Gorakhpur: Nikunj Sharma, a resident of Indore, was earning a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh. His job did not give him any satisfaction, so he took a bold decision and resigned from it. Today, Nikunj runs a tea business that earns him lakhs of rupees in a month. His company is called ‘Bharose Ki Chai’ and has seven outlets in three cities. 

The idea of a tea shop

During his college years, the idea of opening a tea outlet occurred to him. At that time, he was busy with his studies and was aware that he would need to do a job first to save up some funds. He discussed this idea with his friend, Mohit Prajapit from IIT; Mohit was writing a thesis on the study of tea market. He liked Nikunj’s idea and both of them settled on the idea of launching their own tea outlet in the city. 

In September 2021, the duo started selling tea in the Gorakhpur city of UP. Then, they only had a handcart with themselves. Due to unreliability of the work, Mohit discontinued working at the tea shop and instead took up a job elsewhere. But Nikunj was determined to continue his business. 

7 outlets in cities

Nikunj had enough funds with him, but problems arose when he couldn’t find a shop in Gorakhpur after having relocated from Indore. No one would allow to rent him a place looking at his ID from Indore. Finally, a kind customer rented him a shop on Park Road in Gorakhpur city; this was Nikunj’s first outlet. Gradually, Nikunj expanded to seven more outlets in Gorakhpur and surrounding cities. 

Empowering people

Nikunj provides employment opportunities to disabled people in his tea outlets. He shares that in the coming future, he will only employ people with disabilities at his cafes to empower them. 

Nikunj’s cafes took a while to grow because of various personal reasons. But despite that he inaugurated several new outlets in the city. He shares that he missed attending his sister’s engagement because of heavy load of work. 

Job in an MNC

Nikunj did his B.Tech in Electronics and Communication from Indore’s college in the year 2018. During the same time, he did internship at Reliance Jio and later worked for multinational companies. During the pandemic, he did his complete research about the tea market to launch his business. Recently, Nikunj was felicitated with Leadership Award in Gorakhpur.