The timing could not have been better for Mitesh Soma when he gave up corporate life to start his own business. He waved goodbye to his high-powered career in UBS’s credit derivatives business late last year shortly before collapsing credit markets laid the Swiss banking giant low. The online chemist he launched, meanwhile, is in an ideal position to profit from the downturn as cash-strapped consumers seek bargains online.

Soma, 32, said he did not leave the banking world because he had seen the writing on the wall, but because he did not feel fulfilled. “I just thought it was time to do my own thing,” he said.

“I have worked for lots of big international companies and did not particularly like the politics that always comes with them. I was earning a good salary and working on interesting projects but I had a burning desire to be my own boss and make decisions for myself. I did not feel I was reaching my full potential by working for someone else.”

A visit to his wife Krishna’s pharmacy in Westminster gave him the idea for his new business Chemistdirect.co.uk. “I used to go in and see how she was getting on with things and I was amazed by some of the mark-ups.

“Having been involved in computing I saw the possibility of offering huge savings on health and beauty products by selling them online. We could offer up to 90% off some products because the mark-ups were so big on the high street. We could buy some products for 33p and sell them for 99p instead of £10 or more in some cases.

With his wife’s knowledge of the pharmacy business, the legal requirements and her supplier contacts, Soma set about building a website and hiring a handful of staff with £100,000 he had saved.

“I spent a lot of time developing the concept and testing it. We did a soft launch before we went officially live and got family and friends to test it for us just to make sure everything worked. We started working out of my home office in my back garden in Leicester.”

The business soon took off and not just because of its keen pricing, said Soma. “We are offering savings compared with the high street but there is also the convenience factor and the fact that you can buy sensitive products without having to go into a shop and ask for them.

“When I was doing my research I remember standing in the pharmacy beside the diarrhoea tablets and I realised how embarrassing it must be to have to buy items like that in a shop.”

In its first year of trading to the end of November 2008, Chemist direct.co.uk reached sales of £4m. Soma has spent the year struggling to keep pace with the demand and now employs 45 staff who work from a 10,000 sq ft warehouse in Birmingham.

“We have been working seven days a week without any holiday but it does not feel like work to me.

We have had to manage the cash flow very tightly but we have created good systems that automate things as much as possible.

“Our challenge has been resourcing, getting good people in place who will add a lot of value to the business. Sometimes I have spent a day interviewing 15 people and none was right for the business.

“To run a successful online business like this you need good managers in customer service, finance, operations and IT. You need people who are hungry to succeed but who have also been there before.”

The challenges of launching the business have not been just about keeping up with growth. Fearing the disruptive effects of an online pharmacy, some suppliers were initially reluctant to sell to Soma.

Now that the business is established and accepted, Soma has big plans. “If we were turning over £15m by the end of next year I would be okay with that. There is lots of scope for further growth. The industry is worth £3 billion and as more people start shopping online some of them will come to us. In five to ten years we want to be a household name.”

The business could also expand overseas, he said. “There are online pharmacies in America but I have not seen them compete on price. It’s a model we could look at repeating internationally.”

Any growth is likely to be self-funded, said Soma, who pays himself a modest salary and ploughs the profits back into the business. “We have no outside investment and I am happy with that. We developed the business with as few resources as possible and I am in no hurry to look for investment.

Our cash flow is good and we are growing organically at a huge rate.”

Despite being so busy, being his own boss is giving Soma and his wife the freedom to arrange their lives round their family. “We have two young children and working for myself makes a big difference. I can go and play football with them and I’m not answerable to anyone,” said Soma.

Although the recession will be tough for many people, it is also a time of opportunity for those brave enough to try to work hard, he said. “If you start your own business you are always going to be beyond your comfort level and you are going to have to make difficult decisions, but unless you go for it you will never know if you could have made it.”

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