I'm a FEMINIST. What's your SUPERPOWER?

Nowadays, women are no longer confined to four walls of a home. They have captured the corporate space, which was earlier connected to their male counterparts. Despite this, the saddest truth is only 13.76% of the total entrepreneurs comprise women as per the research by Startup India.

There is a huge gap between the numbers of entrepreneurs with just a weak figure of 8 million in case of women whereas it crossed 50 million for males. As women are big fighters, so they are coming up with remarkable success, right from scratch.   

NINA LEKHI – BAGGIT QUEEN (Baggit India Private Limited)

Nina Lekhi started her struggle with the blessings of her mom in the form of minimal investment of Rs.7000. The first failure in her life in the first year of college gave birth to the most famous brand of today BAGGIT. From that day, every challenge in the journey of Nina Lekhi encouraged her to move one step ahead.
The rise of this famous brand is due to the passion of her for creativity and fond of fashion like any other girl. Not only she herself works at Amarson’s shop floor to have knowledge of sense of responsibility but the greatest challenge for her is the investment into her business. In addition, fierce competition and marketing of the product is another stone in her journey which she broke by believing in her and by focusing not only a quality product but also on its capacity.

SIMILAR WOMEN JOURNEY’S

Just as Nina Lekhi is the story of NEHA AGGARWAL, another woman entrepreneur known for her well known brand PEPERONE, dynamic handbag manufacturing brand. She also fought with her challenges with full determination with the biggest issue of funding. She not only asked her parents to help with 10 lacs but also raised funds from Central Bank of India (collateral free) and Future Group (10% stake in the company). Similarly, the list is endless adding another name of RANITHA RAJENDRASINGH, founder of NEHA’S BAGS.

FUNDING HOUSES

The foremost challenge faced by every Indian woman entrepreneur is the start-up fund. However, it is now relaxed to tackle in 2019 with the advent of crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Wishberry (70% success rate). Angel Investors such as Google, Yahoo (with a 30% stake), HalogenVentures, BBG Ventures, Golden Seeds, The Jump Fund, Hypatia Capital, Cowboy Ventures, Forerunner Ventures are boosting them. However, every funding house has their terms and conditions, which one needs to research for before applying.

INTERNATIONAL TRENDS WITH STRATEGIES

Women entrepreneurs excel not only in India but all over the world but the success rate is far better abroad. The strategies help them overcome the challenges in a better way than out homegrown brands.

The top selling handbag in today’s time is Kate Spade (New York, U.S.) with a multi-million dollar empire, and the reason behind her success is the use of neutral and bright colors. Designing the bags with paper and scotch tape and other economical alternatives to keep the price down is her USP. The designs at the same time beat the most expensive brands.

Another important story is of Tory Burch (New York, U.S.) with more than $3.5 billion worth. Because of her good customer relationship and homely appeal at the stores with mini fridges and iPads for the visitors, she aced the business. Her awesome social media marketing strategies (blogs, Instagram, Pinterest) to understand the customers’ demand from varied professions leverage her business.

The story continues with Sofia Al Asfoor (Bahrain, Asia), the designer of luxury leather handbag line ‘Sofia Al Asfoor’ got success due to focus on individuality. Her bags’ timeless elegance, luxurious or not, with no cap over the target groups, designed with ubiquitous pyramids patterns are synonymous to quality.

If you are aiming to start your venture in the bags and accessories line, we suggest browsing these wonderful tales of bag-preneurs.