Q: Tell us about you and your family?woman
I am Sharada Rijal Adhikari, a woman entrepreneur from Nepal. I come from a very ordinary family where my father was an ordinary employee in an office and my mother was a housewife. I have 2 children, a son and a daughter and a very supportive husband who has been my pillar of strength through every thick and thin.
Q: What inspired you to start your brand?
SR: Despite my mother being a housewife, she was full of talents. She did all the household chores and in her spare time, she used to design clothes for us and our house was always decorated with her craft pieces. Inspired by her, I started my brand. I even have an all-women staff.
Q: What was the most challenging part of your journey?
SR: I have faced many hurdles in the journey so far but the most challenging was acquiring knowledge related to information technology which I had no clue of and it made me unable to connect with international buyers. I had to hire external resources to make the process easy and now I have started to gain basic knowledge.
Q. What has been the most transformational moment for you in your journey?
SR: The most transformational point in the journey was meeting a Swiss buyer who introduced me on an international platform. It was then that the Canadian magazine gave me the name – ‘hat lady’ during the time of the 1994 world cup. There was another buyer from Japan with whom I am still working. They even called me and my staff to Japan to upgrade our skills in the field of felt making.
Q. If you had a chance, what part of your life would alter?
SR: I was born in a patriarchal society because of which my father didn’t support me build my own business when I first had the thought. I was young and full of power but lacked support. Instead, I was forced to get into teaching. After 10 years, with enough courage and support from my husband and mother, I was able to work on my brand. If I had a chance, I would want to get those 10 years back.
Quickies :
Favourite Food – Nepali cuisine
Ideal Destination – Rara Lake, Pokhara
Sports – Badminton
Hobbies – Designing
Leisure – Watching TED talks and reality shows
Q. Do you want to give a message to women entrepreneurs or those aspiring to own a startup?
SR: It takes a lot of time to grow a tree from a seed; so is growing a business. There will always be ups and downs but you must have a risk-taking capacity and also the patience to see it grow slowly. Choose the sector in which you are interested and have all the basic knowledge about.
Q. One sentence that defines you?
SR: “I am a strong woman with a soft heart. ”
