My nominee, Ms Bharati for The Yoga Shop, was inspiring and would be a great help to many due to her practical experiences as well as advises on setting up a business.

Company: THE YOGA SHOP Address: 10 Kerbau Road Website: http://www.the-yoga-shop.com Interview with Ms Bharati Ramakrishnan by Shanti Bhagavati Shankar on 26-Apr-2008. Student can be reached at shanti_angel_108@hotmail.com   Business Profile: The Yoga shop sells publications and CDs of a different nature, as well as gift items and yoga mats.   Interviewer's Comments: SOE have given me a great opportunity in my student life to venture out and explore on my own what entrepreneurship is and the challenges that an entrepreneur faces. My nominee talked about real life experiences and gave practical advices to the younger generation, which i personally felt would be helpful when if i ever wish to set up my own business. Furthermore, the shop had a peaceful atmosphere, definitely an oasis of peace for people with hectic schedules and is definitely worth a visit!   1. What is the nature of your business? The yoga shop is a retail outlet; a retail book and gift shop.   2. When and why did you decide to become an entrepreneur / take over your family business? NOTE: If it is not a family business, ask: Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? (Select appropriate question according to the entrepreneur being interviewed.) It must have been about 5 years ago that we felt the need for books and CDs produced by the Brahma Kumaris needed greater exposure.   3. What are your reasons for choosing to do business in this particular industry? Related to ans in Q2 ( Providing exposure and awareness of the shop's publications)   4. How did you put together all the resources needed to start your business? For example: getting the start-up capital, hiring staff, doing sales and marketing, advertising, etc. A committee of those having experience in different areas was put together and each gave their ideas.   5. What do you sell in your shop? The items that are sold are books, CD, gift items, yoga mats and accessories.   6. What are some of the challenges you faced when you first went into business? Some of the challenges faced were : How much stock to have as we didn't know the stock movement, what range of items to have, getting staff and training them(volunteers)   7. How did you overcome these challenges? Challenges were overcome by getting ideas from others, other retail outlets and through experience   8. Can you share some of the lessons you learn from overcoming your own business challenges that you think will help other businesses? Don't be too ambitious when starting. One has to learn from the business as it grows.   9. What are some of your proudest business achievements to date? Some customers have commented on the uniqueness of the shop, its atmosphere and so on.   10. Can you remember your worst day in business or a time when you felt like giving up? What happened that made you feel that way and how did you triumph over it? It's come up a few times whether to continue but we are continuing as there were and are other aims in running the shop.   11. What are some interesting stories you have about your first few customers/first few years in business? I cannot really think of anything now because im rarely in the shop.   12. How do you differentiate your business from your competitors? Please provide specific examples. Most of the items in the shop are of unique quality and cannot be found elsewhere, hence there is not much of competition. The only competition comes from the yoga mats, which may be cheaper in other locations. However, to overcome this, a free bag is given along with the purchase of a yoga mat.   13. Who are the main visitors to your shop? Singaporeans as well as tourist.   14. Tourist from which specific country do you know? No, tourist from all over. But because there is a few hostel around, they are not the high-end of tourist, but mostly backpackers.   15. Where or who do you get your business ideas from? I travel around to countries in the region to get ideas, because we need creative ideas to provide something new to our customers, so that they keep coming back. Furthermore, i also work in a retail line so i learn from there as well.   16. What does entrepreneurship mean to you? For me, entrepreneurship means taking the initiative to do something and start something new.   17. What are some entrepreneurship qualities that you have which has helped you come this far? A balance of both being exploratory, not much of experimental, but at the same time, going along with limitations of the business.   18. In your opinion, what other qualities does a person need in order to be successful in business? And why? (eg. Educational qualification, work experience, family influence, attitude, etc) Certain amount of risk taking is there in the business. Sometimes you really don't know what items will sell and what will not sell. Sometimes you have a run out of a particular item and sometimes you don't sell it for the next 6 months. Fair amount of risk taking is hence needed. A person will have to put in long hours especially filling it off the ground and doing the background work. A team of people is also needed to generate creative ideas as people want to see new things all the time.   19. In your opinion, what does it mean to have the "spirit of enterprise"? It is a sense of adventure a sense of creativity, a sense of exploration and really making something out of nothing   20. Who or what motivates and inspires you? The outlet is a retail arm of a spiritual organization so the inspiration would be from a spiritual source. As well as like- minded people who wants to make other members of the public aware that such publications, music, books of a different nature exist.   21. What are some of your business values and what would you like to pass down to others, particularly the younger generation? One will need quite a bid of perservance and honesty, as well as to cooperate, listen and work with others   22. Can you share some of the more significant events / incidents that affected or shaped your business philosophy and the way you conduct your business? i.e. SARS, new competition or shifts in market behavior and trends, etc. One of the significant event is the opening of the North-East Line (NEL) For a little while in the beginning before the NEL started the area was rather quiet but it is now bustling with activity   23. With the changes in the market today, do you think it has become harder or easier to succeed in business? Why do you say so? Yes for some, no for others, In the sense that, when times get hard people watch their pockets.For example, it was in the news that in march people saw an all time high. So we do get some plus and minus   24. What advice would you give young people who want to start their own business? If they have the means, it is always good, a way of learning, but at the same time have to keep in mind what is your source of capital, don't start off with the high end, you wont know how the business will go, and you could end up losing a lot of money and if it is not your money, then you are indebted to other people. It is probably better to start on a small scale let the business grow with time, when you have a better feeling of things rather then making a big splash at the start and then it becomes very troublesome.