If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old, said Austrian-born American management consultant Peter F. Drucker. The duo K. Syed Baji and Sheik Sattar do not have any idea who was Peter F. Drucker and also never came across the management guru’s teachings and quotes.
Tailors by profession, the duo appears to follow Drucker’s quote in its spirit in real life unknowingly. Both tailors by profession, they have moved away from the stereotyped operation from shop to mobile platforms. They are tailors on the move. Penury forced them to innovate, said Syed Baji. I managed a tailoring shop for about 15 years, but mounting establishment cost such as power bills, material cost and salaries forced me to close down my shop, he said.
After closing the shop, Syed built a covered trolley with foldable doors on all four sides and set up his sewing machine on it. He parks his mobile tailoring unit on the High School Road near Patamata Ryhtu Bazaar and operates on a daily basis from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
They specialise in alteration and do not take up stitching of new clothes as the space does not permit this task, said Sattar.
The business model was simple, the duo point out. “Women come to the ryhtu bazaar and before entering the bazaar they give us the clothes that need to be altered and collect them back on return.
"This way they save time and we earn our livelihood,” said Syed.
On an average we chip in about Rs.300 to Rs.500 on a daily basis and that is sufficient to keep the fire burning at home, he added. While Syed set up his mobile unit about four years ago, Sattar’s venture is just one-year old. Syed has two daughters whom he got married and a son who works at a star hotel in the city.
Sattar has a school-going daughter and a son. “I want them to take up higher studies of their choice and for which I would not mind working a few extra hours a day. The alteration business has no season and the flow is good throughout the year,” observed Sattar.
