Driven by the zeal to achieve success, Swati has always been a constant learner. She is always ready to take up new challenges and never backed out. She has a knack of using her multi-tasking skills for contributing towards the profitable growth of an innovative and exciting organization. She has an expertise in talent acquisition, human resources, content management, and data analytics.
After completing her MBA in life insurance and marketing, she started her career as an assistant manager in an insurance company. Gradually she gained experience and took upon several roles across various organizations. Her stint at entrepreneurship came in the form of Cozy Bub, a company that is currently into sales and distribution of reusable cloth diapers, an eco-friendly, baby-friendly and pocket-friendly diapering solution.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
Cozy Bub makes eco-friendly, skin-friendly and affordable diapering solutions which can be used from birth till toilet-training (approximately up to 3 years of age).
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
I came to know about Modern Cloth Diapering during my journey of motherhood with the arrival of my first-born about a year back. Though this concept has taken off well in many Western countries, in India we mothers often oscillate between traditional cloth diapers & disposable diapers as the only diapering choices. There is a lack of awareness in India about how Cloth Diapering has the potential to bring about some key lifestyle and environmental changes and thus, Cozy Bub was born to fill in this gap.
Why do you suggest Modern Cloth Diapering to parents?
This product can be a great asset to families with small children especially in the current context when everyone is grappling with waste management issues.
Cloth diapers are superior to disposable diapers in many ways:
- These are made of cloth! What better than cloth to use against baby’s gentle skin?They don’t have any harmful chemicals and hence no side effects.
- These are environment friendly. Disposables take upwards of 100 years to decompose, whereas cloth diapers are washable and reusable.
- Cloth diapers are pocket friendly too. A family with a small baby needs to spend around 18-20k in a year on disposables. Whereas an investment of about 12-15k in Cloth Diapers will last them 2 years & beyond(can be used for another baby in future too!)
- Children who use cloth diapers get toilet trained faster than those using disposables.
- Further, these products are waterproof, so no more leakage episodes that come with traditional cloth nappies that we use.
What is your life mantra?
There is no short cut to success. If you want to reap the benefits of success, you should be ready to sow sincere efforts.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
The most challenging part is to figure out how to get end-to-end production done in India. Right from trying to find suppliers for the raw materials to finding out how to get the actual production done, every step is challenging.
How did you overcome those challenges?
I am still working on putting the pieces of the puzzle together to start production in India
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
Cozy Bub has been boot-strapped and we are yet to start approaching investors for funding.
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
Not relevant currently
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
Honesty, Will & Zeal. It’s important to be honest so that whatever we do, we can put our best foot forward. If there is a mistake on our part, we need to have the heart to accept our mistakes, so that we can learn from them and not repeat them. Willpower is important to survive through the ups n downs. An entrepreneur’s life can be really difficult wherein he/she has to wear multiple hats and is expected to manage all responsibilities well. Additionally, an entrepreneur may meet many disappointments but needs to have the will power to keep putting even greater efforts and strive to move ahead. There is something new to learn every day and it is important to have the zeal to keep learning.
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
Social Media mainly Facebook works well for us as currently majority of our customers are active through this medium
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
I juggle between being a full-time mother and running my business. I try to make the most use of the time when my child is napping to carry on with my business activities. Therefore, I essentially try to prioritize my day-to-day tasks and divide the available time among the activities chalked out for the day.
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
Sometimes (well often) I tend to be too generous and some people try to exploit that.
Answer in less than 50 words
If you have an idea, work on it into as much detail as possible also keeping in mind that the time between ideation to launch needs to be short so that your interest is still alive.
- One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
Giving up on their idea too easily
- One most important lesson that you have learned until now:
If you are convinced of the feasibility of your idea, make sure that the ideation to execution phase is short. Setting a deadline, putting in rigorous efforts and ensuring that the deadline is met – it is challenging, effective and a great motivation.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
I need to keep working on nurturing the new baby, Cozy Bub, to increase the product’s reach to a greater audience. Currently, various Cozy Bub products are designed in India but produced in China. I am keen to change this to “Make in India” and generate employment opportunities to enable the empowerment of women from lower strata of society.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
I am an insurance professional by education and my corporate experience but given a chance, I would have been into print media/advertising.
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire” – Richard Nixon