A Day In The Life Of: Ally Matthan

In this edition of Day In The Life Of An Entrepreneur, Ally Matthan, the Founder of Areev, a brand of naturally derived Indian personal care products shares her day with us.

Besides Areev, Ally Matthan also runs an eponymous brand that works in the area of fragrance creation.

She started with a home-kitchen experiment in 2006 that has organically grown into a business that encompasses two different retail lines, spa and hotel supplies and bespoke fragrance creation.

At 6:00 am, it’s the happy bustle of feeding my son a large healthy breakfast and getting him onto the school bus by 7:00 a.m. From here I head for an hour and a half of cardio that basically energizes me. I’m out of the house by 9:00 am. I’m working on starting the day earlier, so I can squeeze time in to write down goals and gratitude lists every day.

Upto here my day is pretty much routine – so I try to plan ahead for the whole week – my exercise routine, our meals and our wardrobes. This way its just execution till the next Sunday comes along.

Delegation: The first step in teamwork

My first hour at work is also pretty routine – it’s usually devoted to spending time with the team on our production, marketing, inventory and sales schedule for the week. This is crucial as delegation is the first step in teamwork.

The rest of the day is meant to be spent either creatively or meeting people but is usually spent trying to meet the unexpected yet exciting challenges that running a business brings with it everyday. I find that the calmness of the morning helps manage the stress of the day. Keeping lists for every task comes in handy at this point and reinforces focus.

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

I am lucky to work with wonderful people who bring great ethics and motivation to the work place, so I can honestly say that I really look forward to being at work everyday. We are a young team that is constantly learning hands-on and the ideas, innovations and people – relationships never cease to amaze me. I think it’s important to be surrounded by positive and talented people, especially in entrepreneurship.

Faith: The biggest lesson as an entrepreneur

The biggest gift that entrepreneurship gives me is the fantastic opportunities that come our way to create, execute and deliver products within the realm of our world. We meet exciting people everyday, pushing boundaries and challenging us to do things in ways we have never done before, at things we have never done before.  For every person who has asked us “Why?”, we have been able to answer the “Why not?”

We are currently struggling with the economies of scaling and entrepreneurship has also taught me the biggest life lesson I know: faith. When you harbor absolute clarity on the outcome, every obstacle just becomes one more boost that helps you keep going while you learn from it.

To keep things efficient at work, I try and answer emails and phone calls on the commute. I’m out of the office by 3:30 pm latest, sometimes earlier, to pick up my son from the bus stop and do his evening activities with him. I usually get in another hour and a half of exercise while he’s at play.

Our dinners are early as is my bedtime – I sometimes wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day and I can’t wait for the next morning!

Website| Facebook | Twitter

Are you a woman running a business in India? Would you like your story to appear in our Day In The Life Of An Entrepreneur series? Email us at admin AT womensweb DOT in with an interesting account of a day running your business, and we may publish it! (For example, what was the one interesting thing you did that day? Did you meet someone new/had a conversation with a customer? What thrills you at work? What are some business challenges you’re currently grappling with?) Also send us a few pictures of you at work – with your team, at your desk, at the factory, meeting a customer…

Comments