Starting a business is full of exciting challenges and potential learning opportunities gained from the risks that come with it, Chimmi Dema, the founder of Crystal Moon Product said, adding that understanding these unique obstacles may prepare professionals to handle them if they encounter any as they start a business.
Chimmi Dema is an ex-civil servant. Currently, she is serving as Chairperson of the food processing unit based in Gelephu.
She has been inclined to food processing and has a passion to help destitute families or women and youths indeed co-founded Sherchog Women’s Group (SWG) with SABAH Bhutan – which was later on handed over to SABAH in 2015.
“After handing over the SWG to SABAH, I started Food Processing Unit in the name of daughter Yeshi Dorji Yangden on 19th October 2015,” she said, adding that the Crystal Moon Product was founded solely by the family without any financial aid, or loan amounting to five hundred thousand ngultrums from Bhutan Development Bank and Bhutan National Bank Limited.
Talking with MyBiz Magazine, she shared that “When I was serving as a civil servant I met with various groups of people, mostly women who are either divorced or who cannot meet day-end meal for the family. I have met those women who lived a life of kitchen space to the bedroom, who had what it has offered them which was not enough for them to cash out to the people they owe.
In order to help them, Chimmi Dema said that she came up with Crystal Moon Product in order to provide jobs to destitute women and youths. “This firm started with the mission to manufacture best quality pickles, candies, and spices with varieties of taste and sizes, and supply to marts, hotels, and fast-food chains to achieve greater stakeholder value through customer satisfaction and demands.”
“Till date, we have been manufacturing higher quality for utmost satisfaction of not only the company but also of customers on the other side keeping a constant pace with the rapidly changing market trends and consumer behaviors,” she shared.
Likewise, the food processing unit currently employed 12 regular employees and provides part-time jobs to the students during vacations.
However, she also successfully completed training on food processing and packaging in 2017, Attended group sensitization and formation of social enterprise and technology in 2017, Completed Business Development and Entrepreneurship training in 2019, Completed Regional Workshop on Planning and Managing technology transfer for inclusive development on 2019, and trained 260 youths in food processing from 2013 to 2019.
“I am interested to learn and explore more on the business and wish to expand the business outlet, if the current business runs on profit,” she said, adding that when she was serving as a civil servant, she realized that the worlds food supply can collapse even with the slightest drop of food growth. Food has already replaced oil as the most-priced commodity.
With the notion to sustain the food chain, Chimmi Dema started a food processing unit in order to link the chain. Today, Crystal Moon Products is a food processing organization that produces best-quality food products ranging from spices, pickles, and paste/ezzey to candies, and cookies, and helps farmers in the selling of collected cheese and butter.
Through this, Chimmi said that the organization aims to promote the welfare of many farmers and home-based workers by providing the farmers with access to markets and generating employment opportunities for the home-based workers, and developing their skills to help them earn a sustainable income.
Chimmi Dema is an Award recipient of the Agribusiness Entrepreneur of the year 2022 from the Women Icon Board which nominated her and selected her as the 2nd outstanding woman performer of the year 2022.
“I feel proud and much obliged to the Women’s Icon Organization for providing us platform whereby we are supported and recognized and encourage future generations. This award is very special for an entrepreneur like me representing the small, beautiful, and peaceful nation – Bhutan.”
She added that this award is prestigious and everyone dreams to grab it. This award will encourage more entrepreneurs to come forward and make positive impacts in the community.
Meanwhile, she shared that the main challenge that all entrepreneurs face is to get their businesses funded. “Being a young entrepreneur might be a challenge, but it’s certainly not an insurmountable one,” she said.
She added that It’s tough for anyone to start out as an entrepreneur building a new business from the ground up. “Being young at the same time brings a unique set of challenges to the table, ones that your older counterparts may not have to deal with,” she said, adding that stereotypes of the young and attitudes about how young people should behave have a way of tripping up the unwary business owner.
My advice to a young entrepreneur is that “Becoming an entrepreneur can be intimidating, but utilizing the right tactics to start off strong can boost your chances of success.”
