Taking risks for a better tomorrow
M.K. Kamala
THE JOB market scenario in the country will continue to haunt millions of educated and uneducated. Supply will outstrip demand for ages to come. When such is the demand-supply situation, one route that many find rewarding, though there are many hurdles to be overcome, is entrepreneurship. What cockles one's heart is that more and more women are taking risks only to see a better tomorrow.
There are many agencies which are playing a catalytic role in entrepreneurial development and one such is the Small Industries Service Institute (SISI). There are many young educated unemployed who knock on the doors of SISI and have come up trumps in life. However, it is felt that the full potential of the institute has not been tapped as youngsters still prefer to follow the conventional route of acquiring a basic degree. Here are four women entrepreneurs who have had successful stints at SISI and are now on their own feet — confident, earning enough and proud that they are part of a development process. They believe that the Institute should aggressively attract more and more youngsters to take to entrepreneurship.
M.K. Kamala
From a career in commercial practice, she moved to chart her own path. Alongwith a friend, she set up a manufacturing unit for cleaning products. In a matter of a year, the unit has spread its distribution network in Karnataka and now is endeavouring to move out. And Kamala, the founder of Panchajanya Enterprises, is thankful to SISI for the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP).
"I started my career as a stenographer and later became a manager in a pharma company. However, that did not satisfy me. For economical reasons, I resigned from the job and was wondering what to do. I came to know about SISI and the training programmes it offered for setting up small units.
"I enrolled for the EDP in manufacturing chemicals in 2003. It is a one-month programme and it gave a lot of information, particularly about phenyl production. There was one week of practical training in manufacturing process. Soon after, we set up the company to manufacture cleaning products. The first year, that is last year, we had to face practical problems in running an industry which is highly demanding in terms of product specification. But we never buckled under pressure and kept going on and off to SISI for guidance, both for manufacturing and marketing techniques, and SISI has been extremely helpful.
"We have our unit in Yelahanka and have 12 people working in the manufacturing stream and eight in the marketing. Initially we tried corporate sales and then expanded. We have a distribution network in Karnataka and plan to extend to other States.
"The expectations of pharma companies are high, whether their requirement is soap oil or phenyl. We have an external agency to test the quality of the products. In pharma industry, without microbiological tests, they will not source it. Every batch of 50 litre cans we send is tested by the companies. The expectations of each industry is different.
"Though I don't have a science background, the training provided here and the experience I had in the pharma industry helped me. The training imparted here is A to Z and if an individual puts in hard work, the fruits are there to reap. Besides manufacturing, SISI gives insights into marketing and also provides platform for exhibiting our products. I keep coming to the Institute for advice now and then.
"And during the course, they do tell us how to balance manufacturing with finance to get optimal benefits. We started Panchajanya Enterprises with an investment of Rs. 2 lakhs and now the turnover is Rs. 24 lakhs. For the past three months, our distribution turnover is around Rs. 6 lakhs a month. Thanks to SISI, our quality is comparable to any big company. The training they provided in marketing and promotion has helped and they help in managing risks. I am finding the difference between being an employee and an employer. I feel that by getting trained at SISI, we have generated more employment and it is satisfying."
Shanti Ganesh
A B.Com graduate, Shanti Ganesh is another product of SISI. She did a diploma programme in catering and now runs a unit called Swati Cookery. More than running the unit, it is the confidence that she has gained in life that she owes to SISI.
"When I joined SISI, I could not even speak one line confidently. The first day of the one month certificate programme I underwent, I will never forget. To break the ice, the SISI authorities were friendly and guided us not to be nervous.
Shanthi Ganesh
"After completion of the course, I started my own catering unit and I have gained in confidence. I am also running a beauty parlour and I went with a proposal to SISI whether I could be trainer for their beautician course and they agreed. I have trained 35 students in the first batch and some of them have started their own beauty parlours. In every batch I train 30-40 students.
"There are good prospects in beauty therapy and there are some who are earning over Rs. 20,000 a month. I am a member of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka and we do a lot of programmes in rural areas for young unemployed women."
Savitha
Savitha, another commerce graduate, who did an EDP course in screen-printing, has been on and off with screen-printing. Now she is running Videowaves, a video editing unit in Malleswaram, but keeps going back to SISI for assistance.
Savitha
"I am a commerce graduate and like everybody else, I also thought of working in a bank or in the government sector, but I could not get any job. And my sister who works in SISI told me to join a course over and I did. I took training in screen-printing and later set up my own business and was successful for three years. For some reasons, I had to leave screen-printing. Later, I took up video conversions and have been editing corporate films and documentaries. In screen-printing, there is not much of a scope as everything is digital now. The Institute has helped me get a loan through the Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana (PMRY). I was selected by SISI and they in turn directed the bank to release the loan. I got Rs. 1.5 lakhs at 13.5 per cent interest. They help educated unemployed. However, the process of getting the loan is not easy. You have to contact the bankers many times. The best thing about SISI is they provide project reports on any given product or service industry. The training provided was free, except that we had to bring raw materials."
Jayalakshmi Satish
For Jayalakshmi Satish, working as a teacher was not remunerative, hence she set up a unit of her own, having trained at SISI for manufacture of cleaning products.
Her company sells cleaning products under the brand name of Raksha and she owes her success to SISI.
Jayalakshmi
"I worked as a teacher and then I thought of starting a business of my own. I went to SISI for EDP in manufacture of cleaning products. I learnt about manufacturing, packaging, marketing etc. However, after setting up the manufacturing unit, initially we had practical problems. What the consumers needed, we were not able to supply and I kept visiting SISI and the officers there helped me out. We have now started manufacturing room freshners and they are eco-friendly.Now we are focussing on distribution, tapping corporates. The EDP concentrates on cost of production, packing, money management, handling labour, quality etc.
Inputs by R. Chandrakanth
Photos: K. Gopinathan
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