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Did you know that handicrafts of all kinds constitute the second largest occupation in India? And that it is a dwindling sector with people steadily moving out of it and entering other fields? One of the reasons for artisans to move out of this business is the lack of easy access to consumers and the intense competition from machine-made goods. The Color Caravan aims to create livelihood opportunities for artisans and in turn preserve our traditional crafts. It tries to do so by presenting traditional handicraft products in contemporary style & marketing them to urban buyers. Here is an interview with Swati Seth, the founder and the main driving force behind The Color Caravan: Q:Tell us more about The Color Caravan – what is it all about? The Color Caravan is a platform for Indian handicrafts. It is a link between the artisan and urban market. The Color Caravan is not a NGO. It is very much a business venture but supports a social cause. We basically partner with independent artisans, NGOs and SHGs to not only source products from them but also develop new products with them. In this way, we help create livelihood for the artisans and thus preserve our traditional craft. Besides this, we try to educate our customers about the product that they buy from us by sharing craft stories with them. We want them to know the kind of effort and time that an artisan puts in creating each piece of craft. Q:What inspired you to start The Color Caravan? A lot of people, ventures & incidents inspired me to start The Color Caravan. Having said that, the one person that inspired me the most (and continues to do so) is the great Indian rural artisan. Everytime I see a beautiful & fine piece of traditional craft created by an artisan, it leaves me awestruck & inspired. At the same time, it worries me to see our traditional craft getting lost – dying away because gradually artisans across the country are moving on from traditional crafts, handed to them over generations, in search of other opportunities. I knew that one day I would do something of my own and it would be something to do with the handicrafts. It was always there on my ‘bucket list’ but I wasn’t sure when and how. And then I reached a stage where this thought that ‘if I don’t do it now, I would never be able to do it‘ started bothering me but I still did not have the courage to quit my decently paying secure job. They say taking the first step is always the toughest part. After contemplating the idea for months, and with encouragement & support from family and some close friends I gathered the courage and decided to take the plunge. So, you can say that The Color Caravan was born out of my passion for travel, love for art & craft and concern to preserve and propagate age-old traditional Indian crafts. Q:Can you tell us a little bit about your background? Your past experience? I am a qualified commercial artist with over 10 years of experience across the design & online industry (design, e-commerce & content). I spent the early years of my career doing wall art, designing furniture & interiors for children, painting for a textile export house, visualising & illustrating for digital & BTL agencies before moving over to online content. In between all this, I also had a short stint with a BPO. My last stint was with one of largest Indian websites for advertising, media & marketing. Q:What are the kind of products The Color Caravan showcases? What is unique about them? Besides sourcing traditional handicraft products that are already available with the artisans, we help them design and develop new products using traditional craft. We try to present traditional handicraft products in contemporary style. So, while some of the products that we sell have been completely created by the artisan, others have been co-created by both the artisan and The Color Caravan. Some of the artisans that we work with are national and state awardees. Currently, we have crafts like terracotta jewelry from West Bengal, Madhubani from Bihar, Pattachitra & Dokra Orissa, basketry & Longpi pottery from Manipur, Charamkari and Kalamkari from Andhra Pradesh, Bandhej & weaves from Gujarat, Chikankari from Uttar Pradesh, Blue pottery from Rajasthan & Batik and Meenakari from Maharashtra. Our current product range consists of fashion accessories, home decor, home furnishing & utility items. Since each product, each piece is handcrafted, there are no two identical pieces! Handcrafted boxes, bottles, pottery and baalis. Q:suppose in this field you would have a lot of stories to share about artisans and their crafts. Any particular event/incident that you recall? Every piece of craft and artisan has a story to tell. However, I’ll share this particular one. I was traveling across Kutch (Gujarat) to explore the local craft and meet artisans to partner with. Every village that I visted, every artisan that I met and every piece of craft that I saw left me awestruck. Then, I met this very old lady in a tiny village. She must have been close to 85 or 90. She was once a very fine hand embroidery artist but was forced to give up the art because of old age. Her family showed me