Help Rural Women Gain Essential Business Skills

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

Thank you for your continued support. Today, I would like to share with you the story of Kalpana.

"Desperate to support her family during tough times, Kalpana sought out the vast world of YouTube, where she learned the process of making cold-pressed oil. With no support from her family, who were skeptical due to the need for expensive machinery and raw materials, Kalpana faced another significant hurdle: she had no credit score. This made it incredibly difficult to secure a loan from traditional banks. Undeterred, Kalpana mortgaged her gold, took out a loan, and embarked on her entrepreneurial journey. Kalpana sourced raw materials from Kolhapur and Pune, setting up a manufacturing unit in Gondavale. She registered her business with support from Mann Deshi’s Chambers of Commerce, obtained an FSSAI license, and focused on branding and packaging. Her participation in exhibitions and commitment to both B2C and B2B sales began to pay off. Kalpana’s business, Kalpnil Naturals has been thriving for the past four years. Yet, the high commission fees of agents were cutting into her profit margins. Kalpana quickly realized the importance of digital marketing, but the registration fees for online platforms were prohibitively expensive for small rural businesses. Mann Deshi’s partnership with ONDC enabled Kalpana to register her business on the ONDC platform. This expanded her reach beyond Maharashtra, allowing her to sell to consumers across India, including Haryana, Jharkhand, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, and Odisha. Over just four months, she received orders for more than 500 liters of cold-pressed oils, generating Rs 200,000 in revenue".

Thank you so much to all Mann Deshi Foundations supporters!!!

Sincerely Yours,

Vanita Shinde

Links:

• How Kalpana is expanding her business across India with ONDC