‘Technology helped us scale up our homegrown brand in a pandemic’
When Delhi-based Diksha Juneja found out that her husband, Sandeep Juneja, was laid off during the pandemic, she decided to start her own business.
When Delhi-based Diksha Juneja found out that her husband, Sandeep Juneja, was laid off during the pandemic, she decided to start her own business.
NEW DELHI: When Delhi-based Diksha Juneja found out her husband, Sandeep Juneja, was laid off due to the coronavirus outbreak, she was left jolted.
“The expenses were mounting and we were hitting the wall because he couldn’t find another job. He was not in a good state of mind and was losing confidence in himself. That was when I thought we need to pull ourselves up and we can’t let circumstances decide our fate,” says 43-year-old Diksha.
Her obsession with food turned out to be her calling and she wore the mantle of picklers and jam makers. During the second wave of the pandemic, Diksha and her husband launched a homegrown brand called HomemadeLove.
“I made a few pickles, some jams – marmalade and apple. I used to make it on the weekend and my husband used to fulfill all the orders that we used to get from friends and family.” The business took off well but they could only reach out to a handful of people. This is when technology came to their rescue.
“Our friends would recommend us to a couple of their friends, but how do you scale up? Technology today is the only way that we felt we could scale up,” Diksha says scrolling through her social media pages.
She created a Facebook and Instagram page where she would constantly post pictures and videos. From her popular “Aam ka achaar” to BTS, she, with help from her brother, Vanshaj Kapur, designed interactive posts for engagement. Soon, they were flooded with orders after ads were put out about their gourmet products.
“After we posted our ads on Instagram and Facebook, within a month we had got orders from almost all the metros. We had one from Mumbai, one from Bangalore, one from Calcutta, and a couple of them from Delhi and it didn’t matter that I was sitting in Delhi and sending my goods,” she says.
Homemade Love is now a family of eight. Geeta, her first employee, says that the job has empowered her financially.
“The salary here has helped me a lot. I can spend on myself, my daughter and I don’t have to ask for money from anyone. I spend as I want, even at home,” says Geeta.
Recalling her journey, Diksha says, ” When I was leaving my job people were like, “Are you mad? “Kitna bech legi achaar?” So there were a lot of people who were saying your husband doesn’t have a job. You are also quitting so don’t do that… but, you know, you just need to listen to your inner voice and go for it.”
