New Delhi: “A positive mindset brings positive things.” The ‘Business Blasters’ programme launched by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has boosted the morale of the students of Delhi schools as they aspire to become successful entrepreneurs.
As part of this programme, around three lakh students of Class XI and XII from the Delhi government-run schools created nearly 51,000 teams and submitted as many business ideas.
The programme is aimed at grooming young entrepreneurs at the school level.
In episode 7 of the start-up show ‘Business Blasters’, the students of School of Excellence in Sector-23 Rohini put forth their ideas before Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Antara Senior Living executive chairperson and Max India Ltd. vice-chairperson Tara Singh Vachani and PVR LTD. Joint Managing Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli.
An eight-member team of this school made affordable natural soaps with the start-up name “Royal Bath” with the seed money provided by the Delhi government under this initiative.
This team of Class XI students’ science stream also gathered information from YouTube and makes different varieties of soaps using orange peel powder, aloe vera gel, Chandan and neem leaves.
This idea struck Hardik Gupta, the team leader, as he had attended a soap-making workshop in his previous school.
“I was earlier in a private school. I attended a workshop where they taught us how to make natural soaps. So, we thought even we can prepare soaps if we receive funds and proper guidance,” he said.
Hardik said the team has so far spent a total of Rs 9,400.
“We have spent Rs 6,500 for long-term raw material, Rs 2,160 on experimentation, including transportation. We sold soaps for Rs 770 and earned Rs 1,540 profit,” he added.
The team has already sold 50 soap pieces and received an order from a hotel for another 40 kg.
“An order for 40 kg is in the pipeline and we have taken Rs 16,000 from them for the same. It is tough to prepare it at home due to small utensils and we cannot complete large orders. manufactures soaps,” said Hardik.
Hardik said the average price per piece is Rs 30.
“The price ranges from Rs 25 to Rs 50. We thought of paper packaging options, but it was costly,” he added.
Talking about the product, Hardik said: “With our product having aloe vera, we have not purchased aloe vera gel from the market, we extracted it from the plants at home and used it in our product.”
“We have used rose water instead of normal water. We have also used Vitamin E capsules so that the soap does not get easily damaged,” he added.
Hardik further said the manufacturing is currently from home, adding they require Rs two lakh capital to expand their product.
“As per our fixed plan, we require Rs 60,000 for a double boiler machine. Cutting machine worth Rs 40,000. We require Rs 4,000 for moulds, Rs 4,000 for box designing. Besides, we require Rs 15,000 for license and chemical research,” said Hardik.
“We will require Rs 26,000 working capital under which we will keep the rolling stock of 100 kg. We also require money for transportation, rent plus emergency funds. We need Rs 50,000 for branding plus research and development,” he added.
The team plans to sell 1,000 kg soaps in the next year.
“The selling price of one kg is Rs 400. If we sell 1,000 kg, then we will earn a profit of Rs two lakh excluding cost price,” said Hardik.
The other members of the team include Shivam Mishra looking after accounting, Sagar assigned the task of raw materials purchasing and Hamja, who looks after packaging of soaps and marketing.
The team received Rs one lakh fund for this endeavor from the Joint Managing Director of PVR LTD., who also offered to provide mentorship.
Another Rs one lakh was given by Antara Senior Living executive chairperson, who appeared impressed with this initiative.