8 minute read
Rafina Siya Shaikh- Founder of GoWomania
by ItsGoa
Rafina Siya Shaikh is a person who needs no introduction. She is one of the most popular names in the business fraternity in Goa. She is the founder of GoWomania Goa, an initiative by a group of women entrepreneurs to provide a social platform to encourage, guide and build a support system for aspiring women entrepreneurs. The platform came into existence in order to explore entrepreneurship opportunities by building skill sets as well as a strong motivated mindset.
She is also the founder of Goenkart, Goa’s first local, multi-product, multi-brand e-commerce portal. Apart from this, she is also the founder of WEBN-Goa, Goa’s first business networking platform for women entrepreneurs.
In a brief chat with ItsGoa, Siya offered a lot of insights into her life, her career, the journey of GoWomania and WEBN, her future plans and lots more…
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Rafina Shaikh. I am popularly known as Siya Shaikh. I was born and brought up in a small village called Nanus-Valpoi, which is located in Sattari taluka. I did my schooling at Our Lady of Lourdes Higher Secondary School, Valpoi and then completed my Diploma in Civil Engineering from the Government Polytechnic in Bicholim.
My mother was an ‘anganwadi’ (government primary school) teacher while my father worked as a helper at GMC (Goa Medical College and Hospital), Bambolim. I got married in 2013 in Panjim and have a 4-year old son named Raheesh.
What was your childhood ambition?
Being the eldest female child born in an orthodox Muslim family, I wanted to become somebody and prove the worth of a girl child to everyone.
Give us a brief picture of your career as a civil engineer?
I didn't actually make a career in that field. I worked as a site supervisor for only 6 months and then left the job to move to Pune for better opportunities.
When did you move back to Goa? I returned to Goa in 2013 owing to my marriage.
What inspired you to start GoWomania Goa? Give us a detailed insight into the organization and the work that it has done to promote women-run businesses in Goa?
What inspired you to start GoWomania Goa? Give us a detailed insight into the organization and the work that it has done to promote women-run businesses in Goa?
While setting up my factory in Guleli, I came across women who were involved in making hand-made articles of different kinds. I was amazed at their skill, passion, and their willingness to work hard, but it also broke my heart to see them suffering from lack of exposure to market their products.
Since I had a lot of experience in marketing, I decided to give them a platform to market their products. So, in 2017, I took the first step and started GoWomania Goa, a Facebook group that would list women entrepreneurs who made hand-made crafting items. However, when I shared the idea with a few people, no one believed that it would work. So, I did some research, went on to learn a few things, took some small steps and eventually made the GoWomania Goa Facebook group grow from just 50 women entrepreneurs to more than 1000 women entrepreneurs. Very soon, our GoWomania platform on Facebook grew from 1000 to 10,000 members and today has more than 12,500 members. We recently celebrated our 5th anniversary with an event called “Pehchaan”- Ek Prerna. The event was Goa's first multilingual stage story event where eminent Goan women from different walks of life narrated a 360 degree account of their life in 360 seconds in their own mother tongue.
(Konkani,Marathi,Hindi and English). The aim of the event was to provide a stage to successful women from different spheres to share their success stories and inspire other women. At the event, GoWomania’s first print magazine "BOSS LADY '' was also released at the hands of Smt. Sulakshana Sawant, spouse of Goa’s Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant.
When did WEBN start? Elaborate on the various activities undertaken by WEBN to promote women led businesses in Goa.
The journey of WEBN began in October 2018. We named our little platform as ‘Women Entrepreneurs Business Meet’ (WEBM). There were only 15 women who used to ‘meet’ when we just started off. Our first term’s tenure was only 6 months. In June 2019,
we started our second term, where more women entrepreneurs joined us and by the end of another 6 months, our total strength increased to 24 members.
Then came the third term in May 2020 with a 1 year tenure. We got a new leadership team headed by our Power Team. We achieved exponential growth in terms of business as well as number of members. This increase in the number of members led us to change the name of our organization from “Women Entrepreneurs Business Meet'' (WEBM) to ‘Women Entrepreneurs Business Network’ (WEBN). WEBN is a platform which provides an opportunity to do business with like-minded women entrepreneurs having the same agenda of increasing their business and network. We, as a group, create a bigger network and help women entrepreneurs to reach a wider audience through different resources and tools. We also help them to troubleshoot the various issues they face and enhance their potential to grow their business.
WEBN has 4 chapters all over Goa, namely PanjimPrudence, Margao-Magnitude, Mapusa-Majestic and Vasco-Vibrant. It has a total strength of more than 80 women entrepreneurs. We together generated a business of Rs. 1.7 cr. in the last 4 years.
What’s the difference between GoWomania Goa and WEBN? GoWomania is all about Facebook networking and offline activities like events and exhibitions, while WEBN is Goa's first purely business networking platform where we have fixed meeting agendas, twice a month, for all the four chapters.
How has Goenkart's journey been so far?
A multi-vendor and multi-product platform, Goenkart is a user friendly website that offers local Goan organic products like jaggery, Goan masalas, pickles, artifacts etc., all at one place. The journey of Goenkart is a bit challenging, but exciting at the same time.
Initially, getting vendors selling different varieties of products and logistics were the two major issues which we faced. But things are going quite well now. I, along with my partner, Dr. Sneha Bhagwat, are trying to bring something new and innovative for buyers across India through this platform. We currently offer more than 500 products on the platform. We have successfully delivered products to places outside Goa such as Mumbai, Gujarat and Pune.
What were the challenges that you faced when you just started GoWomania, WEBN and Goenkart?
And how did you overcome those challenges?
Well, I would say that challenges are a part of life. Without challenges, you don’t really grow as a person. With my conviction and hard work, as well as the help and support of my senior team members from all the platforms, I am able to manage all these three platforms successfully without much difficulty. I would love to mention their names: Team GoWomania - Moksha Kotian, Madhumati Devi, Kusha Nayak, Jasmine D’Souza, and Naznee Khan.
WEBN - Sunitaa Mathur, Padmaja Chauhan
Goenkart - Dr. Sneha Bhagwat
Also, my family has always stood by me in all my endeavors. My husband, Mr. Riyaz Shaikh has always been a great mentor and a source of support for me.
Any awards that you have been felicitated with?
I was featured in the ‘Top 30 Tech Supergirl of India 2021’ list compiled by IWIL India. I received an award for contributing towards a positive change in society at the ‘National Women’s Parliament 2021’ event, which was organized by the Goa State Legislative Assembly and supported by the MIT School of Government. I was also felicitated at the ‘Times Entrepreneurs of Goa 2021’ awards organized by The Times of India.
What are your plans for the future?
The sky's the limit. I just keep working on my goals which are:
-To empower every woman in Goa to achieve her dreams and become financially independent.
-To ensure that a strong support system is available for women entrepreneurs in Goa.
-To make Goa an example of a powerful collaborative effort towards empowering women.
-To take Goa and Goan products to a global audience and market.
Finally, is there any message or words of advice that you would like to share with our readers? I just want to say that “Self belief is the strongest weapon one can possess. Nobody can destroy it unless you do. So keep your head high, but feet on the ground and keep moving and growing.”
