SINI DESIGNS PVT. LTD. : Ms. NEETU SINGH, FOUNDER’S VISION TO CREATE AN EMPIRE OF EMPOWERED WOMEN

In the corporate world, it has been rarest of the rare to see a company so women oriented and from founder director to the work force so dominated by women. SINI DESIGNS PVT.LTD. has been one such company which has been in the process of creating an empire of empowered women. Fashion and lifestyle as its forte, when it comes to the international fashion scene, there are few Indian brands like SINI DESIGNS which encompass all the different design needs of women. While some brands may offer a great clothing range, they may not have an impressive jewellery or lifestyle range. To fill this gap in the international market, SINI DESIGNS PVT. LTD has doled out a broad variety of garment and fashion accessories that are based on the Indian Culture. The brand stands by the motto: “Inspired from India, crafted for the world.”
Over the years, SINI DESIGNS has established itself as one of the leading Indian fashion brands and diversified its products across different daughter brands like SINI JEWELS, SINI LIFESTYLE, and exclusively for social work and CSR, SINI FOUNDATION.
Connecting the creativity of its talented artisans to the international and domestic markets, the brand exports its products to more than 50 countries. The brand has also established a certified and compliant factory that ensures optimal production quality.
Driven by a love for the motherland, SINI seeks to provide a platform for Indian artisans to showcase and sell their skilfully crafted handicraft jewellery, fashion accessories, and garments, that suit the preferences of modern women.

 

Ms. Neetu Singh’s Inspiration Behind Founding SINI DESIGNS

After completing her studies, Ms. Neetu Singh desired to do something to help underprivileged women. She complimented this desire of hers with her natural knack for fashion designing by training poor artisans (especially women) to enhance their skills. Over time, her determination resulted in the creation of a cluster of artisans having knowledge of Indian Art and skills to create world-class products. It proved to be a milestone in her journey towards entrepreneurship in 2005. To meet the global, traditional, and contemporary fashion trends existing in the country and across the world, she started designing fashion accessories and garments to showcase the creations of the skilled women artisans in domestic and international markets. To further complement her entrepreneurial endeavour, she sharpened her skills by graduating in Fashion Designing alongside.
In 2011, Ms. Singh launched her own brand SINI (which is a short form of her name) in Birmingham, UK. SINI has now evolved as a leading brand in garments and fashion accessories. It is innovative, traditional and contemporary, and at the same time, affordable and appealing to everyone. The brand’s products are inspired by multi-faceted hues of rich global trends and its scintillating work adds a dash of panache to one’s personality.

 

SINI DESIGNS’ Challenges As An Upcoming Fashion & Design Brand

When starting out, Ms. Singh had completed 10 years of her marriage and was raising two children. This brought with it a great deal of struggle and challenges. She had to develop the necessary perseverance, commitment, and endurance to sustain the pursuits of her goals. Despite the struggles, the situation had a silver lining also. As she was a first-generation entrepreneur, and that too without any prior work experience, she had a clean slate to explore, experiment, and feel the trends from the people’s perspectives. As a team leader, the limited platform available for the products was a major handicap, however, it led to the emergence of “SMALL SCALE TO CORPORATE” Business Model. By providing a platform to the team where they could showcase their works and earn on a permanent basis, she was able to establish that small scale and house hold industries could be modelled under the corporate ambit, thus widening the horizon for the people. The platform greatly benefited struggling Artisans from North Eastern states, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab who faced issues like the absence of market platform and exploitation by middle men. With Ms. Singh’s hand holding, guidance, and protection, they got their due remuneration and recognitions.
Another challenge faced by SINI was to ensure that it makes a mark among already established names, as many international brands were already doling out products that are inspired from Indian culture.

 

How SINI DESIGNS Builds Trustful Relations With Customers

Trust has always been an important factor for the consumer to feel confident in their purchases, and in the digital age, its importance has further increased. The misleading nature of advertisements makes it hard for the customers to figure out what’s real and what isn’t. Profit-driven strategies, poor impression, lack of personal and emotional connect with costumers and failures in sympathizing with their struggles has created numerous doubts in their minds.
The Three Commandments – Quality, Reasonable Price, and Timely Delivery have been at the core of the brand’s business ethics. Under personal care by Ms. Singh, in all the works of different departments including the selection of raw materials, design and creation process, quality control, as well as employing all the modern techniques, has helped the brand create a partnership of mutual trust with the consumer. Over a period of time, this has evolved into a symbiotic relationship which is beneficial to both.
The brand has also constantly strived to understand the requirements, psychology, and expectations of the consumer and convert them into reality.
While SINI has acquired numerous positive reviews, testimonials, recommendations and awards/recognitions at the national and international levels, Ms. Singh considers them to be merely an icing on the cake. She feels that her true success lies in the heartfelt satisfaction of her customers.

 

SINI DESIGNS’ Ingenious Marketing Strategy

The brand has showcased in international exhibitions, fashion shows, retail shows in more than 15 countries to expand its brand visibility. In India, it has participated in the international exhibitions organized by different councils and business forums in different cities. These platforms provide the opportunity to have one-to-one interactions with buyers, address their concerns and apprehensions and develop an understanding for holistic business associations.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Ms. Singh has used email marketing to show her new product range to business associates who could not physically connect with the brand. On the social media front, she has been using networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, YouTube, and Instagram as well as search engines like Google and Yahoo to enhance the brand’s outreach.