some of her out-of-this-world creations. I asked them if someone would be able to embroider something similar for me. I was disappointed and shocked to know that that particular embroidery art was not passed on to the next generation. No one from the younger generation bothered to learn it. No one from the current lot of artists in the village knew that particular stitch, that particular embroidery and she was too old teach now. She could barely see – it meant that that particular embroidery, that craft was now lost. It was heartbreaking. Q:Any specific issues that you face and are trying hard to address? I want to add about one of the biggest issues that we and other social enterprises working for the handicraft sector are facing. People often find our products expensive and we have a tough time explaining that handmade stuff will be expensive especially when we pay fair wages/prices to our artisans and don’t exploit them like others. It is sad that most customers end up comparing our handcrafted products with machine-made, non-ecofriendly products purchased at low prices & sold huge margins & profits. Q:Clearly The Color Caravan is a much-needed initiative in this space. What are your future plans? How do you plan to shape this initiative? We have already started retailing through a couple of stores in Bangalore and Lucknow and are products will be soon available in Mumbai. We will continue to do exhibitions across metros. Besides this, we have plans of launching a couple of customised services. Q:How does one get in touch with your organization? Tel: 011-46534315, 0522-2624182 Write to us at: swati.seth(at)thecolorcaravan.com Look for ‘The Color Caravan‘ Page on Facebook and click the LIKE button for updates. To see where & how can one buy our products, please see the SHOP tab on our Facebook Page. Source: The Better India

Jun 11,2017 Snapchat, a video messaging app allowing users to record and send “Snaps” that are viewable for between 1 to 10 seconds following its self destruction, allows users to express their content creatively. It provides all-in- one service where people can use audio, video, text, phone, and drawing in one place- making it more wholesome experience. The platform allows companies to express themselves in an entirely new way, providing a ‘personal window to the way you see the world’. The sense of urgency and standing out are things marketers can tap into on a low budget, and get a lot of reach. Here are 8 ways to encourage Small and Medium Entrepreneurs to expand their performance with Snapchat for their activities: Coupons, Giveaways and interesting video snippets from business offer personal touch to well defined market segment. It provides a great opportunity to reward one’s followers with promotional codes, coupons, contest and giveaways; who doesn’t appreciates such a deal! Coupons, Giveaways and interesting video snippets from business offer personal touch to well defined market segment. It provides a great opportunity to reward one’s followers with promotional codes, coupons, contest and giveaways; who doesn’t appreciates such a deal! Snapchat Stories, use stickers and text captions to post a series of images and videos in a sequence to tell the story of the brand. Creative minds can use the app as a part of an integrated marketing campaign to link social media and live events. Snapchat has over 100 million active users and over 7 billion daily video views which proves as a strong enough reason to attract marketers. Not only Youngsters but also people from every generation are adapting to it daily and active users continue to increase in a volume. This allows the marketers to connect to a large population on a single platform. Snapchat familiarizes to people in many ways and instills in them a sense of affinity. It provides a face-to-face communication than any other social media. One of the new features of Snapchat, “ Discover”, launched in 2015 connected its users to with media companies and they started publishing content to the app users. With the prime motive of monetization companies like ESPN, Cosmopoliton, BuzzFeed, Brothers and CNN published alongwith to influence their followers. Promotes Transparency, provides behind the scenes footage. Every customer entertains lucidity and by giving an insider’s view of the company and its culture helps engaging followers with interesting content. Live Event Reporting, Snapchat allows the followers to have an access to the live reporting of current happenings in a company and further builds trust and loyalty with customers. The most important feature, Geofilters is the most interesting and trending feature which is accessible for small and medium sized businesses at a nominal price. They are visual overlays which can be added to the user’s photos. The companies can create custom Geofilter and target its use at locations within a few kilometers in radius. However, using Snapchat for business is all about staying updated and innovative. On the other hand, Snapchaters also have to face some challenges. Hence, the firms need to have a clear understanding of their objectives and consider how it adds value to their overall social marketing strategy.

