 Ranjan Shah, the 43-year-old successful entrepreneur soothes the senses of her customers with the fragrance of her incense sticks.
A very down-to-earth housewife, Ranjan had immense ambition to reach great heights by doing something on her own. Her husband did not earn enough to meet the basic requirements, in particular, the educational needs of her two sons. The economic pressure tripped her mind, day and night. Their economic condition was so bad that they could not lead even a simple life. Sometimes. It became necessary to borrow money from neighbours/ relatives. No specific business fascinated her, for she did not have any idea of business.
With her bachelor’s degree in Science, Ranjan did not see much possibility of taking up a job, which would quench her creative thirst. And to choose the right business, was a perplexing problem for her. She and her husband were always in mental tension as to how to overcome the economic problem. She happened to attend a marriage and there in the neighbourhood she saw a few women engaged in making incense sticks. Soon she got the idea.For, right from her childhood. Ranjan was fascinated by perfumes and aromatics. Though she identified the product, she could not put her idea into concrete shape due to lack of knowledge about business and technical skill. However, she underwent a short-term course in incense making from the cottage industries’ centre. But this did not give her the required confidence to start a business. Her husband advised her to start with packaging of incense sticks bought in bulk, and sells it on door-to-door basis. But even to run this business she needed money, mainly to buy wooden sticks and packaging materials. She approached several commercial banks for a loan of Rs.5000, but to no avail.
With whatever money she had, she started the packaging work. To start with, she personally contacted Government offices, Banks, residences for product sales. The manager of one of the banks took personal interest in her and advised her to approach the local District Industries Centre (DIC) to recommend for her loan. Fortunately, at DIC, she was given all support, and with priority they forwarded her loan application to the Bank. Within a week Ranjan got a loan of Rs.5000 sanctioned.
Trilled with joy for having got a chance to put her ideas into practice, Ranjan decided to start manufacturing of incense sticks, based at home.
Even though her business took a start, it did not take shape, as she was not aware of marketing strategies. This rendered her handicapped at times. And sometimes due to no marketing outlet, her products had to be stocked at home. This made her frustrated.
It was during these traumatic and confused days that Ranjan came to know of the ICECD training and she quickly grabbed the opportunity. The training gave her a lot of exposure. During the market survey of the training she identified several market linkages and cashed on the contacts as soon as she completed the training. Meanwhile, she also identified a shop located at a key commercial centre to set up the business. For financial support, ICECD played an important role by recommending her case to the local Co-operative Bank and helping her get a loan of Rs.5000.
With this Ranjan started turning out 15 – 20 dozens of incense sticks a day. But to penetrate the market, Ranjan had to work out ways. First of all, she had to design an attractive packet. To this she was a novice. Secondly she had to find ways to sustain her business on credit terms. Ranjan bore all these difficulties.
But she adopted several sales promotion techniques like lucky draw schemes, discount coupons for bulk purchase etc., and gradually widened her area of marketing.
With business in full swing, as a result of her struggle and determination, her profit also started shooting up. Soon “Ranjan Incense Industries” made a name in the market by becoming the consignee and forwarding agent for the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, To keep up with the expansion, she employed three workers and her turnover soon shot up to Rs.70,000 per annum. This gave her a chance to be a member of the State Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ladies Wing). They also selected her to participate in the International Women Entrepreneurs Conference organized by National Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs, New Delhi. And here, she was awarded a certificate for being a successful entrepreneur. The Chamber too awarded her a certificate of excellence and this boosted her morale for striving more in life.
She has become a seasoned businesswoman now, who can look after production, planning, administration, finance and accounts, purchase, marketing etc., and her turnover has reached Rs. 3 lacs per month.Her plan is to win more awards and her goal is “SKY IS THE LIMIT”.
To cope up with the growing business, Ranjan has sought the help of her two sons, one looking after production, packaging and accounts and the other, in charge of the stop. During festive seasons, to meet the heavy demands, Ranjan employs 4-5 workers on job work basis. Her immediate plan is to touch the target of Rs. 12 lacs.
“My future plan, though not very far, is to select a village (living below poverty line) and train the rural women in incense stick making and thus set up a cottage industry. This will not only render employment to a large number of women, but also develop the cottage industry of the country. Even now, whenever I get time I give technical training to rural women, in association with ICECD”. |
What really made Abha Naria, a 35-year-old Arts Graduate, an entrepreneur was her passion for self-employment which partly comes from her father who is a businessman. This profession of becoming share, stock, finance broker and underwriter was not chosen by Abha on the spur of a moment, but only after arduous reviewing of its pros and cons, as this field involves a lot of risks. However, she could see money in it and her nature is such that she can get along well with people of any gender quite with ease.Even otherwise, Abha constantly nurtured and feeling of achieving some identity in life apart from being a wife of a Chartered Accountant and belonging to an upper middle class family. Her husband had always been a source of inspiration to her in starting something on her own. But the most important factor of her motivation in life came from her contacts with women who were successful entrepreneurs.Nevertheless, Abha was not fully confident of becoming self-employed because of paucity of her knowledge regarding the business.