At the starting of her 20’s, having one lakh plus followers
on Instagram is not her identity but being a young entrepreneur and making
business in lakhs is her identity. Yes, her name is DivyaBharathi. Her dad is a
proud farmer and she comes from a normal family background, living her life
back in the village. Without any former background she has stepped into a new
field as a first generation entrepreneur, Ms. Divya.
She is running an online ecommerce clothing store using her Instagram handle - Uzhamagal which includes various types of dress such as office wear and party wear. Based out of Tiruppur, a village near Ponnegoundan Puthur, has started her business and now has customers all over the world. Her journey is interesting and motivational to all the young entrepreneurs out there.
With an investment of just 5,000 rupees, she started her business and now has grown to a height of employing 5 members on site and many more to work in remote. Not only she got transformed but have also grown to a level of giving back to the society. She has also got the pride of becoming the chief guest to the very same college that she came out from and had also got awards for the same.
_3.jpg)
How did you get the idea of becoming an entrepreneur?
She said that, during her school days she decided that
Fashioning is her field. And learning tailoring as soon as she completed her
10th grade. After that she bought her own tailoring machine and started
practicing in it. At that time, she had an idea of starting her own business
but she also stated that she has been grown in an environment which always
talked, kept the women low and not in par with the men and treat them equally.
She grew up with the ideology to break it and over come it.
When did you start your business?
She told that, she studied Bachelor of Technology in Fashion, during those days she had opened an Instagram account named Divya Fashion and started posting all her designs on it. As a part of her college internship, she participated in a competition at her Intern Office. She shared the design of the dress that she designed for the competition in her Instagram. On seeing it, she got her first order anonymously on Instagram asking for the same dress design to her and she successfully delivered the order. During the lockdown, she had a lot of time to focus more onto it and initially her close ones started buying her dress later she gained a lot of customers. Despite getting a high paying job, she decided to continue as an Entrepreneur and started the her on brand Uzhamagal on Instagram.
.jpg)
Being a first generation entrepreneur, tell us what are
all the struggles that you faced?
She said that, the day she declared that she’s going to
start a business the struggles also started accompanying her. “You have got a
great job, go for it, what if the groom you are about to marry says no need for
business? Are your going to say no for your marriage?” asked her mom. Her dad
was financially capable of supporting her, yet he did not give her the money.
Only she sister was the one who gave money for her investment. Few months later
she got the support of her entire family.
Her investment was only 5,000 rupees, as she already had her
own tailoring machine. She identified the problem – there were no trained and
talented tailors to stich modern dress in the villages. I selected one and
trained them, sat with them and got the dress stitched. She invested all her
profits back into her business. Once she started sharing all of them to
Instagram and started getting orders, she stitched all those dresses and sent
them successfully.
Initially she was shy to be a model and wear all the dress that she stitched in order to post them on Instagram. But on seeing other models she got the confidence to become a model for all the dress that she stitched and posted them in Instagram. She was the only person who took care of all the works from shooting for Instagram to packaging and sending the order via courier.
Later, she started receiving a lot of orders through
Instagram, that’s when she started facing manpower shortage. Even if she got
orders for a lakh and she worked the entire month, she found it difficult to
complete those orders successfully. Now her team has grown to in size reaching
5 other employees along with her. And based on the order count she has started
out sourcing the designing and tailoring works.
Initially, she had to reach out to Coimbatore to procure the
dress materials but now the materials are getting delivered to her village
itself. She has been working with a partner now for the past six months. As
this has now become easier for her to share the work and split the tasks,
taking individual responsibility which in return helps her to reach out to more
customers and expand her services.
What future plans do you have?
She said that, she is indeed focused to open a Shop soon in the upcoming future for the customers who wish to purchase the dress in person by touching them and feeling the material quality. As a long term goal, she has a dream of opening outlets in various cities of Tamil Nadu which include Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Erode, and Chennai.
BalaSarvesh
BM Correspondent