Times She UnLTD recognises, celebrates female entrepreneurs in India

By Sumeli Chatterjee

Vice President, Brand - Times of India

Bennett, Coleman & Co. LTD

Mumbai, India

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Urban India is witnessing a trend of women breaking away from corporate careers to start their own home offices. Today, women are choosing to work differently. These women are independent, ambitious, and creative with unique boutique ideas. Incubated with passion and enabled by technology, the home entrepreneurs are increasingly contributing to the urban economy.

The journey from homemaker to home entrepreneur is quite inspirational. Times She UnLTD was launched as the first-ever national platform to recognise these successful home entrepreneurs.

What is the programme?

The platform Times She UnLTD aspires to create a buzzing community space for networking and collaboration with like-minded women who have started up and are founders or co-founders of their businesses. The Times She UnLTD awards rewards the top 1% of the women who participate in this community for their creativity and business acumen.

Women featured in Times She UnLTD include visionary trailblazers who have busted gender stereotypes and created profitable businesses.

Times She UnLTD Awards is divided into three phases that first starts with the call for entries. The submissions can be made on the official Web site, where women entrepreneurs can share their entries through a secure portal or nominate women who are worthy of recognition. This is followed by a short-listing round, which is when an esteemed jury reviews and meets the finalists at the jury meetings hosted in their respective cities.

At these meetings, each finalist has the opportunity to present their story, business idea, and entrepreneurship journey to the jury. The winners are felicitated at an event in respective cities and widely covered through print and digital media of Times of India (TOI). The entire process is audited by process validators.

Why is this programme strategic to us?

The strength of a brand is the impact it can have on its consumers' prosperity and growth. We believe we will grow in business and equity only when our consumers (our readers) grow with us as they reach for their dreams and fulfill their aspirations.

Women readership growth has been a focus area for newspapers in India. To strengthen our connection with women readers, we wanted to create a meaningful programme that would help them grow.

As the largest English publication in India, TOI has always enabled and empowered our readers to progress and prosper. Times She UnLTD explores the unlimited potential of talented, visionary, fierce trailblazers who have busted gender stereotypes and created profitable businesses that, in turn, employ many people.

Why are our readers interested?

A woman's start-up journey is usually not the same as that of a man. The drivers and motivations may or may not be the same. More importantly, women entrepreneurs are no longer an exception in society; there are many women in each of our social circles who are running big and small enterprises. But, these industries are fragmented, unique, and sometimes niche.

As we finished two chapters of this programme that recognised women entrepreneurs across food, fitness, beauty, travel, fashion, experiential, home, and living, we met countless women who are creating diverse business opportunities with unique ideas right from their living rooms. Container hotels, cat cafes, cloud kitchens, (film) shoot location exchanges, co-working studios, vegan ice cream shops, medical evacuation jet planes, wedding curation apps, and plant-fiber fashion are some of the creative businesses women are engaging in and excelling at.

Women founders have shared their stories on this platform of how they transformed an idea from blueprint to a self-sustaining business. Real stories of real women talk about life challenges. The stories are personal, relatable, and inspirational for our women readers who dream of financial independence or creative freedom.

As we look to strengthen our connection with our audience, we hope to empower, enable, and energise their success stories. Using our print and digital platforms to tell the real stories narrated by successful women entrepreneurs is a step in the right direction, as these inspirational figures can motivate millions to pursue their own dreams.

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About Sumeli Chatterjee

Sumeli Chatterjee is vice president of brand for Times of India at Bennett, Coleman & Co. LTD in Mumbai, India. She can be reached at [email protected] or @SumNutTwit.

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