There’s no less of a battle in the e-commerce space and most notably in the apparels nook. And be it a corporation or startup or incubation, if you are stepping in this arena you need to be distinctive to stand a notch above everyone else.
We embrace every startup that intends to contribute, fill the gap or make things better.
StylishYarn is one startup with an intention to deliver finely knitted quality apparels at extremely reasonable prices. They have just made the initiation with T-shirts, but are slowly adding up more elegant and fun clothing to their little store.
StylishYarn has been started by Sadaquat Hossain, he is a final-year student of Bachelors in Business Administration. After spending two years in the United Kingdom, he comes in with a very global perception about designs & apparel.
“Its very important to have a mindset to make the most of the limited resources one has. USA is a great place to start-up, that doesn’t mean I can go there, I have to find a way in my place only, no matter how doomed it seems. There has to be a notion to give back to the society we belong to, and entrepreneurship gives us that medium.”
We had an opportunity to get in conversation with Sadaquat Hossain, Founder of StylishYarn and know more about it.
There are already lot of websites that cater to men’s fashion online. What made you start StylishYarn? How would you say, you are different?
We obviously knew there were a lot of players in this category & so we researched as to find out what can we do which will make us unique. We aimed at bridging the gap between quality & price, & create designs which are intelligent rather than just random stuff. Located in the Bengal region gives us the opportunity to source the best quality fabric for our apparels, locally as well as from Bangladesh. Our Quality + Our Design + Our price = A Winning Combination. We believe ideas are gifts from the Almighty. The themes which we chose for our designs range from Satire, Fun, Intelligent, Protests, Anger, but all at great prices. Our competitors sell a T-Shirt at 449 or 499, whereas we sell at 299. Isn’t that a difference enough to make customers ponder?
Plus our quality is unbeatable as we source export quality fabrics from Bangladesh which is renowned for the quality of its Cotton & other fabrics.
How do you spread the word out for Stylish Yarn? How has been the response so far?
Initially, it was all word of mouth, which gave us some impetus. Then, when we started coming up with our designs , we gained good traction on our Facebook page, as our designs were interesting & unique. We started advertising on Facebook, where we were able to target t-shirt enthusiasts. Our designs have been the basis of our promotion. We have had good sales since our launch, with new designs coming in. Overall, the response has been decent & we expect good traction once the first lot goes out fully & the brand gets recognized well. We participated in exhibitions, which have been a strong point in terms of sale & branding. Our designs have appealed to people who love sophistication & are very individualistic.
What are the struggles you’d have to face to set up Stylish Yarn? And what has been your biggest learning so far?
The most challenging issue we faced was in developing a proper & effective supply chain. Right from finding the right manufacturers to proper Printing set-ups. We got delayed due to an irresponsible action from the part of the vendors which led us to change them immediately & again look for the right people to deal with. Finally, all issues were overcome, and we were able to start-up StylishYarn. Our online store, stylishyarn.com is based on Zepo’s E-Commerce platform, so we didn’t have any issues there. Finally, we are setting up our own Printing, which will help us to improve our margins as well as give us the necessary freedom to work with creativity & no boundaries.
Is StylishYarn self funded? Tell us if the startup has break even.
StylishYarn is self-funded. We haven’t broke-even yet, but are confident that we would do so within a month, as per the sales we’ve had.
Do you design the T-Shirts in-house or have tied up with vendors to do so?
We design the T-Shirts in-house. The themes are decided & then work starts on creating a graphic with that theme, with all the ingredients we believe in. We make sure that the designs are authentic, Intelligent & have a meaning. Then we get the designs printed on the T-Shirts from the vendors. But very soon, we will be printing our T-Shirts in-house, as that would enable us to make the best use of the resources we have & work with freedom & responsibility.
Sadaquat Hossain – Founder, StylishYarn
Being a Student Startup – what are the advantages & disadvantages? How do you think online media can help student startups more?
Student life is the best time to start-up is what we feel. We will make mistakes, we will learn from them, the best part is that we don’t have to pay heavily for the mistakes we make & we learn quickly from the mistakes which helps is changing the strategies almost instantly. Education , we feel has to enable students to apply their learning, especially for students of Management. Being management students ourselves, we are kind of rebels, as we want to do stuff rather than keep getting degrees. Entrepreneurship, we feel, is the only way out today.
The various disadvantages of being a student entrepreneur is that people at the first instance won’t take us seriously. It needs time, patience & perseverance for things to correct themselves. Further, college professors, teachers in India, aren’t pro-entrepreneurs, so there is this immense pressure to perform in exams without any clue about how our live s are going to come up.
But, we need to promote entrepreneurship in schools, colleges to make them understand the importance of it. Profits are not everything, Ideas are.
Online media & thrust on student entrepreneurs & their start-ups will inspire thousands of students to start dreaming & then work to fulfill those dreams. Recognition, as they say, is the best motivator. Media has a very important role to play to highlight student entrepreneurs & their start-ups & foster entrepreneurship. It will help create an eco-system whereby educators can understand its value & help students to start-up with their ideas.
