A girl from Meerut has set up her own business and running successfully, not fully convinced. Well then, that’s Sana Khan for you people! She is a living example of women empowerment that we all talk about and every girl who dreams of being independent and self-reliant should take inspiration from her.
Sana Khan Earthworms business
Sana Khan has started her very own vermicompost business; SJ Organics, here in Meerut. She has done her engineering from IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad in 2016. The interesting point to note here for all the youngsters who haven’t figured out their careers after being graduated; the drive to start this unusual business came to her mind while she was only in her 1st year in 2014. Her family supports her fully in her venture as well.
We have heard of the phrase ‘there’s a woman behind every successful man’ but in Sana’s case, the scenario is totally opposite! As it is her husband who is the wind beneath her wings; her husband Syed Akram, who without thinking twice left his high-paying job at the pharmaceutical company just to support Sana with her new venture and not only co-founded the vermicompost business but also heads the marketing department of their vermicompost business as well.
He has set up the whole idea of how to market their venture on social media handles and how to approach the urban gardeners, Beej Bhandar shops(food and grains market), horticulture farmers, nurseries and government tenders as their target market to her business instead of just farmers.
What is vermicomposting ?
Vermicomposting is the process of the breakdown of organic materials like food waste into more nourishing manure by using worms, which help in decomposing them over a period of time. Similarly, vermicomposting business is a small-scale business of making organic compost to sell in the market.
On the one hand, where women are considered as an entity of the house, many women have taken up this small scale buisness and have made shining careers out of it, like Manure Became The Master Business plan of This Housewife – In fact, Now she Has 2 Companies & Provides Job To The Whole Village.
How Sana Khan started her vermicompost business?
Sana started her business in the year 2014 while pursuing her engineering. She acquired agricultural land of size 1.5 acres in Meerut to set up her vermicompost project there. She has no agriculture background and learned everything from the scratch. They have 20-25 labourers at a time and they’ve also employed daily wage labourers as well. They purchase raw materials from outside vendors like cow dung, worms, porali(rice residue), worms, and polythene to make their compost in their vermicompost business.
The production method for making the vermicompost
In their vermicompost business, they look after each and every step of making their compost as best as they can.
The First and foremost step is of buying sheets’ to spread the raw materials for making the vermicompost. Then, the most important thing is that they purchase cow dung from the near buy vendors in bulk. After that, worms are transferred into the cow dung which helps in decomposing the raw materials. Mulching – In this process, the soil is covered with a sheet of plastic to create favourable conditions to make the vermicompost. After that, they Water it to further the process and eventually get the final by-product from the above steps.
Their vermicompost business plan and how they’re ensuring the quality of their vermicompost
The USP of Sana Khan’s vermicompost plant is that they do not approach the farmers directly but instead choose the urban gardeners, Beej Bhandar shops(food and grains market), horticulture farmers, nurseries and government tenders as their target market for her business. Once, the compost is made in their vermicompost plant they check their quality as well. For that, they make sure that everything from making, sorting and testing of vermicompost is being done properly in their vermicompost plant.
For that, they’ve set up a laboratory in their vermicompost plant. In that laboratory, they have set up instruments like conductivity, Ph meter, moisture checking machine, spectrometer, photometer(for colour and odour analysis), and digital conductivity meter( to check ions movement when dissolved in the plants. All of that is well taken care of so that their customer does not have to think twice about choosing their vermicompost.
Vermicompost Business profit margin
Their monthly expenses range from labour costs of 3.5 lakhs, with each labourer getting around monthly wages of 17, 000 to 18,000 per month, cow dung suppliers getting 1.5 lakhs and packaging material of 3 lakhs. Their total monthly expenditure is 7 lakhs. Their gross turnover was roughly Rs. 10 crores in the year 2020- 2021. Now this what a successful buisness looks like.
Sana Khan has carved out a niche for herself and her story is an inspiration for many young girls who dream to achieve big and make something of their own in our patriarchal society with hard work, consistency and patience.
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If you loved this story about farming, know about Aquaponic Farming: A New And Improved Method Of Organic Farming.
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