Parenting and motherhood platform, The Champa Tree, chose to be empathetic and nurture its community during the Covid pandemic.
At NICE, we are engaging with NICE enterprises to know how they are tackling their businesses during the pandemic. What are they doing differently this time around? How are they adapting? What is helping them face the challenges?
In the #NICEShareAndCare series, we feature tips and methods from NICE entrepreneurs and NICE community.
In this piece, Vaishali Sudan Sharma, founder of The Champa Tree, shares how they navigated these tough times. The lessons are applicable to all NICE entrepreneurs.
1. Nurturing Our Community
As the leading platform operating in the parenting segment, the critical task has been to extend support to our community.
a) Staying relevant to them in these tough times by providing the following support.
- Problem-solving for working parents
- Easy tips and workshops for non-working parents
- Hacks on how to reduce screen time smartly
The Champa Tree as a platform and the entire team went back to the drawing board and our content saw a shift.
b) Being Empathetic
We asked each other and ourselves the ONE thing – How to be helpful. How not to glorify pain and suffering. How to stay calm and be of help. An example of being helpful was our putting in place a service that offered to hire writers on a freelance basis.
2. Enabling Our Community
a) We are currently in talks with a few platforms that can connect our audience base of mothers who are looking for part-time or full-time work to suitable job opportunities.
b) We also created a community of mums to connect with each other during tough times.
c) Our Vocal for Local series is leveraging small set-ups and new businesses with a sustainable offering. We are also connecting our mothers who had to quit their full-time or consultancy jobs with local enterprises that exhibit our country’s rich culture and flavors.
For example, any sustainable agriculture-based business venture or one that offers eco-friendly products or packaging, or environment-friendly fashions and designs, or food brands that aims to meet sustainable development goals, can fill up this form and be featured in our Vocal for Local initiative.
d) Re-imagine yourself: We are also in the process of launching initiatives that will take The Champa Tree beyond only being a content repository that connects our age-old parenting traditions with the modern to a different narrative.
3. Growing Our Community
We are focused on growing our community of engaged enabled members.
For example, we have over 10,000 parents in our email list and over 12 Lakh parents are engaged on our website. We also run two communities – one on FB called Moms Cloud led by Sakshi Wadhwa and the other one on InstaGram, Momsta Cloud, by Rakhi Jayashankar, both mums who have had active corporate careers. We are growing steadily on social media platforms by having our communities leverage local businesses run by mums and dads.
It is important that we recognize moms with ‘real’ struggles as they offer great lessons to all.
Read this story of a mom and her special needs child.
4. Our Community, Our Raison D’être
A community with a strong purpose is bound to thrive. A person only becomes a member of a community when the community aligns with their identity. Through our Real Moms initiative, we’re looking to bring out the struggles that are relatable. Through our Vocal for Local initiative, we’re trying to leverage brands with an impact, like eco-friendly clothing, sustainable food ventures.
The intent is clear. We want to fuel participation and encourage all voices. Validate and celebrate each and every voice.
The above four lessons can be applicable to any business today, either wholly or in part. It is important that you reflect on your own business and see how best these lessons can be adapted to make your business successful.
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Calling Cultural Entrepreneurs
Have a cultural enterprise? Tell us what you do. Write to us at namaste@niceorg.in.
To share tips and methods you are using to face the challenges of the pandemic, write to me at chitra@niceorg.in.
Images from The Champa Tree
Feature Image by jannoon028 – www.freepik.com
