K Amritha - Great Companies Women Entrepreneur Award Winner 2022

K Amritha: Stepping Stones Centre

Name: K Amritha

Business Name: Stepping Stones Centre

Location: Bangalore, India

Establishment (Year): 2014

Profession/ Specialty: School for children with special needs

Website : www.steppingstonescenter.in

Socail Media : LinkedIn

Company Detail:

Stepping Stones Centre is an Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) school for children with Autism and other developmental disabilities. Over the past 9 years, they have impacted 750+ children and graduated several of them into regular mainstream schools. They are a multidisciplinary centre with 50+ clinicians including Behaviour Therapists, Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Special Educators, Montessori teachers working by one vision - ONE CHILD AT A TIME! They also have an ongoing research collaboration between Binghamton University (State University of New York) and Christ University (Bangalore) on the treatment plans for children with special needs. They provide certifications for professionals, teachers and parents through our e-learning portal.

Unique Selling Proposition / Competitive Advantage:

They believe that 'Everyone is Good at Something' and each child should be given the right opportunity. How society treats the disabled is the true measure of its civilisation. They set up a niche special education unit inside a school's premises and facilitate the end to end Inclusion Process. They are working with a couple of schools in Bangalore where 30+ children with special needs are included from grades UKG through Grade7.

Challenges Faced During The Journey:

Mrs K Amritha recalls that there were several challenges during the establishment and growth of the business:

1. Finding the right set of resources was always one of our constant struggles when it came to scaling up our service. They found that the demand for qualified service is so high that it is not met with the certified professionals. This made them create a training platform for professionals to get their certification in Applied Behaviour Analysis. Today they are the one and only authorised course work provider under the QABA. (Qualified Applied Behaviour Analysis)

2. During their initial days, it was hard to find a place to graduate their children once they are school ready. Schools lacked the right resources and the infrastructure to facilitate Inclusion. Taking baby steps - they created their own Inclusion Platform - a Montessori school, where the transition can be smooth. This environment also helped the children to be included into a regular school and be part of the peer group.

Advice For Women Entrepreneurs:

Never Give up. Always believe in yourself.

Small but consistent efforts over a period of time will give you exponential results, says Mrs K Amritha.