Milap Gohel and Mayank Waghela’s journey from employees at an alteration shop to owning their own tailoring business has been anything but easy.
“But it has been totally worth it,” says Milap.
The pair had worked together as tailors in Ahmedabad and parted as colleagues when Mayank decided to move to Australia in 2007.
He arrived as a skilled migrant in Adelaide and soon found work in an alteration shop.
Shortly after, Milap moved to Brisbane with his wife.
“I was thinking of going back. There were barely any jobs for me. That is when Mayank asked me to move to Adelaide. I moved and started working in the alteration business where he was employed,” Milap tells SBS Hindi.
The duo worked for the same employer for over four years before deciding to venture out on their own.
Milap Gohel and Mayank Waghela with family Source: Supplied
“We had experience of running a tailoring business in India and wanted to do the same here but starting your own business in Australia was a completely different experience,” Milap says.
They began by renting space in Adelaide’s premier - and busiest - shopping mall, the Rundle Mall, and launched Hem Express in 2014.
But it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.
“I had left my job to start this. My wife was pregnant and had left her job. The rent had started but the furniture was taking too long. We were desperate to start but there were rules to follow which was taking time,” Mayank says.
“While budgeting we had set aside $20,000 for furniture. We didn’t know we will have to involve the mall authorities and follow their guidelines on materials and design. It ended up costing $90,000 and took time before we could finally start.”
They spent $400,000 on launching their venture and it has been a huge learning curve ever since.
Today, they are proud owners of another tailoring venture which creates customised tailored suits.
Source: Supplied
“We were doing well at the alteration business but we always wanted to do more tailoring and pattern making work. We are skilled tailors so we got the shop next door and launched Knightsman bespoke tailors where we make customised suits,” Milap says.
The new business which was launched in October 2017, today stitches and sells suits ranging from $900 to $7000.
But challenges are far from over.
“We have grown from two of us to five now. We employ two full-time staff and one part-time. There are days when we have to work for ten hours. We need more people which is proving to be really hard,” Milap says.
Mayank shares skilled tailors are not easy to find who know sewing and pattern-making.
“We need three more,” he says.
The two plan to open similar stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth over the next four years.
Source: Supplied
Milap and Mayank’s tips for starting a small business:
- Spend time to thoroughly understand the Australian customer and the market
- Gain work experience in your own industry to learn the ins and outs of the trade
- Keeping innovating. If you are trying to sell a product, try new things to learn new skills.
“There’s such a variety of body shapes and sizes here. We have stitched plenty of suits, free of cost, for different body types, to gain experience in stitching different types and patterns of suits. This helps enhance our understanding and we gain valuable insights,” Milap says.
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