Shakti Singh Rathore, an aspiring food and hospitality entrepreneur from Udaipur, has managed two successful restaurants. He believes that leadership is born from the experience and problem-solving ability gained from handling various problems and managing people in a business.

Shakti Singh Rathore is an upcoming food and hospitality entrepreneur.

Hailing from the city of Udaipur, Shakti is a successful entrepreneur specialising in the hospitality sector. He manages three flourishing restaurants—the Sun and Moon, The Soul, Banjara Hostel, and Sangria Bar in Udaipur.

Shakti is originally from a village near Pushkar and has resided in Udaipur for four years since the commencement of his entrepreneurial life. He was formally educated in Ajmer and Jaipur. He studied hotel management in Bangalore. He has had a successful and multifaceted work experience thereafter, working for companies such as Cleartrip, Paytm, and Treebo Hotels. It was not until 2015 that he would start focusing full-time on an entrepreneurial career in hospitality. “Hotel management was not my passion, but I had always wanted to be a part of the hospitality sector of Rajasthan,” says Rathore, who is now catering to the demands of hospitality and tapping into the business opportunities created by the ever-growing popularity of tourism in Udaipur and Rajasthan as a whole.

Recollecting further on his entrepreneurial journey, Shakti shares about the problems faced while starting one’s very own budget hotel. He mentions that he had prior experience in sales and marketing from his professional life, but he never had any prior experience of setting up and managing a budget hotel. So he initially had some difficulties stating specifically that, being a student of science, he faced problems when he had to take care of accounting-related work for his businesses. One never knows all of the problems beforehand while beginning out, as Rathore says, and “learning as you progress” is the key. Adding further, he says that communication and people management related to a small-scale startup are also extremely different from what is generally expected in a corporate environment because of the difference in the intellectual capacity of the people you deal with.

Shakti says it is without a doubt that the most affected industry during the COVID-19 pandemic was the tourism and hospitality industry. The restrictions on international as well as domestic travel had disrupted the economy of Udaipur. However, Shakti is optimistic about 2021 and that people will visit Udaipur, as more and more restrictions previously imposed are steadily being relaxed now. The restaurants have, however, seen some business, according to Shakti, as local tourists did visit Udaipur.

Some of the problems faced by Shakti are the complexity and variety of people he has to deal with on a daily basis while managing these kinds of small businesses, as most of them are not literate and require proper training and knowledge before work.

When asked about his likes, Shakti mentions that he likes to sleep and get away from his phone.

Education is not necessary for the success of any business, according to Shakti, and it is more about the skills and knowledge that are gained from experience.

Leadership is not a natural trait, he opines. Shakti firmly believes that leadership is born from the experience and problem-solving ability gained from handling various problems and managing various kinds of people in a business.

Shakti goes on to mention that he owes his mother and his wife a great deal of gratitude. His mother and his wife are his inspirations and supporting figures, indicating that his entrepreneurial goals and the things he values most about work are due to them and their presence in his life.