Story of 1 paper bag to 1 lac Paper bags
———————————————————
This is an interesting story of #WomenOwned Business.Pinky Maheshwari and her mom Sharda Daga started this in Sept 2015. Pinky is an MBA and has worked with Worlds Largest advertising agency -Ogivly & Mather, Mumbai for 8 years and 2 years with Vodafone. She quit her high paid job and chose to bring smiles on the hidden talented artisans of india.
So what do this Mother Daughter duo does ?
——————————
They make recycled handmade paper. So what’s novel about it? Well, many reasons why their paper is unique. First, they don’t cut trees to make paper; they make it from cotton rags/waste cotton and paper waste. Secondly, they mix seeds in the paper so that there is life even after it loses its strength. No wonder their tagline, ``Why throw when we can grow” echoes in all their products.
Pinky says, ``Paper-making process uses energy, water and chemicals and produces waste. However, handmade paper made from recycled materials consumes at least 50 per cent less energy and up to 75 per cent less water than virgin fibre. It also produces up to 90 per cent less wastewater and reduces air pollution by 70 per cent.”
And while they do all of this, they empower women from rural India. More than 85 per cent of the artists she works with are women. “When you buy things from Surprise Someone, you actually make someone smile,” says Pinky. She is targeting to train 10,000 girls and make them self-employed by next 3 years.
They both have brought such a positive change of gifting to almost all the Indian Festival. This year they made Plantable Rakhi which later grows up into Beautiful plants.
For Diwali- they came up with “Oxygen wala Diya”. For Christmas- they have Plantable Xmas theme seed bombs which grows into
Plants. For New year- they have plantable Calendar. Else all this would have taken spot at landfills and thus global warming.
For Valentine- they have Beautiful Plantable hearts which grows into Plants.
They even make Plantable Flags for Independence Day and Republic day. Usually people wear as badge and later trash it. So why throw when we can grow our country flags into PLants.
With SURPRISE SOMEONE- we all together are helping save our planet from global warming.
It is said that one’s energies follow his/her thoughts. Pinky and Sharda borrow from this philosophy when running their business --Creating and multiplying happiness through the products they make and sell.
Pinky was privileged to recieve 100% scholarship from IIM B to learn entrepreneurship deeply. This course was sponsored by Goldman Sachs company.
Pinky says-“ We plan to start trainings of making recycled seed paper in government schools and pvt schools so more and more young minds can join and innovate with paper thereby help stop global warming”.
Pinky now also teaches entrepreneurship in Govt of India (NSIC | MSME) for EDP course (Entrepreneurship Development Program)
Sheer hard work, passion and commitment have yielded a positive outcome. They have an envious list of clients in the corporate sector and have received several orders from the Government of India. This young start-up has been receiving 95 per cent subsidy on domestic and international trade shows from Start-up India Scheme; received awards from style icon Karisma Kapoor in Ravishing Design Awards 2017 and also from Soha Ali Khan in Pride Awards 2018 for innovative wedding invites made of seed paper. Pinky has also been named among 100 Women Faces of India by Womennovator (an initiative by Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs, India).
Recently they were chosen to showcase their Tree Friendly Product range in India’s Biggest Trade fair- India International Trade Fair-2019. They were given free space in Start up Pavillion.
Pinky has also recieved 100% scholarship from IIM Bangalore for Entreprenuership Program- fully funded by GoldMan Sachs company under 10k Women Program.
2 biggest Mistake of their Entrepreneurial Journey-
1st- In First year of their Business they hired less smarter people than them. For example if Pinky was scoring 5 on a scale of IT or Finance- she hired someone who was 3 or 4 as she was scared that new person would dominate her and system.
After taking course from Walmart she understood this disaster which was happening and she changed the people immediately and found her company moving towards growth.
2nd Mistake- Since they are into eco friendly space and they thought everyone is their client. When Pinky recieved 100% scholarship from IIM Bangalore to study entrepreneurship, she realised that she was making big mistake in not realising WHO WE ARE? So that course taugh her one big lesson of learning “Who you are?”
To portray example-
Are you a ParleG biscuit? Or good day? Or digestive or dark fantasy or cookie from star bucks? You have to decide who you are and who you are targeting.
Pinky believes there is no substitute of hardwork. She says if Passion is added to your Hardwork along with Positive Affirmations then you just have to taste beautiful MIRACLES in your life.
Our detailed profile-
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nPhVb4ZsaV7k7lprsvp_geFFpP3OFmRF/view?usp=drivesdk
Here is the video of how we do our work-
https://youtu.be/nBMdXdiQYkc
Less