Successful Entrepreneur: Sumit Israni, 30

Owner and chief stylist of Geetanjali salons, New Delhi.The venture was started with an initial investment of Rs 7 lakh and its current worth is Rs 20 crore

Jim Morrison, the lead singer and lyricist for the American band, The Doors, once said, "some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts." Sumit Israni, owner of Geetanjali Salons is now here to make sure that no one else says this. A product of Jean Louis David in Paris, where he pursued hairdressing for one year, Israni, has since worked on advance haircuts with leading grooming brands like Vidal Sasson, Toni and Guy and Guy Kremer. He also did advanced haircolouring from Jo Hansford, Trevor Sorbie and Charle Worthington.

Hairstyling has been a childhood fascination and Israni nurtured it well to start his own salon at 17 years of age, and has already been in the industry for 13 years. "It began with one small salon with a team of five and now I have six salons and team of 200. I don't want to stop now and have major expansion plans. By next year we should have around 10 salons and academy to help our growth. Then we plan to spread across the country and aim to make our presence felt in the international market in the next five years."

With future plans in place, Israni ruminates on the start-up process, "setting up was very tough as hairdressing was a taboo at that time. I had to prove my seriousness and passion for hairstyling as I wanted to make this my career." Chitrangada Singh, Sanjay Suri, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Rohit Bal, Rahul Khanna, Varun Bahl and Rohit Gandhi are just a few names in Israni's long list of celebrity clients. With such an international exposure and a passion for work you know your hair is safe in Israni's hands.

Sneak peek

• Israni started his first parlour at 17 in New Delhi. He received his basic hairdressing training from Jean Louis David in Paris.

• His mantra is to be passionate about your work and follow the never-give-up attitude.

Reproduced From India Today. © 2011. LMIL. All rights reserved.