Archives: Our Team

Lourembam Yaiphabi is the founder of Mirror- The beauty store. Growing up, Lourembam Yaiphabi has always dreamt of running a business that caters to women’s needs. She has an MBA degree and has prior experiences in corporate houses. And finally at age 34, she decided to pursue her dream and set up Mirror The beauty store in Imphal, Manipur. They are a pioneer in home grooming solutions, also running a retail outlet for grooming essentials and accessories.

When everyone is striving for convenience in this fast paced world, Lourembam decided to run her business alongside. People look for convenience and she provided grooming solutions to women at their doorstep. She brings out the solution for the lack of time and resources for self-care and grooming.

Yaiphabi is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

For more details:

Website: http://www.mirrorthebeautystore.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Mirror-The-beauty-store-859458724219311/

Instagram page : https://www.instagram.com/yaiphabilourembam/

Lalnun Engi is the proprietor of M/S V.L HLIRA TRADE AND SERVICES. It operates in Beauty Salon-Hair, Beauty and Body services Airport outlet- Handicrafts and Food stall in Mizoram. They have 1 Spa outlet in Aizawl and 2 Airport Outlets. Although her business was doing well before Covid-19, it took a deep hit during pandemic.

She is now planning to diversify into food processing, with her first product being avocado paste. She is looking for funding to start the same.

Lalnun Engi is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

Karishma Kakoti is the founder and the principal interior designer of interior design firm KA Design in Guwahati. She has been honoured with the International Excellence Award 2020 for her outstanding performance in interior design. She had earlier received the Indian Leadership Award 2018 and was also a recipient of the Young Icon Award. Her firm, KA Design bagged the Leading Interior Designer Firm 2018 award at India’s Most Prominent Architect and Design Awards 2018. KA Design deals in high-end luxury projects from residential, commercial, hospitality all over India. She has also been conferred with the ‘Best Emerging Interior Design Professional of the Year’ at the Global Indian Business Excellence Awards 2019 held in London, UK.Karishma studied B.Sc in Interior Design at Amity University in Noida.

Karishma is very strong headed and understands business very well. She wants to set up a design school, where interested candidates can get vocational training in interior designing.

Karishma is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

For more details:

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/KA-School-Of-Design-102904501409363

Joobita Lourembam is a designer who runs her own business in apparel and garment design house called M/S Tamna Fashion. She was born and brought up in Imphal, Manipur. Brought up in a close cultural and religious knit, she had an exciting childhood. Joobita always dreamt of doing something good for others. She started her business in 2015 and registered it as sole proprietorship. She mostly designs and caters to customized orders and designer outfits. She is engaged with few tailors and weavers to work according to her designs and orders. Apart from this, she also works closely with the DIC Imphal where she is engaged as a trainer.

Joobita is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

Jina is a 67 years old entrepreneur based in Imphal, Manipur. She started Mangal Soap in 2015 and registered as sole proprietorship. She has a patent for herbal soap manufacturing. Her family helps and supports her in running the business. Using medicinal plants to make soaps to treat common diseases. 9 varieties 1. Nongleishang (Zylosmalongifolia) 2. Yiangang (Turmeric) 3. Aloe Vera 4. Heiribob (Citrus macroptera) 5. Heibi (Meynalaxiflora) 6. Okhidak (Acoruscalamus) 7. Thabi (Cucumissativus) 8. Loofah soap 9. Hotel soap bars. She caters to the local market and caters to ½ Hotels in Imphal. Started her venture after becoming a widow and on her quest to help out the widows and orphans in her locality. With the fierce competition in handmade products, she is unable to keep up with the rising trends and technology upgrades.

Jina is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

Daisy Brahma is a qualified textile designer from NIFT (Delhi) and the proprietor of DB Weaves. Prior to starting DB Weaves, she has 8 years of work experience working in reputed export houses in Delhi and Bangalore. The current venture was started in 2017. She has 3 power looms in Kokrajhar (Assam), from which she makes dokhonas (traditional Bodo attire). Dokhonas are used for all activities in BTAD – from regular wear to festivals. However, she is trying to bring modern designs to it which can cater to broader markets. Most of her sales are through the B2B channels. She also takes part in exhibitions in and around Assam.

The competitive advantage for her has been the quality of dokhonas. She uses only the most comfortable fabric. Moreover, she herself invests a lot of time in innovating new designs for dokhonas. Her plan is now to expand dokhonas into uniforms and wedding dresses.

Daisy is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

Bhanushree Deka is the proprietor of Golden Bricks, which is an interior designing firm based at Guwahati. It is a design cum construction firm providing end to end solutions for various types of interior decoration of houses, offices, commercial establishments, outdoors- Landscaping, Architectural Cum Structural Designing etc.

She has been working in the space of interior designing since 2011. She has 3 business verticals- architecture, interior, 3D. She feels her business has stagnated and wants to explore new revenue streams. One of the sectors she is thinking of is terrace gardening.

Bhanushree is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

Arundhati started her enterprise, Progressive Educational Society (Chandmari College) in 2003, with the aim to provide education to students in the lower income bracket. The college has shifted 4-5 times in the last 17 years, due to unavailability of funds to pay rents. This according to her has been a major factor in the college failing to create a niche for itself despite being in existence for a very long time. The fees charged by her to students is low, and most of the times it becomes difficult for her to recover even this amount. In order to supplement the finances of the school, she undertakes Government projects as well.

Over the years, she has seen a lot of ups and downs in the school. However, the Covid-19 and associated lockdowns have brought the school to the brink of closure. She has already let go of the building where the school was located and is looking for a new one. She wants to open a coaching centre which could subsidize the school, but hasn’t been able to plan that yet.

Arundhuti is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

Anu Mandal is the proprietor of Ava Creations. She has been closely linked with the fashion industry and weaving from a very early age. She has 18 years of diverse industries in the North Eastern region extending from the fashion industry to event and sports management, before starting Ava Creations. Ava creations was started with the aim to promote traditional handloom, which is beautiful, sustainable and also provides a meaningful source of livelihoods to people. Ava creations is working with communities in DeeporBeel, which is an ecologically sensitive region in Guwahati. The idea is to promote alternate livelihoods amongst these forest dependent communities so that the environment is preserved.

Anu utilizes sustainable means of designing, and their fashion business is centred on environmentally-friendly designs. Apart from the weaving centre, she has an experience centre called Ava Creations Studio.

Anu is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

For more details:

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/avacreations

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/avacreations.co.in/?hl=en

Alemla is the proprietor of Lem Handicrafts, which deals with macrame. She is an artist, and uses marcame as an expression of her art. She has been in the industry for almost 8 years and has now established a niche group of customers. The designs are her own, and she emphasizes on using good quality raw material. Depending on the size of orders, she also outsources her work to 10 women in Nagaland who work for her on a part time basis.

Her major sales channels are through Online (Instagram), EPCH and Trade Fairs, and most of her buyers are high-end customers. She is planning to sell to export clients as well, since there is good demand in European countries

Alemla is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.

For more details:

Instagrampage: https://www.instagram.com/lemtur/?hl=en