Rashi Bajaj - The owner of a carpet industry

Rashi Bajaj - Another well-groomed human being but with a heart of an Entrepreneur. She was reared up in a boarding school since the age of eight. Her parents were settled in Bhadohi - a nondescript town in Uttar Pradesh. She went through all the steps of accomplishing knowledge and skills like schooling, graduation and post-graduation. After MBA Rashi had landed with a job with Infosys. Eventually she moved to their family business of carpet industry.

The Family Business

 Father of Rashi a small factory of carpet weaving manned by local artisans. Carpet industry was once a booming industry. Lately it has been suffering from chronic illness. The younger generation of skilled labourers are migrating from small rural towns to bigger cities and to jobs different from their family profession of carpet weaving. So there is a dearth of skilled labours. Demand of handwoven Indian carpets are declining against the competition thrown by the Chinese carpet industry. At the same time weak European economy is showing less demands for carpets. In this backdrop Rashi took the challenge of reviving this dying industry and instil new life in it.

The challenges she took

Rashi got married to a husband who himself is an entrepreneur. Together they envisioned to develop a unique carpet brand Carpet Couture - an Indian brand of luxury carpets and rugs for international markets. It will be hand-woven with the local weavers but with international designs and flavors. The task was daunting because on one side she has to meet the clients, take their requirements, catering to their complaints, promoting the products internationally, working with interior designers and architects; on the other side she has to motivate and manage her work force. The latter was more difficult job because she has to swim against the tide of migration of workers. However she had succeeded in her endeavour to provide stable income to the artisans. In fact she had been able to double their wages, and motivated them to continue weaving magic on carpet that is mesmerising the international clientele. The sleek design of her company website says more about her marketing skill acquired through disciplined education.

Her Future Plans

Presently her company has touched a turnover of Rs. 7 crore and that too within 7 years of endeavour. The next phase of headway required a lot of R&D work involving experimentation with new and improved yearns, new weaving techniques, new design concepts, etc.

Accolades she received

She received several prestigious awards Stevie Award in New York  for “Young Women Entrepreneur” twice - in 2013 and 2014;  “Enterprising Women of the Year” award by The Enterprising Women Foundation, Cary, NC in 2015, and in 2016, she got the "Prashashti Samman” National Award for Excellence as an Emerging Entrepreneur. 

Above all her greatest accolade is her satisfaction of seeing her carpets displayed in national and international hotels, buildings, yatches like Taj Vivanta, Amritsar, Mariott- Jaisalmer, Conrad Bengaluru and many prestigious hotels in Middle East.

Her advice to would be entrepreneurs

An entrepreneur is an owner of a business who have given the birth of it, reared it in all conditions - however hopeless it may appear. As a business owner one has to understand all the nuances of the business from the scratch - production, packging, marketing, client servicing, dealing with complaints, advertising, management of finance, human resource. 

In her words: 

Even if you hire the best talent from the industry, the first step has to be taken by you. You have to make the first sale, you have to handle the first customer complaint, you have to decide and execute the first marketing campaign and you have to handle the first and many employee grievances on your own.  A business owner can never say “That’s not my job”!

References

1. Rashi Bajaj - An Ex-Infoscion Who Revived And Created a Rs.7 Crore Carpet Industry In A Small Town. By Anjana Rajguru, Yahoo, 23 August 2016
2. Carpet Couture Website