One of many major challenges confronted by new mother and father is holding their infants engaged, notably as they start to stroll. It’s turning into more and more essential to search out methods to entertain and educate youngsters whereas minimising display publicity, and plenty of mother and father in parenting teams have a standard query: “How can we maintain our youngsters screen-free for so long as doable?”
S Haripriya, a mom of two, had the identical question when her second youngster was born in 2017. She looked for open-ended toys that will each educate and entertain. In her quest, she realised that she wasn’t alone in struggling to search out appropriate choices. To supply her then two-year-old and three-month-old with toys that will assist them study life abilities, she based Extrokids, a enterprise “devoted to catering extraordinary youngsters”, she informs.
Beginning a enterprise whereas caring for a three-month-old and a toddler was no simple feat for the 34-year-old. Each step offered challenges, particularly with naysayers in her household who believed she ought to focus solely on elevating her youngsters.
Decided to realize her objective of offering mother and father with important sources for his or her youngster’s growth, she persevered. She discovered assist in her mom, who joined her just a few years later and is now the face of the corporate.
The street was rocky, however Haripriya emphasises consistency is vital. She stored at it, whether or not it meant ready for a month for her first order, enduring losses, or struggling to pay salaries. Her endurance and perseverance had been rewarded; at this time, Extrokids receives over 15,000 orders per thirty days, boasts a list of over 500 toys, has practically 5 lakh followers on Instagram, and has served over 5 lakh clients thus far.
Haripriya had began the enterprise with simply Rs 5,000 from her home in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Overcoming Challenges: Haripriya’s Path to Success
Born and raised within the “Manchester of South India”, the BSc electronics graduate tried her hand at completely different companies earlier than the start of her second youngster, together with promoting items, eco-friendly napkins, and providing tutorial classes.
The postpartum interval impacts each new mom otherwise, and for Haripriya, it gave start to a powerful want to make a distinction in folks’s lives, notably for fogeys.
“Once I looked for instructional toys and books, I couldn’t discover many. My intensive analysis into toys that might improve high quality and gross motor abilities, hand-eye coordination, and total mind growth made me realise that there was a major want for such merchandise. As I began utilizing these with my youngsters, I started promoting them as effectively,” Haripriya tells The Higher India.
Initially, she bought preloved books and toys however quickly realised the restrictions of the previous, shifting her focus to toys.
Whereas ready for orders, she additionally launched her youngsters to new toys. Observing the constructive impression on her youngsters, she started including them to her catalogue.
“Mother and father are busy at this time. They usually find yourself utilizing cell phones to maintain them engaged. Considered one of my targets is to stop display time by providing open-ended toys and video games that maintain youngsters engaged. Every recreation enhances a toddler’s abilities and helps their growth,” she provides.
Hailing from a jewelry manufacturing background and with a bachelors in science, e-commerce was a wholly new territory for the entrepreneur. She initially bought her merchandise by means of WhatsApp and Fb. Nonetheless, as her assortment grew, she discovered it more and more troublesome to answer to every question and ship photos manually.
“As my assortment expanded to over 500 toys, I couldn’t reply to each message. I needed to obtain orders even once I slept. For that, I wanted to create a web site. Initially, I outsourced the venture however was duped. I realised that I needed to study every part essential to run an e-commerce enterprise and construct my web site from scratch,” Haripriya says.
The web site’s creation took six months, throughout which she misplaced all her clients and “got here all the way down to zero.”
A Mom’s Assist: How Banu Fueled Extrokids’ Development
It was throughout this difficult time, {that a} million-dollar thought struck Haripriya whereas she sat within the workplace along with her mom, Banu.
“We didn’t even have cash to pay our employees,” she shares.
She got here up with the concept to put up a video explaining methods to play with a selected toy. The video, that includes her mom and missing any fancy background or results, obtained over 60,000 views!
“I questioned why I hadn’t considered this earlier than,” laughs Haripriya. The savvy enterprise lady quickly targeted on creating good, genuine content material that defined the advantages of every toy.
She targeted on elevating consciousness about the advantages of utilizing every toy and constructing belief with clients. It took her three years to achieve a income of Rs 5 lakh. “You don’t want a elaborate digital camera, gear or photographers, content material is king,” she says.
“Once we broke our psychological barrier concerning what folks anticipate, our content material took off. Individuals need uncooked, actual data. We began capturing in our warehouse with toys within the background, and it labored like a attraction,” she provides.
By constantly creating content material, Haripriya cracked the code for achievement and has by no means seemed again. Constructing belief is paramount, she stresses, noting that it’s rule primary in establishing a profitable enterprise.
She provides that she didn’t start paid advertising and marketing till they reached 1,50,000 followers and Rs 10 lakh in natural gross sales.
“In a D2C enterprise, trust-building is most essential and might occur solely by means of natural gross sales at first. My objective was to create a distinction in folks’s lives, which I used to be capable of do,” Haripriya explains.
In the present day, they’ve practically 5,00,000 followers on Instagram and obtain over 15,000 orders a month. Their toys begin from Rs 49 to Rs 8,000 and embrace instructional toys, household video games, open-ended toys, faux play objects, magnatiles, kinetic sand, and rather more. Their bestsellers embrace puzzles, reminiscence card video games, and “Shut the Field.” Haripriya provides that many of the toys are open ended, that means youngsters of varied age teams can play with them.
‘Have a imaginative and prescient and take calculated dangers’
The very best second for Haripriya was when certainly one of their movies went viral, resulting in a surge in orders. They needed to work till 2 AM to dispatch the orders, as they couldn’t maintain them for greater than two days.
By means of ups and downs, losses and income, her mom, 52-year-old Banu, has been her fixed assist. In the present day, Banu is a well-known face — the enthusiastic lady who explains the workings of toys on-line.
Raised in Coimbatore in a enterprise household, Banu spent most of her life as a homemaker. Whereas she assisted her father in his chocolate manufacturing unit as a toddler, she remained at residence after marriage. After her husband’s passing, she felt ‘stressed’ and yearned to do one thing significant. Her daughter gave her the proper alternative to realize that.
“I’m so happy with my daughter and her achievements. I’m pleased to help her in any small manner. Our intention is to make sure that folks study our merchandise and use them to maintain their youngsters screen-free, partaking them in significant play,” says Banu.
Haripriya now desires of building a market for varied youngsters’s merchandise beneath one roof. From ready a month for an order to now attaining gross sales targets of Rs 3 lakh each day, she has come a good distance.
What stored her going? “Be constant. I used to be targeted on my objective of serving to mother and father, and it paid off,” she smiles.
To each aspiring entrepreneur, she has one message: “Don’t suppose you possibly can study the complete enterprise without delay. Have a imaginative and prescient and take calculated dangers. Hold transferring ahead, whether or not confronted with losses or income. Be constant for 90 days, and you can be rewarded,” she says.
Edited by Arunava Banerjee, Photographs Courtesy Haripriya
