Sibling Entrepreneurs
August 3, 2020
The transition from brother and sister to business partners comes with its own advantages and challenges. I spoke to three such women about the experience of having their brother as a business partner.
Amrita Birmi Taamhaane
Partner, Birmies Hospitalty LLP
I joined my family’s restaurant business in 2013 when we started Outdoor Caterings with a focus on Corporate and Institutional Catering Operations. We catered to various prestigious events in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. Now, we do on-site catering for big events – weddings, birthday, pre-weddings, corporate, and so forth. As the catering vertical of our restaurant business expanded, we built a Central Kitchen to support all business verticals.
Vedant joined Birmies in 2016 and that was when we entered into Franchising. Our First Franchisee Restaurant at Sindhu Bhavan Road was launched in 207. We Birmies has a presence at prime areas from its flagship at Panjrapole crossroad to the restaurants at Sindhubhavan Road and Science city Road, a delivery/takeaway at Mithakhali.
The best part of working with your brother is that we come from the same value system. We might be different in our approaches towards work, but the common goal remains the same. When it comes to Loyalty and Support, I know that I can trust him 200%. We compete with each other and, at the same time support each other to give our best on the work fronts.
Dividing our roles and responsibilities helps overcome the challenges of working together. I take care of the outdoor catering and central kitchen, and Vedant takes care of Franchising.
My brother Vedant is amazing with numbers – he is a Dreamer and Impulsive. I, on the other hand, get into the nitty-gritty details. This combination helps us to get across the best of every opportunity we come across.
We share this collective dream of creating a legacy in the Food industry. Birmies is a one-of-its-kind “Comfort Food” Restaurant with a strategically growing strong Franchise System. We offer the best of food with freshest of ingredients and home-like warmth. We intend to strategically expand our business portfolio to allied sectors, Outdoor Caterings and Franchising. We have been very cautious in our approach towards expansion through the franchising model. Our selective approach has been a win-win situation for all stakeholders.
Shalini Goplani
Founder of Bhagwati Cooking Classes
When someone asks you “Who is your biggest role model and why” ordinary people mention their parents or a figurehead, they don’t typically say their sibling. For me though, my brother has been my biggest role model. Narendra Somani has supported me, cheered me on, given me mostly unbiased advice, and been there for me my entire life.
He has shown me that having a robust personality and showing it will take you a long way. He taught me that being unique is a good thing, and if someone can’t see that, they aren’t worth the time or effort. Growing up with him, I was taught how to work relentlessly, a skill we both and all our siblings still incorporate in our daily lives.
While watching his hospitality industry journey, I was consistently thrilled and told myself that I would create my own business. Now I have achieved that goal, and I know he is very proud of me for doing it.
My brother is two-and-a-half years older than me, so we’ve always had that typical big brother/sister relationship. We rarely fought the way siblings do. We were, and still are, best friends.
Having a brother as a motivator helped me start my cookery school, push myself to be independent and become more confident. He has been there for me throughout my journey. I don’t take any big decisions without talking to him first because his opinion matters so much. After steering me in the right direction for my entire life, I can easily trust his judgment. Why not listen to him when he’s almost always right anyway?
Every single morning grateful for the fact that I have such a great role model/support system/friend/brother all wrapped into one. I will never be able to thank him, my parents, and my Family enough for pushing me to follow every one of my dreams, no matter how big and scary they may seem.
I love all my brothers Hemant, Devanand, and Narendra for being my pillars of support all my life. I know my three sisters Bhagwati, Savitri, and Meena feel the same about them.
3. Apeksha K. Vora,
Owner, OLD SCHOOL Restaurant – Ahmedabad
Both my brothers Nirav Mankad and Nihar Mankad knew my potential and convinced me to take this big opportunity of starting Old School Restaurant in Ahmedabad, following their success in Vadodara.
The advantage of working with brothers is that the trust level is exponential, and the challenge is that they have set up a benchmark to the topmost level, and I have to supersede their expectations.
With God’s grace, every individual in our team has essential and unique characteristics, where one has thorough expertise on catering management, the other brother has command in financial management where review and cost-cutting measures are analyzed. Strategies can be moulded to optimize benefits and I think my expertise is to manage the kitchen and the dine-in area, public relations, customer satisfaction, and HR policies. The future plan is to expand Restaurants not only in Ahmedabad but to spread the authentic taste that Old School is known for in Vadodara and Ahmedabad to food lovers around the World.
About Author
Ankita J Sharma studied journalism at NIMCJ and Integrated marketing communication at MICA, Ahmedabad. She works as a Social media coordinator and content creator for brands. Her food Instagram handle is @teekhidalmakhani.