Jun 10,2017 What's so cool about the robotic, cold not trustworthy voice that comes up when you used to contact any firm for query or even a little question? Likewise no one finds it easy to press a set of buttons and then reach the solution to your query. These lengthy procedures used by the firms have a common flaw i.e. they can be adopted by leaving the sale which is definitely very inconvenient to the customers. The world is shrinking and so is our time, so we need understand that people no longer admire the robotic voice which takes so long. The customer thrives for warmth and a truthful advice without any complications. Help is what the customers want! So the live chat is doing nothing but rectifying that flaw possessed by the old methods. When you visit your nearby retail shop, the first thing that happens is the arrival of the salesperson to assist you with your shopping. Let us take a close look at how live chats are doing wonders. 1.Live chat is warm and friendly As while shopping online , the little doubts left unanswered can change the whole scenario , in this way the sale will not enhance as much , so the clearing the doubts and queries by the live chat while shopping is very comfortable and friendly. Since the chat is friendly enough, the customers opens up easily and ask even the tiniest things which makes them satisfied and confident about the product they have bought just now. Live chats creates trust for the firm, online automated responses can't increases the sale as they are based on the past experiences while the live is based on the problem the customer is facing right now . You get to know about the customers You come to know why and for what your website is visited. This way you can shape up your future plan. Also the customers clicks on the live chat for "help" , hence by providing the help that too at the very moment , you can initiate a strong relation between you and the customer thereby increasing your sale. You can cross sell thing in a non imposing way. For example: - If a person has bought a new mobile phone, you can recommend him /her the accessories related to it such as tempered glass and mobile cover etc. ​Live chat is less costly and comfortable. When it comes to cost, its cost nothing to the customer as well as for the retailer too the cost is very nominal, as the live chat can tackle so many queries at the same time and the customer can too multitask as they get the reply. The cost to maintain the chat system is far less than the call center. The customization in the chat system are also very appealing and tend to keep the customer engaged and being less impatient as he/ she need not leave the deal and contact the BPO or email them. Hence the live chat cut down cost and increases the working hours as you have spent your money, energy and thoughts wisely. So, rather than watch people clicking away from you website just because their queries are not answered is not fair at all.

Jun 9,2017 Business world is full of opportunities and threats but the ice on the cake is that such opportunities and threats are uncertain and dynamic. Every business organization should stay prepared for these situations. Due to intense competition, small business organizations are the one who are most affected by such situations. To avoid unpredictable threats and exploit opportunities, small business owners should keep enough resources in reserve so as to face the uncertain situations without affecting daily operations. Such reserve fund is often called Rainy Day Fund. All business owners should keep Rainy Day Fund to be used in times when regular income or revenues do not match expenditures. Studies reveal that keeping Rainy day Fund helps small business organizations to develop as they perform better than those who do not keep Rainy Day Fund, in difficult situations. In many cases, Rainy Day Fund are often used interchangeably with Emergency Fund but both these terms are different in certain ways. An Emergency Fund is kept in order to have enough money to pay expenses for a period of three to six months. On the other hand, Rainy Day Fund is kept to face unforeseen situations or events. In brief, these two savings accounts are different in their amount value, purpose and usefulness. Moreover, a Rainy Day Fund is comparatively smaller than Emergency Fund. There are many benefits of keeping Rainy Day Fund: Rainy Day Fund provides liquidity of fund during emergency period. During the time of recession in the industry, Rainy Day Fund can prove beneficial. Rainy Day Fund provides security against uncertainty of future. Small Business Owners have to face a lot of problems in their business. In such situations, Rainy Day Fund provides relief to stress. Rainy Day Fund provides courage to small business owners to take risks as they don’t have to worry a lot about future. This helps them in exploiting the growth opportunities which they otherwise would not have been able to do so. In the vast and dynamic business environment, it has become necessary for small business owners to stay awake and hit the bull’s eye every time in order to develop and expand. For better tomorrow, one must focus on present and present can be focused only when worries regarding future are reduced to null. In case of small business owners, Rainy Day Fund acts as a safeguard against uncertain events of future. So, the question arises- SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS, HAVE YOU CREATED A RAINY DAY FUND?

