WHILE MOST OF THE YOUTH AT HER AGE WERE STILL UNDECIDED AS WHAT TO DO NEXT, 23-YEAR-OLD NIDHI GUPTA ALONG WITH HER BROTHER HAS SUCCESSFULLY BUILT A BUSINESS EMPIRE OF RS 500 CRORE. THE MOST INTERESTING THING HERE IS, NIDHI BELONGS TO A MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILY AND HAVING NO BUSINESS BACKGROUND.
Coming from a middle-class background Nidhi has faced a lot of hardships and trials before she successfully made her path into business. After working for solar power industry she has learned it the hard way that when cash starts flowing you tend to lose a lot of people.
Along with her brother she built Rays Power Experts in 2011 with a start-up capital of Rs. 1,37,000. They started with a project of 250 kilowatts solar project in Bikaner on four bighas of land. Later they started buying land around the site.
Explaining her business Nidhi said her clients are usually small to a medium businessman who want to invest in the solar project in order to save income tax or earn tax benefits. If there are 10 investors for a project, Red Power buys land on their behalf and distributes land equally among them. “If a client invests in a project of, let’s say, 1 megawatt worth Rs 6 crore, he will earn his investment back in four years. We also guarantee the client earnings from electricity generation for the next 25 years. So that’s all profit and of course, he gets 100 per cent tax benefit.”
This business isn’t very common even though it is financially very beneficial, the reason being the difficulty of getting approval from the government for which there is a separate department that Nidhi has for it.
The cherry on the cake is the new advent by the Prime Minister for setting up new solar plants in Gujrat giving a boost to solar industry has Nidhi’s hopes flying high.
Describing how drastically her social life has changed after success, as her friends began to back bite and whenever they were together they would consider Nidhi as ‘arrogant’ for attending business calls. People close to her started feeling jealous of her career and this was distinctly visible by their actions. But this didn’t cause any difference to Nidhi as she feels that she is the same person she was before she was successful.
Even though she came from a middle-class background her parents never stopped her from following her dreams and gave her the full charge of doing what she wants with her life. However, nothing is guaranteed in Nidhis job but she says “Most businesswomen are working either in their father’s or husband’s business. Everything is given to them ready-made.”
Her day starts early morning and there is a never-ending cycle of it throughout the day. There are business commitments she has to attend, go to the work site, project management and at the end of the day she works out to keep herself fit, then again she gets back working on email correspondence till 1 is in the night and that is how jam-packed her daily schedule is.
Everything is possible. If you have passion and motivation you can do anything on this planet.”
Her business growth follows a strict regime and she makes sure it keeps on growing before they reach their next financial year.
Nidhi said “In 2011-12 our turnover was Rs 2 crore, it went up to Rs 70 crore in 2013. This year our turnover is Rs 500 crore. Our goal is to earn Rs 1,000 crore by the next financial year.” Her unbelievable self-confidence and extreme dedication have made her life a stretch of positivity and hard work. Ray Power Experts has offices in four cities and owns a land bank of 400 acres in Rajasthan. As if that isn’t extraordinary enough, she has also built another empire that employs around 300 vendors and labourers.
SOURCE: KENFOLIOS
