Shout Outs

I never imagined the ways in which running a business would affect the way I think about people interactions and social skills. I’m usually pretty good at exhaling at the end of a day and not taking things people do or say personally, but one thing I am still working on is gratitude: giving it and not expecting it.

There have been a few incidents, since the time I started, when I have bent backwards to make an order or an alteration happen in less than 24 hours, or door delivered garments (for free) without any thanks or acknowledgment from the customer. I know this attitude is not at all conducive to good customer service, but hey, I’m allowed to be human once in a while (and that’s what this blog is for anyway). These gymnastics also affect the way I treat incompetent customer service representatives at other businesses (“if I can bend backwards to make it happen, why can’t you?”), not realizing that their sales staff don’t own their business so the situation is not comparable.

As for my customers, I know they aren’t obliged to give me business, and if good service is what it takes to keep them coming back to my store, then so be it. It’s just that sometimes it’s hard coming to terms with the fact that it takes years to build a good reputation that can be destroyed very quickly if a few people have a bad experience.

In the spirit of thanks and of acknowledging important influences, I want to give a big shout out to Fabindia right here in this blog post. Fabindia is now an amazing empire with over 100 stores in India, and although a lot of people complain about the lack of great service, the lack of standard sizing and the sometimes poor quality, no one gives them credit for what they are really doing. Aside from providing relatively inexpensive traditional crafts, beauty and bath products and organic food products (their chapati atta is pretty good by the way), to me their real service has been cultivating good taste. If you think about how people’s aesthetic taste evolves, their surroundings and their exposure at a young age play a huge role. By making handwoven and printed textiles accessible to a wide range of income groups, Fabindia has reached out to generations of Indians and tourists and made them excited about Indian crafts. In the process, it has also built the foundation for brands like mine that rely on the assumption that Indian women like traditional fabrics. And thanks to Fabindia, many craftsmen still practice their art because they’ve had constant demand for their work from this amazing empire!

Flirting with Lycra

Geeky blog title I know, but I can explain. A couple of months ago I bought these fabulous cotton pants with a little lycra woven into the fabric. They fit me perfectly and they are so versatile- for hot and cool days, for almost every occasion, and for pretty much every top I own. I love these pants so much that I rarely wear my jeans or my own Brass Tacks linen pants anymore. One evening I washed my pants at night so that I could wear them again the next morning and that’s when I realized there was something strange going on here. As my own brand ambassador, it is hypocritical that I live in trousers that Brass Tacks doesn’t produce?

One of Brass Tacks’ selling points, using only natural fibres, evolved while explaining my brand’s specialty to entrepreneurs and marketing consultants. Many of them liked the idea of natural fabrics because selling yourself as an eco-friendly brand is really in vogue right now. For me using natural fabrics was a given (rather than a choice) because I never wear synthetic fibres, barring the occasional cotton garment with lycra mixed into the weave. The real selling point of my brand, to me, is the marriage of handwoven textiles with a cosmopolitan, tailored look.

I have always maintained that in order to complete an outfit, I may use mill-made fabric (like my linen trousers). So then is it so bad to use a bit of lycra in my trousers to create a more fitted look if it completes an outfit? Some of my kurtas (worn like tunics) and mini-dresses do look best with leggings or really fitted Capri pants- neither of which I make. Also, for my collection photo-shoots I’m forced to pair all my tops, kurtas, and mini-dresses with my linen trousers even though I know some of them would look much better with a fitted pair of pants (I don’t think it’s fair to show an outfit on the website unless it’s 100% Brass Tacks). But the real question here is why am I not making a complete outfit in my own company if I am constantly recommending a pair of leggings or fitted Capri pants to customers who buy my tunics? Would I be letting down my brand, or could using lycra enable me to sell more hand-loom garments? Studies (seconded by my experiences in retail) show that women are more likely to make a purchase if they can buy a complete outfit in the same store.

I used to think I was the only one with a strange waist-hip proportion that made it hard to shop for trousers in India. Talking to my friends and customers has made me realize that there are very few brands that exist in India that retail affordable, well-cut trousers (with or without lycra). This is just more incentive to provide more variety at my store, and add one well-cut pair of cotton trousers and another fitted pair with lycra.

But as you can see I’m a bit torn. I don’t want to get greedy and in the process dilute my brand image. So send in your thoughts and feedback; reassure me or dissuade me.

Above, an example of a tunic that would look better as a complete outfit with fitted pants rather than the looser linen ones shown here.

2nd Birthday

On August 10th my store turned two. This past year has been amazing in terms of learning experiences, growth and also creativity. I feel I am closer to finding my voice, I’m reaching out to more Brass Tacks customers, and I’m also incorporating suggestions without having to compromise on my creativity. Of course I’ve had some downs – perhaps a couple of downs for every up – but overall I’m really happy with the way things are going, and so grateful to everyone who has helped along the way.

