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Women around the world continue to shatter ceilings and reimagine the world of business. From rural villages to busy cities they are turning ideas into thriving businesses demonstrating creativity resilience and leadership. Women entrepreneurs are taking on social economic and other challenges to turn barriers into opportunities. Women entrepreneurs are starting businesses with minimal resources and scaling them to local national and international levels. One such individual is Pooja Sharma. Who is the woman behind this inspiring journey? Pooja Sharma comes from a small village in Haryana and has become a successful entrepreneur. She faced many challenges at first notably the drop in agriculture to the point of losing a job in Anganwadi for Rs 2500 a month but she persisted through struggle and unemployment. Where did she grow up and start her entrepreneurial journey? Pooja started selling cows milk in small bottles. The changing moment in her life arose when she learned of a training program to make roasted soya nuts. At that time she struggled to pay Rs 5 for an auto ride. With a little help from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) she completed the training. Pooling her money together she set up the Kshitij Self Help Group. Her journey commenced in 2013 from an old house with several broken walls and resulted in the brands Kshitij Millets and Millet Mom at the annual turnover of Rs 70 lakh. How did she overcome financial and social obstacles to build her business? Pooja Sharma from Chandu village in Haryana had been working in the fields since she was a child. Following the division of the joint property she faced greater economic hardships. Unregulated over-extraction of groundwater has lowered water tables making agriculture more difficult than it used to be. What products or services does her company offer? Poojas husbands earnings with an income of around Rs 8000 were not adequately supporting the family of five. Out of necessity Pooja started to work at an NGO as an anganwadi worker for a salary of Rs 2500 a month struggling to walk 5 km to and from every day; she even struggled to pay the Rs 5 for the auto ride. The project ended after about 1.5 years leaving her unemployed. Pooja did not give up. Instead she bought a cow and began selling milk as a form of income. Over time she bought additional cows and achieved a degree of financial stability. However this was simply the beginning and her greater objective was still waiting on the other side of these first battles. According to the NavBharat Times Hindi report Poojas life changed when she found a training program at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in Sikohpur Gurugram on how to make roasted soya nuts. In the beginning she could not even pay the auto fare so KVK paid for her week-long training. After she finished the training Pooja and a couple of ladies pooled their little savings and decided to create the Kshitij Self-Help Group. In 2013 Pooja put up a roasted soya nuts unit in her crumbling ancestral house that would later turn into Kshitij Millets Private Limited. STORY HIGHLIGHTS With a little help from the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) she completed the training. Pooling her money together she set up the Kshitij Self Help Group. Her journey commenced in 2013 from an old house with several broken walls and resulted in the brands Kshitij Millets and Millet Mom. Poojas husbands earnings with an income of around Rs 8000 were not adequately supporting the family of five. Seeing that selling roasted soya nuts was not generating enough income Pooja changed her product line to millets. Drawing from the traditional recipes of her mother and grandmother she now has more than 70 products derived from jowar bajra and ragi producing sweet and savory goodies like cookies laddoos and biscuits. The staggeringly large range of products improved customer engagement significantly and also resulted in her receiving large orders from corporates NGOs and the government. Poojas brand ‘Millet Mom is now also sold on online platforms like Flipkart and Meesho. As a result in the last financial year her company’s turnover crossed Rs 70 lakh as reported by NavBharat Times Hindi.