Engineer Swarnali Singh from Indore starts up her creative venture

Entrepreneurship was her calling and she finally took the plunge three months ago.

Meet Swarnali Singh, 32, Founder and Director of SchoolAhead.com, an Indore-based online startup for parents of school going kids.

“It is rather unfair on parents to do all the hard work of running around from one book shop to the other with a catalogue in hand while their children take a break during the summer holidays. The idea came when I saw such a scene in my neighborhood and thought of funding my startup SchoolAhead.com with prize money that I had won at a contest recently,” says Swarnali.

It so happened that Swarnali participated and won the Tanishq Mia My Expressions contest for jewellery designing. Not only did she bag the cash prize, it was a statement of sorts which reinstated her faith in her abilities.

“When someone asked me what I would do with the prize money, I instinctively replied that I would start my own business with it. Little did I realize then that I would be able to live up to my word,” says Swarnali.

Growing up in Jabalpur

Born and brought up in Jabalapur, Swarnali has a background in Agricultural Engineering. This entrepreneur-in-the-making says she pursued the course just for the sake of her father. He aspired to become an engineer but could not. He instead lived his dream through his daughter, who in turn was happy to have been able to please her father. Engineering however, was not a career that Swarnali wanted to pursue and she soon went on to take her Banking examination.

Following a brief stint with the State Bank of India, she pursued a Management course and got employed at Cummins in Pune. It was during that time that she got married and after staying put in Pune for a couple of months, she shifted base to Indore where her husband stayed.

From Pune to Indore

In 2012, Swarnali gave birth to her daughter and after that all she wanted to do was be around her child. Though the desire to start a venture was very strong, she kept putting it off because she did not want to compromise on bringing up her child.

“The idea was to try my hands at doing something innovative and creative, not the mundane usual things,” says Swarnali. Having worked in various sectors, she certainly knew that those were not meant for her and it had to be a venture that she could call her own.

So she conducted a survey in Indore and zeroed down on a marketplace model where she tied up with four local distributors and now sells their books through her online portal. “It is essentially a platform

where different booksellers have their own stores and can independently upload their stock of books,” says Swarnali adding that it is an intentional tie-up with the middle level distributors and not with publishers or retailers. That way SchoolAhead ensures they can cover more books and avoid the out-of-stock situations.On this platform, apart from curriculum books, school stationery is also available.

Surprisingly, South India and Bengaluru in particular, is a very lucrative business market for SchoolAhead. Though they have currently tied up only with Indore-based distributors, they cater to the national market.

Donning the dual hat to perfection

Considering that this mom’preneur has a three-year-old child, she is managing it rather well. Her office is near her home where she can easily get back in case of an emergency. She has a supportive husband who is employed in the automobile sector, and may soon join her in managing the business more efficiently.

Moral support comes from her parents and in-laws, who are settled in Kolkata and Ranchi respectively.

Apart from playing with her daughter, Swarnali loves to paint and engage in Do-It-Yourself activities.