Four besties turn entrepreneurs and sell quirky notebooks

Friends for over two years with a collective desire to be creative, these young women collaborated together for their own business. The idea was to sell quirky and fun notebooks that would be affordable for college students. These besties from Mount Carmel College tell us how they like to run their world.

When an opportunity presented itself, these girls decided to make it their own. Shama R, who loves doing crafts came up with the idea of designing notebooks. “When I made the first notebook, I realised that it was simple and cost-efficient. The others naturally came onboard as the idea resonated with them.” Their very first sale at a college festival garnered a positive response which encouraged the foursome to take their idea forward. Another sale at a popular exhibition helped them break even.

In an interesting attempt to redefine themselves, as they are often called lazy, they decided to call their venture “Handcrafted by Lazy”. Shama says, “What started with a simple amount of `1,500 has blossomed into a successful online business. Colleges have been always given us more than we expected during sales. The four of us have grown immensely in a matter of five months, when it comes to our designs and how we take it to the right audience.” This summer has been a fruitful one for these ladies as they took on more orders. Debashri Kar says, “Our ideas intend to be light on the pocket for the student crowd.”

The rapport they share with each other is the tie-breaker in most situations. Raksha Bhat adds, “We don’t agree unanimously over everything that we need to decide on. We consider everyone’s opinions before we reach a conclusion.” The families of Team LAZY have been supportive from the start. Suruchi Mittal says, “They are constantly involved with our work and even pitch ideas. Our teachers also help with getting us bulk orders and our classmates do a great job of marketing us.”

These young entrepreneurs who are also students of a comprehensive commerce degree put their theory into practice as they say, “There is no better way to learn. We love what we do and we are constantly working to be better.” It keeps them grounded and gives them something creative to do besides studies! Debashri feels, “We are keen to manage our orders along with our studies and will be planning our work according to the college schedule. We look forward to setting up a proper website where our customers can place orders and establishing ourselves in the city.”