Shanti calls herself a fashion business owner. She lives with her five family members and it was difficult to financially depend on a single person for all the household expenses. Therefore, 8 years back she took training on tailoring to be able to earn some income and support family expenses. Shanti had made a good decision back then, now she runs her own tailoring business based at her home. She shares not just clothes, she also makes handbags and tote bags as well. 

Disaster Experience 
In Dhangadi where Shanti lives, earthquakes or any other disaster like landslides or floods didn't affect her life. So, for her, it is the pandemic that has caused a major effect on her life and business. She and her husband tested positive for corona, which led them to stay in complete isolation. That was the time when she felt very helpless, even getting proper food was also difficult. Her family members helped when she fell ill but it seemed unfair to them to ask for their help as it was risky for their lives too. Both she and her husband could not work and with the lockdown imposed on the country, they could not go to work even after they recovered. For more than three months her family had an extremely difficult life. Shanti was in an emotional and financial crisis. Without losing hope she and her husband started to work again and worked very hard, with the situation getting better their lives are also coming back on track. She was excited to get the opportunity of having her products promoted on the Udhyami Utthan (UU) Online Shop at Thulo.Com along with getting training on ‘Building Resilient Businesses’ she thought this could be a great learning experience. 

“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
Being a project beneficiary has been a wonderful experience for Shanti. The various sessions provided through the online platform made it easier for her to participate. Shanti mentioned, “Overall training modules were very insightful. Online training made it possible for me to have access to learning from various experts even at the time of a pandemic.”  

According to Shanti, she has realized after the training that having a plan for your business can keep you on track and help you take the right actions or decisions at the time of unexpected events. 
She felt that the session on marketing and promotion was more useful to her. Also, these days use of social media like Facebook and TikTok are extremely popular, and using these mediums to promote the business will help reach a larger audience. Therefore, Shanti was happy to learn about different techniques for promoting social media.

The session on banking and insurance was interactive and gave her clarity on various schemes available for registered businesses owned by women.

Future Plan
Shanti plans to work hard on her business. After a couple of years, she plans to take out a loan and invest more to scale up her business. She wishes to continue her association with Thulo.Com and with Udhyami Utthan to keep up with her learnings in the future.

Shanti is a home-based producer.
Visit her Online Shop at Thulo.com/uu