Wednesday, December 26, 2012

WOMAN/ENTREPRENEUR SPECIAL...Crafting a business from passion


Crafting a business from passion

Lucknow-based Swati Seth quit the corporate rat race to start a handicraft venture, The Color Caravan.

    It may have taken Swati Seth nine years and six jobs to figure out what she wanted to do, but it has been worth the wait. The 34-year-old’s labour of love is The Color Caravan, a 7 lakh handicraft business.
    Seth, who graduated from the South Delhi Polytechnic College in 2001, started working with interior designers and textile design houses in college itself. After graduation, she changed three jobs in a couple of years. “I was never happy with the quality of work and knew I didn’t want to do this,” says Seth. So she quit her job and travelled for a month. On her return, she worked for a year with Wipro BPO in Delhi, and then came a five-year stint at Afaqs, a marketing communications firm. It was at this point that Seth, an avid traveller, started to look at the potential of working with handicrafts. “Nearly 2-3 years before setting up The Color Caravan, I began collecting handicrafts, getting in touch with the craftsmen and NGOs for a possible venture,” says Seth.
    Finally, in July 2010, she quit her job, and having already worked out the design aspect, she focused on arranging the seed capital. After her bank loan application was rejected, Seth used her savings and borrowed from her family to rake in 2.5 lakh. She kept the operating expenses low by working from home, and since she only kept product samples at home—deliveries were made as per orders—Seth didn’t have to invest in warehouse space either. Finally, in October, Seth launched The Color Caravan with just a page on Facebook, followed by an exhibition in a mall on Diwali. In fact, most of her seed capital went into showcasing her collection in exhibitions, while her social media gambit paid off when she had bagged her first international order from Australia within 24 hours of launching.
    The business model was, and remains, simple. Seth puts up pictures of her products on the Facebook page, which is also the medium for interested parties to contact her. She then reverts with the product list—baby clothes, bamboo jewellery, cushion covers, etc—and account details. The prices range from 200-4,000.
    Of course, there have been challenges. Seth started supplying to retail stores in Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore, but found that “the retailers were not pushing to sell the products and the unsold inventory often came back in a bad shape. So I withdrew,” she says. She has also cut down on the exhibitions as they have become too expensive. From 6-7 exhibitions a year, she now participates only in 2-3. The biggest learning, however, has been that merely sourcing products can’t sustain the business. So, in January 2011, she started making her own products, and today this brings in about 70% of her revenue. Nine months later, her enterprise became a threestrong team, with one part-time employee.
    Another milestone came in March 2012, when she shifted back to her hometown Lucknow due to personal reasons. The business, nevertheless, continued to thrive. Today, she receives about 400 orders a month on an average, and showcases the works of artists from over eight states. Though she pays herself a modest salary of 10,000 a month, the business is yet to break even. Earlier this year, she re-tapped the retail route, tying up with stores in London and Dubai, and is eyeing a gross turnover of 7 lakh this year. Next in line is the setting up of an online store, which is likely to be unveiled by 2013. 

AMIT KUMAR ETW121217

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