TURNING TAO OF TRAVEL

Shibani Ahuja Kapoor, owner of a travel and tours company Wander Globe Inc began her journey as an entrepreneur in the travel industry when she took children of the family, friends and neighbours some 11 years ago outside Delhi after having quit her job. She had a stint with the Press Trust of India and Media Trans Asia and was freelancing for some foreign magazines.  Initially her family dismissed it as ‘fun’, a way of ‘killing time’ but later got worried at this increasing streak of ‘madness’, till she made profits and soared. Ask her about her present profits and she giggles, asking me to put Rs 4 crore as turnover!

Excerpts from the interview:-

Was becoming a journalist an accident or choice?

Becoming a journalist was definitely a choice... The only choice one does not have is that of one’s own grey matter! Writers may be born but journalists “become” and then crash-land into entrepreneurship once in a while-like my own story!

What was it like working in different media organisations?

After a short stint in the Press Trust of India, I was offered the Assistant Editorship of two magazines with the Media Trans Asia. It was quite a changeover from a large news agency to a medium publishing house. It was a great adjustment to make from being dictated to, to being in control and responsible for two important magazines – Namaskaar, the Air India in–flight magazine and Elite, one of the first leisure and lifestyle magazines circulated abroad. After quitting, I used to freelance for some international magazines before I got into a this totally different vocation.

What were your high points as a journalist?

The big stories are kept for the “big guys” but my own moments came when I was asked to cover the small events and began to see the layers beyond the layers and get glimpses into the angst of the real India, the so to say, uncommon,  “ common man”. I then decided to cover the underbelly of India. One of the highlights was my profile of Delhi’s eunuchs and another one on legalising prostitution in India and profiling the pathetic conditions of the prostitutes.  

What was the learning, earning and yearning experience as a journalist and as an entrepreneur?

Journalists in our time made a little better money than the truck drivers of Haryana. Endless rounds of truck driver’s tea (boiled again and again with the same tea leaves in a musty canteen) relieved the monotony of editing one news item after the other. But the whole world is only a click away and you do have some power to ‘make or break’. Being an entrepreneur meant being in a big world alone, minus your press card and strappings of any power, almost without an identity, trying to create something out of nothing.

It is said that journalists are sensitive and cannot strike a deal, Is it true in your case?

Yes, the sensitive journalist gets battered in the strike-a- deal scenario because the “only-money motive” never exists for itself. I believe a journalist as an entrepreneur has a great amount of sensitivity which others cannot cope with or even understand. It is a tight rope walk and involves many batterings till one finds the balance in those balance sheets.  I do believe it is a baptism by fire and one does rise like a phoenix again and again. My husband, a great entrepreneur in his own right, was greatly amused to see the fall and rise drama in continuum. The great help came when he kept telling me how he admired me for creating something without any tangibles and offered me his office space to operate from. And of course he always has the handkerchiefs ready when we file the tax returns.

As an entrepreneur, what is it that you encountered as your most difficult task?

Dyslexia with accounts and administrative work. All I knew before this was to count a few numbers of my journalist’s salary! 

What was the kind of money you put in your business?

A single laptop was the only investment I made. Friends and family stood by to watch the trapeze act because they had no options I guess. And of course no one, absolutely no one, believed I could be moving into a business.  Everyone thought I was a “failed journalist”, now a bored housewife trying to kill my time. The bankers only came in later when we opened the accounts and they started getting filled in. It was much later when I was invited to Goa, with due respect for my “journalistic abilities” combined with understanding of the travel trade, that I met my current business partners. My husband, my parents, my business partners, some friends have provided quite the anchor all throughout. And now, very definitely it is my 15-year old son who is a big support. Our expansion in outbound travel can be attributed to an interesting tourism expert and healer from China.

When did you start this business and what is the scope of profit-making in your venture?

I started Wanderland Inc 11 years ago and my other company, Wander Globe Inc, which is a partnership, is only five years old. We are profitable; otherwise we could not have sustained the downturns that came with the recession and the beatings the Indian tourism industry took. We have grown from a one woman office to a company with two offices and a team of six. Having started with educational tours for children, we now handle large inbound groups into India and more recently outbound groups too.

How does the transition from being a salaried person to signing the cheques of your staff?

The smug smile when I carried the salary cheque home is nowhere near the satisfaction of signing the cheques of so many. Any day, signing the cheque for others is more satisfying. A small number of staff, associates in three cities, a branch office in Goa and a pan-India presence, coupled with a gamut of suppliers is what keeps me still humming and makes the entrepreneurship still ‘worthy of  the news’.