Yachika Chopra Started Her Pickle Business To Honour Her Mother's Memory

Goa-based Yachika Chopra was working as an air hostess with a leading airline company when the lockdown was announced. Within a few weeks of the announcement, she found herself jobless wondering what to do next. It was during the same time she lost her mother as well. She was going through a difficult time but she decided to emerge from this stronger. A few months after her death, she started her pickle business Circa to honour her mother's memory.

"I wanted to fulfill my mother's dream of making gourmet pickles and sauces. She had left behind a black book filled with recipes that I now use to make pickles and sauces", Chopra says shedding light on the inception of Circa.

Her entrepreneurial journey

Circa is derived from the Hindi word ‘sirka’ which means vinegar. "Each batch is handmade, and 100 percent vegetarian. I ensure that the ingredients that I use are fresh and locally sourced", she informs.

The first batch that was made was distributed amongst friends and family. After receiving a positive response, she decided to go ahead with the idea to scale up.

But was it that easy? "I didn't have a business background and so, I was absolutely unaware of the tenets of a business - logistics, cashflows, account management. I decided to take those challenges head-on and learn it all", she says. Adding that she was so confident of what she was doing that she refused to join back as an air hostess when contacted by the airline. "I wanted to continue being an entrepreneur", she said.

"One must definitely be ready for a bumpy long ride. Don't expect results too soon however hard work and dedication have to be put in every single day." - Yachika Chopra

Circa Pickles

Milestones achieved 

Talking about milestones achieved since the inception of Circa, she says that each day is important at Circa. "We started with selling two products in the beginning. At the moment, I am selling different pickles. This journey has been phenomenal", she says. The entrepreneur gives full credit to her team of two women supporting Circa with Admin, Accounts & Operations. How does she manage all the work with such a small team? "Google Docs allows me to put all the information combined in one place. The ease of access my team and I get is phenomenal and the scope of human error is minimised", she explains.

Chopra started with an initial investment of about Rs 20,000. She is now getting between 700 to 900 orders each month with monthly revenue of Rs. 80,000.

Lessons learnt

Yachika has learned umpteen entrepreneurship lessons along the way. "One must definitely be ready for a bumpy and long ride. Don't expect results too soon however hard work and dedication have to be put in every single day", she shares. Adding that having absolute faith in yourself and your product is a prerequisite for building a strong brand.

Future plans

Yachika is a strong advocate of giving back to society as much as she takes from it. In alignment with her beliefs, she aspires to create employment through her venture by roping in an all-women in-house team to handle everything from start to finish. She also plans to start a production unit with its own farm in the future.

This article is published in partnership with Google.