They are quiet. A little shy. But when you ask them about how they became entrepreneurs and details of the business they are in, the women slowly open up.
It is a small group that has gathered to talk about their experience as entrepreneurs. They have taken a major step in their lives thanks to WEAT. Or, Women Entrepreneurs' Association of Tamil Nadu. We are meeting in a small conference room at office of The Tiruchirapalli District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association, with which WEAT shares space.
Extra money
The women are housewives and with their children having grown up enough to take care of themselves, have time to spare. For some, the extra money will go a long way in meeting household expenses. And, as the group gets talking, their confidence comes through.
Take the case of Ms V. Amudha, who runs Om Sakthi Enterprises, and Ms A. Afroze, who started Al Avval Enterprises. Both of them deal in banian waste. That is, they buy waste banian material from hosiery units in Tiruppur, remove the thread and sell the thread back to the hosiery units. Each of them makes about Rs 4,000 a month. For Ms Amudha, this is extra money. But, for Ms Afroze, her income goes a long way in making ends meet at home.
They say there are four of them doing this business in Tiruchi. Both Ms Amudha and Ms Afroze work out of home now, employing two persons each, but Ms Amudha may move to a bigger space once business picks up. They get about one tonne of banian waste every fortnight and get Rs 36 a kg of thread they sell back to the hosiery units. If they sell it in the market outside, they will earn up to Rs 50 a kg, but that requires more marketing effort.
For the two as also the others who participated in the interaction that was made possible thanks to Ms Rani Muralidharan, President, WEAT, the association has been a big help. According to the women entrepreneurs present at the interaction, they were able to identify the business they wanted to be in thanks to WEAT. In a number of cases, the association helped them get funds, either from banks or from Tamil Nadu Government lending institutions focussed on the small and tiny sectors.
According to Ms Amudha, business is growing and the only constraint is her ability to execute more orders. She, as well as Ms Afroze, has installed one machine costing Rs 49,000 to remove the thread from the waste cloth. The ventures are a few months old. “WEAT helped us get the margin money for the business,” she says.
Brainchild
WEAT itself is the brainchild of Dr Manimekalai of the Department of Women's Studies, Bharathidasan University, who has done studies on women entrepreneurship. The association helps women become entrepreneurs by identifying the right business for them, training them in various aspects of the business and in getting funding.
Ms M. Inbavalli Murugappan, who has set up Jayam Snacks, which makes and sells savouries, points out that it was thanks to WEAT that she was able to put up stalls in colleges to sell her savouries. Slowly, the business grew so much so that her husband and children are also involved in it now and she has set up her own shop.
Ms Thilakavathy, who set up Best Hydraulics, says an advertisement in a newspaper about a training programme that WEAT was conducting caught her eye. She attended the programme and decided to get into the business of making high-pressure rubber hoses as her husband was a mechanic in this business. WEAT helped her with the finance and in understanding the business. She earns about Rs 15,000 a month on an average. “There are now three competitors for us in Tiruchi,” she says and adds that she is confident of holding her own.
Ms Sathyabhama of Shree Quality Engineering is one of the nearly 30 women vendors to BHEL-Tiruchi. She started her company in 2009 and does fabricating work for non-critical boiler components. “I wanted to do something on my own. I was thinking of starting a business process outsourcing unit. It was thanks to WEAT that I got into this,” she says. Her company recently received an award that BHEL gives to its vendors recognising them for the quality of their work.
According to her, she has an annual turnover of Rs 20 lakh a year and employs 10 people. She got funding from Canara Bank for the machinery and also a Rs 2 lakh overdraft facility from the same bank.
For all of them, the business is only a small step. They are sure that more women will emulate them. Their slogan may well be “WEAT it is!”