Categories: Blog

Housewife to Entrepreneur: Where Should You Start?

Marriage makes a tremendous difference in an Indian woman’s life; I must say, most woman aren’t the same after.

No woman sacrifices career and dreams with a happy heart; Woman wishfully sacrifice, however deep down inside heart, yet they feel extremely heavy for the sacrifice.

“What have I achieved in life?”, I always ask myself while washing the dirty dishes every morning.

“Did I study so hard to wash these dirty dishes? What’s the use of me being educated? Don’t I deserve to be financially independent?”, is a housewife’s vexatious question when her husband denied permission to go to a job.

“Even though I make the tastiest, healthiest food in the world, I’m the most undervalued at home. Is money everything?”, asks a depressed housewife.

Money isn’t everything; however, it indirectly compliments a relationship. Imagine a month without a single penny. Would you survive? How long?

Life is relationships — no doubt, however, money (blended with love) tie relationships together. It’s a painful fact.

So, where did I start?

Meditate! Hear that little voice inside!

In the stories of most successful woman entrepreneurs in the world, all converse about one common subject: Inner voice.

From Napolean Hill to Oprah Winfrey to Steve Jobs, inner voice is the secret weapon.

“Inner voice — the voice of subconscious mind– is the guide to infinite intelligence,” said Napolean Hill, the author of the famous book ‘Think and Grow Rich.’

How do I hear my inner voice daily?

Meditation.

Mind you, practice meditation well to distinguish between fear and inner voice clearly. The inner voice is confident, whereas worry is frightful.

Get ready for CRITICISM!

Wanna know how the criticism would be? Watch these movies.

Tumhari Sulu

She fell in love with a guy at age 15, failed in her higher secondary, now gets underestimated everywhere.

Her well-educated sisters kept putting her down; in the midst of all this, she desires to achieve something in life, at least a job.

This woman ‘Sulochana’ is an inspiration to all Indian Housewives.

English Vinglish

She doesn’t know how to speak English. Husband and kids put her down wherever simply because she doesn’t understand English.

The mental pressure of an Indian woman housewife is well shown.

Watch how ‘Sridevi’ overcomes it, there is a strong message.

Mary Kom

Pregnancy caused an end to her boxing career. A world-famous champion ‘Mary Kom’ lost her boxing position upon marrying at the wrong time.

Keep an Organized Home

Kitchenette commitment drives me nuts.

Washing vessels, cooking food, cleaning the mess; how much ever I do, work never ends. How did I spend time on business?

Follow simple rules:

Keep all your stocks in a transparent container (easy to spot the soon-to-be-over ones).
Fix a magnetic white-marker board on the fridge to note down the shopping list.
All vessels should have its place in the kitchen.
Place all the things back in its place once done. Master self-discipline.

David Allen’s (author of the book ‘Getting Things Done’) Lynda video tutorials encouraged me a lot to keep kitchen very planned.

Organising kitchen motivated me to organize the whole of my life (including business).

Reading habit is a must.

Reading books is the most undervalued hobby although many never knew that world’s most significant knowledge is in books.

“Think and Grow Rich” and “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” was mind-blowing books which taught life skills from meditation to self-satisfaction to self-discipline.

‘The Cashflow Quadrant’ is the best finance book which taught me the secret formulae, “Make money work for you.” and the value of creating systems around.

Books mentally shape you, don’t ignore its power.

I’ve read over 100 books now 🙂

Plan your investments.

Open a PPF account.

“Compound Interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”, stated Albert Einstein.

Public Provident Fund (PPF) operates on compound interest, we all learned compound interest during school days in Mathematics, but do we know the power of it? Google it.

Own a PPF account; it’s worth it!

Fixed Deposits.

Got lumpsum money? Fixed deposit it — risk-free. Compare the interest rates across multiple banks and use your judgment.

Recurring deposits

Fix a target, and commit to saving money. A forceful commitment makes you save a lot of money, that’s when recurring deposits help.

Invest in yourself.

Yes, start learning. From Udemy to Lynda, all courses are available at the touch of a button these days.

Term Insurance.

Must-have. I would instead call it temporary insurance.

Term insurance is the inexpensive way to get a secured life insurance benefit for a limited time.

Anything terrible can happen to anyone, and one must make sure that you’re insured. Invest a small amount of money for your medical coverage, so critical situations can be handled without burdening anyone.

Mutual funds.

Start small and see how this works. This is a small pool of funds handled by professionals.

These professionals monitor markets every now and then, invest your money in the stock market safely to make profit out of it.

Startup Ideas for Housewives.

Make sanitary pads

Heard about Arunachalam Muruganantham? Padman?

The inventor of low cost sanitary napkin manufacturing machine, a revolutionary concept among the high cost complicated machines in the market.

This is a great opportunity for Woman Self Help Groups and aspiring woman entrepreneurs.

More info in this link http://newinventions.in/machine-information/

Tailoring

Do you have anything to sell online (stitching, art, handicrafts) in India but don’t know where to start? Instamojo is the best place, you can quickly open an online store, or create a payment link to share to customers via Whatsapp.

Quick tip: Instamojo + Zepo couriers is the best solution if you have any physical product to ship inside India.

Printrove

Printrove is a Print-on-demand company, they have a set of products like T-shirts, Coasters, Mouse pads. You can either give them your design to print on or choose one from their repository. Then, sell it online via Amazon or Flipkart to reach the market. Interesting isn’t it?

Fiverr

Be it a simple handsoap you want to sell, or a virtual assistant job you want to take; Fiverr suits almost all. Your clients tip you if they’re impressed. Hurrah!