The Who, What and Why!

The Who, What and Why!

Hi, I'm Swati and welcome to The Frugal Founder.

Who?

I won't bore you with my history - it's nothing glamorous - I am a Mathematician and Computer Engineer who grew up in India and now lives in London with her family.Once I became mum, I stopped working to look after my daughters.

I am a passionate, self driven individual (always have been), who loves solo travelling (I mean have you tried travelling with 3 perpetually hungry kids), looking after my 50+ indoor plants and have a deep desire to find self validation through the success of my business (yes I said it).

I am a hard working, perfectionist who hates to quit - all qualities that worked to the detriment of my first business (you'll see) - who is keen to learn, apply and share my journey as I wing it.

What?

After 6 years of being a stay-at-home-mum, I decided to start my own food venture Cheeky Food in 2015. With a range of Indian condiments (recipes from our family), I launched Cheeky Food with all grandeur and fanfare at the coveted Selfridges stores across the UK.

I started by making products in my home kitchen, soon migrated to a small rental kitchen but still continued to make everything by hand true to traditional family methods.Coming from an engineering background - I had no experience in sales, marketing, accounting or even making pickles! Yet here I was toiling over a hot stove, trying to create something from nothing.

Inspiring? No. It was foolhardy at best, bullshit at worst.Everything felt like an upward climb. Every sale call was painful, every rejection was painful, the burns and cuts were definitely painful.But I continued (refer hardworking, perfectionist who hates to quit) - at the time with what I thought was passion for my grandmother's pickles, but now I know to be ignorant arrogance.

I refused to give up, I refused to pivot, I was enamoured by the gleam of "NEVER QUIT" mantra. I managed to scale the business to six figures in 4 years but it still felt SO painful and something wasn't right. I ignored my gut feeling, and continued nevertheless.In 2020, lockdowns hit and the business lost 2/3rd of its revenue

I was faced with a choice - quit, find a job. The same resounding thought in my head - "quit, find a job". Every morning I woke up with an overwhelming feeling - "quit, find a job". I started scrambling for any other route to market to just...make...some...sales.I threw myself at business development.I think in 8 months we experimented with 16 new products, sent them 8 to potential customers - 2 got feedback and 1 was listed by one of the largest restaurant chain in the UK - Wagamama!

Why?

In the last 2 years I have adopted a humble learning mindset to new styles of running my business, keeping my vision but regularly changing track when the data validates.

In these newsletters I share my learnings from building Cheeky Food - still a solopreneur, still working from my tiny box room, still building-learning-pivoting and continuing till I can fulfil my vision of making Cheeky a reputable brand in the foodservice industry. I call my style of business frugal - something I learnt by observing my dad for over 40 years. Where every penny spent, is spent solely on growing the business - minimum frills, maximum returns.

It was this frugality that kept my business afloat through the lows and grounded through the highs.

So come join me as I learn, build and share my journey.