Sameer Fayaz left a job in Dubai to pursue his childhood dream of doing business; he chose self-employment and this decision paved the way for his successful entrepreneurial journey – The Bloom Bakers.
Hotel Management pass out, Sameer started with a job as a waiter in one of the posh hotels of Kashmir, later he shifted to Dubai where he worked for four years. Despite doing a job that was fetching him a good salary, he was not satisfied.
“ I always wanted to do something where I am my own boss. But due to lack of exposure, I chose a simple way out of doing a job which gave me exposure to different aspects, but my dream of owning a business kept me on my toes,” Sameer said.
“After working for four years in Dubai, I came back to Kashmir and decided to start a bakery unit, my younger brother Shahid Fayaz who has done MBA and was also appointed in J&K Bank, but he too left the job. I took him along to Dubai where he worked in the banking sector. Then after we came back, we chose bakery manufacturing knowing that there is a huge craze in Kashmir.”
“But there was a problem, we had no exposure in this field, so I joined my friend in Gurgaon and we started our unit there. There we gained knowledge about this trade after one year; we started our unit from our home. After running the venture successfully for over a year there, we decided to pack up and return to our motherland to pursue our entrepreneurial journey,” he said.
“After winding up our unit in Gurgaon, we had to start from scratch here, it was never going to be easy and we knew that. Being motivated to start our dream venture in Kashmir, I along with my brother started a bakery manufacturing unit from a single room.”
“The experience we have gained at our Delhi outlet helped us in churning out new products with value addition to already available products in the market. It helped us to reach consumers at a rapid pace. Though initially, we were only dealing with home delivery of bakery items, then, later on, we started supplying our products to supermarkets. After receiving a good response we established our factor and after some time an outlet in Shalimar where we received a good response.
” It was not easy, because of the COVID pandemic we had to keep ourselves motivated and at the same don’t let our new venture get trampled by the situation. We tread cautiously. Expertise which I, along with my brother gained at our Gurgaon venture helped a lot, we introduced our products, new designs which struck a chord with consumers and the result is that demand for our products has witnessed a constant upward trend.
Sameer says that his brother is looking after the sales part and “I am taking care of the kitchen, my father who was also associated with the food industry retired as FMB manager from SKICC is actively taking part in our business.”
“Currently, we are having a single outlet, by the end of this year we are planning to start two more within the Srinagar district. We plan to expand our business in the future.”
When asked about the advice for budding entrepreneurs, Sameer said that everybody who wants to start a business is afraid of incurring losses given the situation in Kashmir. “However it is the perseverance coupled with a passion to do something out of the box that keeps us going. We had our share of failures too, there are ups and downs in life, one must know to propel out of these situations.”
“I have a belief that being self-employed is better than being employed, you work for yourself and there are no boundaries in entrepreneurship. My advice to young entrepreneurs is to be brave and follow your passion with dedication.”