Forced to Quit Her Job When Pregnant, She Reinvented Herself in a New Career

Young, married and successful. Bhavini Mehta thought she had it all sorted but the world economy had other plans. Born in Kanpur but brought up in Raipur, Rajkot and Ahmedabad, Bhavini had completed her MBA from Ahmedabad and was a high-flying corporate employee with a private bank when the economic slowdown hit worldwide markets in 2008. Thousands of employees were laid off.

Bhavini was pregnant.

Despite her ace performance at work, her boss suggested she give up her job so that someone who was “the sole breadwinner of his family” could stay on.

And so, just like that, star banker Bhavini was jobless. Luckily, she chanced upon the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss around that time. She began freelancing from home, emulating the message of the bestseller. “Motherhood was a life-changing experience but after 18 months of freelancing, I felt as if something was missing from my life,” says the 33-year-old Christ College alumna.

She went back to the book, and realized that everyone has passions and commitments. “What if I could facilitate the life people want?” she wondered.

So Bhavini started her own company offering virtual assistant services, and quickly developed a clientele around the world, working 15 hours a day across time zones. “Two of my clients now literally work four hours a week; we take care of the rest,” she says.

Eight years on, Bhavini’s company Infinity Business Solutions employs almost 50 people, many of whom work from home. “While looking for staffers, I came across many mothers who felt like they were not an asset to anyone; they needed the money but did not get the support they needed to be able to go out to work,” says the soft-spoken professional, who calls herself the ‘OOO’ (only operating officer) of her firm.

Bhavini made extra efforts to hire work-from-home mothers and students trying to pay for their education, besides full-time staff. She also started Publishbook.me, a lateral that offers easy solutions for self-publishing.

Breaking barriers and fishing for opportunities in adversity has become something of a habit for Bhavini, whose daughter is now eight years old. “The biggest challenge of my life also helped me develop my fullest potential.” She’s now helping others do the same.

First published in the October 2017 issue of eShe magazine. Read it for free here.