Smriti’s ChocoHouse has to go international and thats my biggest dream

Smriti’s ChocoHouse has to go international and thats my biggest dream

As a mentor, EdGenz is my venture that has taken a beautiful shape, nurturing students

Smriti Bhatia

Founder – Smriti’s ChocoHouse & SIABAZ

COO & Director – MG SocialCare Foundation

Founder – EdGenz & Serene Meadows

Trainer – Art of Chocolates, Be An Entrepreneur & Spritiual ways of living

Titles Honoured with – MSME Wonder Woman & Creative Manufacturing

International Certified Author, TEDx Speaker, Show Host

Mentor of Change Niti Ayaog

Tata Sky Show Host

Seen at Entrepreneur India, Times of India and Hindustan Times

What inspired you to start Smriti’s ChocoHouse, and what were some initial challenges you faced?

We started way back in 2010, when there was not even a slightest hint of converting this into a venture. This was started as a mere gifting to family and friends because like many people I was fond of chocolates. However, the excitement of doing something unique everytime I prepared them, gave me the seed to convert this into a venture with differentiators.

At that time there were not many hand made chocolatiers, but we still wanted to ensure that our concepts are unique. I was never a believer of doing the regular stuff. And then came in the ideas of creating chocolates in themes and blending them with ingredients that are different.

Chocolate Show pieces exist in the world, however they are only to be gifted. Storing them, consuming them and transporting them isn’t that feasible. So we created mini versions for all this.

Over the years, the brand has evolved into 500 fusion flavors, 1000s of designs, chocolate range to include vegan, gluten-free, sugar free. We have mini product range with the flavors of Indian, Chinese, Western and so on. We work on customizations, apart from the regular stuff. In the last few years, we have specialized in Frozen Cakes, Hand blended Ice creams, Popsicles and much more that we will keep adding as per the customer requirements.

Challenges – For me it was very different from the other startups. I am an IT Professional by background and this venture was started as part of my IT career. So my challenge was devoting the right energy and time to contribute to the growth of the company. I had to steal hours from the weekends and night hours during the week to get through successful orders. My entire family would be around me to support and participate in completing all the orders timely.

Coming from a non-business background, the legal part of license, tax, registration, trademark and so on was quite a challenge for me. My family and network were and are my all time saviors. As a company our vision was very unique in 2010, where presenting out of the box flavours and designs was the key. We had to align all our raw material accordingly and that was our initial teething but we overcome that soon with our research.

Can you share your creative process for developing new chocolate flavors, especially for niche markets?

For me creativity comes at any time. When i am out for a walk, sleeping and hence in my dream, reading an article, with some graphics in front of me. Many a times even during my yoga. An idea to innovate from those instances is very common to my mind. Just to name a product from my range is chocolate barbeque. How we launched it was while i was reading an article on paneer tikka and tandoori skewers. There it struck me to replicate the same and we launched a product which appeared exactly like this with chocolate truffles and fresh fruits on a lollytick !

How do you incorporate sustainability into your business practices, particularly with biodegradable packaging?

We have vendors who curate boxes with recycled paper and also bamboo. Our use of plastic is lesser if not zero. Most of our boxes are reusable, which means you dont need to discard them. Provided the client is open to all such practices, they can reuse them for starionery, jewellery and much more. We store limited quantities so that there is no wastage because of staleness.

How do you leverage social media and traditional media to promote your products and services?

I consider both platforms to be crucial inspite of the digital or AI age. Traditional media for me is writing about some recipes, tips, features, articles on the work we do on festivals. At time some interview / award coverage. Social media is the art of being up-to-date with what is the latest algorithm, the ways to best reach your target audience, convert sales, have the right engagement, attractive content. So i keep studying and researching a lot to be equipped with the latest.

The deal is very simple, unless I am aware of what’s happening, i can neither advice the team nor can i review their work. Even when a team is not around, it is not just posting content, its a smart strategy to be pinned around. Hiring interns is a great idea because they will have freshness always.

What key benefits do participants gain from the hands-on chocolate classes at SIABAZ?

The best and precious benefits we have seen historically are people setting up their own businesses. It is primarily of 2 types – Either from Home or they are relocating to another country and want to setup their own cafe.

