Rida Sajjad: From physiotherapist to entrepreneur, earning Rs 1 L/month from nutritional bars
Rida Sajjad is a physiotherapist by profession and a housewife who devotes her time to look after her two sons: Miraan (4) and Moeez (7).
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Besides, 38-year-old Rida loves cooking food and all these years she has been experimenting with cuisines. And one such experiment made her an accidental entrepreneur.
She told the OT over phone from her Noida residence that how after a pediatrician told her to give her kids salt and sugar free food she started looking for options.
During the first Covid wave in April 2020, she said one day she asked her son to eat dates during Ramzan. Her son mashed the dates and put almonds over them and said here is a chocolate sweet.
Immediately taking notice of it, she realised that she can also do such things and make nutritious bars for her children and the experiment started.
Since then for days she mixed dry fruit with seeds without using sugar, caramel, honey, or jaggery and presented them to her sons who were delighted to savour them.
She didn’t realise the importance of what she was making until she went to a relative’s marriage where due to Covid many were apprehensive to buy sweets from the market.
Rida volunteered to make them at home provided she gets all the ingredients. The family members obliged her. She made the sweets and it was highly appreciated.
Even then never in her wildest dream she ever thought that very soon she will be getting orders from across India for her home-made sweets made without sugar, caramel, honey, or jaggery.
But things turned fast as one day when her neighbour sent her food on some occasion and in return she sent them homemade sweets which they not only liked but fall in head over heel in love with them.
“The neighbour came to me and asked from where did I get the sweets? When I told her that I made it she was surprised. She asked if I could make some for her for Diwali, as a gift. After I did it, more orders started following,” she said.
Rida said the story of homemade sweets spread fast in her society as they reached a journalist and a food blogger who posted the photo on their timeline.
Since then she has not looked behind as she started getting orders on daily basis forcing her to float Shireen-E-Yemberzal (Sweet Daffodil) – Mithai Wagon.
“I am earning Rs 1 lakh per month. Right now due to Covid I get help from my mother-in-law, father and lawyer husband, but I have plans to hire women. Most of the work is done by hand and I work something around 8 to 10 hours depending on orders. I take order a day early so that I can make the sweets. Actually I won’t call them sweets they are nutrition bars as they are made without sugar and no preservatives used,” she said.
Rida has gone social to expand her business by opening her account on Facebook and Instagram.
The bars are priced between Rs 550 and 1,350 depending on the box that you ask for.
For orders you can call on 09891288758, or on Instagram and Facebook pages.
