Meet the homepreneur who turned her kitchen into a organic soap making laboratory

Innovation has helped turn Ruchi Kanwar , a 40-year-old with a hobby of making organic soaps in her kitchen, into a successful homeprenuer- an entreprenuer who works from home.

From basic ‘haldi-besan’, ‘neem’ and ‘aloe-vera’ to ingenious ‘coffee’ soaps, Kanwar, who quit a full time job in the media industry to pursue her passion has produced 100 types of skin friendly organic soaps, most of which were part of the ‘The Kraft Festival’ held in Noida’s DLF Mall recently.

Motherhood was a life changing experience but it consumed most of my time. That’s when I decided to become a homepreneur I took a few courses on soap making where I learnt how to make branded soaps but used my cooking skills to create organic soaps. We spend thousands of rupees on skin care products. When the entire world is going organic, why not with soaps. I have produced all these soaps in my kitchen as my hobby for cooking gave me the understanding of natural benefits of these products she says.

The Kraft Festival, organised by Kraftly – a buying and selling online platform – has offered many people like Kanwar, small entrepreneurs, one-time sellers and occasional sellers who market offline, a customer -to customer C2C platform where they can get in touch with the customers directly over the Internet. The site enables individuals, hobby sellers and shop owners to create own branded micro-shop, list their products and receive payments.

Meanwhile, the festival showcased more than 30 such sellers and their products that ranged from clothes, shoes, bags, accessories and handicrafts made from waste. ‘Best out of Waste’ products created by handicapped members of an NGO, Society for Child Development are also given a space on the online selling platform.

20-year-old partially blind Soni, who is the marketing manager for the production says,

We produce products from waste. We collect flowers from temples to make scented incense sticks, old cassettes to make pen holder and newspapers to make bags. Kraftly has given us a platform where we can sell even two units easily, she added.

Kraftly mobile app- which works in real time- unlike other selling platforms provides sellers even with one or two products to sign up and sell. Co-founder and CEO Kraftly, Saahil Goel says,

Out thrust is enabling sellers with even one or two products to come online and sell through our app, this is how we have created distinction between our app and other apps.

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Goel, who quit his job in Pittsburgh to pursue his passion for digitisation, says he understood the potential of the Indian market in a digital world.

I knew there was a huge market potential in India. Our idea was not to become primary business but to enable those people to sell who cannot make it to offline market as they do not produce in bulk, he says.

Goel says organising a festival is part of a promotional mechanism for direct outreach to buyers.