A creative person, Stuti, is fond of baking and crocheting. As a kid, she loved cakes, and there were not many bakery shops available in Dharan. The available ones lacked quality baking techniques. Her love for baking led her to pursue graduation in hotel management. Her family-owned Kamana Dairy added the bakery segment seven years back, considering her passion for baking. In addition to managing a bakery business, Stuti also teaches at one of the hotel management colleges in Dharan. Stuti is living her dream and mentoring students to nurture skilled people in the hospitality industry.

Disaster Experience

In the year 2015, Stuti and her family added a bakery segment to their family business in Dharan. Unfortunately, the same year a massive earthquake struck Nepal, causing loss of lives and livelihood. Stuti remembers that her bakery business had just begun, and such a catastrophe happened. Getting the raw materials became a challenge that halted her business's smooth operation. Eventually, things got back to normal with time, and everything seemed on track when again, in the 2019 pandemic - COVID 19 doomed everything. Stuti had to shut down her store as keeping up with the monthly rental and having full-fledged staff with minimal business transactions became unmanageable. After a few months, Stuti decided to cater her bakery products to clients from her home. This decision turned out to be great, and now with things getting better, Stuti’s bakery business is again back on its feet. Learning new things always excites her, so when she got a chance to learn something new and promote her products under the Udhyami Utthan (UU) Online Shop at Thulo.Com, there was no limit to her excitement.

“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

Stuti feels that being a part of this project has been an eye-opener. We tend to put a lot of our learnings in our subconscious minds and need some trigger to use our learnings at the right time. Having dealt with two catastrophes within a few years, Stuti realized that learning about disaster management and having a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) will help her prepare for future uncertainties. Stuti shares, “We may not be able to prevent natural hazards, but if we plan and prepare ourselves, then we can minimize the severity of its effect. This project has helped me be aware of disaster management and have a plan for my business. The BCP that I made will be the business handbook that will come in handy for me and anyone who will be managing our business.”

She knew that digitizing the business has become essential to keep pace with the changes in the business environment. However, due to a lack of proper guidance and training, she was hesitant to use technology in her business. This project has equipped her with the technical know-how to effectively use an online platform for promoting and selling her products. Her association with Udhyami Utthan (UU) Online Shop and the training on Digital Literacy has given her much-needed confidence towards digitizing her business and the use of e-commerce for growing her business.

As a project beneficiary, Stuti could interact with banking and insurance personnel. Though she had heard about the subsidized loan for women in the past, she had no idea about ways to approach the banks and working mechanisms. She is pleased that this project helped her gain knowledge on the banking facilities, and for the first time, she was able to interact with the personnel one on one, which has cleared all her doubts.

Future Plan

In addition to the bakery, Stuti has a chocolate factory as well. She plans to expand her chocolate business and sell the product in Dharan and other major cities in Nepal. She now understands that e-commerce will give her that opportunity to reach out to untapped markets. Therefore, she wishes to continue her association with UU and Thulo.Com in the future as well. For disaster management, Stuti plans to get an insurance plan for her employees at her bakery and chocolate factory. Their medical expenses get covered in case of any unfortunate incidents.

Stuti Shrestha manages Kamana Dairy and Bakery, her family business in Dharan, Sunsari.

Visit her Online Shop at Thulo.com/uu 

(https://thulo.com/index.php?dispatch=companies.products&company_id=787)