In less than a year, SaiVijaya Naidu’s venture SoulfulSaai
has taken off, giving her a much needed boost. From conceptualizing to
designing, she does it all. She has sold her products on more than 6 websites,
and continues to do so. Boasting a Post Graduate degree in Textiles n Clothing from
the Mumbai University, she also happens to be a gold medalist and the
university topper. She was inclined towards art, right from school days, so she
eventually convinced her parents to let her take up Textiles Designing as
opposed to being a typical doctor or engineer. “Loaded with all the knowledge
from my degree, I even worked as a lecturer for a year in my own college, but
got bored soon, as I was teaching exactly what I had learnt, ie. too much of
theoretical knowledge. I discontinued and took up writing. I wrote on fashion
and textiles which I thoroughly enjoyed, but fate had a different course for
me. The erratic schedules and late nights didn't go well with my family so I
quit the job, and did freelancing instead. But that too wasn't motivating. So I
ended up spending time online, made new friends Facebook and Twitter, and even
blogging a bit,” shares Saai.
Soulfulsaai was actually her Twitter-handle, which
eventually gave birth to her brand. Nandita Iyer, a fellow food blogger,
suggested Saai that she checks Etsy.com. Well, that was it. Once she took this
plunge, she pledged that she would swim the Atlantic. “In the beginning I
surfed aimlessly. But then I did realize that of all the products I surfed, I
liked the segment on hair accessories. I immediately went to the nearby malls
to check what type of hair accessories was sold and their price range. Later I
decided to check the process of opening a shop on Etsy.com, and realized it was
much simpler than opening a bank account!” exclaims Naidu.
After a while Saai realized that Etsy catered mainly to international
clients, and she wanted to make a mark in her homeland too. That’s where she
decided to open up a shop on Craftsvilla.com. Slowly, she spread her wings, and
now sells her products on websites like Itshandmade.in, Shopick.com,
Unwrapindia.com etc.
But the path she decided to take had its own pros and cons.
“Frankly, every moment in the process of building Soulfulsaai has been
eventful. As it was a relatively unthreaded path, any decision I made, I had to
be ready for success or failure. I had my own share of disappointments.
The first exhibition I had was a disaster. The reasons were numerous, but I
sure learnt a lot from it,” shares Saai. On the brighter side, she is happy to
be her own boss!
“I don’t only want people to benefit from Soulfulsaai, but I
also want to create awareness about my brand, unlike the mass-produced products
that lack personal touch. Today I am confident that there is a demand for my
products because I use techniques like crochet, beading, macrame, soutache, and fabric flowers. While on the other hand, there are women who are struggling to earn a
decent living. If I could bring these two things together, I would be happy,” says Saai.
