Hyderabad: Tulasi Muddasi has been cooking since childhood. In that way, she has always been popular among her friends and neighbours. Especially, her pickles are mouth-watering. Five years ago, if this Hyderabadi woman was told that she could earn handsomely just by selling her pickles, she would have simply dismissed it. Today, this school dropout is a successful pickle entrepreneur.
To become a business-woman was never in the bigger plans for this 34-year-old. She did not intend to sell her pickles either. She enjoyed making them and felt happy filling big containers with her pickles for friends and neighbours.
Married to a man of her dreams against her parents wishes, and in spite of the fact that her husband Samson was having a full-time job, Tulasi found it difficult to make ends meet. But things changed in 2016, when the idea of launching a pickle business was mooted by her life-partner. Tulasi started preparing varieties of non-veg and veg pickles as samples and offered them to neighbours, all free of cost.
“They gave good feedback. That is when I gained confidence. Slowly, people started coming to me with particular needs and tastes,” she said. This confidence initiated the homemaker to pursue her home business with great vigour and experiment with more pickles.
After a year of hard work and with some investment, the couple worked towards building a venture and came up with a logo and website. The initial orders came from their acquaintances. Every month, she used to receive at least five orders.
Today, she receives orders not just from local people, but from other parts of the country too, and earns about Rs 3 lakh every month. “Financial independence has given me great pleasure and a sense of self-worth. It makes me happy to be earning my own money,” shared the masterchef.
Her chicken, fish, prawns, papaya and gongura chicken and mutton pickles are her clients’ favourites. She also sells spices and dry fruits.
Tulasi, in fact, never learned how to cook, and says it just came to her naturally. “My grandmother was a great cook. I always observed her when she made pickles. I used to watch her closely and learned the process of making pickles,” says the mother of two. The kitchen at her home is the centre of all her business activity.
Right from getting the ingredients required to cutting and prepping for the pickles, she does it all.
Tulasi is now planning to open a pickles store. Buyers can contact Tulasi over Ph. No. 95500 66990.
Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today onTelegrameveryday. Click the link to subscribe.