Shop Name: Ashtlakshmi Tailors
Location: Mahabalipuram
I happened to visit Mahabalipuram market in search
for a boutique shop for my individual blog. I found not one but many boutiques
one after the other on the same road. It all the more confused me as to
which shop to visit since the questions in my mind grew manyfold. I randomly chose
one. I couldn’t even read the name of the shop as it probably had been years
since the last white wash.
The owner and his assistant looked very unwelcoming and how
could I have known if it was the other way round as nobody could understand
what the other was saying. Helpless as I was, looked for a translator and
approached the gold merchant’s shop next to it. To my surprise, he was from
Rajasthan and could speak and understand both Hindi and Tamil. Very quickly he
agreed to help me with it. He persuaded the boutique owner for the interview
cum survey.
The name of the owner of the shop is Parthi Pan (Age: 36) and he’s been
in this business for five years. He resides in Mahabalipuram itself. When asked
for the inspiration of running a boutique, said that this was his core
competency as he was working as an assistant in a nearby boutique. So, he had
all the training that was required to start and operate the shop.
Business: He runs his business through three types of
exchanges:
- · He buys readymade garments from T. Nagar in Chennai and sells them here at higher prices.
- · He gets material from T. Nagar in Chennai and designs and stitches clothes here and sells them.
- · He takes orders from customers and charges them with the standard rates of the market.
He makes business of nearly Rs. 10000 in a month, out of
which Rs. 3500 is paid as rent for the shop and some fair amount is paid to the
two assistants as well whom he has hired. These two assistants were also working at
some other boutiques nearby when he started the business and have been working
with him since then. The variety of readymade garments that he sells includes
skirts, Ali Baba pants etc. It was amazing to know that he had all the capital
to start the business and had taken no loan. He finds comfort in his location
of work as he’s been here all his life.
Consumer Behavior Knowledge: He has studied till 10th grade and dropped out after that. He speaks Tamil and knows some words in English as he
needs to entertain foreign customers too. His readymade garments are kept outside of the shop on display to make it easy for customers. As far as I judged, following important aspects were missing from his business that he should have looked into:
- He should have a welcoming atmosphere by keeping the shop-floor clean as it looked pretty cluttered.
- He should hire an assistant who knows either Hindi or English at a fair level. This would expand their target market.
- The display board of the shop creates a good impact if kept in proper condition as it gives an impression of a running business. He should get a new board.
- The boutique's location is where all other boutiques are. To survive in such a case, you need to create a difference in terms of quality, service, offers, ambiance etc.
Challenges/Problems in running boutique: The most dominant problem is of power cuts. The power goes off for nearly three to
four hours in a day and they are put off the work for that time period as the sewing
machines won’t run without electricity. The foot pedal of the machine needs
electricity to work. Refer the picture below:
Given the capital and skill, the owner said that he would
happily shift to some other business as there is a lot of competition in
Mahabalipuram. Number of customers in a day ranges from 1-5 which is enough to
throw a person out of business and the prices they charge from customers are also low because of
competitors. With the competition and better boutiques around in terms of infrastructure among other things, the owner would want to shift to some other business soon.
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