Nepali art entrepreneur on the rise: Suyasha Shree Khatri

Suyasha Shree Khatri is a 22-year-old Nepali art entrepreneur and is the owner of Yashrii products, a derivative from her own name. Khatri, a resident of Kupondole, started her business since January 10, 2017. Her products mainly consist of anime products mainly hand-painted cards, and bookmarks, including other art pieces. Khatri has a Bachelor’s degree in Environment Science but always had an interest in drawing since she was in grade three. Working in this field, she has received many positive feedback from her customers and friends. And she is now exploring new avenues to expand her brand as a Nepali art entrepreneur. To know more about her, her art and what it takes to be an individual entrepreneur in Nepal.

How do you manage your time for work?

In the beginning, time management was extremely tough. I was still a student and had to attend my classes early in the morning. During exams, I even had to cancel the orders. But time management has been easier since I have graduated. I can now give enough time for my work. It has been less of a stress to fulfill all the orders than before.

Photo Courtesy: Suyasha Shree Khatri

From where do you bring the materials for your art?

For my art, I mainly use watercolors but sometimes I do use poster colors or acrylic paints. I sometimes also use sharpies. For cards, I use cartridge papers. All these products are not extraordinary and are easily available in a normal stationery.

How many products do you sell at a time? Do you see seasonal sales? If so, when?

Talking about the seasonal sale, it mainly falls on festivals like Christmas. At this time of the year, people place orders in high number and there is a huge sale. The same happens during the Nepali festivals like Dashain, Tihar and New Years. And common sale is for birthday cards, I get orders mostly in the months of September and October. I guess most of the people are born in September and October (chuckles).

Photo Courtesy: Suyasha Shree Khatri

How did your family and relatives react to being a Nepali art entrepreneur decision of yours?

At the starting point of this career, my family didn’t believe in the scope of being a Nepali art entrepreneur. But still, they supported me in what I did. Once I started to do well and my work grew progressively, they were able to understand my vision and supported me more strongly. Talking about relatives and friends, they have been very much supportive of my work then and now as well.

What feedback do you receive from your customers?

So far, the feedback has been mostly positive. There are many other customers who appreciate my hard work, and have supported and encouraged me, to this date. But, there are some customers who don’t understand the concept. They don’t realize the hard work one puts in these hand-painted artworks. They compare the price with machine-printed paints that are cheaper and are easily available. The concept needs to be talked about more.

You have recently started publishing vlogs as well, how are you managing your time for that?

Honestly, I am facing quite a problem in managing my blogs. So far, I have only done few. But as I work alone, I have to do all brainstorming and conceptualization of the contents, which takes a lot of time. Then there is writing and editing of contents and time management, as it requires a lot of dedicated time to run a blog/vlog. But my friend(s), occasionally help me with stuff like taking shots of the product and editing. But, I am planning on making a fixed plan to maintain my vlogs regularly.

What scopes do you see in being a Nepali art entrepreneur ? What do you recommend to people interested in this sector?

Well, talking about scope in the career of art, I would say the market is pretty good at this time. Even different organizations are hosting different kinds of events in order to promote art in the market, and I think it will grow even more and in a good way. When it comes to giving suggestions to any aspiring Nepali art entrepreneur, I highly recommend them to follow their passion. It might be hard at first, to even figure out what that is, don’t give up and follow their dreams to the end.

You can check out her art-works here: YAश्री PRODUCTS