Kong Syrpailin Warjri’s journey to becoming a successful entrepreneur did not happen overnight. She had her own share of hardships. Although, she was a hard-working woman, Syrpailin was also pressed by circumstances. She has a large family of 10 members and had been working as a teacher under the ad hoc grant-in-aid for 2 years. Her salary was only Rs. 600 per month. Needless to say, running a family of 10 with this meager amount was not realistic. It became necessary for her to find other means of livelihood to sustain the family. After weighing all the risks that awaited her, Syrpailin finally took the tough decision of resigning from her low-paying job, and find a better income-generating activity to uplift the financial status of her family. Soon after that Syrpailin took up farming. Being an enterprising person, she also decided to venture into the dry fish business as a supplier. She bought the supplies from Shillong and traded them at border markets in Nongjri, Balat and Mawsynram. However, the dry fish business became unreliable, as the dry fish were highly perishable in the hot summer months, resulting in losses.
The failure did not deter Syrpailin as she was persistent in her search for business that would fulfill her family’s financial needs. Then one day, she saw a man selling ice cream at the Balat weekly market which led to her thing that unlike dry fish, the hot climatic conditions of Balat would be highly favorable for boosting the ice cream. Besides, who would not want to relish a scoop of chilled ice cream on a hot summer day?
Syrpailin then started to source different varieties of ice cream from companies such as Priya Ice Cream, Triple Ice Cream, Maushmi Ice Cream and Rollick Ice Cream, who agreed to provide her with the required supply. In 2010, she began selling ice cream in border haats twice a week. By selling 1,000 ice creams per day, Syrpailin began making good profits. As time passed, Syrpailin realized that manufacturing ice cream on her own would further cut down the expenses. The knowledge she gathered over the span of 2-3 years gave her enough confidence to take the next step, and in 2013, she invested in the necessary equipment for manufacturing ice creams, including a freezer and six ice boxes, and started the new endeavor.
Initially, she started with manufacturing only simple ice sticks. By selling them at Rs 10 per piece, she started earning between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 per box. Syrpailin then learned about the Enterprise Facilitation Centre (EFC) of the Meghalaya Basin Management Agency and the facilities that the organization offered for entrepreneurs like her. She registered with the EFC at Mawphlang in 2013. After that, the MIE provided her with the necessary support and guidance, teaching her the various scopes of managing and sustaining her business. For hands-on experience, Syrpailin was sent for an exposure visit to one of the ice cream-manufacturing companies. She was also sent to training programs organized by DIDC.
Leveraging on the knowledge that she gathered from various training programs, Syrpailin decided on experimenting with manufacturing different types of ice creams. The varieties in ice creams fetched her good profit; more than the simple ice sticks. She employed few people to help her run this small yet profitable enterprise. Like most newly started businesses, the new enterprise of Syrpailin faced a few stumbling blocks. One of them being the issue of sourcing the basic tools and machineries required for running the business smoothly. Most of the equipment were not available in Shillong, and thus, had to be procured from other states in the country. In addition, an all-in-one, automated ice cream-making machine was also required to cut down on the time consumption and reduction of additional expenditures.
The journey of Syrpailin as an entrepreneur has not been a smooth one. But her grit and determination is something that we all could learn from: starting with her willingness to take risks, single-minded focus on her goal and the work hard put together in achieving her target. In her words, the hurdles in life were just part of the learning process as her goal was to keep moving forward. With self-belief, passion, and awareness, Syrpailin has emerged as a successful entrepreneur and was able to transform her dreams into reality. This has aided her and her husband in providing quality education to their children in renowned institutions in cities like Chennai and Bangalore. Her story is an inspiration to the youths and women in particular so they too can become successful entrepreneurs through perseverance, hard work and by being aware of the available opportunity in the state.