Kathmandu:

Nothing is more satisfying than being your own boss. Meet Migma Shrestha, the owner of Miglight Sign, who is is one such person and the one behind most of the hoardings and signboards that you see around the Capital.

Today as more and more women are starting small businesses and setting an example for many other women to follow, Shrestha stands as an exciting model. A graduate in Humanities and Social Sciences from Nepal, and a graduate in business management from Japan, Shrestha worked as a programme coordinator at the Women Entrepreneur’s Association Nepal (WEAN) and was delighted to find renowned personalities like Yankila Sherpa and Shanti Chadda as members of the society she was working in.

Yet six years ago, she left WEAN to establish her own business and realise her aspirations to become a successful entrepreneur. Venturing into a new business is challenging even for established business persons, and for someone like Shrestha, who was entering the business world for the first time, it was doubly challenging.

So, what are the mantras of Migma’s fortitude? “Well, I believe, all you need is the audacity and inner drive to do something, confidence in yourself, optimism and most of all the courage to launch and operate your own business without the safety of a steady paycheck at the end of the month,” she says.

Miglit Sign makes all kinds of computerised signage like signboard, printing, woodcarving, brass itching, light box and logo printing. Her company also does the number plates for vehicles.

When she took over this business from Sign Makers in 2001, Miglit Sign was

the only company in the market providing this kind of service in Nepal. Shrestha says she worked hard to make her business realise its fullest potential. This had a twofold effect

— her business boomed and she realised her dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

For qualifications she says, “As everything is computerised, you need to be an expert in computer programmes like Photoshop and coral draw.”

With three helpers to assist her, Shrestha is the woman behind the making, marketing, and networking of her products and services. Though at present two more companies are providing similar services, Shrestha remains the only woman in this field who dared to go where other women had not in the country.

And Miglight Sign remains the leader in the sector in terms of service.

For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.

— Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman in the US to become a physician