Entrepreneurs Over 50 - Jaswant Kular

“I really believe that age is just a number. If one is healthy physically and mentally, your age should not be a barrier to starting anything new”.

​Jaswant Kular, the founder of a traditional Indian food business, believes that over 50s have a wealth of life experience that can be put to good use in entrepreneurship. Read her story in this week’s blog post

​Like so many of the entrepreneurs we have met in previous blogs, 60-year-old Jaswant’s Indian food business came about as a result of her spotting a lack in the market for what she was looking for...she was passionate about passing on to her daughters how to create traditional Indian meals in an easy and practical way. But the ingredients on offer in supermarkets and on the high street were far from healthy - they were full of artificial things like fillers, as well as high levels of fat. She already had a thriving nutrition business, so she was aware of health issues. She was inspired to start preparing spice blends to give to her family, friends and business clients. The response was overwhelmingly positive, so spurred on by this, she set up a stand at a food festival. Before long, her spice blends had all gone, due to popularity!

This marked the start of Jaswant’s business, which she ran alongside her three daughters. She moved her sales to Shopify in 2013, and since then her products have been bought by over 100 retail outlets.

What made her recipes so good was the many hours she spent cooking for her own family as they were growing up. This gave her ample time to refine and polish her recipes. Above all else, Jaswant attributes her rich life experience as the cause of her success in business.

Over the many years of her life, before going into business, she had a great variety of roles. She started as a university teacher, followed by being a housewife and mother of four, a business manager, realtor, volunteer, community educator and nutritionist. Throughout all of these roles, she developed a unique ability to keep her patience in challenging situations. Her capacity for hard work was stretched as well. She learned many new skills, and overcame challenges caused by difficult people, and came out the other end physically and mentally healthy, and overall happy and vibrant. She feels a great sense of achievement and satisfaction in all of this. ​

Jaswant has some words of advice for people over the age of 50 aspiring to entrepreneurship:​
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“You are about to have the best time of your life. No more worrying about looking after young kids - it is finally your turn to live your life the way you want. It is a lot of work but the reward is also that much greater.”

In hindsight, she believes that as a younger woman, she would not have been able to sustain something like this. Her cooking was not as good as it is now, and she did not have anywhere near enough experience or stamina.