Jun 9,2017 Entrepreneurship is not, oddly enough, this bling-bling glamorous lifestyle that it is often portrayed to be. Entrepreneurs are not your normal Type-A personalities – overtly motivated, overarching ambitious-wise people that are always hungry for success. In fact, a 2006 paper proposed that entrepreneurs, personality wise, are far removed from Type-A personalities, which are more suited for corporate and CEOs. Entrepreneurs were found less neurotic, which made them greatly tolerant towards stress. They were also found extraverted, conscientious and far more open to innovation. So, what exactly makes an entrepreneur successful? There are a quite a few surprisingly common traits that are found in all the successful, top-brand entrepreneurs across the world. First things first, a good entrepreneur is one who is not afraid to take risks, experiment and innovate. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says that, “If you can increase the number of experiments you try from hundred to thousand, you dramatically increase the number of innovations you produce.” And this rings true. Risk-taking is something that should be a conscious decision; a good entrepreneur should know when to push through that fear and take that risk. A good entrepreneur is also someone who is tenacious enough to crawl through bad times. The importance of tenacity and perseverance is often overlooked, but cannot be emphasised enough. Steve Jobs, when he returned to Apple as its CEO in 1997, found the company nearly bankrupt. From there, he took the company and pushed it to be one of the biggest technological giants of the 21st century, with the iPhone, iPod and the iTunes being deemed to have huge 'cultural ramifications'. So, a successful entrepreneur is not someone who is able to work during bad times, but someone who can work despite bad times. An entrepreneur knows the importance of the customer and s/he makes the business all about the customer. It is a customer who ultimately decides that whether the product is a boon or a bust, and it is the customer who would decide whether you should continue doing what you are doing, or give up your entrepreneur-apron and get a new job. Also, if an entrepreneur does not have an unique product or service line under his belt, there is quite a chance that it would not work out. An entrepreneur must always ask himself/herself, “Why would anybody want to buy my product, or use my service?” There must be something unique, or different in the product/service line that differentiates the entrepreneur from the incumbent competitions, or in other words, the entrepreneur must, through his/ her product, create a competitive advantage. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, an entrepreneur must have passion and the confidence that what s/he is doing would change the world. Starting a business from scratch is not an easy task, and there are numerous obstacles thrown your way. However, if an entrepreneur is genuinely excited at the work, doesn't fall trap to the naysayers, and sail past the opposition, there's magic that happens. So, do you have it in you to be a successful entrepreneur?

Jun 8,2017 Travelling gives you an opportunity to see the need for opportunity. When you travel, you come across multiple cultures, traditions, ideas. You learn about people, their needs, their endeavors and how they work to fulfill their dreams. Whether it unfolds in the avenue of social entrepreneurship or larger more grandiose endeavors, one can truly see an opportunity ripe for the proper capitalist. Here are some major benefits of travelling and why every entrepreneur must consider it once. Better communication Travelling makes you meet new people from all over the world and over time as you come across their language and traditions, you start communicating better, both verbal and non-verbal. For example, when you are on a business tour, you meet people of all ages, careers, races etc. Refuga conducted one such business tour with entrepreneurs and at the end of the tour the experiences not only helped the curious minds to communicate better but also helped them with developed business networking, which is extremely valuable in future. Introduction to teamwork A business can’t stand alone on one man. It requires a team of people who can understand each other at the same level and also sometimes help others to overcome their difficulties. Travelling will introduce you to new people with new demands and their idea of working which you bring back to the team to help each other grow and help the business grow. It will teach you when to be the leader and when to rely back on others for their strengths and area of expertise Better time management skills Anytime, anywhere you travel, if you don’t maintain a schedule you are going nowhere. Thus, to experience and take out most of your trip, time management is extremely necessary. Thus, travelling helps you hone the skills. Thus, the better you learn time management, the more you work efficiently to expand your business Introduction to various cultures It is always wise to work with people from various cultures as you have something new to learn from them and their traditions. In fact, it is the soul of internet marketing. Travelling introduces you to multiple cultures through the journey. You learn about their ideas, their needs and how they work to overcome their difficulties and needs. Thus, back home you can always mix all the learning and bring out the best to grow and expand your own business and develop your own culture at workplace for maximum productivity. Not only this, it also opens your mind to various possibilities of business in future. Working with constrains Sometimes, you have limited resources which can actually limit you while travelling. Thus, you learn to work with constrains and make the best out of limitations. And by far, this can prove to be the surviving skill when your business is in troubled waters. You will know how to navigate your ship safely to the shore, and start again.