Today, S. Swaminathan, founder and managing director of Woodpecker Furniture, is glad his wife came up with a question 16 years ago.
“Shall we relocate to India?” his wife Viji Swaminathan had asked him. At the time, the couple were living in Indonesia.
The answer to the question would change their lives, but they did not realise it then.
She had asked that question factoring in the education of their children and the need to be around ageing seniors in the family. The idea of a new business did not enter the consideration then.
Swaminathan was skeptical about the idea of moving to India, but agreed, on one condition. “We had been living abroad for a long time. If my wife would be able to adjust to life in India, I would join her,” he recalls.
They transported many of their personal belongings to India, including a suite of furniture.
‘Honey, I sold our furniture’
One of Swaminathan’s friend, who is from Hyderabad, liked the furniture and offered to buy it. The offer was accepted, and this meant that the Swaminathans had to look for new furniture.
Viji set out on a furniture hunting expedition to Royapettah. For any NRI, such a visit can be a difficult — well, this line comes from personal experience.
“My wife could not find a piece of furniture that would suit our taste. Exhausted, she broached the idea of importing furniture from Indonesia; from there, the discussion graduated to selling furniture in India,” smiles Swaminathan.
“That’s the background story of Woodpecker!”
From a room to showrooms
According to Swaminathan, when one starts out as an entrepreneur, personal life and business life cannot be compartmentalised. This is one of the prime entrepreneurial lessons Swaminathan learnt when he turned a small space in his house into a furniture shop, in 2000. Learning the ropes of the business was difficult.
“We did not have the infrastructure and many other resources to launch our business. Add to this the challenge of warehouse management and billing those days, and we had our work cut out,” he reveals, adding, “However, I am glad to have started young.”
From 2000 to 2003, Swaminathan participated in several exhibitions and retailed from the house. But they were looking for opportunities to grow.
In 2004, they opened their first showroom in Besant Nagar.
“That launched our first full-fledged furniture retail business. Now, the customer felt comfortable and would approach us for after-sale service, including installation.”
Another key lesson: in business, every day brings a new challenge.
Swaminathan says, “Not a single day goes by without challenges.”
“Woodpecker enjoyed patronage from residents across the city. However, growing traffic problems led to a drop in this support. Our patrons, especially from Anna Nagar and Ambattur, did not want to spend hours travelling. Also, by then, many such shops had popped up in their neighbourhoods.”
That is when Swaminathan realised the need to expand geographically. In 2011, Swaminathan opened the second Woodpecker showroom on Nelson Manickam Road.
Today, Woodpecker has a thriving presence in Porur, Aminjikarai, Royapettah and Velachery. It also has two showrooms in Coimbatore.
Manpower, the biggest hurdle
Getting employees who understand furniture is a challenge, says Swaminathan.
“Once you have a good team in place, your business grows naturally,” he believes.
He reasons it out. “Handling a showroom is different from handling an office. Being new to this business, it took me time to learn the ropes. So I was faced with the challenge of training the manpower that we recruited from across India. Each time, I have to get them accustomed to our culture of selling— being open and transparent with the customers — which is time-consuming.”
Finding space was another challenge for Swaminathan.
“One, as a business keeps expanding, one requires a lot of space; and unlike many other products, furniture requires space not just to display but to store them as well. Two, furniture is not a product that people buy often. It is often a one-time purchase. In fact, furniture is one of the commodities to take a hit during times of recession,” he says.
“But, all these challenges have only helped me learn how to face hurdles and prevail over them,” says the entrepreneur.
Taking the e-route
Woodpecker made its online debut in 2015, on Flipkart and Amazon. Swaminathan notes that selling furniture online has big potential, but is not a walk in the park.
“Customers develop high expectations about their furniture on the basis of the catalogue. Some even return the delivered furniture, when they see it fails to match their expectations. Being a voluminous product, the damages from frequent transportation are high and logistically challenging,” says the entrepreneur, who is reworking the logistics and re-launching his online catalogue soon.
To the aspiring entrepreneurs
- Work hard and give maximum attention to the job. It’s a big responsibility.
- Don’t be anxious about failures and setbacks. Never give up; keep fighting.
- Minimise your personal expenses. Keep a low profile and be as humble as possible.
- Keep building on your team from day one. You have to have a great team to be able to achieve much.
- Keep learning.
(A column about entities that started in a small way in a neighbourhood and grew bigger)
