Entrepreneurship is a new word to Indians. There was a time when we couldnt even spell that word correctly. Now we are setting up Entrepreneuship development cells in every college. The new generation is very lucky to get so much of encouragement and support. But this is the story of an unlucky lady, who is a victim her circumstances, but never gives up.
Santha studied only upto the 4th STD. She is our cook now, a very dedicated lady who comes every day early in the morning and prepares food for 5 of us. She has been with us for the last 3 years and its only recently that we found out her entrepreneurial past.
She has every skill that an entrepreneur needs. She has got ideas and a “never give up” attitude. Nothing can stop her from preparing food for us, wheter its shortage of supplies or shortage of gas or water. She socialises with the neighbours very easily and finds all detials about them within a week.
She enjoys what she does and makes us all eat very well. She sees a value in what she does. Its not all about the money. After every meal she asks feedback and sometimes its annoying. So we made a rule. If someone is eating with out saying a word, it means that the food is good. Otherwise we will defenitly tell her that its not very good.
She is very talkative and today she told me an entrepreneurial story of hers and how it ended. She and a friend of hers started a small home based business. They got a 25K loan from a local agency and setup a small kitchen. They would make chappathi and egg curry and pack it. Then they would sell it on the kovalom beach for 35 Rs a pack. North indians and foriegners were the main customers. They used to sell around 100 to 150 such packs a day. They used to make a profit of around 3000 to 3500 Rs a day. They also repaid the loan in 3 months time.
When these ladies became so successful, many didnt like it. People started spreading stories against them. The argument was that its not nice for ladies to do such businesses. They had pressure from within their familes itself to close down the business. Finally they had to stop their business.
She owns 3 autos and gives them to drivers on a daily lease of 100 rs. She is planning to buy her next auto soon. Now you can imagine how much of business skills she has.
She is very certain that she will start some other business in the future, when all of us are married and her cooking job is over. Im very sure that it also will be another successful story.
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