If you try these chocolates, you’ll probably never be satisfied with other chocolates ever again. Smriti Tuladhar’s homemade chocolates are that good. She ensures that the chocolates, made without preservatives, are crafted to perfection. It’s been less than a year that she started the chocolate company Bittersweet but she already has a decent list of corporate clients under her belt. And, at 23, with her effervescent persona, charming smile, and go-getter attitude she is steadily gathering even more on a daily basis. She joins The Week to talk about her journey so far and what keeps her going.
How it all started
A year and half ago, my friend and I submitted a chocolate business idea to Idea Studio, a business incubator at Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM). We just had a hunch that this business idea would sell and went for it without giving it much thought. I didn’t even know how to make chocolates in the first place. In my head it was just a school project and I didn’t have anything to lose. The idea was approved of and incubated at the school’s business incubation center. That’s how Bittersweet came into being.
The taste of fine chocolate
The making of Bittersweet
After my idea got approved, I started doing my research. For internship, I went to Thailand and Malaysia where I worked in a lot of hotels and bakeries in every possible department and learnt everything I could about making chocolates. I can now bake cakes and make other desserts as well. In hindsight, making chocolates was probably a natural thing for me as I was a fussy eater and I learnt how to cook quite early on.
Being a student, I had to keep my starting capital to a minimum and neither did I want to make a huge investment, so it also made sense for me to start with something small. Currently, we make 25 different kinds of chocolates and I make the filling myself.
Although it is my staff that does the baking and decorating, it’s me who is up till two in the morning making the different kinds of fillings.
On working for yourself
Being an entrepreneur is really hectic. There is no one above you to check on you which doesn’t always work to your advantage. You need to have plans and you have to be strict with yourself. If I stop working for a day, everything around me falls apart. So right now, I can’t even rest for a single day. But I’m a great planner, even if I do say so myself, and I make to-do lists in the evening and am all set for the next day.
The great thing about working for yourself is that you know you are not being limited in anyway because you always want to give your 100 percent. I’m not someone who can do a desk job. I’d get bored. After graduating, I went for a lot of job interviews and even got through many but nothing appealed to me. I love to interact with people and I’m an excellent sales person. I have actually gone to job interviews to sell chocolates. Recently I went to Qatar airways to be interviewed for the post of marketing executive. During the interview, the interviewer actually counseled me saying I’d be limiting myself if I took up their job offer. But I had actually just gone to sell some chocolates.
The daily battle
I think challenges are just opportunities in disguise. When I decided to stay back in Nepal and study after doing my A levels in Rato Bangala, it was because I wanted to do something in my own country. I have always been a good student and when I did well in my SLC exams everyone thought I should study medicine later in life. But that’s not where my interests lay. The society has a certain perception of how things should be done but I chose to defy that. After my A levels, I took a break and worked in different hotels as marketing assistant and then only enrolled for the BBA course at KUSOM.
One of the challenges, when you are an entrepreneur, is to grow. In Nepal, you will definitely face a lot of hurdles while starting a business. Initially, we had to import a lot of things, like boxes from India. Sometimes the right flavor isn’t available and there are shortages of all kinds. But it’s actually easy to start a business in Nepal as long as you learn to keep the cost low. The problem is that a lot of people don’t start off at all because they are scared. But you will figure things out as you go along.
Future plans
My family wants me to do my masters but for the next two years I want to fully focus on Bittersweet and have a system in place that runs on its own. Also right now, Bittersweet operates on a business to business basis. I have fixed corporate clients that I cater to.
But I want to expand its reach and open a retail store as well. I’m working on it and it should be set up in three to four months. I also want to start a place that will be all about desserts.
My biggest fear is stagnating. I don’t want to reach a point where I don’t enjoy my work and feel complacent. I want to feel like I’ve just started, even 10 years later. I believe, in life, there should always be something to be excited about and with that kind of mindset I don’t think I’ll ever settle down with something.
