Since being featured on the Channel 4 series The Secret Millionaire, Kavita Oberoi has adopted a businesslike approach to helping others. The entrepreneur lived undercover in Ladywood, a deprived area of Birmingham, for the programme and had to survive on just £8 a day.

Oberoi donated money to two charities at the end of the show but wanted to be more involved than merely writing a cheque and has thrown her business skills behind one of the projects, Sisters With Voices (SWV).

The scheme, set up by the charity Martha’s Oasis, uses mentoring and activities such as rock climbing to boost the self-confidence and aspirations of teenage girls. Ladywood has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the country.

“It’s all about empowering young women, improving their self-esteem and making sure that they can reach their full potential,” says Oberoi, 38, who grew up in Bradford. She studied chemistry at university and worked in pharmaceutical sales before launching Oberoi Consulting, based in Derby, which provides IT services for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

Oberoi, who is worth an estimated £10m, is using many of her entrepreneurial skills to help SWV. “Running a charity is no different from running a business and from the very start I worked with the group to set out a three-year strategic plan, which we then broke down into objectives and looked at the various aspects, such as marketing, financing, franchising, being efficient, keeping costs down — all the processes that are critical to success.”

Many of her business partners are working with SWV and the success of the television programme, which was screened in August, meant that donations and offers of free business help flooded in to the charity. In the longer term, Oberoi is keen to move away from straight fundraising to franchising the SWV scheme across the country.

“It’s a way of meeting demand and creating a long-term set-up,” says Oberoi, who is also hoping to launch projects for different age groups as well as setting up safe houses for women.

“I’ve found more pleasure out of this than running my business,” she says. “It’s all been frantic since the programme came out and it’s really taken over my life. So many people want to be involved.”