Srinagar: To do something different from the regular furniture sellers, Musaib uses social networking sites for promotion and also takes orders online and delivers custom-made furniture to his customers as per their choice.
Armed with social networking skills, a 23-year-old PG student from Samboora village of Pulwama district decided to turn around his struggling family business of walnut kernels. However, soon after he found that there is no chance he could save the ‘sinking ship’, as the losses were running in lakhs of rupees, Musaib Nisar switched over to furniture business.
As the new business aided with technology and modern marketing concepts is doing well in a short span of time. Musaib not only changed the line of business of his family, but also employed the latest marketing techniques and introduced new products to boost his furniture business, which is gaining huge demand in Kashmir.
To do something different from the regular furniture sellers, he used social networking sites for promotion and also takes orders online and delivers custom-made furniture to his customers as per their choice.
A postgraduate student of environmental sciences at SP College, Srinagar, took over the reigns of business, a year ago from his father and within months decided about his line of action. While establishing the unit Himalayan Peaks Wood Industries, he started to promote it on Instagram and Facebook as well as used Whatsapp to have direct communication and photo sharing of products with his customers.
“Social media has helped him to bring his business to the customers. He received most of the customers from social media for his online store rather than for my offline store.
As Musaib is doing his studies and business simultaneously, he says being an active student gives him the opportunity to understand young customers and modify his business accordingly.
Besides selling day-to-day furniture, he has also introduced modular wooden kitchens along with other modular furniture and walnut wood items. He inaugurated his Himalayan Peaks Wood Industries at industrial estate Lassipora four months back and introduced a number of items like dewan beds, khatamband, modular furniture, which are not easily available in the market.
With just a few months in business, Musaib’s unit has reached the monthly turnover of Rs 4 lakh. His product line has a huge price range, which varies from few thousand to lakhs depending upon the quality and type of the product.
While Musaib is yet to complete his education, he has already found a job for himself, helped his family in the business and provides employment to a few people as well.
“I will go for a full-fledged website so that my products will be a click away from my costumers and products can be delivered to them on their doorsteps,” he says.
Presently, he is planning for upgradation of his modular kitchen unit with some CAD professionals. Musaib says that he is very optimistic and feels that in coming years many young Kashmiris will take a lead in starting their own business like he did and won’t sit back and wait for government jobs.
