With Love For Granny Brought A Noteworthy Business Idea

Twenty-five industrious grannies put together with a textile design graduate can build a business that can make a world of difference to grannies who now are employed, happy and also social media savvy.

Hand knit children’s clothes are rare in today’s mechanized world. But, remember your granny knitting sweaters for you. It was all made out of love and care.

Lima Das once saw her mother-in-law knitting and a great idea struck her. Living in the tech city of Bangalore, she decided to set up a website that would sell online children’s clothes knitted by grandmothers. This would give an earning source to woman senior citizens, a new purpose, and an opportunity to make new friends. Thus, the website www.grannysloveindia.com was launched in 2011.

It is rather tough to keep going with enthusiasm when you start ageing. Isolation sets in when children get busy in their own world, you have no one to talk and spend time with. Old age homes are neither one’s personal choice at first place nor a substitute to a home. Why should taking care of our parents be such a great issue at all when they need us while they have been by our side when all the time we needed them? Old Age Homes are a thought for all of us to ponder.

As India and the countries around the world face the challenge of the ageing population, it comes out to be a great idea to bring them altogether to provide a purpose and a source of employment too. Lima wasn’t sure if her idea would work out but, to her delight, it did quite well.

Business plan with a social cause:

A business idea that took a lot of efforts to execute it and build a team of grannies who would be ready to knit with getting money for it. The idea was to blend technology with hand knitting craft of grannies. Orders from the website are directed to Lima’s email inbox. She creates the design and then allots it to a granny who is best suited to knit it. Lima sends the design and wool to her and after a week, granny sends the knitted product back to Lima. Other details are added while packing a photo of granny who knitted the clothes is then delivered to the customer.

What was the challenge?

Building the market and convincing customers to buy wasn’t the challenge at first hand. The real challenge was to scout for grannies who could be persuaded to do knitting and make them believe that it’s a skill through which they could earn money.

Grannies knit out of love, not for money. So to ask them to knit for business was tough. Then, the team was built and grandmothers simply loved the idea. Orders are rolling in now with a huge response and positive feedback. Grannies are now ‘super grannies’ as they have become more confident and social media savvy; they have access to Facebook and Snapchat from where they get feedback directly from customers.

Grannies talk to customers directly and accompany Lima for exhibitions. The point is now they are occupied, courageous, happy, have a sense of purpose and are now tech-savvy. There are many other ways where senior citizens can come together and use their talent to earn and keep themselves busy. Isn’t it a novel way of tackling the moroseness of isolation?

It’s never too late to do something rather it’s never too late for anything in life.

Cover Image Source and Information Reference.