Sapna Gupta, 36 Education: Diploma in Travel and Tourism, South Delhi Polytechnic for Women Previous work experience: Teacher at South Delhi Polytechnic for Women, Delhi Last drawn salary: Rs 7,000 No. of years as an employee: 3 years Age at starting business: 26 years Initial investment: Rs 1 lakh Source of fund: Personal savings Company: Air Hostess Academy Turnover: Rs 80 crore (2007-8) No. of employees: 700
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1. Entrepreneur By Chance:
Little did Sapna Gupta know that a small institute she established with three students would, over a period of 10 years, spawn a Rs 80-crore empire. “I had no clue that I had the entrepreneurial spirit in me,” says 36-year-old Gupta. “You might say I had intuitively spotted an opportunity and made the best of it.” After earning a diploma in travel and tourism from the South Delhi Polytechnic for Women, Gupta joined Travel Wings, a travel agency, in 1994. After working for a few months, she realised that she was not cut out for the travel trade. So, when her alma mater advertised for a teacher, she applied immediately and was selected. While teaching, Gupta came across students who expressed interest in entering the booming aviation and hospitality sectors. They wanted to develop their personality and hone their communication skills. Gupta, who was admired on both these counts during her college days, decided to help them out. Gradually, she realised the need to have a proper grooming institute that would regularly supply manpower to these sectors.
2. Getting Started:
In 1997, Gupta quit her teaching job and rented a one-room apartment in Delhi’s Amar Colony, and Air Hostess Academy was born. The initial investment in the academy was Rs 1 lakh—and she started off with three students. “I kept a strong grip over the finances and stuck to my budget,” says Gupta. Money was apportioned to various heads such as rent, salaries, buying basic furniture and what remained was spent on advertising. Finding the right staff who wouldn’t cost a bomb was a major hurdle in those early days. “While I could teach grooming and personality development, I needed professionals for other subjects,” she says. She hired an aviation professional to help her out with in-cabin training and also took on a German speaker as a foreign language teacher.
3. Initial Hurdles:
Gupta’s first challenge lay in persuading parents to send their children to her academy. “I had a tough time convincing the parents about the course offered in my institute. Most of them were apprehensive regarding placements. They wanted assurance. I had to make them believe in their children’s potential,” says Gupta. And that led to Gupta’s next challenge: finding placement for her students. She would personally go and meet the human resource (HR) heads of different airlines and hotels. “When I approached the companies, they were hesitant. I had to convince them regarding the value of the training we offered. Though they took some time, they finally decided to recruit from our institute,” says Gupta. The first organisation to visit the institute for recruitment was Taj Air Catering. Jet Airways followed.
4. Scaling Up:
TIPS FOR STARTING A PROFESSIONAL TRAINING INSTITUTE
• Focus on content: The content should be industry-specific • Earn goodwill: Goodwill is most important. Money will follow later
• Pay attention to placement: Efforts should be made to place students in good companies. A successful student is the best advertisement
• Don’t compromise on quality: Always maintain the quality of training to stay ahead of competition
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Over a period of time, Gupta’s confidence grew as she saw her students being recruited by reputed airlines and hotels. She extended the course to five days a week (from the initial three days a week) and increased the fee from Rs 12,000 a month to Rs 26,000. Seeing the number of applicants rising, Gupta also had to scale up her operations. Within a year, the number of students grew to 70. A second centre was opened near Delhi University’s north campus. Improving infrastructure, hiring faculty and assembling a bigger team were her priorities. “It also meant that I had to give up teaching and concentrate on running the operations,” she says.
While she managed the day-to-day business, her husband Akash looked after brand-building and marketing. To take care of the working capital, Gupta decided to plough her earnings back into the business. However, just as her training business was taking off, competition started increasing in the sector. New training institutes were mushrooming. “It was a bit unexpected. Initially, we received telephone calls threatening to close down our institute. Then they tried to poach my staff. Even my students were lured away with offers of lower course fees,” she says.
As part of her strategy to retain students, Gupta decided to upgrade her curriculum and increase the course duration. “We started with three-month courses. But we realised that it didn’t cover all the aspects. So we gradually expanded it to six months,” she says. The six-month course included hotel management, and travel and tourism as additional subjects. In the one-year course, Gupta included personal grooming, industrial training and in-flight practical operations. It was also the time she diversified into areas of corporate training, travel consultancy and HR solutions. She also managed to tie up with Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways for hands-on training.
In 2000, Gupta decided to take the institute to other cities as well. Chandigarh was the first stop, followed by Dehradun. By 2006, she had 12 centres running in various parts of the country. “We chose to franchise out our business as it did not involve capital investment from us. We had to just manage it. Out of our 33 centres, 16 are franchisee-based,” says Gupta.
In 2006, Gupta achieved another milestone when her courses got validation from the University of Cambridge International Examinations, a part of Cambridge University.
5. New Grounds:
Gupta has grand plans for Air Hostess Academy. She is targeting a turnover of Rs 500 crore in the next five years. She hopes that by the end of the year, the number of centres would touch 50. There are also plans to go global and set up centres in Sri Lanka, Australia and the UK. Meanwhile, Gupta has a new venture to keep her busy—Makeover. “It’ll be a grooming institute to be set up in smaller towns such as Meerut, Rohtak and Bhatinda. It’s modelled on the lines of a finishing school, only for small-town youth,” she says. “There’s a huge market lying untapped in the hinterland.”
