A 17-year-old man who came to Mumbai from Chennai in the 1990s for just Rs 200 later became a millionaire. The life of Prem Ganapathy is similar to that of a movie. Prem Ganapathy is the doshawala of Mumbaikars. He is the owner of Dosa Plaza. It was his hard work, dedication to work and determination that made him a millionaire. Let us hear his story.
A passionate Prem Ganapathy
Prem Ganapathy was born in Nagalapuram in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu. After completing 10th class, he could not find a way to continue his studies and moved to Chennai to support his family and seven siblings. He did a lot of work in Chennai. A few years later, Prem Ganapathy left Chennai and boarded a train to Mumbai with big dreams. He reached Mumbai with a man who promised to buy him a job with a salary of Rs 1200 per month. Prem Ganapathi had Rs 200 in his hand. The man who accompanied him robbed his bag at the Bandra station and escaped. Although he did not know the language, Prem was not ready to go back. He started by cleaning the utensils at a bakery in Mahim for Rs 150 a month. For two years, he did various jobs in restaurants. By 1992, he had raised enough money to start his own business. He rented a handcart to sell Idli and Dosa, the traditional South Indian breakfast dish. He set up a stall on the street near the Vashi railway station with a capital of Rs 1000. He presented all varieties of Dosa and Sambhar. The delicious food impressed the customers. Sales of Idli and Dosa gave him the maximum profit. He earned up to Rs 20,000 per month. But the municipal authorities did not allow Prem to continue with his food stall. They closed his business.
105 dosa varieties
Prem Ganapathy had by then understood the key strategies to run a good business. Finally, in 1997, he decided to lease a small shop. He invested Rs 50,000 and opened a shop and named the restaurant Prem Sagar Dosa Plaza. His brothers also joined him in his new venture. A few employees were also hired. The dosa plaza became a huge hit. Many of the regular visitors were college students. He established good friendship with them. He learned to use the internet from them and started searching for recipes on the internet. In his first year of experimenting with dosas, he introduced 26 new dosas, including Schezwan dosa, paneer chilli dosa and spring roll dosa. Prem says that despite the competition from restaurants in Mumbai, his dosa stall was successful because of its hygiene, the service, attitude of the waiters and the variety of new ingredients and experiments. By 2002, his restaurant had 105 dosa varieties. There are no secrets to success. Prem Ganapati proved that it is the result of planning, hard work and learning from failure. However, it was his dream to have an outlet in a mall in Mumbai. Despite approaching several malls, Prem Ganapathy’s dream did not come true as space was set aside for big brands like McDonald’s. But he had the opportunity to open an outlet at Center One Mall in Vashi. He got the opportunity because the mall manager and staff were regular visitors to Prem’s restaurant. His outlet at the mall was a huge success. The first franchise was launched in 2003 at Wonder Mall in Thane. By 2012, there were 45 Dosa Plaza restaurants in 11 states in India and 7 other restaurants in New Zealand, Dubai and Muscat.
His vision was to grow through better offers and even better customer service. Prem Ganapathy took care to create an identity for the brand such as brand logo, menu card and even the dress of waiters. Prem was careful to maintain the brand’s uniqueness even in the franchise.
Doshawala Prem Ganapathi aims to make a profit of Rs 40 crore in the coming years.
