 |
| Shalini Joslin, The Carpet Barn, Kochi |
| |
She had no red-carpet
entry into business. In fact, Shalini
Joslin’s choice of quitting her medical transcription job at Coimbatore and
coming back was to start a business to run her family consisting of three young
children.
Though her
feet touched the rugs in front of many real estate and interior design firms,
she could not get a break in terms of orders.
Multiple journeys to Varanasi and umpteen taxi rides to the interior villages
to secure supply deals with unknown carpet weavers had been unsuccessful
initially. It was in the midst of this
learning process that she met and struck a deal with a north Indian vendor to
supply carpets.
But her
first house-based job landed her in embarrassment and tears as the woolen
carpet she laid shed fibre on the very day of house-warming, leading to loss of
money and good will.
Undaunted,
she continued her quest for market entry.
If earlier, her mode of transport was her old car, she was soon forced
to go by bus with samples of carpets across Kerala.
Finally, one
small order came her way. And then a few
others of that kind. Slowly news spread by
word of mouth that a job entrusted to Shalini would be executed to customers’
satisfaction.
And then
she started getting bigger and bigger orders from hotels and corporates. Even from outside the state and country.
Thus ‘The
Carpet Barn’, a leading customized carpet and rug provider in Kochi had its
humble beginnings with sweat and tears of Shalini.
Sanil Abraham
(text), manoramaonline, Nov 3, 2024
