Meet the bakers - Part 12

Chocolates are something that can light up the face of a girl. As I'd mentioned in one of my earlier posts, a chocolate can even give you an orgasm.

Choc of the town is perhaps my biggest weakness. An IT Pro turned chocolatier - Subhatra Priyadarshini's new venture specializes in fresh delicious hand-made personalized chocolates and they are delivered all over India.

Excerpts:

D: Have you been doing this for a very long time? What inspired you?
SP: I had always wanted a career where I can use my creativity/artistic skills and have fun too. I attended a course on Women's Entrepreneurship at IIM Bangalore two years ago that gave me the final push to pursue this dream. Among the many ideas that came up during the course, making chocolates seemed the most exciting. I decided to be as creative as possible in the chocolates I make. The fact that this allows me to come up with new ideas very frequently keeps me motivated to continue growing this business.

D: Do you specialize only in chocolates?
SP: At the moment, we are only into chocolates.

D: I see that you deliver across India. What special care do you take when doing long distance delivery? Do the products reach in the same shape, size and texture?
SP: We did extensive research and tried out various methods in the first few months of going online. We now have what we think is the perfect combination for ensuring safe delivery of our chocolates - sturdy packaging, ice packs for keeping them cool and tie-ups with reputed logistics providers like Bluedart and DTDC. So yes, the products reach in the same shape, size and texture. Our large base of repeat customers is a testimony that we are doing this right.

D: Do you plan to open a store? Or are you content with baking at home?
SP: At the moment, we operate only through www.chocofthetown.com . Being an exclusively online store has its advantages like reduced overhead expenses and the non-necessity of holding an inventory, so I am quite happy with the current model. We have a large range of product pictures for customers to choose from, and we make the chocolates fresh after receiving an order. Of course, setting up an exclusive store for Choc Of The Town is one of the dreams and we will evaluate this again in future. (Spoken like a true management grad ! ;-) )

Signs off Subhatra - If you have a dream to start something of your own, don't wait for all pieces of the puzzle to fall together - it never will. You can always figure things out as you go along. Have fun!

I wish I have the guts to do that some day ! You are inspiring ! 


Cheers and see you and your chocolates on the 30th !