A business that an Indian woman was running halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Shweta Joshi is now selling a delicious line of breads made from Youtube recipes.
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the careers of countless people. People have become jobless during these difficult times. But, there are people with an internal strength who didn’t lose hope. Instead of giving up such people have started new careers and businesses.
One such strong person is Shweta Joshi, a 42-year-old woman from Noida in Uttar Pradesh, who ran her own business known as Artventure Educraft. In that business, which she had to stop running after the pandemic started, she worked with different schools providing kids with hands-on experience in art and craft.
Shweta says it was something she enjoyed doing, but the epidemic forced her to abandon her plans. She claims that the purpose she established her business was to gradually wean children away from screens, but the pandemic drove them all back to them.
Shweta, never one to sit idle, began to consider what she could do next to keep herself active while still earning an income. She claims that before then, she would cook simple tea cakes and breads for herself. She decided to pursue baking as a career after being persuaded by a friend.
Shweta’s new venture, Quarantine Bakers, was formed in May last year, just two months into the lockdown. Her kid came up with the name, and it stuck, Shweta says proudly.
When she thinks back on the early days, she adds, “It was anything but easy.”
Because there was no aid at home, Shweta was responsible for managing the house, cleaning it, cooking, and finally baking.
Those were also exhausting days, but I never felt the need to complain about it as I loved doing it.
Shweta decided to use WhatsApp to promote her work, and she formed a group with members of her own community.
She then began posting images of the breads and tea cakes she made.
Shweta describes her firm as an experiment in the beginning, and she discovered that her first customers were her major and marketers and cheerleaders.
They would advertise Shweta’s items, and she began to get business through word-of-mouth.
Shweta says that the majority of her clients have ordered from her multiple times, and some have even become long-term customers and friends. While Shweta did not see the use in investing in equipment at first, as the orders increased, she became aware of the necessity for it.
Shweta now earns more than Rs 1 lac. every month, by preparing close to six to eight orders every day and serving consumers from all across Delhi/NCR.
