If you are disappointed with where you stand today, remember to reflect on how far you have come! Manju Mastakar is leading by example as an inspirational women leader and the brain behind the renowned investment management firm, Armstrong Capital & financial services Pvt. Ltd.
Founder of the incredible business in her own right, Manju navigated her brainchild brand’s success story from a small team of financers to an expert in financial affairs, offering unparalleled services. She started working very early in life, at the age of 19 she took up an internship at a CA firm where she was allowed to do audits of stockbrokers & stock traders. That’s how the leading lady got introduced to the stock markets. Later in early 2000, she worked with reputed stockbrokers as a dealer and advisor recommending stocks to HNI clients. In 2007 she moved to Bangalore from Mumbai and worked with a multinational bank and a wealth management firm. Due to the recession followed by the sub-prime crisis in late 2008, she was laid off, and then she decided to start on her own. That’s how Manju’s Entrepreneurial Journey began.
Further, Manju Mastakar apprised, “The clients that I worked with were left without any Advisor. They became my first clients and encouraged me to stick on. I had a small set up of a home office, I would do my calls and execute market trades. I had very few clients.
I was also carrying at that time so motherhood and entrepreneurship both started at the same time. In 2010 I met up with an Investment banker who gave me the idea that he would fund me and that I should start more professionally. I had 10 years of corporate experience working at various levels in a Securities firm but entrepreneurship in the initial day was different, it was all about – do it yourself and at the minimum cost. Later from 2014, the organisation grew rapidly, we had a good client base and I had more employees to delegate work. After that, I never looked back, all the stories of hardship that I went through summed up into 1 word that’s called struggle.”
A Glimpse of the Armstrong
The innovative seed of Armstrong was sown in 2010 with a passion for research, a devotion for transparency, and the promise to put the client’s interest first in everything it does. This is Financial planning and a Wealth Management company that brings a comprehensive Investment solution to Individuals and Corporates. Here, the primary focus is on capital preservation while still aiming to provide the clients with a reasonable rate of return to grow capital over the long term.
Armstrong provides goal-based financial planning, portfolio management service, wealth management service, retirement planning for individuals. For corporate institutions, it provides cash flow management and currency hedging services.
Financial Planning – Mutual Fund Advisory – Wealth management – these are the Key offerings. The key differentiator is their Financial Plans, they are comprehensive, and they are the backbone for their Advisory. They keep referring back to their plans and then Advice.
Clientele & Unbreakable Faith
The clientele includes various age groups young couples, mid-age couples with teenage kids, and clients who have come to the far end of their earning years.
Every relationship starts with a financial plan. Manju Mastakar and her team listen to them, they understand their needs, then they draft a financial plan and advice on various corrective steps to be taken. It’s just liked all Doctors check you with their stethoscope, the interpretation and the prescription make the difference. So similarly, investment management has to be experienced to feel the difference. It is a business where one needs to invest a lot of time in earning Faith and Trust
Major Hiccups on the Way
“I was born and brought up in Mumbai and I worked there for almost 10 years, I had a comfortable job. When I got married and relocated to Bangalore- I had no job, I didn’t know the city, the language and most importantly the kind of derivative trading in which I specialized, Bangalore was not a market for that. I had come to Zero – I kept meeting the magical figure ZERO many times in life. I had only knowledge, Skills, and Experience rest all is what I built over a while. After starting my entrepreneur journey in a few months, the seed capital that I had raised had become Zero, so I worked hard without any take home to turn around the cash flows”, said Manju while talking about her major hiccups.
“After a few years some recommendations that we gave failed and a lot of clients were upset and paused dealing with us, our clients had become ZERO. After a few more years when there wasn’t any significant growth, our employees felt that this was not a great company to build our career and they left, and the employees had become Zero. Ten years later we have 700+ clients, 25+ employees, and a good brand name. So, challenges keep coming, learn from them, improve on them and keep moving”, she further added.
The Support System
A lot of new entrepreneurs follow successful people, they listen to their quotes. Manju Mastakar followed the loser – they were many in numbers and she learned a great deal on how & why they failed. Those stories helped her a lot in driving the business through tough times.
A Day in Manju’s Life
The leading lady has divided her day into mainly three parts the 1st part from 9 am to 1 pm is about planning what she is going to do today, 2nd part is to get a hang of what others have been doing managing people, and the 3rd part after 8 pm is learning from other she watches a lot of motivational speech. It’s a revitalised exercise. In her free time, Manju loves to listen to Sufi Bollywood music and my hobbies are doing fashion designing.
Favourite Book
“YES, WE CAN”, the biography of Barack Obama
A Piece of Advice for Female Entrepreneurs
Try to venture out into something you are good at. You should have some domain experience.
Devote a decade to this dream, start small and be tight fist and lean. Remember the first principle is to survive and then focus on free cash flows. Set up good backups at home. Don’t try to be a superwoman to delegate work.