Three words for entrepreneurs - Sameer Mehta, Director, Mehta's Hospitals

• Adapt, be tenacious, and get customers – these are the three top imperatives for wannabe entrepreneurs, says Sameer Mehta, Director in Mehta's Hospitals.Adapt – I think you got to be willing to adapt. India has a tough operating system. You may have to change your business plan, rather than be stuck with the one idea or the one way of doing things.
• Be tenacious – Don’t give up every time you hit a brick wall. As an entrepreneur, you will hit lots of brick walls. Sometimes, you learn to change your way of doing things; sometimes, you would say, I am right, I am going through that brick wall. Judging whether you are going through the brick wall, over, around, under, or catching a plane to go completely in a different direction, is a really challenging art.
• Get customers – Work hard to get the customers. The best sources of goodwill are people who respect your service, and who are willing to pay for it over periods of time, right. If you work hard, if you gain your customers, there is nothing like it. I see a lot of people come to us for fund-raising. They work harder to raise capital from investors like us versus the customers they should concentrate on. At the end of the day, customers are what keep you afloat; they don’t take equity from you, they normally pay you in advance. They don’t ask for anything else in return, other than good service. I think, if you work hard and treat your customers with respect and give what they need, you will do well.

Mehta's Hospitals

A tier-1 tertiary care hospital located in Chennai, Mehta's Hospitals has an 80-year history, beginning as Dr Mehta Nursing Home. “We are in process of setting up another 250-bedded hospital in Velappanchavadi,” the site informs.

Sameer Mehta

Sameer – an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, a Masters in Manufacturing Engineering Management, and Masters in Chemical Engineering – wears many hats. A TiE Charter Member and a member of the Executive Committee of the Chennai Angels, Sam is “the founder of Mehta Children’s Hospitals, Atlas Advisory (enterprise accelerator), Everonn Medical Education (Health Education JV), India Home Health Care…”