During my sale last year I was surprised to see the overwhelming response; customers trooped in and out throughout the day and on the first day I sold around 40 pieces. Not all those pieces were on sale, which led me to believe that announcing a sale is also a way to remind customers that you exist.

I had a similar experience this year, selling 100 pieces in the first two days of the sale, but now I’m learning more from these sales. I think people are more willing to buy something they consider expensive if they know they can also get great value for money on some other pieces. So someone would rather buy one dress for Rs 2000 along with 2 tops for Rs 500 each, rather than one evening dress for Rs 3000. Intuitively that does make sense, but I just never thought along those lines before. Observing customers in the store is a lot more conducive to understanding their rationale than sitting in front of an excel sheet (which is how I do my pricing).

I’m now ready to try out a pricing experiment with my upcoming Monsoon collection. I want to see how I can spread my production cost across my collection to allow for some garments to be less expensive than others. Before it was an even distribution, but now it will be according to level of complexity. The simpler garments will end up being less expensive, but the more complicated ones with a lot of tailoring details will work out to be more expensive.

Getting back to the sale, things were going too well for that Corporation Shopping Complex (I’m already battling a case with a leakage in the building and no drainage on the street for rain water), so on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm the electricity went off. My inverter carried us through to the end of the day (without the air conditioner though) but all of Wednesday we had no power. One of the power lines had burnt, affecting 5 shops in the building and as luck would have it mine was one of them. The corporation waited for a few hours on Tuesday before declaring that it was too dark to start work that day. On Wednesday they hired electricians and labourers to dig up the road to find the burnt cable, which they finally found at around 6pm that day. Still giddy from Sunday’s sales, I went up to them filled with naïve enthusiasm and asked, “So it will be fixed by tonight, right”?

Electrician: Well now that we’ve found it there’s little left to do. If we don’t finish it tonight then it will take only 30 minutes to complete in the morning.

Me: Great, I’m so glad. We’ve lost out on a lot of sales because of no power today.

Electrician: The thing is, tomorrow is a government holiday, and Independence day is coming up on Saturday, so we were hoping to get a long weekend starting from this evening….

Note: To compensate for days lost without power, after Independence day on Saturday (we will be closed on August 15th), we will continue with the sale for another week.

All I really do

I got back from my high school reunion on Monday night with a sore throat and twelve hours of sleep over 3 nights and 3 days. I had a fabulous time meeting with old friends who I haven’t seen in ages and also getting to know classmates I didn’t know so well before, but who are doing interesting things with their lives. That weekend was also the first time I didn’t have the urge to check email (although I did keep going back to the one spot on campus where my cell had reception to check on the store). I enjoyed the beautiful weather, wet my hair in the rain, and walked up a little hill in the slush to watch sunrise after staying awake all night. My husband, who had accompanied me, wanted to know who I had turned into, and if I could continue to be the “new Anaka” once we got back to Chennai as well.

The truth is, once I get into my routine with work I tend to get so serious about everything. Every small detail gets blown out of proportion in my head, and the lack of an office environment with colleagues doesn’t help either because it means I don’t have anyone to show me another perspective. Last night I spoke to an old friend I’ve known since 3rd grade and she said she hasn’t heard me sound so relaxed in three years!

Well don’t get me wrong, I really love my job and I find the work that I do both fun and stimulating, but it can get really exhausting. Very often I feel like how I imagine a single parent might feel with all the responsibility of raising a child but no time to really savour and enjoy the special moments (no offense to mothers with human babies- just that I often think of Brass Tacks as my baby). This isn’t the first time I’ve realized this about myself; other holidays and my honeymoon have shown me that I am more creative when I’m relaxed. I try to incorporate relaxing activities into my everyday life all the time (my latest is making sure I always have a great book to read and I find it’s the best thing to do when I’m worried about something that’s not completely in my control) but sustaining that “relaxed feeling” is the hard part.

Right now I’m behind schedule with ordering fabric for my winter collection, my bank balance is really low, and I’m worried about the sluggish sales at my retail section in Hyderabad. The difference, however, is that right now I’m able to take things in my stride and get work done without letting the stress get to me. In a week or two when this wears off I will be pulling my hair out and secretly wishing I had a “normal” job (i.e. a steady salary!).

My new mid-year resolution is to do whatever it takes to sustain that relaxed feeling. That doesn’t mean working a lot less, it just means staying relaxed mentally (and potentially getting more work done in less time as a result) and remembering that I’m in this for the fun of it more than anything else. And hey, at this point things can only get better as I start earning a decent salary right?