Secondly, there are children who during festivals setup stalls at exhibitions and feel delighted at their own creations and sales.

Could you describe a particularly memorable event featuring your Chocolate Live Counters?

Oh yes many but specifically lets talk about 3. An event of who the who’s being there. The world of culinary food artists, chefs from all over and various food genres were present at a competiton i was participating at. I was jumping with joy and excitement because i was new to the industry. They tasted our live counter range to judget and their reactions left me filled with gratitude. They remarked “you have got all the tastes of india at one place”.

Another one was where Ruhani sisters the famous sufi singers were performing and they got to taste our chocolate golgappas, their expressions are still captured with me by a dear friend. They wrote a feedback for me on their pages, so much that many others goy jealous and cropped it to be theirs !

Last but not the least, an exhibit where a family came to buy the packs of paan wraps and chocolate golgappas. They were so thrilled that they came back and procured all the packs !

How has your work with the MGSocialCare Foundation influenced your approach to entrepreneurship?

The foundation works very differently where skill trainings are provided in rural areas and hand holding is done for the people to start their business. We pick art and culture of India, revive forms that are less visible and at the same time make sellable products which can facilitate in generating revenue for rural families. All women, men, specially abled and transgenders are welcome from the remote areas who want be independent on their own feet. Trust me when i say this, till they tell us “we dont require you to hand hold”, we will be there by your side guiding your journey to jump out of dependency. Everyone has a right to smile and these small steps make a big difference.

As an entrepreneur, i feel very content within when we work as one team training them to be an entrepreneur. Sharing my experiences with them, conducting brainstorming sessions with them on how to step by step take care of social media, pitch, innovate, create, communicate, sell, pricing and much more. It’s a service in its own to be enlightening them with my journey, providing learnings from my own mistakes and so on.

What message did you hope to convey through your book, “The Chocolate Alphabet,” and how has it been received?

The Chocolate Alphabet is my masterpiece and the reason i say is because it is not a book on recipes, it is not a book on science of chocolates. Every author feels their own piece is best and that’s fair. For me, this book has encapsulated everything a reader would want to know under one roof. I never wanted to write a normal routine book, it had to be a world of chocolates. So i had this title to the book and curated all alphabets A to Z as a relation with chocolates. Now, isn’t that out of the box? It took me 2 years to complete it but i kept on penning down. Assigning topics to some alphabets like Q, X, Z and some more was very challenging, but when there is a will, God surely takes you through. Everyone gets stunned when they see such a concept of book where we unveil chapters in such a way. I am so glad that we could bring that response and take it to an amazon bestseller level.

What advice do you typically give to aspiring entrepreneurs as a TEDx mentor?

Choose a topic that is close to your heart, rehearse, speak from within and just let go! Yes, the carpet gives you butterflies, but just look straight and speak. Review your content, smile and go on. A common mistake shall be to pick a trending topic because that may or may not be your forte.

What are your long-term goals for Smriti’s ChocoHouse and your other ventures?

Smriti’s ChocoHouse has to go international and thats my biggest dream. Having all sorts of customer demands and market needs under our wing is my target.

MG SocialCare Foundation is a hat that needs to cover all feathers in the form of rural areas wanting to be on their own earning and smiling, and that includes selling international markets too, reviving and honing the Indian market, traditions and cultures. Our heritage has strong roots that have to grow vast and healthy.

As a mentor, EdGenz is my venture that has taken a beautiful shape, nurturing students. I would encourage schools, colleges to have us onboard for a camp on entrepreneurship and let them explore practical ways of being one. Bookish knowledge we all get, however to learn on the go via experiences, is what is EdGenz all about. Building your personality, effective leadership, ideation to reality, targets and much more.

And now is about Serene Meadows, living life with values, spirituality is a way of living, its not a religion. How we can make our daily lives worthy inspite of challenges because challenges will always be there. How we face them or respond to them, how we behave, react and live in simplicity. We make our moments a pressure cooker, so how to release that steam within us. If we just set aside some moments to ensure this quality time, we can surely live quality and let everyone sustain in quality. Mental health is a crucial phase nowdays hence a very important role for corporates and children. We work with activities and not gyaan when we conduct these camps.