To celebrate the spirit of being woman in true sense we thought of carrying a story of our passionate client, who is a mother, a beautiful soul and an entrepreneur herself. Here is a Guest post from Mrs. Hema Mahesh on her journey as an entrepreneur.
Today’s time MakeinIndia & Startupindia has become more relevant- these days Hema is busy scaling up her venture. By qualification Hema is a MS from California state university. We would like to thank Hema for being gracious and taking time out to write about her ‘Journey as an Entrepreneur’. Hema’s story in her own words-
What I am today?
– Owner of ‘Nature in a Bottle’ which makes Jams, pickles and sauces which are unique in flavour and are made with No artificial preservatives. I have two employees and am supplying to stores and supermarkets in Bangalore. My idea behind NIB is to bring to people the lost connection between the food on your plate and where it came from. The ingredients I use are what everybody understands. But I try to make the end result exclusive by how I put it together.
What got me here?
–IDEAS are worth nothing unless implemented.
Marriage, children family etc. takes a toll on every woman’s career. With no job after my first child I always thought about and spoke about a lot of ideas and business plans to my husband which was possible. But nothing took shape. One day Mahesh showed me this IDEA-EXECUTION chart and its co-relation between them. It struck the right note. My ideas – so many of them which I had discussed about and wrote about were worth nothing. I started with an idea which was current at that moment. Jams. I enjoyed making jams. My passion for cooking and all my daily experiments in the kitchen came to my aid. A small survey of the market I realised there were no traditional jams being made anymore nor any spicy tangy jams which I would like. I found my niche. Ten days of running around in the markets got me few hundred nice looking glass bottles, a company name and a small exhibition where I could showcase my products.
Inspired by this ‘Idea – Execution’ chart as I said – I made the 6 flavours I had in mind, tested in, sampled it among friends and family and finally launched it at an exhibition. A small idea for sure but it had actually gone from the stage of testing at home and wondering about its prospects as a business to become a full-fledged product available to the customers. My customers welcomed the idea of sweet and spicy jams with No artificial preservatives. I was thrilled. Nature in a Bottle was officially born. So if you envision something, make it come true.
– Sow every day.
Second baby took a toll on my business again. Energy levels were low and everything seemed impossible with a toddler around. That is when my husband again came to my rescue. He got me this Japanese Daruma doll. Do read about it.
http://www.welovedaruma.com/en/about_daruma.html
One eye painted and the other left unfilled on the doll, it was a gentle reminder of the goal I have and steps I need to take to accomplish it. One step every day, really small steps nevertheless – I inched forward towards my goal of scaling up my business.
– One life – Live to fulfill your dreams.
Studying in college I used to see these young women wearing an ID around their neck and walking into MNC’s. How I wished I was one of them. I loved the ID cards, felt it was there identity as person which I need to get someday. But along with that came another thought -‘Why not be the person who employs people who wear ID cards? ‘. That last thought I hold on to it till date and I know it is not impossible to make that a reality.
Every day I get up to fulfill that dream one step at a time.
Thank you Kshitija for giving me this opportunity to write about my Entrepreneurial journey so far.
#WomensDay #WomensDay2016