What is the right age to start a business? Is it just after you graduate? Or is it after you have a few years of work experience under your belt? Is it your 30’s, 40’s, 50’s or beyond? While movies depict entrepreneurs as young, tech savvy and driven, researchers suggest that there are tons of advantages to starting a company later on in life, the reality is there’s no right or wrong age to become an entrepreneur.
Ashwini Kulkarni has proven just that with her handmade gifting venture, Sitija Collections. At the age of 55 and an initial investment of INR 50,000-70,000, Ashwini has built a successful business in Pune, while also seeing her daughters carve unique paths professionally.
Business Of Creativity
Embroidery is the intricate art of using a thread and needle to create beautiful images and patterns on a piece of cloth. This is done mostly through hand and takes hours of patience and practice to perfect. Embroidery is used on home décor products like table cloths, mats, runners, wall frames, wall clocks, serving trays and much more. A number of colourful threads are used to stitch these patterns and shapes onto the desired product. This has made embroidery an invaluable skill in recent times.
Ashwini had always loved this delicate art and had been practicing it as a hobby for many years. Having to raise three daughters as a single mother led to her not pursuing it as a profession early on. After her daughters carved their own career paths, Ashwini found the time to carve a niche in her area of expertise.
“For so long my identity was of a mother of three. So after my first two daughters got married, I wanted to reinvent myself by doing what I wanted and was passionate about,” Ashwini explains. “In 2020 when the pandemic hit, I realized this is the best time to start and no point in delaying as everything was now going digital.”
Personal Touch
She created her brand called Sitija Collections and established a social media presence quickly on Facebook and Instagram. Through word of mouth, she was able to garner lots of traction. “I got a lot of orders for various products from people who wanted to customize it as per their liking. Since all our products are handmade, we do not compromise on quality and thus our team is small,” she explains. “Initially when we started we had very little sales, but now we can see huge growth. Sitija Collections is a all women team.
Sitija Collections also has a brick and mortar store in Pune where they welcome customers and undertake orders. Through their online pages they ring up 15-20 orders per month in addition to in store sales. With her unique creativity and passion for entrepreneurship, Ashwini is an inspiration to all women out there who dream of starting their own business someday.
To know more visit – https://www.instagram.com/sitijacollections/
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