There is a saying that “A strong woman knows she has strength enough for the journey, but a woman of strength knows it is in the journey where she will become strong.” Here we have Shanta Shakya who has experienced many ups and downs in her life, which altogether have made her a woman of strength. A sole earner of her family, she lives with her elderly mother. She was always interested in stitching and knitting. After taking a basic skill training on the same, she eventually made it her profession. She is running her business from home, taking pre-orders and knitting as per her customer’s requirement. While she can stitch and knit both, she prefers knitting which is why she has been focusing on it lately. She has been into this business for 20 years now and wishes to continue it as long as she can.  

Disaster Experience 

Shanta still trembles thinking of the 2015 earthquake. To her that was the disaster which massively affected her financially and emotionally. The house where she had lived all her life with her parents was damaged and was considered unfit to live in. She had moved to her sister’s home and is still living there with her mother. She shares that she used to have a registered business named Home Creation prior to the earthquake but her business got shut as her debtors couldn’t pay her back. This to some extent had shattered her confidence. Slowly trying to get back, she has been working as a home based producer. She is exploring ways of getting her business to the next level and while doing so she feels happy that she got associated with the Udhyami Utthan (UU) Online Shop at 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

Shanta shares that she completed schooling but never had a formal education on business management. Therefore, having a platform where one could learn about business management while also learning about managing disasters and knowing how to digitize business was a great learning experience for her. Shanta wished that if only she had this kind of learning experience much earlier then she may have been well prepared when the earthquake happened. Nevertheless, she is happy to have gotten this opportunity, where she got to learn about conducting cost benefit analysis while doing a business. She has planned to properly follow the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that she has developed as this will help her in managing her business efficiently even at the time of uncertain situations. Shanta specifically mentioned that she has learned about creating business plans, division of teamwork,  managing safety at work and digitizing a business.

Shanta shares,  “The training on digital literacy made me conscious about how much today’s generation is engrossed in digital platforms and businesses like ours can benefit if we do the digital marketing in the right way : attractive pictures, descriptions, offers, facebook page/ posts”.  She continued, “These days even those people who visit the store physically ask for the facebook page of the business or if a product is available online, so that they could explore availability of products online or if there are any new arrivals before visiting.” Therefore, Shanta is very grateful to have been associated with the UU Online shop at Thulo.Com.

Shanta liked the sessions with various banks and insurance companies. It has made her ponder if only she had insured her property, life would have been little better. She also realized that there are various subsidized loan schemes provided by banks which a registered business can apply for. The overall experience throughout the project has been an exceptional one. Shanta mentions that she is willing to register a new business and will explore more opportunities of doing it the right way.

Future Plan

Santa plans to eventually run a registered business and possibly apply for a loan to take it to the next level. She wants to keep being associated with UU Online Shop and offer her products through Thulo.Com even after the project is completed.  She also shared that if everything goes as per her plan then she will also be ready to get associated with multiple other online platforms as well in order to reach a larger market. Shanta is very hopeful about her future and we wish her all the best.

Shanta Shakya is a home based producer based in Lalitpur

Visit her Online Shop at Thulo.com/uu