This is the interview of Ami Baxi & Deepika Lakhani – Women Entrepreneurs, and co-founders of Buy HomeMade. We hope you find the inspiring interview useful and inspiring through your entrepreneurial journey and will keep you motivated.
Tell us a little about yourself
We are a family of professionals. No member so far has tried luck in entrepreneurship. There has been no precedent for me to follow.
This is my attempt to grow my passion into a business. I am a Doctor by profession and am currently based out of Ahmedabad.
How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Lockdown due to the pandemic changed our perspective in more than one way. Eating out became a distant possibility.
In fact, home-cooked food found a new value and definition. At the same time, I came to know about many families who needed a supply of home-cooked food but were not available.
Cooking has always been my passion. I saw an opportunity for all those who can meet this growing demand.
That was an aha moment and I thought of providing a platform to all homemakers who also double as chefs for their families.
This is an opportunity for all who have been satisfying the taste buds of their family members.
Through this platform, they can introduce their culinary skills to the world and become homepreneurs. We are two like-minded homemakers with different sets of strengths.
We both are foodies and love to cook. Luckily, our skills complement each other so what one lacks is fulfilled by the other one.
We have been fortunate to have the full support of our husbands. Without their help execution would have not been possible. The teamwork has given the much-required wind under our wings.
What service(s) or product(s) do you offer?
There is a distinct appeal to homemade food. At the same time, a link is missing that can connect the clients who love these simple meals and the homemakers, who have for a long while thinking about how to commercialize their skills.
To validate the idea and gap we launched the BUY HOMEMADE award contest. Out of 400 participants we were awarded the 5 best homemakers.
We could prepare a list of 20 homemakers from various categories. Through Expo, we will try to reach out to homemakers in different cities.
What is unique about your business?
Our Idea is very simple and gives the opportunity to everyone.
What made you choose this type of business?
Our Passion is to start our own venture.
What was your mission at the outset?
Our mission is to make homemakers into homepreneurs
How many employees are in your organization?
Currently, We are a team of 5 people
What are your company’s goals?
Our Company goal is to become a global one-stop solution for Home Made Products
How do you build a successful customer base?
Our pilot project received an amazing response. The single-day sales figure crossed the make of 100 orders. The business has been going strong and we have processed 200 orders in the past two months. We expect the traffic to cross 20000 unique users every month.
What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?
As such packaging, and timely delivery is the main challenges.
Who has been your greatest inspiration?
Our greatest inspiration has been the homemakers who want to do something. So in broader ways, it’s we ourselves who are our inspiration ourselves. Our aspiration to become entrepreneurs and make other homepreneur is our goal.
What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
We didn’t make any mistakes, but we had a lot of challenges. Our major challenge was to organize a home food segment. Uniform Packaging and Delivery systems.
If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be?
Covid has taught us that we can do business from home. The opportunity lies within yourself. The world is open to welcoming you.
Does your company help the community or society?
Yes, our Business model is Social Business Model, Our platform provides opportunities to all homemakers also we are in talks with NGOs to list Home Made products.
Also, it will help many NRI, Students studying abroad. We see our startup to be a platform for all types of homemade products.
We are already in talks with many NGOs to list 2000 products prepared by females and specially-abled people. With our social cause at the core, we strive to become a global player.
