Paving the way for future female entrepreneurs with Cherani De Silva

30 Aug 2021

Paving the way for future female entrepreneurs with Cherani De Silva

30 Aug 2021

By Mahika Panditha In the face of adversity, entrepreneurs are breaking barriers and redefining business for themselves and the new generation. Last week, we got to speak with CHÉCHÉ Ceylon CEO Cherani De Silva, who also works as a project manager/business analyst at a reputed company. 25-year-old Cherani is a former national swimmer as well as an undergraduate from Cardiff Metropolitan University. She hopes to expand CHÉCHÉ globally, and we cannot wait to see where her journey takes her. On a side note, she is a huge fan of Japanese and Thai cuisine! Check out what Cherani had to say – we spoke about university, business, and more! Hi Cherani! Before we get into the details, tell our readers a little about yourself! I’m a 25-year-old entrepreneur involved in working as a project manager and business analyst. I’m also an undergraduate from Cardiff metropolitan university UK, a former national swimmer, and a record holder in school level athletics. My family comprises six, I have two older brothers and a twin brother. My father is the founder of Kapla Motor Industries (the first electric vehicle manufacturing company in Sri lanka), my older brother lives in Sydney, Australia, and his twin currently studies in Kenyon college, Ohio, USA. My second brother was an electronic engineer, however, he is no longer with us as he passed away in 2015 following a tragic accident. Last but not least, my mother, who’s always been our happy pill, our pillar of strength, and without whom none of us would have been able to get through our obstacles in life. P.S. I love travelling with my family and exploring new places. Tell us a little about your university experience: What did you study and why? I always had a passion for technology and innovation hence, I completed my higher national diploma in software engineering and graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan with honours in business information systems. I’m looking forward to completing my postgraduate in entrepreneurship and innovation. You have your own skincare company – CHÉCHÉ Ceylon! How did that start? Well, I never really enjoyed a nine to five job and honestly speaking, I never really adored working from home. I always had a dream to start my own eco-friendly business, and to become a strong, independent woman. Remember how dalgona coffee, baking, and other hobbies started emerging during the pandemic last year? So while that was a thing, I was trying to modify my skincare routine by experimenting with remedies, and I went ahead to research and develop an organic activated charcoal peel-off face mask that helps remove blackheads/whiteheads, and reduce other imperfections. After a lot of trial and error and a lot of experiments on my parents (fortunately they volunteered to be my guinea pigs) they ended up loving my end product. Afterwards, I thought of helping others who were suffering from the same issue, and that’s when a close friend of mine motivated me to fulfil my dreams of starting my own company. And it was then that “CHÉCHÉ Ceylon” was conceptualised. After registering my business, I started marketing my product via social media. I can humbly but proudly say that CHÉCHÉ Ceylon is the only company that manufactures a peel-off mask in Sri Lanka. And amazingly, after a few months, I was able to build a customer base who were obsessed with CHÉCHÉ. What kind of products do you offer? I only use medically-approved activated charcoal to manufacture products. With further research I was able to manufacture a gender bias product that was suitable for men and women, as skincare is for everyone. So at the moment CHÉCHÉ Ceylon offers an activated charcoal peel-off mask and a bamboo charcoal soap, but currently there’s R&D going on a new product and I’m hoping to launch it this year. Await exciting news! How was your experience starting your own business? It wasn’t completely serene. It’s still the beginning of my journey and I’m still learning to become better at what I’m doing with a lot of mistakes. Knowing that I’ll be directly competing with larger corporate brands never discouraged me, but only made it even more exciting to run my company. The more I exposed myself into the business sector the more I fell in love with being an entrepreneur. However, I knew I was entering a predominantly male-driven job environment, and that is why now, more than ever, I need to try even harder to prove myself to be successful as a woman in this sector. From the handful of female entrepreneurs we have in Sri Lanka, Otara Gunewardene was someone I always looked up to as to her career driven personality and her love for animals also motivated me to set my goals high and keep moving forward. My passion to be an entrepreneur and a businesswoman further made me realise how important and helpful my previous education and experiences were for me to be able to have the knowledge and expertise to work with people, increase customer satisfaction, and actually lead a company towards success. But I have to say, my best experience is witnessing customer satisfaction. Receiving amazing positive feedback from consumers motivates me every day and makes it all worthwhile. Do you have any advice for budding entrepreneurs? Again, like I mentioned, my journey in the start-up world is still the beginning, and I'm still growing and learning from blunders. But with the limited experience I have gained I'd say always be positive and have a solid, realistic business plan. Planning plays a crucial role in any business success. A business plan is a good place to start – defining your skills and weaknesses, what you offer, how it’s unique, and how you plan on growing your offering. What’s more, try to prepare yourself mentally and practically for anything that could go wrong and how you would deal with it. Keep analysing your consumers, adapt to change in the environment and never stop learning. What is one skincare tip you can give our readers? I’d say to stay hydrated. You can use all kinds of skin remedies, but if you don’t take care of your skin from within, no matter what product you use, it will not help. Where do you hope to be in the next five years? Well I'm hoping to manufacture CHÉCHÉ on a greater scale, and hopefully will be able to take it to the Maldives and Australia, and pave my way to globalise the product. Photos © Chula De Silva

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Paving the way for future female entrepreneurs with Cherani De Silva

Paving the way for future female entrepreneurs with Cherani De Silva

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