Eesha Bhatia Wanted to Run A Business Since She Was 6. She Is Finally Living Her Dream

Eesha Bhatia runs an aspiring beauty business in an otherwise male dominated industry. Her Myra Veda is focussed on Ayurvedic products that go from soil to soul. Bhatia says hers is a woman empowered movement, with focus on clean-beauty.  A corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur, Bhatia wanted to run a beauty consumer product company from the age of 6. She has grown up seeing her mother and grand-mother make various facial and hair care blends and decoctions for personal hygiene and beautification and that inspired her.

This is why I turned an entrepreneur:

It was an accidental journey from being a corporate lawyer to a Sustainable Clean Beauty Entrepreneur. I used to make Organic bath & body products for myself and my loved ones which kept getting popular with word of mouth. I turned an entrepreneur when I realised that I couldn't lead two lives - one of a lawyer and one of a formulator. I had to muster the courage and switch my path knowing that I'm giving the world of beauty what it desperately requires - a women run clean beauty brand that doesn't run on the philosophy of profits alone but truly delivering value to the consumers, the employees and our responsibility towards the society (Girl Child Education Initiative that we run) and the environment (Our Green Goddess Initiative).

This is what I do and here are my immediate goals with my business:

I create products, sustainably source raw materials from their authentic sources around the world, design the packaging, plan the finances and run a team of 15 women currently. I plan to expand our operations, launch an entire range of personal care products for everyone (gender neutral) by early 2021 and natural makeup products by the end of 2021. The immediate goal is to be recognised as a high quality, clean and ethical one stop shop for personal care needs.

My biggest challenge in this journey was:

Being a woman actually. The Indian beauty industry is heavily saturated by men of all ages and I can say with conviction that 60 to 70% of them don't even know what they're talking about at least in the product manufacturing sector. They rely on other men to formulate commercially profitable products irrespective of their effect or ill effect of the consumers and are in the business of fooling people. As a woman I wasn't taken seriously despite the fact that I could formulate well and was probably more educated too unless I had a male around me to validate my presence or something. It's not funny how many sexist remarks I've heard from the same people that now take me and my business very seriously. When I got married I was questioned whether I'm still interested in doing the business now that I'm married. Ive had so many challenges but nothing I couldn't overcome. This one in particular is just something that makes me realise that we have such a long way to go before truly accepting women in leadership roles. I plan to change that perception for sure!

Being Small was an Advantage:

Because we actually got a chance to learn more along the way and interact with our customers one on one in a way that wouldn't be possible if he started big. That gave us the chance to intimately know issues from different perspectives than of what studies and statistics offer. Every little step forward brought us great joy and a lot of motivation to keep doing better. Because we've started so small, we'll never forget our roots and values.

Coping in COVID 19 as a small business:

The first thing I did was ensured that we started sanitising our unit on a daily basis and every single product and package that left the unit. When we had the satisfaction of taking all measures above and beyond what was prescribed, we started ensuring our customers that their safety was our priority. The pandemic brought about a lot of strategic changes that had to be made on the spot. We had salaries to pay without revenue inflow because logistics were shut but we managed without firing anyone on account of the pandemic since our team members depend on us heavily. We've been doing the best we can but there's one thing I always tell my team to cope with the mental stress we're all going through - there's literally nothing we can do to stop the pandemic apart from trying our best to not be a part of it by staying safe. So there's no point fretting over it or taking unnecessary stress that will only make matters worse. Just meditate, watch happy things on Netflix, grow your skill set by taking online courses and keep thinking of ways we can improve our sales now and come back stronger than ever.

Three things I would like to share with aspiring entrepreneurs

1) Take the leap - the only person who's stopping you is yourself!

2) Avoid taking money from your family or friends as far as possible especially if they look at it as an investment rather than borrowed help, it will ruin your personal dynamics at some point or another.

3) If you want to perform your very best, put in your everything for 6 days of the week but rest on the 7th - you'll be surprised at how much better you can perform the next week because of that one day. Believe in what you do

Have a #makesmallstrong story? Share your entrepreneurial journey with us stories@shethepeople.tv