Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs Leveraging the power of social media to grow their businesses

“I have been successfully running my business on social media for four years. There is a lot of interest in wedding and party invitations. Thanks to digital tools, I can reach a wider audience with a much lesser investment and can take on a lot of orders.” 
- Nishadi Gamage-

Despite being faced with an uncertain economic future and gender-related barriers, women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka have risen to the challenge and demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability by turning to social media to not only sustain but to grow their businesses to new levels. 

Meet Nishadi Gamage, a young woman from Yatinuwara who turned her dream of starting a business into reality. She came up with Crafting Hawi, a home-based business that actively uses social media as a primary tool to promote her handcrafted wedding invitations, wedding cake boxes, party invitations and similar handcrafted products. Her captivating creations are posted on Facebook and Instagram to help build engagement with potential customers and obtain orders. 

Nishadi commenced her business in early 2019 using Facebook where she simply uploaded photos and details of her creations to her page. However, her business was transformed later that year once she was presented with the opportunity to participate in the Suhuruliya programme in Yatinuwara where she gained an in-depth understanding of how to market and grow her business using digital tools. 

The Suhuruliya programme is a programme of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and the Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment. Meta, formerly known as the Facebook company, partnered with the initiative through its SheMeansBusiness programme to support women-owned businesses and to enable the social and economic empowerment of women in Sri Lanka through ICT-enabled entrepreneurship. SheMeansBusiness is focused on leveling the playing field by ensuring women have equal access to tools and networks that will allow their businesses to thrive. It also seeks to celebrate and spotlight women who despite the additional challenges they face, continue to drive their businesses to success.

Nishadi immediately put her newly-acquired knowledge into action by using Facebook and has been receiving a very positive response ever since, leading to impressive growth of her business. 

She is also making plans to open her own store in Yatinuwara in the near future.