Watch: From nothing to Rs 30 crore empire, this Tamilian's story will inspire you
Synopsis
A class 10 pass, Prem Ganapathy sets life goals for many people with his journey from nothing to everything. His Dosa Plaza has not become popular in Mumbai alone, but is savoured across the world. Belonging to a humble background, he continues to lead a simple life.
Prem Ganapathy's story could be any rags to riches story, but for the turmoils he has been through to reach his present status. Belonging to a humble background, it was his dreams and hard work that saw him through the tough tides.
His story is an inspiration in itself and is bound to set life goals for people who dare to dream. A class 10 drop-out, he first landed in Chennai from his village Nagalapuram in the Tuticorin district. The meagre Rs 250 that he earned from doing odd jobs was sent back home to his parents and 7 siblings. But he wanted to do more for the family.
Fearing that his family would not allow him to come to Mumbai, he set out to the city of dreams secretly and landed in Bandra, where he was looted off all his belongings by the person who pretended to be his mentor and guide. That was Mumbai for him. However, he did not lose hope and befriended a Tamil taxi driver who took him to a temple and assured him a ticket back home. Money was collected from various people, but the little boy was convinced that Mumbai had more to offer.
"I am yet to achieve a lot. This is nothing and therefore I choose not go to any award function"
He set out to look for odd jobs and landed up as a dishwasher in a Pizza base bakery shop. Soon, he started working as a delivery boy and earned enough money to start his own business of selling idlis and dosas. He hired a handcart for Rs 150 per month and bought some utensils and a stove for Rs 1000 and started operating from Vashi railway station.
Given his interest in bringing new things to the business, he started experimenting with dosa flavours and his biggest mentors were college-goers who would frequent his thela for ameal and in turn helped him with Internet browsing. He learnt recipes from his mother and the internet and added them to the menu. There was no looking back thereafter.
His cart soon turned into a small restaurant as he took a shop on lease of Rs 50,000 and a monthly rental of Rs 5,000. He needed more people and therefore he called two of his brothers to help him. He started with 26 new varities of dosas and ended up mastering 104 varieties of it.
He still aimed big and bagged an opportunity to open shops at a plush mall at Vashi, after incessant refusal at several other malls. He had by now changed the name of the restaurant from Prem Ganapathy Dosa Plaza to Dosa Plaza. People started approaching him for franchisees, which he agreed on conditions that there would not be any compromise with the quality of the raw materials used and that they main shop will be supplying them.
That was the second turning point in his life. By 2012, he owned 45 restaurants across 11 states in India, 7 outlets in foreign nations like New Zealand, Dubai and Muscat. The man with just Rs 150 in his pockets outside Bandra station was now the owner of a 30 crore worth Dosa empire. His mantra throughout his journey was quality and hard work, even if that meant toiling in the kitchen himself with his other employees.