Digital Entrepreneurship, a New Business Model
His tired eyes and sore hands speak volumes about the zeal and passion to practice the art of weaving with sheer hard work. Meet Lalaram Koli, a 35-year-old weaver living in Rampur village in the Chanderi district of Madhya Pradesh. Koli’s work reflects the brilliance and he is one of the most prominent weavers of Chanderi. Most of his creations were sold on Fab India and few through other local buyers and in return he was earning almost 2 lakhs monthly, enough to take care of his family.
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit which was followed by a series of complete lockdowns, his source of income came to a sudden stop. There was no demand for his fabulous designs, his world came upside down. With five members to take care and restriction in venturing out he started to feel hopeless and irritated with the situation.
Each passing day was adding to the existing problems; in his own words “The reality was grim and dark and I was getting absorbed in the disruption brought in by the virus. Not only my income stopped but my entire life came to a halt. I was so tensed about the situation, that I stopped talking to anyone”.
While looking for the alternate ways, he came across an acquaintance who had recently started selling his products online. Clueless about the concept of “online”, Koli still wanted to explore the path, inorder to survive the crisis. Soon, he was part of a digital entrepreneurship training program, run by Digital Empowerment Foundation. Quickly he learnt the skills and tactics of running business online using the modern digital technology.
After the training, he developed a digital catalogue of all his products and sent it across his network of customers via WhatsApp Business account. He created a page on Facebook and opened an Instagram account to showcase all his products to a wider range of customers. Soon he started to receive the orders from places he never went and people he never met. Today, he is helping weavers in Chanderi to adopt the new platform of business- E-commerce.
During the lockdown, Digital Empowerment Foundation was providing training to artisans and weavers on digital entrepreneurship that focused not only on the usages of social media and digital payment but also on product photography and cataloguing. Koli was also one of the 5000 people who were part of this program and restarted their businesses through virtual platforms.
DEF’s training program for weavers include product diversification, product marketing, market linkages, digital marketing, digital literacy, digital designing, and financial literacy. This initiative has added a new dimension to their business, where they don’t depend only on old contacts, but tremendous opportunities to explore.
