Women power: Behind the fine print

A wedding and business cards printing entrepreneur shares her success story.

KARACHI:

When it comes to the business of running noisy printing presses and publishing wedding cards, one can only imagine men doing it. However, along the busy roads of Saddar, one woman bears the heat, sweat and dirty glances to do the same. The Express Tribune talked to the 48-year-old Mrs Mohammad Yousuf who has been running the business of printing visiting and wedding cards for the last 13 years.

“My husband had blood cancer and after he passed away I had to take over his business to keep my family afloat. I had three kids and no support from my family,” she says about her decision of taking over the R B Printing Press — the small shop where glittery wedding cards are on display.

“Being an amateur in this field, it felt like it was an arduous task. Learning the technicalities took me eight months and the shop wasn’t the only thing I was looking after,” she says. Back home, she had to look after her three children — the youngest of which was only four. Yousuf would open her shop in the morning, get her children from school, feed them lunch and lock them alone at home so she could rush off to her shop again. It was at dusk when she would return.

Stepping into the business involving huge machinery; Yousuf recalls never having to face any major problems. In fact, when she was forced to sell off her printing machine, due to certain financial constraints, she got help from other printing shops to print the cards for her.

“I had one aim — to educate my children. I never bothered about the staring and ridicule,” Yousuf says about her start. Having completed her MSc in Botany from the Karachi University, she is extremely proud that one of her children is pursuing her MBA.

Even though Yousuf raised her children by printing wedding cards, she laments that these days the overall business has gone down. “I used to get profits ranging from Rs300 to Rs400 per package but now they have plunged to Rs50 only,” says Yousuf. “Because of the rising inflation rates, people are opting for cards under the Rs10 range,” she says.

Regarding her future, Yousuf pledges to continue sitting at her shop every day and offering wedding cards to customers. She says, “This business supported me when I was in need and I don’t plan on ever giving it up.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2011.