Breadwinners graduate Gobika founded Namma Party in April 2020, when she was supported by our friends at TERN to design and launch her own business idea. Namma Party has just finished pre-launch crowdfunding, smashing their target and raising over £700.

Soon, Gobika will be using the overhead donated to the crowdfunder to fully launch and set up a website so people can order online. Breadwinners communications manager Zoe caught up with her about the launch of her new venture and how her time at Breadwinners supported her future goals.

What inspired you to set up Namma Party?

“Personally, parties allow us to have a break from a busy life, but in lockdown we had no parties so we need each other more than ever,” Gobika says.

Namma Party originally had a different name but after a few months, Gobika settled on the name Namma Party: “Namma means ‘our’ - so ‘our party’. I really like that. And people gave good feedback about it too.”

How did working with Breadwinners help you launch in Namma Party?

Gobika says that working on the Breadwinners stalls as a Market Stall Manager was really helpful to setting up Namma Party. She says the connection she found at the stalls was a great source of motivation: “Meeting other people, and them telling me about their ideas, helped me build on my ideas and see how motivated they were - seeing other people motivated, motivated me.”

She also said that the Breadwinners community helped motivate her towards starting up. “Charlotte and Martin motivated me too. Me and Martin did a workshop which helped me develop my ideas.” Working with TERN, as well as Breadwinners, Gobika could develop her core idea into a creative and exciting project.

Breadwinners graduate and businesswoman Gobika

“Molly helped me a lot too,” Gobika says of her Breadwinners mentor, “yeah, she really helped. She bought my products and she shared my business with her friends too.” The community and networking aspect of Breadwinners was really helpful to allowing Gobika to help share her products with more people. You can read a interview from a few months ago with Gobika and her mentor Molly, here!

On the most important skill, Gobika told us: “networking was really one of the most important skills I learnt through Breadwinners. And customer service skills, too. The customer service I developed at the markets has been great to help me develop the business.”

What’s next for Namma Party?

We asked Gobika what she sees for Namma Party in the future: “In the next few years, I’d like to extend my products and offer more types of boxes, as we do birthdays and bridal parties at the moment. I want to be able to launch more new and creative boxes, to use my own creativity and ideas.”

She also can’t wait to grow as lockdown restrictions lift. “I want to do bigger boxes too. When there’s no more lockdowns and we can meet in groups, I’d like to big boxes, for groups of up to 30 people.”

She says she is also looking forward to building her own community around Namma Party. “I’m excited to have loyal and repeat customers,” she tells us.

In the shorter term, however, it’s still all go for the launch. “Yes, at the moment, I am very busy!”, Gobika exclaims, “I’m studying and working part time, too.” On top of this and the launch, TERN are helping Gobika build a website so people can shop online after the crowdfunder ends.

On asking her what she can’t wait to do once the busy launch is over, she laughs and says: “I’d love a holiday! I need to refresh my mind. But that’s not until after May - that’s my launch - and it’ll be busy until then.”

Decorations designed and made by Gobika for a Namma Party party-in-a-box

What’s the secret?

Gobika has some great advice for anyone in a similar position who is thinking of launching their own initiative. “You need to trust your ideas,” she says, “that’s the most important thing - trust your ideas. It’s a growing world, and there is a lot of opportunity for you here.”

She says that trusting herself was her secret, but that doesn’t mean going it alone. “I accessed support in my community too, and asked for lots of feedback. You’ve got to focus on the important feedback, though, like customers.”

Finally, she urges other entrepreneurs to keep positive and creative. “You need to have an open mind,” Gobika tells me, “there’s a lockdown, and then there’s no lockdown… having an open mind means you can keep up with the changing situation.”