Filed · Metro-side food counter, Rajajinagar · case file 01

I took over a ₹9,000-a-day juice counter and turned it into a sandwich kitchen

Negotiated a management takeover at seventeen on ₹30,000 of working capital, tripled daily sales to ₹25,000 with a sandwich line I costed myself, and managed six staff all ten to fifteen years older.

Overview

Negotiated a management takeover at seventeen on ₹30,000 of working capital, tripled daily sales to ₹25,000 with a sandwich line I costed myself, and managed six staff all ten to fifteen years older.

My role

Co-operator

Timeline

2017 · 8 months

Filed

  • Operations
  • Unit economics
  • People
  • Product

● Impact overview

  • 3×Daily revenue, same footprint
  • ₹30kTotal capital deployed
  • 6Staff managed, all older

01

Situation

A juice takeaway outside Rajajinagar metro station was doing ₹7,000–9,000 a day. The owner had the lease, the counter and the equipment. What he did not have was a product people wanted at 7pm, when commuters came off the metro tired and hungry.

02

Action

Rather than raise money to buy a business, I structured a deal I could actually afford at seventeen: we costed the operation, then offered the owner a flat ₹1,000 a day to run it under his name and keep the upside. Assets stayed his; operations became ours.

I learned to cook the menu myself from YouTube and built the food line — sandwiches from ₹70 to ₹170 for a three-layer club — plus a new menu, standee and signboard. My partner ran purchasing and vendor negotiation. Working capital was ₹30,000, raised by convincing our grandparents.

03

Result

Daily sales reached ₹25,000, with ₹30,000–40,000 on bulk birthday-order days. We employed six people, all of them ten to fifteen years older than us; none of them knew our real age. The ₹30,000 was repaid inside six months.

04

The ending

A storm brought a tree down on the counter. Rebuilding took our entire cash reserve while payroll kept running against no revenue — we were undercapitalised, which is the real cause, not the tree. The owner offered to take the business back, returned our savings, and thanked us for converting his juice shop into a sandwich place. I still count that as the best result in this portfolio: the counterparty wanted back in.

05

Results & what it taught me

3×Daily revenue, same footprint
₹30kTotal capital deployed
6Staff managed, all older
₹1,000Fixed daily cost to owner

Fund utilisation and wastage control. That hierarchy has to be earned, not announced. How vendors really price bulk versus wholesale. And that a business without a cash reserve is one accident away from closing, however good the top line looks.

What it taught me