60 years old, and first time entrepreneurs: How Covid-19 changed the lives of these women
The Covid-19 crisis destroyed many jobs but also created opportunities. These five hospitality professionals, all women in their sixties, set up a housekeepers syndicate for the hospitality industry
Just like everyone else, 64-year-old Garima Nagpal too thought the lockdown last March was just a matter of weeks and everyone would be back to office soon, not expecting that the lockdown would get extended. “March 15 was our last working day at office and post that we were asked to work from home. We were really happy to get two to three weeks of working from home. Little did we know it was going to carry on for such a long time,” recalls Nagpal, who was heading the quality department at Oyo Hotels. The hospitality industry was one of the hardest-hit sectors by the pandemic—there were layoffs, salary cuts and a lot of restaurants shut down.
“From April, the salary stopped coming. Being a part of the senior management, I was okay with it. But then from August onwards I was not involved in any work. I didn’t see that coming and was not expecting it. I was laid off,” recollects Nagpal, who was one of the few hospitality experts on board and had worked with Oyo for about three years. “It did come as a shock, I was very disappointed and it definitely took me a little while to get used to the fact that I won't have a job to go back to,” adds Nagpal who has over 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry. Before joining Oyo, she worked with Grand Hyatt, Taj Hotels, The Shangri-La, Park Royal and was also a part of the executive housekeepers programme at The Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development (OCLD) in Delhi.
Though it was a shock, Nagpal decided she wouldn’t give up, but instead put her expertise and experience to use. There were others she knew in the industry who were either nearing retirement age or had been laid off. After giving it some thought, Nagpal and four peers—Meenakshi Agarwal, Madhu Dubey, Swarnalata Mankikar and Suchitra Naidu—all in their sixties, decided to take their first leap into entrepreneurship. The five of them, all hospitality and housekeeping professionals, decided to set up a startup SOHO, a syndicate of housekeepers. From hotels, cafes, restaurants to hospitals, airports, gyms and sports clubs, these housekeeping professionals provide solutions to them all to improve brand reputation.
The Covid-19 crisis destroyed many jobs but it also created entrepreneurs. To adapt to the pandemic and the job losses it unleashed, these women decided to become their own bosses. “This entire platform is set up for people who have either been asked to retire or they are retiring and then who were laid off. There is no new opportunity opening up for people who were laid off because the market is very tight. So this is an opportunity for all those people. SOHO represents freedom for housekeepers,” says Meenakshi Agarwal who has over 20 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality industry.
SOHO was born in September 2020, after long and frequent virtual meetings. The women saw a huge opportunity for their startup due to the Covid-19 pandemic even though the hospitality sector is still recovering. “The virus in a way has brought home something that we had been saying for a long time, that hygiene and good housekeeping practices are non-negotiable in a hotel or hospital space. Covid-19 has driven home the fact that good hygiene is something that is here to stay, and also something customers have started really being aware of,” says Nagpal.
