by Meet Jalpa Barai who is an entrepreneur, baker, blogger, mom, talks about her journey and urges all moms to get hold of technology and use it to be more empowered.
Jalpa shares with Mums and Stories, “ I had a rather eventful one. Very few know this, I was in fact kidnapped by some child gang and I somehow fought back. I would like to believe I was always a fighter. I came from a non-descript Tata township in West Gujarat and later we had to move cities since a young age for academic reasons. Thanks to my parents for always believing in my abilities and giving freedom to pursue my interest going against societal pressures.”
Talking about her decision to pursue baking, Jalpa shares, “There’s an interesting back story. Baking indeed came after motherhood and I never knew this was my calling. I had studied for an MBA in HR and was working for a major multi-national in their HR team. Then came motherhood and like every doting mother, my priorities changed. Wanting to be near to my kid, not missing her growing up moment and also giving her healthy food were on top of my list now. That’s where I stumbled into baking and then there was no looking back. One thing led to other and I am happy to be having my own baking studio now, doing things I love to do.
When I started early, it was only for my kid doing all the healthy stuff. That’s when few of my friends approached me to bake something for their kids and few of their parties. Somewhere I just fell in love with what I was doing – exploring on Internet to learn new things, interacting with fellow-bakers, managing customers and their idiosyncrasies at times and more.
As a mompreneur, we all know that this is not an easy job but like my husband says, ”If you’re passionate about something, other things will just fall into place.”
Today, technology can give you reach and scale that was unimaginable few years back. For everything we do, there always is an app or a video that will help you accomplish. As women, we have a gift of managing multiple tasks at the same time and with help of technology, we can scale mountains. But it is so easy to get lost on those platforms by being ‘consumers’, instead we should be looking at being ‘producers’ of content and leverage the technologies and platforms to build our OWN brand.
Trust me, at times I get inspired looking at my own staff members usage of platforms like TikTok and they have 1000+ followers there!! Opportunity is ours to take, do it TODAY!
Also the more you bake, the more challenges you come across. Also, as mompreneur and home-baker earlier, we had to play within the constraints.
What I always found therapeutic is seeing that final product, that one LIKE from a fellow-baker, that one positive comment from the customer after you have put hours of hard work. Hence, one of my message is – please like, comment on your fellow-entrepreneurs posts on social media. Each of them are fighting their own battles and that small engagement of yours could become a motivation for achieving their dreams.”