 

How SINI DESIGNS Caters To The Diverse Needs Of Its Customers

The brand takes an initiative to read the mind of the consumer and convert their mental images into reality. It also ensures that the delivery of its products is done with punctuality, quality, and competitive pricing. Its uniqueness lies in its knowledge of art, culture, nature, and their fusion with contemporary trends in fashion. All its products are infused with zeal, enthusiasm and creativity.
SINI DESIGNS is a bold statement of one’s individuality and the reflection of the feelings and expression of beauty- both internal and external.
The brand also takes care of seasonal trends and preferences of people from different countries by producing different collections that vary across a broad spectrum of colours, fabrics, and patterns.

 

The Parameters Used By The Brand To Evaluate Customers’ Trust

SINI believes that the most important parameter to judge the trust of consumers is how much they get associated with the brand. Over the years, the brand’s business with overseas buyers has increased and they’ve become more like family members than business associates.
On domestic E-commerce platforms, the brand has loyal customers across the country who have not only repeated their purchases but also endorsed them to others. Their positive reviews of the garments and fashion accessories on social platforms have also been a major game-changer.

 

SINI DESIGNS’ Product/Category Additions In 2020

This year, the brand is going into Indian ethnic wear with lots of detailing of embroidery, natural hand dyed ombre or tie and dye effect in mostly organic and sustainable fabrics.
As a firm believer in Zero Waste, SINI has started recycling and designing various fashion accessories from all the leftover fabrics and material, exporting to many countries.

 

Ms. Neetu Singh’s Inspiring Entrepreneurship Journey

Ms. Singh feels that her entrepreneurship journey so far has been very satisfying. On one hand, it had struggle, endurance, perseverance, and a commitment with self-driven goals to build capacities and empowering women with financial independence. On the other hand, it brought lots of awards, applauds, recognitions, and a sense of self-fulfilment.
In the last 14 years, more than 5000 artisans across the states have been associated with SINI in its endeavours.

 

Here are some of the “Special and Outstanding Achievements” of the brand:

 

 

1) Emergence of “SMALL SCALE TO CORPORATE” Business model:SINI has been able to establish that small scale and house hold industries can be modelled under the corporate ambit thus widening the horizon for the artisans.

 

2) GLOBAL REACH:The brand’s motto “Inspired from India, crafted for the world” has been its driving force. It has endeavoured to connect the creativity of its talented artisans to the international market. Not only has this helped the artisans in generating an income for themselves but the brand has also been able to contribute to the Indian economy by generating foreign currency.

 

3) EMERGING AS A ROLE MODEL:The desire and commitment to do something meaningful for the poor and under privileged (especially women) and empower them to be financially independent spurred Ms. Singh to metamorphose into an entrepreneur. She believes “If there’s positivity in the thought process, there is no job that is below dignity. Only the target should be set high.”

 

4) CREATING JOB OPPORTUNITIES: SINI has been able to generate employment opportunities for artisans and weavers who had been struggling to make ends meet. Not only have they been given a platform of exports but also domestic and online markets. Apart from the training the artisans and weavers to improve their skills, the brand has also incorporated the latest technological trends in their creations. This has given them the strength stand against the competition and take the quality of their products to newer heights, generating lots of interest and business in the international markets.

5) REVIVAL OF INDIAN ART:To attract the buyers who had lost touch with Indian art and shifted to other countries for sourcing, a handholding campaign was launched by the brand to train and improve the skills in forms like Hand Embroidery, Kashidakari, Zari Work, Adda Work, Hand Painting, Use of Natural Dyes, Block Printing. By reviving Indian Art and fusing the Indian Art with global trends, SINI was able to bring back many of the international buyers and companies who had shifted to other countries.

 

6) WOMEN EMPOWERMENT:Being a woman herself, Ms. Singh understands the plight of women who face financial deprivation and how it impacts their daily lives. This has inspired her to facilitate women empowerment by helping them attain financial independence and make them the decision maker.

 

7) COUNSELLING:In addition to the development of skills and employment generation, SINI also extends moral counselling for giving life changing visions to people.

 

8) PRESERVING MOTHER NATURE:Being sensitive towards mother nature and nation’s property, Ms. Singh motivates others to protect nature by running several projects/campaigns through her NGO.

 

9) SYMBOLISING “MAKE IN INDIA”: The brand’s motto “Inspired From India, Crafted For The World” has been synonymous with the present policy of” Aatma Nirbhar Bharat”, “Make In India” and “Export Growth”.

Some of the most acclaimed Awards and Recognitions Won By Ms. Neetu Singh:

ASIA’s GREATEST BRANDS and LEADERS 2017 presented by Indo-Singapore Business and Social Forum 2018, Singapore.
Most valuable Jewellery Designer and Entrepreneur by Network 7 Media .
State Award for Master Crafts persons by Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi for Innovative Jewellery Designs.
“Samman Patra” for promotion of Indian Handicraft at International Level by EPCH, Ministry of Textile, GOI.
Empanelment as a Fashion Designer in DCH, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India.
Empanelment as a Fashion Designer with Fashion Design Council of India, FDCI.
Mentioned in the Book “Pursuit of Gender Studies”, chapter- Emergence of “New Woman” Entrepreneurs.

 

Ms. Neetu Singh’s Advice To Young Entrepreneurs
Ms. Singh believes that young entrepreneurs should have a strong conviction about one’s potentials, high self-esteem, good managerial skills, building trust with workforce, team building and discipline to succeed in business. Along with this, knowledge ingrained with zeal, enthusiasm and creativity are some of the prerequisites for powerful entrepreneurship.