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

Chanda Zaveri to the cause of St. Xavier's University

St. Xavier's College Calcutta, is going to built up its University campus at Rajarhat, Kolkata. Chanda is not a Xaverian. Still she connected herself to the cause of this 154 year old educational institute. And the link is Father J. Felix Raj S.J., the acting Principal of the institute. He wished to meet Chanda in March 2014 through a friend of her. But why would she meet the Father? In her own word:
"So I went and found this man who had given every second of his life for humanity while we don't have 10 minutes for someone."

Motivated by the call of Fr. Felix Raj she took initiative to create a forum to raise fund for the proposed University in United States, hosted Fr.Felix and some of the members of St. Xavier's College Calcutta Alumni Association (SXCCA) at her Los Angeles home in May 2014. She catalysed the formation of St. Xavier's College Calcutta Foundation in California to raise half-a-million dollar fund for the University.

Soon after meeting with Fr. Felix, Chanda got a breakthrough in her business by merging with chocolate brand MXI. She immediately contemplated to donate 5% of the profit coming from this venture to the University till its completion.

Her present goal, in her words:

"These days, morning and night, I am thinking of how to make St. Xavier's on a par with Harvard" 

- She has a desperate heart to think really big.

Every successful heart has a philosophy of her/his own. Chanda Xaveri's philosophy in her present endeavour is:

"I see education as the only way to freedom. That's how I found my way and that's what I want for others, especially women who should have their autonomy. Anywhere that girls and boys can study and learn, I will support. And I'm glad that I could begin this with Calcutta."

Reference:
Mohua Das. Millionaire fundraiser for Xavier's campus. The Telegraph. 13 Jan 2014

Her other stories:
Chanda Zaveri - the Kolkata lady who sells peptides

Neelima Sen - The Entrepreneur of Nadia

The Qualifications

Neelima Sen completed her M.A. and B.Ed. from Calcutta University She also taught in a school.

The motivation

There was always an urge to do some thing of her own. The entrepreneur within her emerged with the motivation from her mother-in-law Anitarani Sen.

The endeavour

She took training from District Industries Centres to get the necessary information and training to be a successful Entrepreneur. She took practical training on Textile & Apparel from the Ranaghat Power-loom Service Center. She had set up a factory where various clothings like Punjabees, Churidar, Salwar Kameez, Kurta, Sari, Top, etc. are designed and fabricated.

 It took fourteen long tedious years of endeavour to shape her dream. She had taken part in different exhibitions to understand the demand of the market, to get in touch of the other market players.

Her achievements

She started her journey with rupees five thousand only and at present the annual turn-over of her company is more than fifty lacs. Works are carried out in three shifts. The apparels from her factory are sold within India and are exported to Bangladesh and Canada also. The factory has attached showroom at her own residence.

Her endeavour provided income of around three thousand rupees to more than  three hundred ladies - all of them are involved in stitching. Twenty workers are working in her factory, at her home. They are getting salary within six to ten thousand rupees.

She manages her factory on her own. Training of the workers and team managers, creating designs, marketing of the products - all departments are led by her.

Future dream

A factory to manufacture ganjee with an investment of four and half crore is her next viable dream.

Her advice to future entrepreneurs

If we have the desire we can make it possible. We should never look down upon on any subject.

The final punchline

To become a successful entrepreneur it is not mandatory to be highly qualified, highly talented, or required to invest large amount of own money. The first thing is the motivation to do something on our own. The zeal to learn all out-of-the-syllabus subjects however insignificant it is. It may range from designing, manufacturing, man-managing, marketing, managing accounts, etc. The final trait of an entrepreneur is the ability to keep patience for a long time and be a die-hard optimist in the face of failure.

Reference

নতুন কিছু করার তাগিদেই ব্যবসায়ী নীলিমা, সৌমিত্র সিকদার, রানাঘাট,  আনন্দবাজার,৮ মার্চ , ২০১৪,

Chanda Zaveri - the Kolkata lady who sells peptides

Here is another story of success published in the "Metro" section of "The Telegraph", 26th Jan 2013 reported by Mohua Das which may inspire us. I am going to highlight some points from this story that may show our young minds about the approach of life that fetched her entrepreneurial success.
Thirst for knowledge
Chanda Zaveri was brought up as a Marwari girl at Kankurgachhi, Kolkata, till she was 17 years old. She did her schooling at Balika Siksha Sadan on Vivekananda Road and was admitted to City College with Biology as the major subject. When her parents were planning to get her married she fled to US for higher studies. She arranged the tickets by selling two diamond ear rings as the only fund she had but landed in Boston penniless because she had to leave all her Indian currencies at the Airport. What was her inspiration? In her own words "But I was very influenced by the culture of education in Bengal; so I wanted to study."