Margaret Hirsch’s popular Women In Business virtual meetings got off to a flying start earlier this week with over 150 women from around the country attending the event to network virtually and listen to speaker, Shilpa Mehta the first female president of the Entrepreneurs Organisation Durban talk about her journey from rising to the top of the ladder in the corporate world to owning her own business.
Shilpa is the co-owner (with her brother) of Production Logix, KZN’s largest electronics contract manufacturer and a company that she purchased in 2015 after a career in finance in the corporate world, working for KPMG, Investec, Uniprint and Hirt and Carter.
Shilpa explained that her passion for entrepreneurship was passed down from her grandfather who was the typesetter for the Indian Opinion, a newspaper started by Mahatma Ghandi. When Ghandi returned to India, her grandfather continued working as a typesetter and formed a company called Bombay Print, which later became Uniprint and is still in the family.
Tips and advice from Shilpa: “Know your worth. Keep yourself relevant and know where you are placed in the market. Never tolerate bad behaviour, even if it comes from the top. Build a team that you would like to take with you to war if necessary!” Shilpa explained that her all women team is packed full of people with grit and determination who are resilient and smart – and phenomenal negotiators.’
With regards to the present situation and how her business has coped, Shilpa said that as a rule, we don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges. “Being flexible and fluid is important. Remember to invest in YOURSELF. Men do this all the time. Women seldom do, and it makes such a difference when you do!”
