In recent years, women have played an increasingly vital role in driving the economic health of India. Over the last few years only, there has been a steady rise in the number of female entrepreneurs who are starting new businesses or expanding their existing ventures. There are also women entrepreneurs who have been able to immerse themselves and thrive in their family-owned businesses, whether it is due to the influence of their parents, or whether it was started by their in-laws. On top of that, they gave up all their expertise, knowledge, time, and effort to nurture and support that family-owned business, without caring if they would be credited or if they will be working from the sidelines.
Mrs. Sneha Visaria, Founder, PDD Falcon brings to mind a stellar example of a woman who with Chirag Visaria, her husband and co-founder is taking her family-owned venture to new heights. The brand she is promoting is a brand made for mothers, and with this Sneha is offering a safe and healthy alternative to plastic storage with stainless steel. During a conversation with us for the special campaign we are running to support women entrepreneurs, she gave some very useful advice for women entrepreneurs who are working in family-owned businesses.
What challenges did you face on your way to success?
As a woman, the biggest challenge in a family business is to prove our worth. There is never a fixed role or position that you get at the workplace. And work is always secondary for fully sufficient families. You have to first add some value to your inputs so that people and staff at the workplace feel your importance. You should not be treated just like a substitute .
My simple pointers for making a mark in the workplace (family owned businesses) for women are:
1. Be consistent – Work life balance is highly important, it is more important when the business is of your in-laws. There are many social pressures that pile up that may lead to losing our focus from our tasks . As a woman entrepreneur one needs to take it and walk the way.
2. Build your credibility – Though being educated or experienced building credibility asks for time and events. The moment you are consistent you get small events in daily work life where you can prove your excellence and win your peers. Such a collection of events make you hold positions and roles which then become your portfolio. You are answerable to your team.
3. Climb the ladder – When you’re in a family-owned business, you need to know it all. The best way to do that is take all roles, do it , learn it and move ahead .This way you can empathize with the others in the role and make sure how the best can be gotten from the team.
4. Don’t take differences to bed – it’s very likely to have differences of opinion at work between your family members, especially your spouse. Sometimes, both of us hold such strong opinions about a problem that it leads to serious arguments and fights. If you drag this back home , it’s going to be a hell of life. The best way is to leave these issues behind and not let it affect our family. It takes a lot of time to draw these lines and get mature about it , but with time, one evolves.
5. Focus on the End Goal – My husband spends time on setting up life goals and work goals. These are short-term as well as long-term. We know each other’s skills well and divide tasks likewise. We draw road maps and timelines to achieve them and sit over them again to audit what we did and how we can do it better next time.
6. Ask for help – My mother-in-law is my biggest strength. She takes care of everything on my behalf (house, kids, kitchen). She is highly understanding and encourages me to give the best of myself. Without her support, I don’t think I would have achieved what we have currently. To get this balance we are open to communication and we don’t have grievances against each other and try to sort it out even when we have differences. I understand that my role towards my house and kids is equally important. Thus, I schedule my week in such a manner that I spend good time with my family.
Do you face any pressing issues in the workplace or in society as a woman?
Not really, in fact in our Industry when people talk to me, they are quite amazed and take it positively. Also, our factory has maximum women workers even in highly male dominant roles like debt follow up, purchase, pressing machines, polish machines. Women, if confident and true to themselves, no one can press her .
How do you balance work and life?
Here are few thoughts that I have listed down:
1. Make clear realistic goals
2. Work on your timeline in a disciplined manner
3. Outsource and divide tasks I divide each bigger task into micro tasks and delegate it to
respective team members and I audit over the phone call. I make sure the work is going on even when I am not around
4. Taking care of myself like having my timely dinner, sufficient sleep, working out, and also taking care of my mental health is the most important factor.
5. Kids also look up to you, your discipline makes them better human being. You are giving the best version of yourself to everyone.
How will you address the following issues women still face in 2022?
1) SLUT SHAMING: Since time immemorial women are taught to dress a certain way, if not they are depreciated or labeled as a “slut”. Both men and women need to unlearn this.
Women of this generation can be expected to teach their daughters that sartorial choices do not define the kind of woman she herself or her daughter is. Schools need to stop
uplifting the culture of picking out girls from the assembly to berate them for their “short skirts” as this is a subtle act of slut shaming. This is the digital era and there is no dearth
of information, people need to open their eyes and carefully observe their social milieu to understand that this is the era of equality. Not only men, but women of this generation
need to realize that putting down another woman and slut shaming her, does not lift them up in society. We as an individual need to make ourselves as well as our children
learn that the social stigma attached to one’s style of dressing and what she wears or if she is intoxicated doesn’t define her character. Women are striving each day to reach
the top and neither their multiple relationships, their appearance or clothing can undo this. Besides, the success of any individual should not be gauged based on her personal
life.
2) BODY SHAMING: Everyone is born imperfect and as an individual, we all are striving to look perfect or get that toned body, fair look, glowing skin, abs, etc. Somewhere deep
down we are pretty much conscious about our body, skin tone, odor, dark patches at intimate places, stretch marks, and many more to count. We feel so uncomfortable that we are consciously aware of our looks and the pressure to look perfect. This is because of the constant pressure from society and our peers that we have forgotten that it is absolutely normal to have all these kinds of imperfections. We are always in a denial to accept our body the way it is. From the beginning onwards, we need to stop making someone feel uncomfortable and body shaming him/her. All our imperfections are beautiful and being fat, thin, skinny, dull are not a crime. Actors and actresses need to stop endorsing these ads and commercials of how to have a perfect beach body or what supplements one needs to take for weight loss. Opportunities should be given to people based on their talents and not their size or body type. Making films based on these issues can be an eye-opener and teach people that your size or weight tells nothing about you.
3) Thoughts on Age Shaming that Women so frequently face?
As the adage goes- “age is just a number”. Relationships cannot be defined by this factor. People usually do not understand this because the social construct has always been- men have to be older than women. For me, relationships are based on maturity. If the male spouse is younger and his significant other isn’t, it can work as well when the opposite happens. If we take the example of Aishwarya and Abhishek or the famous Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and his wife Anjali, they have been married for a very long time, leading a good life with their spouse as well as children.I personally believe it will take a while for people to get a hang of this. However, a change in this perspective can be brought about by having more conversations on this issue.
