She didn’t think twice about leaving her well-secured government job 20 years ago to start her own business. Anita shared, “ It was a courageous decision to take at that time and having a supportive family made it easier for me to do something risky and challenging. Starting and running a business by a woman isn’t easy today, and it wasn’t back then either. If you really want to make it happen, you need to take a risk, and so did I. I worked hard to make my decision of running a business worthwhile.”  Owning a fashion business and specializing in Nepali traditional 3 layered cotton blankets and clothes, Anita redefines the traditional way. She gives it a modern look by creating a variety of clothing lines using traditional fabric. Initially, she started selling traditional bags and gradually made clothes for kids, and now she sells various designs of clothing lines. Here she is, running her business for almost 20 years now.

Disaster Experience

Anita had all the support from her family and friends, so her business grew pretty well. In 2014 she expanded her business with a new showroom in Salla Ghari. She remembers how excited she and her team were for her new outlet when suddenly in 2015 the massive earthquake happened. This severely affected her business, and she closed down her new showroom forever, which didn’t even last for six months. Due to this incident, Anita decided to have a manufacturing unit and showroom at just one place in Golfutar. Also, with the ongoing pandemic, she has no plans to expand her business physically but wants to expand it with technology. Therefore she was happy to be a part of the Udhyami Utthan (UU) Online Shop at Thulo.Com and develop her business skills, including promoting her products digitally by being a project beneficiary.

“Fostering Resilience of Women-Led Businesses (including home-based women producers) and Consumers” is a project implemented by Thulo.Com and Enterprise for Management, Economic Reform, and Gender Equality (EMERGE). The project is supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Tayar Nepal - Improved Disaster Risk Management Project and also contributes to Udhyami Utthan (UU - https://udhyamiutthan.com/about-us/ ), an entrepreneurship empowerment initiative.

Experience as a Project Beneficiary

Good with stitching and crafting, Anita pursued her bachelor's degree in home science. She continued to transfer her knowledge via skill development of women to become entrepreneurs and, eventually, she herself became an entrepreneur running her own fashion business. She believes one should do something they are confident and good at. However, she understands that this is a very competitive world and that digital skill is necessary. Becoming a project beneficiary helped her learn Digital Literacy skills that weren't available when she started. Also, the Business Continuity Management training has given her clarity on making plans for the business to be prepared. Business Continuity Plan (BCP) made her realize that she needs to have some stock if she wants to grow her business and get it insured to be prepared for uncertainties. She believes this document will be helpful for everyone who is working with her to help her business to run smoothly. This project helped her towards economic resilience by giving her a lot of business in a short span during this pandemic, which was otherwise running slow. Thus she is grateful for the way things have turned out for her because of this project.

Anita was happy to interact with banks and insurance companies. Though she has already received a loan from a bank, she mentioned that if she had been a part of such training before, she could have better negotiated with the bank she is working with. Nonetheless, she is happy to learn so much that will be helpful in the coming days. 

Future Plan

Anita wishes to learn more about using technology and being well-versed in running her online shop at e-commerce platforms. Therefore she is willing to continue her association with UU and Thulo.Com in the future even after the project is over. She is willing to get her business and stock insured to cover uncertain incidents.

Anita Amatya Shrestha runs Creative Products in Golfutar, Kathmandu.

Visit her Online Shop at Thulo.com/uu

(https://thulo.com/index.php?dispatch=companies.products&company_id=768)