She sells organic products; helps youths start biz

Hyderabad: One of the important challenges of startup companies is to focus on manufacturing products and how well they can be sold in markets. Latha Bongarala, owner of Cottage Wellness organic store who started her business in a small room with a shutter with an investment of Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 was manufacturing around 30 to 40 units of the product then is now almost earning more than Rs 1 crore annually.

She says, "the motto of our business is 'let food be thy medicine'. This has been my dream project, where my family is fully supporting me to take the business forward."

"It is a women empowered unit. We started with one lady working at the unit and slowly we employed eight women. We pay around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 to our staff and support their families by giving incentives," says Latha.

Their store has been running for three and a half years now and presently employees eight women who are part of the unit that makes laddoos, murukus, soaps, hair oil, edible powders, pickles and several other products.

"We make sure that the products we sell are price sensitive and the quality is not compromised. We have been receiving good feedback from the customers who use our products," says Latha.

"Initially I used to keep the shop open from 1 pm to 8 pm. Later, when customers increased, we started keeping the shop running from 9.30 am 8 pm. Home delivery has come as a major plus for the rise in the demand for products. Though our store is near Imamguda, we cover a large part of the city through home delivery," adds Latha.

"Startups have to be encouraged and not compared with others, for better growth in the market. We never talk about competition because we are competitors ourselves. It's a family business and my family supports me to the fullest. The business is slowly picking up." continues Latha.

About struggles and challenges she faced when starting her business, she says, "We had a lot of trouble in the beginning of our journey because of the Covid pandemic."

We tried to educate people on acupuncture and encouraged them to go for natural food which helps in healing our health naturally."

Covid she says played an important role for Cottage Wellness as people started understanding the worth of organic products. "During Covid times people started visiting our shop. They understood that organic food is very important in curing illness and all the Covid problems."

"The word spread around about our store through several people. My family also supported me during the Covid times where they left their jobs and helped me in making the company more successful," says Latha with a smile.

"As the situation improved and our business started looking northwards, we took an MSME loan of Rs 10 lakh, with subsidy of Rs 3.5 lakh," says she.

Awareness is a must for people to avail loans. A banker can educate people aware about the nitty-gritties of taking a loan and the process involved in it.

"For setting up a startup, one should have money or have proper knowledge about getting loan, develop a project report and what kind of business they want to start, whether it is going to be useful or not, whether they can run by themselves or need help. Assess their financial resources and apply for loan to fill the gaps or based on the company requirements," she opines.

"Suppose women approach us for help, we guide them as to how to start a business, in terms, like starting with a minimum budget and slowly progressing, to make the venture successful," she says.

"We have promoted many women and we keeping encouraging and helping people if they are interested to start a business to sell a product with the theme of how to live healthy and naturally," Latha says.

"In India only about 22 per cent of women are independent, so awareness should be spread among women," concludes Latha on a positive note.