Bhagwati never thought of being an entrepreneur, she was a homemaker. Then life granted her an opportunity to learn new skills and start earning using the same. She first got training on stitching/tailoring in 2009 and since then she has been in this business. Bhagwati shares, “ I had no idea about how to stitch prior to taking the skill development training on tailoring. Looking back I feel it was one of the right decisions made by me, as I am earning and contributing financially to my family”. Bhagwati's confidence and forward-thinking attitude have helped her to sustain herself in business for a long time now.

Disaster Experience 
Disaster never comes alone, it brings emotional turbulence along with it. Bhagwati recalls the massive earthquake in 2015, the destruction it made in the country was huge. Even her business got affected for a certain period of time but not as highly as it got affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many people things are getting better but for Bhagwati, her business is still not back to normal. She is still recovering from the emotional crisis as  the pandemic took away one of her beloved family members - her father in law. This made it difficult for her to focus on her work and she has not been able to earn much. Slowly with time everyone is accepting the reality and moving on. In order to get her business back on track Bhagwati leaned on the opportunity to be associated with Udhyami Utthan Campaign.

 “Fostering Resilience of Women-Led Businesses (including home-based women producers) and Consumers” is a project being 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
Bhagwati shares that being a beneficiary of this project has been a wonderful experience. The project has all the right elements required for entrepreneurs to succeed in a time of disaster. She is thankful to be able to gain knowledge about disaster management, business management, mindfulness sessions, and digital literacy while she was looking to get her life and business back on track.  

It was the first-ever experience to use the ZOOM platform for Bhagwati. She thoroughly enjoyed using this digital tool for the learning experience. All the sessions were new for her and sometimes it was overwhelming too. However, Bhagwati has learned to manage her business at the time of disaster through Business Continuity Management and Digital Literacy sessions. According to Bhagwati, “ I enjoyed the Mindfulness session the most. This session was something that I really needed after having been through an emotional crisis due to this pandemic. Keeping a check on your emotional health is equally important to be able to run a successful business.” 

Bhagwati realized that there are so many minute technicalities one has to be mindful of to manage the online shop on your own while as a viewer having an online shop looks very simple. She is grateful to have learned e-commerce management which is not easily available to home-based producers like her. 

The webinar on banking and insurance was very helpful for her as she got first-hand information on the various schemes available. Bhagwati feels that financial access and risk management have become quite accessible to women who want to run a registered business even if it is on a small scale, which was not the case when she was young. Therefore, she would like to collaborate with her friends and register a business in partnership.

Future Plan
Bhagwati shares that having faced two extreme disasters (earthquake and pandemic) in life she wants to be prepared for the future. Therefore, she plans to keep a Go-Bag in her house while also plans to work on her Business Continuity Plan to be prepared for any unexpected events that may affect the business. 
She wants to design trendy clothes and sell them online; therefore, wants to continue her association with Udhyami Utthan and Thulo.Com even after completion of the project.

Bhagwati is a home-based producer based in Nakhu, Lalitpur.
Visit her Online Shop at https://thulo.com/uu