Women Lines

Womenlines presents women of substance Ms Malini
Srivastava, entrepreneur who loves to fill colours in everything related to her
life

1.Please share with our readers little bit about you?

I am an artist of varied interest right from making creative handicrafts, to canvas paintings, wooden creations, Tanjore paintings, glass paintings, clay work, fabric painting, candle making, flower making and arrangements. I was a science graduate but had a natural flair in arts & crafts. One of the professors at Agra university who was very much impressed by my paintings offered me a seat in MA fine arts course directly from science stream. I was selected as a member by Sanskar Bharti at state level for arts and crafts. In addition to my MA in fine arts I did a lot of short term courses in textile designing, computer programming, Interior decoration, beauty culture, fashion designing, arts & crafts and also passed the Government of Maharashta’s intermediate grade drawing examination. Later I taught pro-bono at Shri Varshney College Aligarh degree college as a arts teacher as a part of social service for my community.In addiion to handicrafts I have the finest collection of various brass statues and collectibles including Nandi, cow with baby, God Ganesh, Lord Krishna, Radha Krishna in a Jhoola, Buddha faces, Fine Bell with figurines of various Hindu gods , Pots with engravings, Brass Shankhs with gods embossed.

2.So when did you venture into this business? What conspired or motivated you to take a plunge into this venture ?

After marriage when I moved to Mumbai I started on my entrepreneurial journey by creating handmade Ganesha statues from coconut shells which proved to a big hit in Mumbai with the local community who kept it in their houses for auspicious reasons .Later I started my own corporate gifting company in Mumbai by the name of Anushka Gifts and Accessories and in a short span of six months it proved to a big hit with the corporate world in Mumbai. I provided a variety of gift items from key chains, T-shirts, Ties, Pens- Stands, Watches, clocks, brass figures, and leather organizers to various local and multinational companies like Pepsi, Johnson & Johnson. Pillsbury, Godrej, Kodak etc for their corporate gifting needs. Having relocated to Singapore in 2008 I have now set up my base in Singapore to cater to the Singapore market I started small from my house, then set up a registered company AnishAnuska Gifts & Accessories and have started by taking part in exhibitions at community centres, fashion events etc where I primarily display my range of artistic creations and brass works

3.Can you share with us, some of the challenges you faced during your initial days?

Some of the challenges which I faced in my early days were to give a commitment based on somebody else’s commitment and in India I found that there were a lot
of times when I faced panic situations as people did not honour their commitments especially if you were a small company. I had to pay advance upfront and when I sold to companies they would have 60 or 90 day payment terms and lot of time even after that I had to run to get my money. The lesson I learnt is always keep a sufficient margin before you commit anything because in India there can be a variety of reasons why your delivery could not be made on time or your consignment got stuck, Also you need to have deep pockets for your working capital otherwise you just cannot operate.

4.So how do you balance your personal and professional life?

Since I mostly operate from my house I am able to balance both my personal life and professional life. Most of my intricate work like Tanjore paintings or glass
creations is done at night after my little one is put to sleep. I try to keep my weekends free for my family and do most of my work on weekdays when children are in school and husband in office.

5.What would you suggest to other aspiring women who want to venture out on their own?

My advice to other women who want to start something is first and foremost it should be your passion and hobby and not another job, secondly start small keep it simple and only take on what you can with your resources. Never overstep beyond your capacity both financial and physical. Lastly enjoy what you do.

7.What do you have in the pipeline for your company’s/business future development?

In future I see my company AnishAnuska Gifts & Accessories and items website www.anishanushka.com become the first choice of Singapore Indian community for all their art, crafts, gifting, brass statues & artefacts. Finally I would love to see my items treasured in every Indian home in Singapore.

8.How do you feel being part of Udaan?

I feel proud to be a part of UDAAN team as I feel that it is a tremendous learning opportunity to meet each other, learn from one another, get new ideas and thought process and develop contacts from networking. UDAAN gives me a platform to showcase my skills and be among like minded people which acts to
motivate me whenever I feel slightly down.

Visit www.anishanushka.com

to have a look at Malini’s work.

I will love to share link of an article http://www.udaangroup.com/effective-networking-for-entrepreneurs.html… ..written  by my friend Smitha Chandrashekharan
This article made me think that whats the real requirement for entrepreneurs?

Any woman who is into business is always looking for more contacts, networking platforms, forums where she can enhance her  business contacts and also expand her business.In order to expand their business they have to meet right segment of people and also  create awareness about their business products. Udaan ,Indian Women Entrepreneurs Club  in Singapore,  is a platform for all business women  to meet like minded people and to create visibility for their business.   

Home business do have a positive element that women can manage their time well between family and business. But at times its quite challenging to keep themselves motivated and enthusiastic about their business as there are so many other commitments they have to carry on. In regular routine while taking care of family its challenging for women to do their business sincerely. They need to meet people who are into same field and same type of business, so that they can benefit from each other’s experience. What my experience teaches me that when we meet new people we learn a lot from each other insight . Its all about sharing and discussing  about yourself. 

When I meet new people, through sharing, I got many innovative ideas, opportunities and also I came across concept of leveraging with different groups.Udaan is such an avenue  where women can  share about their challenges and look for solutions.  In order to provide more support to its members Udaan is also having Advisory committee, which will be having experienced entrepreneurs to guide and support them.  They can get benefits of getting listed in the directory, their products can be displayed in the product album section for the members, they can get benefits  of public outreach while Udaan is organizing various events throughout year.When entrepreneurs  become Udaan member they can get referral benefits from other members of the club. Its all about getting together at one place and mutually benefiting each other.That is called strength of working together.  WIN-WIN.
God helps those who help themselves. Its all about starting thinking about business with a new concept and having bigger vision in life. Entrpreneurs  only grow when they are having both inward and outward growth. Udaan promises entrepreneurs that they will be benefited in both ways. Join Udaan’s flight to sucess and prosperity……welcome to www.udaangroup.com!

I proudly want to share about my group UDAAN with my blog readers, which I have started jointly with my friend Kamini Chaliki’s  efforts in Singapore http://www.udaangroup.com/

UDAAN is a platform for Indian women in Singapore who are into some business or profession and are looking for networking for mutual benefits. We want to gather all Indian Women in Singapore under single roof to give them benefit of alternative channel of selling their products, besides this UDAAN members will also be getting benefit from UDAAN’S effort of networking and negotiating with other event organizers in Singapore on their behalf for cost effective business agreements.

I strongly believe in women power and if we  get together to work together and jointly put our efforts and hard work in achieving bigger vision nothing will seem impossible. We want to benefit UDAAN members by giving them a mentoring platform by inviting successful women entrpreneurs for their guidance and support to our members. This will definitely help in inward and outward growth of our members. When I started my business in Indian Hand embroidered ladies clothes in Singapore(www.ncstyles.com) I was looking for such platform where I can get benefit of networking and I can share about my product. I was not able to participate in hotel fairs as it was very costly. So I dreamed of such platform which can help me in reaching to right audience in Singapore in cost effective way.

Infact I want all talented women to be part of our group and  we can give them our helping hand to nurture them and motivate them to move ahead in their life from one level to next level. Nobody’s talent should go waste. Try to always nurture your talent and always have dreams for yourself too besides dreams for your family.This is the message of UDAAN-Together we will do it so just aboard our flight towards success and abundance.