While pursuing her MBA, Neelam Singh set her sights on the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) sector in order to pursue her entrepreneurial goals.
She worked as a restaurant intern for three months as an MBA student to get knowledge of the QSR sector, and she afterwards spent roughly three years working in the corporate world.
She began her career as a business analyst at Genpact in Bangalore for a salary of Rs 5 lakh per year, and later transferred to ICICI Lombard in Delhi.
She skipped lunch and ate at wayside restaurants during her three years in the corporate world to save money for her firm, which she eventually opened in 2018.
With only one employee and a 250 square foot location in Gurugram, Neelam, then 29 years old, opened the first location of The Burger Company (TBC) with Rs 20 lakh.
TBC has expanded into a 100-location burger chain with a Rs 40 crore annual revenue in just four years, with locations in several states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Punjab.
Neelam, the only child of the couple and a native of Agra where her father served as a college principal and her mother as a homemaker, has written a truly daring success tale.
“I had a happy childhood, an excellent education, and generally healthy formative years. My father allowed me the flexibility to follow my interests even though he made sure I learnt how to handle my money and take my studies seriously,” says Neelam, who received her Class 12 diploma from Delhi Public School, Agra, in 2008.
She earned her BBA from Dayal Bagh Educational Institute in Agra in 2011 before continuing on to the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI), Hyderabad, for her MBA in Marketing from 2011 to 2013.
Neelam discovered that there weren’t many eateries in Agra during her undergraduate years that catered to the demands of students while she was out with friends.
“You go to fine-dining restaurants with your family, which are pricey, but when you go out with friends, you look for inexpensive places that give decent cuisine and ambiance,” explains Neelam.
“Despite Agra being a very popular tourist destination during my undergraduate years, it lacked budget-friendly restaurants. At that point, I resolved to open my own restaurant someday.
During a three-day campus celebration at ICFAI, Neelam had the chance to put her professional abilities to the test. She and her friends set up a food stand and generated a profit of Rs 1 lakh.
The three-day event gave me a lot of self-assurance and knowledge about how businesses are run. We made Rs 1 lakh in profit and learned that the food industry had a healthy profit margin, adds Neelam, who also worked as a three-month intern at a restaurant in Gurugram while doing her MBA.
Through this internship, Neelam virtually learned everything she knows about branding, marketing, and jobs in the backend and kitchen.
Neelam married Nitesh Dhankhar in 2014 after meeting him on a matrimonial website. They found each other attractive, and their families helped plan the wedding.
Nitesh has experience working with Walmart, Big Bazaar, and Dabur. He holds an MBA from Amity University. After their marriage, Nitesh and Neelam both had homes in Delhi.
I was employed by ICICI Lombard from mid-2014 to mid-2016. During that time, I forwent workplace lunches with coworkers and gave up a lot of enjoyable activities. I would purchase a quick meal for as cheap as Rs 20 from roadside cafes.
“Sometimes I would cry,” admits Neelam, who managed to save approximately Rs 5 lakh in just eight months, “since I come from a good family but was living like a poor person and eating filthy food.”
“We were first married and residing in Delhi with our in-laws. Because I didn’t know the routes well, I didn’t feel very comfortable driving a car, so I typically took the metro or a local bus to get to work. We then moved to Gurugram when my husband changed jobs.
Neelam claims she never considered taking out a loan from her parents or anyone else to fund the launch of her company.
“Since I started working right away, I didn’t want to borrow money from my parents. Saving from my own income was my only choice because my in-laws were against starting a business, let alone investing,” she claims.
In 2016, Neelam decided to launch a burger restaurant after quitting her job. She had decided on burgers because they were common among young people, easy to grab-and-go, filling, and reasonably priced.
In Palam Vihar, Gurugram’s Global Foyer Mall, she finalised plans for a 250 square foot shop. We finally opened the first location in 2018 after more than six months of planning and four months of preparation and execution, according to Neelam. Since that time, the company has not looked back. Their business is officially known as 9 Plates Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.
I was employed by ICICI Lombard from mid-2014 to mid-2016. During that time, I forwent workplace lunches with coworkers and gave up a lot of enjoyable activities. I would purchase a quick meal for as cheap as Rs 20 from roadside cafes.
“Sometimes I would cry,” admits Neelam, who managed to save approximately Rs 5 lakh in just eight months, “since I come from a good family but was living like a poor person and eating filthy food.”
“We were first married and residing in Delhi with our in-laws. Because I didn’t know the routes well, I didn’t feel very comfortable driving a car, so I typically took the metro or a local bus to get to work. We then moved to Gurugram when my husband changed jobs.
Neelam claims she never considered taking out a loan from her parents or anyone else to fund the launch of her company.
“Since I started working right away, I didn’t want to borrow money from my parents. Saving from my own income was my only choice because my in-laws were against starting a business, let alone investing,” she claims.
In 2016, Neelam decided to launch a burger restaurant after quitting her job. She had decided on burgers because they were common among young people, easy to grab-and-go, filling, and reasonably priced.
In Palam Vihar, Gurugram’s Global Foyer Mall, she finalised plans for a 250 square foot shop. We finally opened the first location in 2018 after more than six months of planning and four months of preparation and execution, according to Neelam. Since that time, the company has not looked back. Their business is officially known as 9 Plates Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.
