One of many main challenges confronted by new mother and father is preserving their infants engaged, significantly as they start to stroll. It’s changing into more and more vital to search out methods to entertain and educate kids whereas minimising display publicity, and plenty of mother and father in parenting teams have a typical query: “How can we maintain our kids screen-free for so long as attainable?”
S Haripriya, a mom of two, had the identical question when her second little one 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 offer her then two-year-old and three-month-old with toys that will assist them study life expertise, 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 introduced challenges, particularly with naysayers in her household who believed she ought to focus solely on elevating her kids.
Decided to attain her purpose of offering mother and father with important assets for his or her little one’s growth, she persevered. She discovered assist in her mom, who joined her a number of years later and is now the face of the corporate.
The highway was rocky, however Haripriya emphasises consistency is vital. She saved 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 have 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 totally different companies earlier than the start of her second little one, together with promoting items, eco-friendly napkins, and providing tutorial classes.
The postpartum interval impacts each new mom in another way, and for Haripriya, it gave start to a powerful want to make a distinction in folks’s lives, significantly for fogeys.
“After I looked for academic toys and books, I couldn’t discover many. My in depth analysis into toys that would improve wonderful and gross motor expertise, hand-eye coordination, and general mind growth made me realise that there was a big want for such merchandise. As I began utilizing these with my kids, I started promoting them as nicely,” Haripriya tells The Higher India.
Initially, she bought preloved books and toys however quickly realised the constraints of the previous, shifting her focus to toys.
Whereas ready for orders, she additionally launched her kids to new toys. Observing the optimistic influence on her youngsters, she started including them to her catalogue.
“Dad and mom are busy at this time. They typically find yourself utilizing cellphones to maintain them engaged. One in all my objectives is to forestall display time by providing open-ended toys and video games that maintain kids engaged. Every sport enhances a toddler’s expertise 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. Nevertheless, as her assortment grew, she discovered it more and more tough to answer to every question and ship footage manually.
“As my assortment expanded to over 500 toys, I couldn’t reply to each message. I wished to obtain orders even after I slept. For that, I wanted to create a web site. Initially, I outsourced the challenge however was duped. I realised that I needed to study all the things 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 right down to zero.”
A Mom’s Assist: How Banu Fueled Extrokids’ Progress
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 thought to publish a video explaining the way 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 puzzled why I hadn’t considered this earlier than,” laughs Haripriya. The savvy enterprise girl 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 succeed in a income of Rs 5 lakh. “You don’t want a elaborate digital camera, gear or photographers, content material is king,” she says.
“After we broke our psychological barrier concerning what folks anticipate, our content material took off. Individuals need uncooked, actual data. We began taking pictures in our warehouse with toys within the background, and it labored like a attraction,” she provides.
By persistently 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 till they reached 1,50,000 followers and Rs 10 lakh in natural gross sales.
“In a D2C enterprise, trust-building is most vital and may occur solely by means of natural gross sales at first. My purpose was to create a distinction in folks’s lives, which I used to be in a position to do,” Haripriya explains.
At the moment, 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 embody academic toys, household video games, open-ended toys, faux play objects, magnatiles, kinetic sand, and rather more. Their bestsellers embody puzzles, reminiscence card video games, and “Shut the Field.” Haripriya provides that many of the toys are open ended, which means kids of assorted age teams can play with them.
‘Have a imaginative and prescient and take calculated dangers’
The perfect second for Haripriya was when considered 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.
Via ups and downs, losses and income, her mom, 52-year-old Banu, has been her fixed assist. At the moment, Banu is a well-recognized face — the enthusiastic girl 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 facility as a toddler, she remained at dwelling after marriage. After her husband’s passing, she felt ‘stressed’ and yearned to do one thing significant. Her daughter gave her the right alternative to attain that.
“I’m so pleased with my daughter and her achievements. I’m blissful to help her in any small manner. Our intention is to make sure that folks study our merchandise and use them to maintain their kids screen-free, partaking them in significant play,” says Banu.
Haripriya now goals of creating a market for numerous kids’s merchandise below 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 great distance.
What saved her going? “Be constant. I used to be targeted on my purpose of serving to mother and father, and it paid off,” she smiles.
To each aspiring entrepreneur, she has one message: “Don’t assume you may study the complete enterprise without delay. Have a imaginative and prescient and take calculated dangers. Maintain shifting ahead, whether or not confronted with losses or income. Be constant for 90 days, and you may be rewarded,” she says.
Edited by Arunava Banerjee, Pictures Courtesy Haripriya
