Indira Patel is the President & CEO of New England Office Supply, Inc. (NEOS). NEOS is one of the Top 100 Woman-led businesses in the state, and one of the Top 500 woman owned businesses in the US, according to Working Woman magazine, for two years in a row.  NEOS has been in business for 13 years, when it started out with less than $1 million in revenue in 1993.

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Ms. Patel came to the US in 1971 as a student.  She got married and had one child before she decided to go for her MBA program at Simmons College in Boston, and graduated in 1983.  Until she became a business owner, Indira’s experience was in the health care field. 

Ms. Patel was selected by President Clinton to participate in the White House Conference on Small Business in 1995.

She has hosted a delegation of Fortune 1000 Indian Businesses at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and organized and participated in Indian Business Owners’ issues meeting with Congressman Joseph Kennedy, Congressman Marty Meeehan and Congressman Peter Torkildsen.

Ms. Patel is on the Business Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Affirmative Marketing Program and on the Board of TriMega, a $2 billion purchasing group and also a Board Member of BPGI, which is a global purchasing group representing $12 billion in volume. She has also been a panelist at various schools and other business organizations. She is also a member of Simmons School of Management Business Advisory Council

What motivated you to choose a career in business? 

When I was young I really wanted to be a doctor.  I got admission to medical school. I come from a traditional Patel family and when I received my admission my parents were concerned that after going through medical school I would be too old to find an eligible man. They spoke to the President of the All India Medical Association, another Patel, who said that even if I became a doctor the family I married into would probably not let me work and thus I would ruin a boy’s seat.  So they did not allow me to enroll in medical school.

However they allowed me study medical technology and even sent me to US to study with all expenses paid for first year. Once I came here, I decided to stay on in the US. I got married to Bharat and we moved to Boston.  

I always crave for advancement and hence I decided to do my MBA at Simmons. It was a great program since it was tailor made for women. It showed me how to survive in a man’s world.  I had a toddler when I went to do my MBA.  My post MBA job went well.  However when you work for someone your career is a steep incline until you plateau out.  After that, it is not what you know but who you know and I did not want to wait my turn.  Also, once I reach the point where you can wake me up from a deep sleep and ask me a question and I can answer it correctly without even having to think, I believe it is time to move on. So I decided to take the plunge and start my own business. 

I considered various businesses. I had even considered owning multiple convenience stores. Finally I settled on the business of  commercial office supply. What I found most attractive about the commercial  office supply business is the fact that you are only open when your customers who are other businesses, schools or government offices are open. I liked the idea of having weekends and holidays free.  Of course for about a year I put in very long hours including weekends and holidays but as the business grew and I became more comfortable and things got to normal. Today, company at a point where we have a very dedicated and talented management team that I trust completely to take good care of the company so I have a much easier time. Also, this business had best cash flow and if for nothing else but my pride, I wanted to earn at least what I had been making. 

In order to pay for the company I emptied my 401k account and paid taxes and the 10% penalty. I could do this because I knew I was going to make it. Bharat was doing very well so at least had confidence that family would be OK and I could always get a job in the worst case. When I needed an additional $50,000 for working capital, I took it out of joint account but paid back $25,000 within 4 months with 8% interest. 

Oh yes. I made a lot of rookie mistakes with the new business.  Having worked in a corporate environment, I failed to realize how protected you are.  Here nobody tells you since you are the boss and I was new so my employees did not know how to take me either. Once I realized this, I sat down with my  people and told them I was new to this, did not know everything, and needed their help.  Some of them did open up after that.  I was also up front with the vendors and requested their help too.

There was a rough moment when one of my employees sent a fax to a lot of my competitors telling them that we had won the City of Boston contract but he was worried about my ability to fulfill it and thought the company would fold so he was looking for another job.  One of my competitors was good enough to bring this to my attention.

While bidding for most contracts we had to go through typical hurdles including can you compete with Staples pricing?  Yes, we belong to a buying group and are able to buy direct just like them and do not have added expense of retail front and staff.

There is also a perception that women do not understand finance and computers and they are so sure it is the husband running the business and using the wife as a front to get woman owned status. The faculty at Simmons was very clear that no woman would be able to graduate who was not proficient in math or computers- the two areas women are considered to be weak in.  

Sometimes yes. When I fired our VP of sales within the first year, he told me he was going to complain to a higher authority.  I expected him to go to the labor board, he called my husband instead.  Of course Bharat told him it was my company and he had no authority to help him.  Took people a while to accept that I did know what I was doing. 

This is a business where majority of owners are men. While they do not want you to fail, they also do not know how to take you and whether you will find their advice helpful or interfering.  I went out of my way to make friends in the industry and even got elected to serve on the board of our buying group.  I was the only woman there but once they realized that I knew what I was talking about, at least as far as management and finance, I started earning their respect to the point my opinion was seeked and valued. They also helped me to fill in the gaps regarding the industry.

Yes. My boss at my first supervisory job, a Harvard MBA, encouraged me to do an MBA. She specifically suggested Simmons and that suggestion has served me well.

I also had a very good boss after graduating with an MBA.  He even let me work from home one day a week when my daughter had half a day off. This impressed me so much that now in this company when our controller went on maternity leave we continued to pay her salary since she kept doing whatever was needed.  We do make special provisions for mothers here for when they need to be home or even when they need to bring their children to work for whatever reason. We are even planning a lactation room.

I would strongly recommend women, or anyone for that matter, to have a good few years of experience under their belt and sufficient savings or a successful spouse before getting into a business. I would very strongly recommend the Commonwealth Institute as a great resource for women entrepreneurs.  You are networking with other women with the same goals and they also have groups that work together and network

On a lighter note, my advice to women who wanted to marry rich husbands was that they should want to BE rich rather than look for a rich husband. 

It is a tough world for women. I see a lot of women, even today who are doing all the housework at home while holding down a full time job. This needs to change.

I believe the best impact I have had on other minority as well as women business owners is our mentoring program.  I started it when I was with the Affirmative Marketing Program and recognized that many people who wanted to do business with the State were small and needed a lot of help. My staff was wonderful in supporting this initiative.  We felt less concerned whether they wound up doing business with the State or its agencies. Learning good business practices was key and this is where I could see the difference and feel good when the business or person succeeded.

My husband was extremely supportive even after I started working.  We would both look at our calendars and decide who could more afford to be home with the baby if it became necessary to do so.  To give credit to him, he also taught Amee the mantra which was “Daddy goes to work, mummy goes to school and Amee goes to school.”  Do not think she grew up feeling at all deprived.  Supportive husband is, I believe, the main ingredient for a successful work life balance.  

Happiest moment was when we were awarded the state contract for the first time.

I enjoy reading and I do get to see a lot of Indian movies.  Reason for this is my doctor told me I can either work out regularly and keep my body and health in shape or go on medication so choice was easy.  Since it is boring to go for an hour on a treadmill or elliptical, I watch Indian movies.  They have a lot of songs and also subtitles so I do not have to concentrate too hard. 

I like to live in the present and try to not worry about things I cannot do much about.