HYDERABAD: Some see a challenge in an opportunity while some, an opportunity in a challenge. But Kriti Jindal, 37, saw a business opportunity at the time when she was bedridden due to an accident. She decided to start the groundwork on her dream business. This post graduate in textiles management from New Delhi, who currently lives in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, says that setting up Kari by Kriti in 2014 was the best decision of her life. “I wanted to work with block prints, but a lot of block printers refused to work on small orders.
The Indian market was still new to online shopping and the export market had many prerequisites. Around this time I found Etsy.com, a marketplace for selling online to international buyers. It took me a few trips to the post office to figure out that India Post has excellent service.
It was almost a miracle for me that a young printing firm accepted to work with me and block print just two pieces of baby quilts that I had designed. Etsy did not require any initial setup fee and it was easy to create a shop and sell online. This meant that I was able to kickstart my business with a small capital from my own savings. The two baby quilts sold quickly and I received requests for more designs.
This gave me immense confidence,” she recalls her initial days. Kriti says that it was also the year her son was born. “I took things slowly from 2014-2017, just discovering the market, understanding the customer profiles and making plans to ramp up along with being a new mom. From 2018 I added a lot of new lines like curtains, cushion cover, pouches etc.
In 2019 I also added loungewear like robes and kaftans along with table cloths. The growth has been wonderful and in 2020, despite being a pandemic hit a year, I experienced almost a hockey stick growth, from two orders in 2014 to over 950 orders in 2020. Ninety percent of her sales come through retail customers while the other are wholesale orders to small boutiques and online stores across the globe.
Kriti also aims to support women via NGO work as well. “I have been working with an NGO in Tolichowki since 2016. The NGO supports economically challenged women by training them to sew, embroider and other such vocations. They have also opened small centres in villages where the trained women are then employed.
This helps them create a meaningful livelihood. Most of my products are stitched by them in Hakimpet village,” she adds. As she has been able to create a niche and people have started to recognise her business and also customers have become much more comfortable with shopping online, her 2021 plan is to reach out to more customers by digital marketing.
“I want to design and add hard goods like trays, candle stands, baskets etc to my product lines. I also want to create a whole new range from ikat fabrics to support artisans from my home state of Telangana and take them globally with the help of Etsy.” What is her advice to other women entrepreneurs? What lessons has she learned in her journey as an entrepreneur? “Every time is a good time a business. For me, my worst time of life allowed me to do something of my own and I did that.
My accident made me bedridden for a significant time, I lost my job and it was a dark time for me but then this was also the time when I could explore my passion and came up with my online store. So, above anything else, be passionate about your work. Businesses evolve and it is important to go with the flow without losing our own passion. Create a business plan, however simple, to keep you on track. Finally, don’t be afraid of challenges and don’t give up!”
Kriti Jindal, a Hyderabad-based entrepreneur, tells us how doing the groundwork for her dream project when she was bedridden after an accident actually helped her translate a challenge into an opportunity. From two orders in 2014 to 950 in 2020, she says life and her enterprise have been on an awesome trajectory
— Manju Latha Kalanidhi kalanidhi @newindianexpress.com @mkalanidhi