The brothers R.K.Narayan and R.K.Laxman continue to be part of our civic life. Stories written by the Narayan have inspired many to make tele serials and the cartoons of R.K.Laxman have given a permanent place for the ' Common Man '. Brands have come to remind us of the work of these fabulous brothers.
The brothers R.K.Narayan and R.K.Laxman continue to be part of our civic life. Stories written by the Narayan have inspired many to make tele serials and the cartoons of R.K.Laxman have given a permanent place for the ' Common Man '. Brands have come to remind us of the work of these fabulous brothers.
Swagswami the ' PRINT on DEMAND ' T SHIRT BUSINESS founded by N.Senthilkumar and Arjun Murali is a brand from Coimbatore and it hopes to create newer vistas everyday. "Arjun and my daughter S.P.Vaishali (S stands for Senthil the father and P for Parvathi, the mother) were year mates at one time. Arjun's elder brother Ashwin was my daughter's senior in college. One thing, we are connected with quizzing and this brought us together," stated Senthil while talking about the partnership which has people from two generations. The energy of the younger partner and the experience of the older partner are likely to give good results.
"I did my mechanical engineering in PSG Tech and worked for General Electric in Pune for sometime. Work took me to a number of foreign countries. I had worked in all the divisions of General Electric . However, I wanted to do something creative and therefore I quit my job in order to become a free lancing graphic designer. Every big and small task was carried out by myself. I returned to Coimbatore and discussed with Senthil sir about work. We understood that free lance designing has an inbuilt flaw. You design something, sell it once and its your client's baby. It is just a one time yield for the work that is put in and therefore I decided to crack the issue. On discussion, Senthil sir saw an oppourtunity by linking Coimbatore textiles and graphic design. This conversation took place around the Jan / Feb of 2018. We formed the company ' Anuvavi Apparels ' and created the brand ' Swagswami '. According to lore, Anuvavi was the place where Anjaneya had rested in order to drink water in a well ( Anu stands for Anjaneya and Vavi stands for well ) while carrying the Sanjeevi Hill to Sri Lanka, stated Arjun.
Senthil had been the global head for recruitment in an ITES (IT enabled services) firm. He had begun his life as a representative (medical & diagnostic). Later he had moved into bore well spares, stocks & shares, opened a sports shop before moving into medical transcription. He has been an avid quizzer for decades. "I was looking to chuck my job for I found my personal time and interest being edged out because of my profession creeping in. My interest was language and I liked creative writing, content writing in Tamil and English. We discussed and then Arjun bounced ideas of what he wanted to do. I quit and it became what we wanted to do. A bunch of options were available and they included soft skill training, professional training etc., But, when Arjun came up with the idea, we saw a good synergy between our skill sets. Arjun could design and both of us could conceptualize. Given the three strong points opening an e commerce portal was natural. Our proximity to Tirupur helped us to do the research for a ' print on demand ' concept for T shirts. We took about six months on researching and getting vendors. The back end had to be set up well. Arjun wrote the programme and the system. He took it as an opportunity to learn newer skills and he implemented the scheme. A combination of Python programming language and web designing helped in the creation of the full portal. The portal has a payment gateway, add to the cart feature, wish list feature among other things. Besides, the vendor gets the feed the way he needs it. This way, human error is eliminated because of Python software. We have had zero wrong deliveries since inception., " smiled Senthil while talking about this start up named after Anuvavi.
The partners understood the other points too and considered them. They knew that additional hands, professional designers, digital marketing would be required in due course while the business would be picking up. This was a bootstrap start up and financial rewards would be slow to come. Senthil added further while elucidating on his strategy for securing resources, "We are building the business as a ' legacy '. In order to make it happen, cash was required. Therefore we started a content writing vertical. This was created in order to generate cash flow immediately. Now we have 28 clients and 60 free lancer writers who take work from home. After one year, we have moved into Amazon US, UK, Germany apart from Spreadshirt US and Etsy. Our company does quizzes etc., for promotion. The mythology Quizz on Krishna during Janmashtami did well. We do four and six frame comics for promotion. The advertisements are boring. A casual Instagram viewer will find our promos interesting. Prizes are given to the winners of the quizzes and contests. Its basically an experience for our followers. They have an experience in our web site, our social media pages and they go back happy."
An on line treasure hunt by Swagswami did well. Each clue lead the participants to a part of the website and they had to solve it in order to move ahead to the next clue over 10 days. Lots of youngsters from the IITs and IIMs had participated. Arjun was ecstatic while sharing further, "We specialize on themes.
T shirts on veganism, running, cycling, photography, cities, food, zodiac signs, sports, mandala art, chess etc., The designs are unique and the captions are original. Our items include round necks, v necks, polos, raglan, full sleeves, sleeveless, womens dress shirt, crop tops, sweat shirt, glow in the dark etc., we also make coffee mugs, posters, spiral note books with customized designs based on request. Now, we are in the process of putting up a platform for free lance graphic designers from across the country. The purpose is to showcase their designs and sell the merchandise through our platform. We will handle the manufacturing and marketing part of the work.
This way creativity is continuous and is left unaffected by the actual implementation. Its a win win situation for everyone. Swagswami will reach the next level through this initiative. With its founders and friends loaded with creativity, it will continue to grow every moment, every day. People can reach us on http://www.swagswami.com. Swagswami was chosen as the Brand name for the idea was to have a name which projects style and swagger with a traditional name recall. We are putting in our best in a city known for its entrepreneurship and we are confident that our enterprise will catapult itself to great heights."
Customized and personalized designs and products are the need of the hour in a market which is full of competition. Swagswami is sure to disrupt the traditional thought process and move ahead. Creativity when combined with a narrative is bound to impress. Impressions succeed.