of an inmate and their skill of making high-quality leather slippers* and that’s when I decided to undertake this project and came back to India to pursue this dream.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
I interact with the inmates of the prisons regularly, it’s astounding to see the kind of dedication and hard work they put into learning the skill and crafting every leather Kolhapuri with so much perfection. I keep wondering what’s their motivation behind working with so much dedication in a prison. I get a lot of positive energy and motivation from each inmate who works towards his story put out in the form of byinmate.com
The life of an early age entrepreneur today, comes with a lot of challenges and disappointments, especially when the nature of your work is linked with the government on many levels. From getting approvals to making sure everything on the brand end is covered and making sure the customers are happy, it is a continuous process that you build on each and every day. It’s learning new things each day, forgetting each day and rewriting strategies and plans every moment, that the idea of being able to adapt to change constantly is what makes things even more interesting, and I believe that gives me a chance to grow as an individual also each day, so I think I look forward to the challenges that are thrown at me, and solving the problems and getting out stronger is what keeps me motivated most times.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Being an innovator, a social entrepreneur, a businessman and now all three combined comes with a lot of challenges and responsibilities alike.
Initially, it was about trying different ways and strategies to penetrate into the Prison Systems of India which came with a few challenges of how to approach the right person, how to get into contracts that allowed us long term sustainability and economic viability and so on.
The next phase came with the challenge of how to work alongside life convicted prisoners with a criminal background, the challenge of convincing them to work with us and gaining their trust was one of the most critical aspects for my idea to work and hands down it has been one of the most beautiful conquests that I’ve been able to conquer with patience and perseverance.
Further, we launched *byinmate.com, an all-leather Footwear brand, which offers high quality, handcrafted, traditionally modern Kolhapuris.* We did a lot of research on being able to find the gap and how we were going to fill the gap, being able to fit into the market place with the right mix of product quality and price was very important and I believe that the more importance is given to details, the better will be the outcome. Someone rightly said God is in the details.
Today we face the challenge of expansions, we have entered a new prison in a new state and we have continued to answer many questions by doing the things we do best.
I think any successful entrepreneurial journey is best defined by the number of problems that were solved along the way with the utmost respect for the problem and being able to foresee the upcoming challenges and being ready for it.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I strongly believe that money is important, but not as important as one’s integrity and principles. To be able to feed 300 plus families that work with us directly and over 1,500 that work indirectly it is important to make money and grow constantly, but that’s business. If you were to ask me personally, I regard relationship with my suppliers, workers, staff and business associates much more than money.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Every individual has his or her own way of dealing with stress or anxiety that arises due to pressure, but if I were to generalise a process, then the best way would stop and think for a moment. Take some time out for yourself, me-time as most millennials would call it. To some, it is about listening to music, for some maybe reading books and for some hanging out with friends.
I for one, love going out for a run or hitting the gym and for me, it is my me time, I even cook for myself sometimes that helps me deal with rough days at work.
It is very important to be clear in your head while making decisions. Categorise your pressures on levels and give it only as much importance as it deserves and ready yourself to move on because you will make mistakes, it’s only human but moving on quickly and getting back to being effective will define the outcome of your success.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
Being able to adapt to situations and making decisions based on my instincts has been my strength. I think it is important to listen to your inner voice and trust your instincts, and 8 times out of 10 you’d be right. I realised along the way that you yourself will be the best Consultant you can get because no one will understand your situation better than you and the best thing about that is it comes at zero cost.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Reaching a set target is important but more much more vital is enjoying the journey of getting there. Being successful is a process that requires dedication, focus, hustle, financial planning, strategic planning, analysis of the market and competitive, forgiving yourself, trusting your instincts but most of all taking care of your work family.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Trusting in your struggle is optimal. It is important for every young entrepreneur out there to be focused on their goal, keeping track of short term targets and focusing on achieving them is a good way to keep the consistency going. Keeping finances in check and working on taking time weekly to analyse MIS will help in understanding where you stand and what you need to do next in order to stay on track. It is also important to take calculative risks whenever an opportunity presents itself and the best way to know the opportunity is to work on being aware. Awareness will come with time, the time that you must allot to yourself for self-reflecting.
Finally, I would say, if you ever reach a rock bottom and don’t know what to do even after trying everything, isolate yourself, because your elevation requires isolation and you will eventually find a way out if you believe in yourself.
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