Fiyodo Handicrafts: Striving to promote handicraft usage among Nepalese

Seeing the untapped market of handicraft goods among Nepalese customers, who most of the time are out of access to such handicrafts, four friends came up to start a business Fiyodo which is now known for the quality products at reasonable price.

Started just 9 months ago by Nikesh Shrestha, Roshan Shrestha, Yasmine Shrestha and Shreejana (Diya) Rai, with NRs.10,000 as their initial investment, the business has now grown to be of worth Rs1.5 lakhs.

They vividly remember the day they kick-started the business. “That day itself, we had managed to make a transaction of 20,000 rupees,” says Roshan Shrestha, the Chief Technology Officer of the organization. “We remember the day as the happiest day in our life, as it was the day in our life when we made our first earning,” he expresses happiness.

Because of the really high price, Nepalese have not been able to buy the handicrafts, which they say is now over with the launch of Fiyodo.

“We directly get the products from producers so, the prices are very less than that of the market, making the handicraft items more affordable to Nepalese customers,” says Shrestha.

Talking about the challenges of the particular business in Nepal, the team of Fiyodo says, “In an environment where people are used to buying handicraft items at a higher price, people were often skeptic hearing their price whether the goods are really genuine or not, and it was difficult for us to convince the people that their items are genuine. This was the situation when we try to sell goods without a very high profit margin. But now, things are changing.”

After successfully running the industry for nine months, they have made some BIG plans for the days ahead, from having a shop to sell their products to taking the business to other towns of Nepal. And, eventually expanding their reach and be a global company promoting Nepali handicrafts all around the world.

Seeing the rapid growth of startup and entrepreneurship scene in Nepal, they say that one should start a business with a long-term vision only, with an original idea. “Entrepreneurship has sort-of become a fad in Nepal and people are mostly seen copying what others are doing. This is not good. You surely can’t sustain your business this way.”

The whole range of their product info is available at their website www.fiyodo.com, their Facebook page  and the Instagram page.

Presentation: Basanta Kumar Dhakal