Tell us about yourself and your background
I am an interior designer by professional experience, crafter by choice and am now an entrepreneur. I specialise in corporate interior designing and have worked in this area for over five years. Pursuing my passion of paper crafting professionally through Growing Craft for three years and now initiating Zibica is like a dream come true.
Tell us about the company you have set up – when did you set it up, what products or services do you provide, what is your target market?
www.zibica.in is a market place for Indian artists and crafters to have their own store and sell their beautiful work online. We launched our website in November 2015. Our USP is that www.zibica.in is the only platform in India that is a marketplace for artists and crafters, focusing on handmade creations and ranging from décor to wearable collectables to utility creations. Customers can also connect with us directly for any bulk and custom made orders. Initially, we are targeting tier 1 and tier 2 cities.
Why did you set up the company? / What drove you to become an Entrepreneur?
Growing Craft made me realize that there is no proper platform for crafters like us to showcase and sell their creative creations. That’s when we decided we would launch a platform for this and www.zibica.in started taking shape. It took us about four months to refine our idea and take it a level when we can start implanting. It was in November 2015 that we launched our website.
What has been your biggest challenge in achieving your success?
We cannot say that we have succeeded yet. There is a long road ahead.
However, in what we have achieved so far, the biggest challenge was to get initial sellers on board. It is like a chicken and egg problem. If you have customers, multiple sellers will come, but customers will only come when you have products on your website.
What has been your greatest achievement so far?
In just three months after the launch, we have been able to get 52 artists with 600 products online. I think this is a big achievement, as someone told us that getting sellers on board will be the biggest challenge.
Who has been your biggest inspiration?
My biggest inspiration is my husband and partner in the company, who has been pushing me forward and also definitely our artists who believed in me.
How do you balance your work life and home life?
I guess passion and supportive family makes everything easy.
What advice do you have for women starting out on their own?
I always believe in “listening to your heart”. Be it my interior designing work, paper crafting or working for this platform, anything is possible if you love your work.
If you could ask for one thing to help propel your business what would it be?
Presently, we lack two things, a team and some money. Because we have to name one thing, I would say at this point we need some funds to propel, as we have the base ready now. We can also build a team slowly.
What does the future hold for you?
What we have implanted is not even 15% of our plans. What we have launched is just a minimum of viable product to test the waters. We have a long wish list of features that we want on the platform. It is going to be a slow process, but surely, it will be a steady one.
We also want to have 500+ artists on board within the next year.
About Soniya:
I am an Interior Designer by profession with over five year of experience in corporate office designs. I am a paper crafter by choice, running Growing Craft for three years now.
I am from Rourkela, Odisha where I did my schooling. I then came to Pune to pursue Interior Designing, where I also practiced for over five years. After marriage, I shifted to Mumbai where I started experimenting with papers. After my daughter was born, I wanted a scrapbook for her, but wasn’t able to find something that matched by expectation in terms of designing and price. It was then I started Growing Craft. Having spent three years developing the idea, my husband and I have started www.zibica.in
Contacting Soniya:
Phone number: +91 99677 81015
