Tania Akter is a woman entrepreneur from Bogura. Her journey began with just 2 kg of jujube (boroi) pickle, and that small venture has now become a brand.

Her pickles now reach Saudi Arabia, Australia and Malaysia as well as various districts of Bangladesh. The business she started with just Tk 5,000 of capital now has more than Tk 4 lakh invested in it, and several people work for her.

Her Facebook-based business, "Ariana's Dreams", now makes various pickles, ghee and home-made foods. Its range includes mango, jujube, tamarind, chalta (elephant apple), olive, garlic, chilli and mixed pickles, and even beef and chicken pickles. She has built up regular customers.

This season she has sold more than 30 kg of mango pickle, at Tk 800 to Tk 1,000 a kg. Jujube and tamarind pickles sell for Tk 600, garlic pickle Tk 700, mixed pickle Tk 700, chilli pickle Tk 500 and beef pickle Tk 1,600. Sold in 250-gram, 500-gram and 1-kg packs, the products keep for up to a year.

By where the business stands today, it is a success story. But behind that success lie a long struggle, uncertainty and a fight to survive.

Tania Akter dreamed of being a banker and was preparing for jobs after finishing her higher education. But an accident changed the course of her life. In 2011 she married businessman Adnan Hossain, and family life went on normally until 2018, when Adnan was seriously injured in a road accident. Long treatment, lost income and higher household costs plunged the family into crisis.

With a sick husband, elderly parents-in-law and a young daughter, uncertainty hung over the five-member family, and meeting household expenses became a major challenge. Tania then decided to make cooking, which she had loved since childhood, her livelihood.

In 2018 her life as an entrepreneur began with just Tk 5,000. The first order came through a relative, from a Bangladeshi living in Saudi Arabia, and she made and sent 2 kg of jujube pickle.

The buyer's praise at tasting home abroad gave her new confidence. Tania realised there was a market for home-made food in which she could survive if she kept up the quality. She then launched the online Facebook page "Ariana's Dreams", named after her daughter Ariana.

The start was far from easy. To keep the household going she took a job at a kindergarten on a salary of Tk 3,500. Teaching at school by day and making pickles through the night was how she spent many years.

Between her sick husband's treatment and the fight to keep the business going, neither fatigue nor frustration stopped her. Gradually she added cakes, patties, pizza and other home-made foods to her range, and orders grew.

Customer trust is the great strength of an online business, and so it has been for Tania. Officials and employees of various government and private organisations are among her regular customers.

Through relatives and expatriates, her products have reached Saudi Arabia, Australia and Malaysia. At first she delivered within the country herself; now she has several delivery workers, and three people help with production and packaging.

Success has brought new challenges. Higher prices of oil, sugar, spices and other raw materials have pushed production costs up sharply, yet many customers want to buy at the old prices, so profits are shrinking. Still, Tania does not want to stop.

"At the start many people said nothing would come of this," she said. "But I believed that if I could make a good product, people would buy it. Today that belief is taking me forward."

She says her family has been her greatest strength on this long journey. Since recovering, her husband helps with buying raw materials and other work, and her 60-year-old mother-in-law Jobeda has become a big help at home.

"When my daughter-in-law forgets something while busy cooking, I remind her," Jobeda said. "I like seeing where the orders come from and how things sell. Now I am proud of her work."

Family responsibilities are heavy, though. Her 95-year-old father-in-law, Khoybor Rahman Bosari, is ill after a stroke, and she is also responsible for the schooling of her 10-year-old daughter Ariana, who is in class three. She has to manage the business, the family and the care of sick family members.

Tania is optimistic about the future. "Alongside online sales, I want to open a showroom in Bogura town, with products from several other women entrepreneurs as well as my own," she said. "I want to create jobs for at least five to 10 women. I am working towards exporting pickles directly abroad within the next five years."

Her advice to young people is to use their own skills and interests rather than follow someone else's path. "Overcoming the harsh realities of family life, my husband's accident, financial crisis and social barriers, I have proved that a crisis can sometimes give birth to new opportunities," she said. "I believe anyone's self-confidence and perseverance can become their story of turning life around."

Tania passed her SSC from Bogura Central High School in 2006 and her HSC from Bogura Commercial College in 2008. She then completed honours and master's degrees in political science at Government Azizul Haque College. Though highly educated, she is known not for a job but for her own enterprise.

To make the business more professional, she has taken training from various organisations, including the government body BSCIC and the development organisation GUK, in digital marketing, social media marketing, entrepreneurship development and dairy product management.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.