With Style Inn, Kanpur-based Shalini Mehrotra wants to compete with Zara and Biba
One of the top designer boutiques in the city, Style Inn caters to customers looking for high-end designer wear. With a vision to provide customised apparel like popular brands Biba and Zara in the women’s fashion industry, Shalini Mehrotra (35) established the Style Inn Boutique in Kanpur in 2014.
The beginning
Shalini completed her MSc in Maths, followed it up with an MBA and has worked with companies like Tanishq and Titan.
She says, “While I was working I faced a lot of difficulty in nursing my young baby, so I quit my job and decided to do something of my own and also want to help people asas well, so I started this business. My son was my main source of inspiration.”
She initially invested a sum of Rs 50,000 in the business, from her personal savings and gradually increased it to Rs 3 lakh. Style Inn had a turnover of Rs. 10 lakh in 2017. The company has a team of 7 people who help in the smooth running of the business.
Shalini designs the clothes according to to customer demands and also sells her own designs and dresses.
Talking about what makes her boutique different from other competitors, she says, “We excel in the art of stitching for emergency purposes where I myself try to serve the customers in a short period of time, on an urgent basis.” The boutique has highly skilled tailors and designers who are committed to providing the best quality custom-sized designer outfits in the city.
Loyal customer base
Shalini has managed to create a loyal base of customers in Kanpur as well as in the nearby cities like Lucknow, Etawah, etc. due to her friendly disposition and excellent customer relations. She says, “There is a lot of competition in the city in this sector particularly, but because of the positive feedback from our customers, we have been getting repeated orders even during the off-season period. We also receive orders from abroad mainly due to word-of-mouth publicity.”
She says, “In order to make a mark in this sector, one must have analytical knowledge and should also be aware of latest market trends, fashion designs and styles as the world of fashion is very dynamic in nature.”
Main challenges
Being an extremely shy girl right from her childhood and struggling as an introvert in her later years, Shalini had never thought that someday, she would become an entrepreneur. She has transformed from a shy and reticent woman to a confident one with the help of acting classes, and considers her verbal skills as her biggest strength. Her brand has managed to create a name for itself in the city.
In the initial stage, the availability of skilled tailors and designers were a huge problem and even after Shalini trained and employed them, they would work with her for some time and then leave.
According to her, skilled labourers think of the job as part-time, temporary employment and fail to understand the potential of this sector and so move on to other options later. For her, making them stay is a huge task.
She also aims to expand her business and capture new markets but fundraising is quite a challenge. She says, “The business runs on a daily basis of cash flow and we suffer a loss when we borrow raw materials and a part of it remains unused.”
She wants the government to be flexible in giving loans to the entrepreneurs at a subsidised interest rate in order to encourage entrepreneurship in the MSMEs and help in their diversification and expansion. She says, “A lot of policies have been made on the paper by the government but in reality, we are unable to reap the benefits out of it.”
Future plans
Shalini has big dreams for her business and wants to create a brand name as popular as top brands like Zara and Biba and wishes to compete with them at some point in time.
(This story is published in partnership with the MSMEs Ministry to showcase success stories of SMEs)
