Covid-19 disrupted families across the country, especially their finances. However, Bengaluru resident Priyadarshani P took the challenge thrown by the pandemic head-on and turned the disaster into an opportunity. She teamed up with her mom to start an online business. Although the business was closed down later on as her grandparents were not good in health and needed care, Priyadarshini’s story tells us how she overcame adversities with minimum investment. 

In an interview with The 1% Club, Priyadarshini shares how she started the business and the lessons she learned from it. Edited excerpts: 

Please tell us a little about yourself.

I am Priyadarshini and I am currently a Business Development Associate Manager. I completed my BBA and got a job in early 2020. My company went into work-from-home mode soon because of COVID and my salary was just Rs 15,000. I knew I had to support my family during this hard time so I looked up for ways to earn more.

What did you do to get additional income?

I self-learned Graphic Design and started freelancing. Through word-of-mouth, I got more projects quickly and this nearly doubled my earnings. I also started saving by investing in stocks.

How did the business idea strike?

My mom makes really tasty mutton biryani so one Sunday we made a huge batch and sent it to friends. They all liked it a lot and came back for more. That’s when we thought this idea would work. With a mere Rs 5,000 or Rs 6,000 investment, we started our home-based biryani business- Hyderabad Gully.

What was the selling price of the biryani? How did you promote it?

We sold Chicken Biryani at Rs 250 and Mutton Biryani at Rs 350. I promoted it mostly on Instagram by starting a page. Even though we had a small menu, the order sizes eventually grew because people were craving good home-cooked biryanis. 

Tell us a little about sourcing ingredients, packaging, etc. that helped your business grow.

We’d use Instamart for quick deliveries if we ran out of important ingredients. We cut costs by sourcing bulk packaging materials and didn’t get any wholesale food ingredients because it wasn’t giving the authentic taste. However, there were times when mom would douse the ghee and I’d have to order more in the middle of the preparation. For quick deliveries of biryanis, I used Dunzo.

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What were the initial profits you made?

We made like Rs 10,000-12,000, basically double the cost.

How much did you earn in 5 months and how the number of orders increased from the first to fifth month?

Within 5 months, we were making Rs 50,000-Rs 60,000. In the first month, we sold around 6-7 boxes and in the last month 10-15 boxes as we got bulk orders for family functions and get-togethers. 

What were the main problems your mom encountered before closing it?

It was just mom and grandmom who took care of the cooking and packing. At one point, we were not able to manage due to huge orders. We couldn’t even hire a house help and that’s when things turned hectic. And when my grandparents were hospitalised, we put a brake on our business as we understood we needed more support.

Will you start it again? And if yes, what are the main things you will focus on?

Yes, we are planning to start it again. This time we’ll focus on getting a spacious kitchen and one resource, we’d keep a fixed menu because it was easier to take flexible orders but to scale up, maybe, we’d choose certain days for certain menus. I will also look for a way to get cheaper logistics and delivery partners. Also, I will prefer to source the best ingredients without compromising on original taste and authenticity.

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Any advice to homemakers who wish to start a small business like this? 

This wasn’t planned so we learned on the go. The best advice is to test a trial and then see the response. You will then learn from your customers and try to make it personalised just as I would at times add handwritten thank you notes when I got the chance. Also, sometimes complimentary extra add-ons would also help get more orders.

Disclaimer: The above content is based on the information provided by Priyadarshini. The 1% News doesn’t independently verify non-public data reported by interviewees.