Gudiya Chadha who ran All Elements in Khar, Mumbai, shares what she learnt from setting up and shutting down the business

During an interview with this writer in 2018, Gudiya Chadha spoke of how she had opened All Elements, a café in a Mumbai suburb to battle depression.

The then 42-year-old, who was in her second year of the business, added that the café was not just her first restaurant, it was her first job! Within a short few years, the eight-table café managed to make a name for itself within the competitive Mumbai market, only to be hit by the pandemic.

In 2021, All Elements downed its shutters and turned into a delivery kitchen. Gudiya now handles the operation of the family’s homestay at Manor, which is headed by her daughter Gehna.

Here, she shares her entrepreneurship lessons.

1. The guest needs your attention

In 2021, Chadha joined the JAG24 team, headed by her daughter Gehna. The one-acre property, which also has a lake on which you can go kayaking, can accommodate 50 people at a time. It was gifted to Chadha by her husband on her 40th birthday in 2016. While it was largely used as a family getaway, in 2018, Gehna converted it into a home stay. 

Last year, Gehna left for Spain to study hospitality at Les Roches. Chadha stepped in to handle the daily operations, even as Gehna continues to be the brains behind the homestay and its social media. 

Before guests check-in, their food preferences are taken into account. “Everything that goes on the table is seen by me first. The one thing I learnt at All Elements is that food needs to be of good quality and of good quantity,” Chadha adds. If the guests are celebrating an occasion, cakes, live music, decorations will be organised to add to the festivities. 

By 6.30 pm, Chadha will call the guests to check if they are fine and would like anything. “We save your information and preferences. This would happen at All Elements. You will be asked if you’d like a black coffee. The key thing to remember is that people will forget what they ate and what they drank. What they remember is how you made them feel. People felt at home at All Elements and it’s the same at JAG,” she adds, crediting Gehna for the ethos at JAG24, smiling at the thought that mother and daughter share common traits.

2. Upskill, however daunting it may seem

Last year, when I switched from being a full-time journalist to full-time entrepreneur, I met Chadha to learn from her experience of entrepreneurship. I shared the areas in which I found myself a hesitant entrepreneur. Especially marketing and networking for sales. Her advice still rings in my head: “You are no longer the old Gitanjali. You have to change.” 

For Chadha, the most significant change was adapting to technology. Until 2017, she hadn’t touched a computer. She had not needed to. 

But, the Khar café, and the need to make it work, made her realise the power of online marketing and the need to be on top of social media. 

Living in Khar, it’s technology that helps Chadha manage the Palghar property. Staff meetings are held regularly on WhatsApp and Zoom, messages are sent to guests on the phone. 

“Before All Elements, I didn’t know how to bank. When we got a message saying money has been credited, I wouldn’t know how to check it. Someone asked me to send a picture and I didn’t know how to do that,” she says, adding that in the last one year, she purchased a laptop, got someone to teach her how to operate a computer, make a post on Canva and check Google Ads.  

3. See help not attack

When creating a product, it’s all hunky dory when people share rave reviews. What do you do when the feedback isn’t as positive?

“I went in with the belief that everyone is there to help me and not bring me down. At All Elements, if someone left food on their plate and left a review that the pasta was not tasting good, I’d accept it. If the food had been good, they would have finished it. Wastage is a real review,” Chadha says, adding that sometimes, if a lot of food was left over, she would taste to check why. Had the pasta not been cooked well? Was sauce not right? “Nothing was personal. The feedback was only there to teach us something.”

It is easy to see when negative feedback has an ulterior motive, she adds. “One party at JAG, stayed for their entire trip. Had all the meals served to them and, after leaving, said that nothing was right and they wanted a refund. People do use technology against you as well. I told them to go ahead and post their reviews online. But you need to sift true feedback from those with ulterior motives.”

She recalls a particular Zomato staffer being extremely helpful. “She was my go-to person. If an ingredient wasn’t available, she taught me how to mark it as unavailable on the menu. But, also warned me that if more than five dishes were marked unavailable, ratings would go down. I had many questions and she was always willing to help.” Chadha says that if you look like you want to learn, people will be willing to teach. 

4. Letting go when it’s needed

Chadha had believed in 2020 that when the COVID-19 induced lockdown was lifted, the crowds would surge to open-air café. “But, people wanted to party. They headed to the bars,” she adds. And, just when the market looked like it was about to recover, the Omicron wave pushed everyone back indoors again. 

The outlets that were doing well at this time were the ones who got delivery orders. “But, All Elements was not associated with food delivery. It was a café that was known for its vibe and people’s interaction with each other.” With rentals and other overheads adding to the bills, Chadha and her husband Jimmy decided to convert All Elements into a delivery kitchen.

“We have been in the hospitality business and didn’t want to put money into something that didn’t look like it was working.” While the kitchen now operates from Jimmy’s restaurant in Khar, she no longer helms it.

“Jimmy [her husband] has his 18-year-old restaurant [U-Turn] there and there can only be one captain on a ship. So, we took the decision that he would handle the operations of All Elements.”

5. Your business needs you to work on yourself

Chadha recommends the Inner Engineering course by Sadhguru. “Entrepreneurial success is a reflection of how you are at that point. There will be lots of fears that will stop you [from pursuing your dreams]. A guest who leaves a bad review may remind you of your mother or teacher who once reprimanded you. But, you have to be willing to see what they are saying, not as an attack, but feedback. We have to learn to distinguish the past from the present.” 

Chadha says mastering one activity will boost confidence in at least attempting another. “Everything is connected. Being physically fit will help you mentally and vice versa. When you make healthy choices in your personal life, it will reflect in your work too. Add meditation to your toolkit,” she suggests. 

Entrepreneurship, she warns, requires resilience. “There are lots of highs and lows and a constant need to make decisions. One day, the staff doesn’t turn up. What will you do?”

She recalls a Saturday when the chef didn’t turn up. “How do you not panic? I asked the assistant chef to go to the gas and whip up the menu with the recipes and pictures provided, even as I helped him in the kitchen. This empowered the assistant chef but I was also there to back him up. You have to learn to manage all kinds of situations, including conflicts within the team.”