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Ally Matthan, the Founder of Areev, a brand of naturally derived Indian personal care products shares her day as an entrepreneur with us.
In this edition of Day In The Life Of An Entrepreneur, Ally Matthan, the Founder of Areev, a brand of naturally derived Indian personal care products shares her day with us.
Besides Areev, Ally Matthan also runs an eponymous brand that works in the area of fragrance creation.
She started with a home-kitchen experiment in 2006 that has organically grown into a business that encompasses two different retail lines, spa and hotel supplies and bespoke fragrance creation.
I am inspired by Mother Teresa’s famous quote on life, particularly the lines “Life is a dream, realize it.” My day begins at 5:30 am with some happy and peaceful music. I look forward to these first twenty minutes alone as it sets the tone for the day.
At 6:00 am, it’s the happy bustle of feeding my son a large healthy breakfast and getting him onto the school bus by 7:00 a.m. From here I head for an hour and a half of cardio that basically energizes me. I’m out of the house by 9:00 am. I’m working on starting the day earlier, so I can squeeze time in to write down goals and gratitude lists every day.
Upto here my day is pretty much routine – so I try to plan ahead for the whole week – my exercise routine, our meals and our wardrobes. This way its just execution till the next Sunday comes along.
My first hour at work is also pretty routine – it’s usually devoted to spending time with the team on our production, marketing, inventory and sales schedule for the week. This is crucial as delegation is the first step in teamwork.
The rest of the day is meant to be spent either creatively or meeting people but is usually spent trying to meet the unexpected yet exciting challenges that running a business brings with it everyday. I find that the calmness of the morning helps manage the stress of the day. Keeping lists for every task comes in handy at this point and reinforces focus.
I am lucky to work with wonderful people who bring great ethics and motivation to the work place, so I can honestly say that I really look forward to being at work everyday. We are a young team that is constantly learning hands-on and the ideas, innovations and people – relationships never cease to amaze me. I think it’s important to be surrounded by positive and talented people, especially in entrepreneurship.
The biggest gift that entrepreneurship gives me is the fantastic opportunities that come our way to create, execute and deliver products within the realm of our world. We meet exciting people everyday, pushing boundaries and challenging us to do things in ways we have never done before, at things we have never done before. For every person who has asked us “Why?”, we have been able to answer the “Why not?”
We are currently struggling with the economies of scaling and entrepreneurship has also taught me the biggest life lesson I know: faith. When you harbor absolute clarity on the outcome, every obstacle just becomes one more boost that helps you keep going while you learn from it.
To keep things efficient at work, I try and answer emails and phone calls on the commute. I’m out of the office by 3:30 pm latest, sometimes earlier, to pick up my son from the bus stop and do his evening activities with him. I usually get in another hour and a half of exercise while he’s at play.
Our dinners are early as is my bedtime – I sometimes wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day and I can’t wait for the next morning!
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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