Life is not always fair, but it is up to us to live it with optimism. Maan Kumari Rai has a positive take on her life, she prefers to be happy with things she has achieved than being disappointed over things she failed. She is happy to have a business even if it’s a micro level one as this has helped her take care of her family on her own. She lives in a joint family of 11 members where she is the sole income earner. Maan Kumari has been running her home based tailoring and knitting business for 12 years now. Prior to doing her own business she worked for various garment stores which helped her learn the then current trend, customer preferences and boosted her confidence to run business on her own. Her family takes her as their pillar of strength and are proud of her.

Disaster Experience

Recalling the time about the earthquake of 2015, Maan Kumari shares that the experience was very scary seeing many infrastructures destroyed and lives lost but people were out there supporting each other.  While organizations and government instantly responded and provided support, including general people too, during peak COVID situations it seemed difficult to assist each other  as even helping others would be life threatening. So to Maan Kumari, it was COVID that affected her business the most. Even after the lockdown was lifted her landlord restricted her to visit outside.  So, for Mann Kumari, running her business even from home was  challenging which made her live on her savings. Now that people have started getting vaccinated and are trying to lead a normal life, she is also getting orders from her customers.

Maan Kumari enjoys learning new things and feels happy to be associated with the Udhyami Utthan (UU) campaign and Thulo.Com.

“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

Managing our business is very important and knowing how to manage business even at the times of disaster is extremely essential. Maan Kumari shares, “How I wish if I had gotten associated with Thulo.Com earlier, that I would not have faced so much of a cash crunch during this pandemic.” Therefore, as it is never too late to start new things, Maan Kumari feels fortunate to be associated with Udhyami Utthan Online Shop as this was her first ever experience of running business  online. Before, she had not even used social media platforms to promote her products.

The training on business management and working on her Business Continuity Plan (BCP) was a great experience. She now understands that in order to run a successful business, planning is very important, especially at times of unexpected incidents. While working on BCP she realized how important it is to have a list of emergency contact numbers. It looks too simple but comes handy whenever an emergency happens and can actually save lives and livelihoods. 

Maan Kumari expressed her joy when she found out about the various subsidized loan schemes that even private commercial banks like Standard Chartered provide. After learning  about the loan schemes, Maan Kumari realized that if one wants to run a business on a greater scale then the business has to be registered. The overall sessions have been an overwhelming experience for her as she was able to learn so many things at her own comfortable space, online.

Future Plan

As of now Maan Kumari intends to continue her association with Udhyami Utthan and Thulo.Com. She shares that, “Doing a business online through my personal social  media page would be difficult as I am not equipped with managing the logistics and delivery to the customers. So, sticking with the e-commerce platform is the best option right now.” She further shared that if she registers her business then she will definitely  insure her stocks.

Maan Kumari Rai is a home based producer based in Kathmandu.

Visit her Online Shop at Thulo.com/uu