How a 17-year-old was able to scale her beauty business during the pandemic

Growing up in Mumbai, I always wanted to work in the beauty industry. But, coming from a conservative family, I found it difficult to pursue this dream as my family was completely against the idea.

In 2018, I heard about the skilling programmes at the Salaam Bombay Foundation’s skills@school, and signed up for their Beauty and Wellness Programme. During the course, I even interned at a beauty parlour, which helped me get basic training in various beauty services.

After completing the course, I was able to open my own beauty parlour at my house and named it ‘Divya’s Beauty Parlour’. At the parlour, I used to provide various beauty services, including facial, manicure, pedicure, make-up, mehndi art, etc.

However, due to the pandemic, I was unable to sustain this venture due to a number of lockdowns being imposed. Moreover, things became even more difficult with social distancing and the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Moreover, being a 17-year-old, it was hard for me to access any relevant government schemes for upskilling myself, since all of the programmes and schemes pertaining to skill development and entrepreneurship targeted youth above 18 years.

Luckily, I came across another programme by SBF ‘Entrepreneurship Incubator for Grassroot Adolescents’, which aims to help adolescents in the age group of 16-20 years.

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I was fortunate enough to be a part of the pilot batch of this programme. Once I enrolled myself, I was introduced to new business concepts and learnt useful skills such as budgeting, customer approach, maintaining records of products purchased and services provided.

I also learnt how to use social media platforms like Instagram, through which I was able to create an account and showcase some of the beauty-related work that I had done in the past.

Moreover, with the introduction of simple designing apps like Canva, I could design posters and creatives for my social media profile.

Now, along with the beauty parlour, and I am also making my own hair oil. I have designed a board – mentioning my name and the services I provide – and set it up in front of my house. 

 While I did face a lot of opposition from my family in pursuing my dream of becoming a beautician, today, they are happy to see that all my hard work has paid off.

In the coming years, I want to become a full-time beautician and set up my own studio, where I can employ and empower more people of my age.