Beautiful drapes, Mumbai
Do Darzi, Delhi
For three years, Sheel Mody, 27, ran a cosmetology clinic within her Tardeo flat. Then her family moved into a luxury Mahalaxmi high-rise and she could no longer conduct commercial activity at home.
So Mody, also a passionate baker, decided to set up a home-based baking venture instead. In November 2011, she launched Frosted Heaven. “Most of my customers came through word-of-mouth,” she says. “Facebook, with only 100 likes, was good… but not enough. I could only reach friends and friends of friends.”
Then, four months ago, Mody created an Instagram account and began promoting her baked treats through photo posts with searchable hashtags — ‘#cupcakes’, ‘#customised’, ‘#baby shower’ etc.
“This account is now acting as a virtual shop, where I can showcase my customised desserts and be seen even by total strangers,” she says. All they have to do is key in ‘#desserts’, for instance, and her wares will show up along with others’.
Already Mody has seen new business jump by 80% — from about five new customers pper month to about nine. Some customers are even reaching out to her from as far away as Bangalore, with one man from that city reaching out to her via Instagram and asking her to deliver a cake to his cousin in Mumbai.
Across urban India — in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Surat — Mody’s modest success story is being replicated, as middle- and upper-middle-class women operating small businesses out of their homes move on from websites and Facebook (where the customer must know about you in order to find you) to applications such as Instagram and WhatsApp, where the right hashtags and judicious promotional messages can get you noticed and attract new customers. These women include bakers, caterers, dance teachers, fashion and jewellery designers, and women trading in watches, clothes and accessories.
“The power of the mobile phone is still being discovered in India,” says Rajiv Dingra, CEO of Mumbai-based social media agency WATConsult. “Like any new technology, it has the potential to change lives through commerce and connectivity. It can be a big boon when it comes to building wide customer networks, especially for house-bound women.”
A large portion of urban Indian women are, in fact, still housebound, usually by their roles as mothers and homemakers, and the smartphone serves as an especially vital gateway when they decide to start small-scale businesses of their own.
“I see more women exploring dormant skills to start mini-business run out of their homes. These businesses will eventually provide them with a new identity and financial independence,” says Dingra.
Sociologist Lakshmi Lingam, however, points out that the real challenge will lie in making it possible for these women to also receive instruction in how to expand their businesses successfully. “In order to sustain their expansion, they will need to have a clear business plan,” says Lingam, deputy director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Hyderabad. “Otherwise it is only a matter of time before they run into issues with labour, logistics, and cost analyses.” For Mody, the business model is taking shape, somewhat. “I make about Rs 45,000 in profits a month, much of which I spend on equipment, paying for utilities and on salaries for my assistant and driver,” she says. “If I continue on this model, my profit margins will definitely rise.”
As a next step, Mody has created a WhatsApp group to tempt everyone in her phone directory with images of her desserts.
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