It’s such a delight to see women achieving in multiple fields. There are many women out there who have been an inspiration to others. In today’s scenario, let’s hear Anusha Ravindran’s story who is a bouquet entrepreneur, a teacher and also a volunteer for a good cause.
Anusha a Bachelor of Psychology holder, is currently working as a teacher at Persatuan Dyslexia Malaysia for dyslexia students. Even though being a teacher is her bread and butter, she decided to use her talent to earn extra income.
Existence of Sha Bouquet
The 24-year-old young lady said the idea of her starting this bouquet business happened when she began giving bouquet of flowers to her friends for their birthdays and has received an immense amount of praise for her flower arrangement. Anusha who was a student at the time decided to take bouquet orders for extra income purposes. She was taking these orders in a small range and officially started her business in 2019 with proper guidance.
As her bouquet business started to flourish, she began to conduct bouquet classes. 2 years ago, Anusha did a Bouquet workshop under the Young Women’s Christian Association where about 50 students have benefitted from her flower arrangement skills. She also did a workshop for 20 students in Taiping, Perak.
“3 years back I only had a small box to keep my bouquet kits but now I have my own place” she mentioned.
Challenges that she faced
Anusha who is from Kajang, was a full-time student when she started to take orders. She was receiving quite a number of orders at that time but eventually, she had to cancel all of the weekday orders as she needed to focus on her studies. Meanwhile, also did a part-time stint at an art class. With all her commitments, she found it difficult to balance her passion and studies.
After one year into her business, the pandemic happened. She had some free time as all of her classes were conducted online. She decided to take more orders and make it big.
“To be honest, I wouldn’t say that my business has dropped but I started to get more orders at that time since most of them couldn’t see their loved ones, so sending a bouquet of flowers to their loved ones were a form of love,” Anusha said.
The pandemic and movement control order (MCO) had made it hard for her to conduct her business due to the COVID-19 restrictions. She was left with not much choice but to cancel orders.
Sha Bouquet receives most orders for Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Father’s Day.
Pillars behind the success of Anusha
“My patti (grandmother) She is the one who gave me money to buy kits for my bouquet business,” she said. When she started selling bouquets, she only received around RM10-RM15 of profit. At the earlier stage, she was buying kits in small quantities, resulting in her making less profit than expected. So Madam Krishna Devi, her patti, recommended buying kits in a bundle so that Anusha could get a good profit and gets to save her money. She started seeing the development financially with the idea that her patti gave her.
Other than her patti, her brother Jacob Thevan is the one who provided her with guidance on how to start a proper business. “When I was doing my business in a small range, I was not registered under Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) (Companies Commission of Malaysia). My brother told me to get my business registered under SSM and guided me on how to open a current account and also explain more on business, he was my guide,” she said.
“Sometimes I had to deliver 50 orders in 1 day, my friend Hushalini would help me with the deliveries. She had been a great support system throughout my business and life,” she continued.
“Last but not least, my family members. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it big. My parents have been always encouraging and supporting me. Whenever I have many orders, my sister will be my helping hand. These people have contributed so much to bring up Sha Bouquet,” Anusha said.
With all these commitments, Anusha is also an active member of the Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS). She has been volunteering for 5 years now under team Hulu Langat.
The young enterprising and empowering lass would like to thank everyone who has been supporting Sha Bouquet from day one till now. Anusha hopes that her story could inspire young ladies out there. In addition to her bouquet business, Anusha is also doing home deco for birthday parties and surprise events.
“Don’t wish for it, work for it,” Anusha’s mantra to keep going.
You’ve done a good job and keep inspiring us girl!
Don’t hesitate to contact her. Click HERE to know more details about Sha Bouquet.
