Interview of an influential woman | Sheela Alurkar

Sheela Alurkar
Abhivruddhi Financial Consultancy

Mrs. Sheela Alurkar is an Entrepreneur and the Founder of Abhivruddhi Financial Consultancy, based in Bangalore and Mumbai. Abhivruddhi is a Financial Consultancy and Advisory firm that helps individuals create wealth
The name of her firm ”Abhivruddhi” means accretion i.e. the gradual and incremental growth of assets in the Sanskrit language.

Business Icon: “Can you tell us about the journey of your life?”
Sheela Alurkar: “Originally from Mumbai, I started my career with Blue Star Ltd right after my B.Com graduation. While I wanted to pursue M.Com, I enjoyed my work at Blue Star and I was seeing a strong career progression too, so I changed that plan. I started pursuing correspondence course of Company Secretary but, due to family responsibilities post marriage, half-way I couldn’t continue it. The hunger for continuous learning remained and I am proud to say that I completed my Diploma in Financial Management at the age 40, from Mumbai University. It was not easy managing my job, family and attending classes every evening. However, that helped me secure a job in the world’s largest commodity marketing company, Glencore India Pvt Ltd. I retired from Glencore as a DGM – Accounts and Finance in 2013 after working for 18 years. Thus, I have a rich cumulative corporate work experience of 40 years.

Business Icon: Can you tell us about your family background?
Sheela Alurkar: I belonged to a very simple middle-class family, but I had a very fulfilling childhood thanks to my parents and my siblings. My parents taught us the values of good culture and ethics. My father, who we fondly called “Nana”, was an encyclopedia for us.
My mother, Aai, was homemaker but an extremely intelligent and a creative lady. She first sowed the seeds of entrepreneurship 50 years back to support the family and it remained a life-lesson.
We grew up, watching our parents buying books and reading, which is why, I am an avid reader.
I am married to Dinesh Alurkar and have one daughter Mugdha who lives in Bangalore and son Kaustubh who lives in the US. My husband always remained my pillar of strength & support in my career journey.

Business Icon: What has inspired you to take this career post retirement and give us the brief introduction about company?
Sheela Alurkar: My passion for the domain of Finance drove me to pursue this post retirement. Additionally I was helping my husband who was a Personal Finance Advisor already.
Warren Buffet’s quote resonates with my views – “Someone’s sitting in the shade today, because someone planted a tree long time ago”
Well, today everyone is in a pursuit of happiness and financial Freedom is a vital step in this pursuit. While many maybe fortunate that our parents have planted that tree for us, all of us aspire to plant a similar or a larger tree for our next generation to enjoy it’s shade.

My company “Abhivruddhi” is a Financial Consultancy and Advisory Firm that helps create wealth for our clients.

Who is your company’s ideal customer and how does the company currently approach them?
Sheela Alurkar: The main focus is, on the young working professionals, for who, an early start and disciplined investments, can create a huge wealth for themselves and their following generation. Today these young individuals are working very hard for their money but may not have the time to plan their personal finances. At the same time, a lot of senior citizens, who need that handholding for their investments, are our clients. In a nutshell, Abhivruddhi, as a trusted financial Advisory firm, provides complete and personalized solutions to our clients.
I am a strong believer that there is no short cut to Investment, but investment is a long-term journey. The earlier you start investing, the better it is.
The ‘Power of compounding’ is the 8th wonder of the world, and this power can be reliably unleashed over a long term with prudent investments. Even small but regular investments, have the power to magnify your wealth. It also allows one to average the purchase price of a compounding investment.

Business Icon:  With International Women’s Day approaching on 8^th March, what are your views about Financial Investment for women?
Sheela Alurkar: You have touched a subject which I am very passionate about. While practicing consultancy for so many years, I realized that, women take a back-seat, when it comes to managing their own finances. I say, it is not their fault, as they always believed that it is a man’s domain, since most of the time, before marriage the father takes care of her finances and post marriage, the husband takes over. Times are changing, Women are making strides in all fields, and ambition levels are increasing, so it is imperative for any woman whether she is married or unmarried to have a safety financial net for herself. I believe Women are better at multi-tasking as they have more patience, they are more circumspect in decision making, and are goal oriented, so they can become better money managers. My mission is to make women financially independent. I am happy to share that presently, I have more women clients than men.

Business Icon: How did the co. get to where it is today?
As I said earlier, since the last 15 years, I have been actively consulting in the wealth advisory domain with my husband. We have 200 + clientele based in Mumbai, and I am looking to grow the same in Bangalore.

What are company’s core value and how do you define your culture?
Sheela Alurkar: Unbiased, Truthful advice and Honesty.

Can you tell us about your present associations and engagements?
Sheela Alurkar: I am a part of BNI (Business Networking International) Benchmark chapter. I am also part of another International group called SNOW (South To North Online World). I have delivered many sessions on Financial Planning at various levels at Rotary Clubs and also at Corporates. I am a part of the Reading Nation-Ind community Club.

Business Icon: What are your hobbies and your secrets of energy?
Sheela Alurkar: I am an avid reader and love to watch business news. I enjoy listening to classical music and am passionate about gardening and art. I am currently practicing hydroponics successfully to give my family a farm-to-table experience. I love doing Decoupage art. My secret of energy is my 10-year granddaughter Mishika, she also helps me stay updated on all the latest technologies and gadgets.

Business Icon: What message would you like to give to all?
Sheela Alurkar: In today’s interconnected world, there are myriad of choices for investments. A Financial Advisor helps you choose the right investment products according to your financial goals, helps you monitor and assess the investment performance, rebalance the portfolio to navigate through volatile market conditions while you are busy at your work. In global business landscape, exciting investment opportunities can be effectively tapped through help of a financial advisor.
I would end with a quote by Warren Buffet “We don’t have to be Smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.

Email: sheela.alurkar@gmail.com
Contact: +91 98209 21585
Website : https://www.abhivruddhifinancial.com/
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheelaalurkar/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/sheela.alurkar.9
Instagram : https://instagram.com/sheelaalurkar