Showing posts with label Nepal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nepal. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Entreprenören Björn Söderberg: ”Vi har aldrig tjänat så mycket pengar på någoting”

På söndagkvällen träffade Lina och jag Tirtha Rasaili som driver Child Watabarans center i Nepal och den svenska entreprenören Björn Söderberg som driver företag i Nepal.

Björn och Tirtha grundade Child Watabaran ihop, med stöd från det svenska konsultföretaget Xdin, för åtta år sedan.
Björn driver idag tre företag, varav ett är en avknoppning från Child Watabaran. Företagen gör allt från outsourcing av IT-tjänster till julkort av återvunnet papper. Just nu är han i Sverige och föreläser, han blev utsedd till årets talare förra året.

Vi satt alla fyra runt köksbordet och spånade kring olika projekt om hur man kan få till en hållbar utveckling. För min del tycker jag det är otroligt stimulerande att sitta med tre så drivna och kreativa personer som Björn, Tirtha, och Lina och diskutera, vrida på argument, utveckla idéer och ständigt försöka komma på sätt att göra saker bättre.
De kan utan tvekan mer om Nepal, så på det området lär vi oss mycket av dem. Men när det gäller t.ex. sociala medier kan vi ge dem många bra tips. Det känns skönt med ett prestigelöst utbyte av idéer och kreativa infall.

Lina passade på att intervjua både Björn och Tirta och i det här inlägget kommer intervjun med Björn, Tirtha får ni vänta på.
När vi sätter på kameran går Björn in i sitt talar-mode och det är lätt att förstå varför han blev utsedd till årets talare.
Björn berättar bland annat om den åtgärd han utfört som gett bäst pay back under sina åtta år som entreprenör i Nepal. 600kr kostade det och 75% av alla missförstånd försvann.



Björn ger även sin syn på socialt entreprenörskap, Nepal och han ger sitt bästa tips till den som funderar på att starta ett socialt ansvarstagande företag. Dessutom bjöd han på tortillas, men det är inte med i filmen.

Igår stod Lina på en mässa här i Göteborg och hon gjorde stor succé med våra manschettknappar av återvunna kretskort. Jag gillar dem, men jag är positivt överraskad av kundernas mottagande. Fast det är klart, det är en tacksam julklapp.
Jag har blivit fotograferad av en fotograf från tidningen Ingenjören. 1,5h tog det att få till en bra bild, tydligen är jag inte så fotogenisk... Jag och den gravida fotografen klättrade upp på taket här där jag bor för att ta bilder på mig med skjortor fladdrande i vinden. Tur att hon inte ramlade ner... Du får dock vänta till i februari med att läsa artikeln och se bilderna.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Konsten att hantera motgångar

Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sig.
Det tror jag är en bra beskrivning av livet i allmänhet och livet som entreprenör i synnerhet. Det som avgör hur bra man lyckas, både i livet och som entreprenör, tror jag till stor del handlar om hur man hanterar de gånger när de inte blir som förväntat.

Jag trivs otroligt bra med det jag arbetar med nu, men ibland kommer ögonblick när jag bara vill gå hem och aldrig komma tillbaka.
Vid såna tillfällen är jag glad över att både jag och Lina har förmågan att först bryta ihop en stund, men sen kan ta oss samman och börja fundera på hur vi ska vända det här till något bra. Hon kanske blir arg på mig för att jag berättar det här. En gång blev Lina så arg på en leverantör att hon gick hemma och skällde ut dem högt för sig själv i en halvtimme. Sen kunde hon åka in till kontoret och ha ett lugnt möte med dem. Ofta är det bra att få ur sig saker, men det gäller att göra det på ett kreativt sätt. Och det tycker jag hon gjorde där.

Vi får ofta frågan om hur det fungerar att driva företag ihop med personen man är gift med. Jag vet inte hur det är för andra, men för oss fungerar det fantastiskt. Summan av våra samlade ansträngningar är större än delarna var för sig. Men vi har bestämt att vi inte får prata om budgetar och ekonomi efter att vi gått och lagt oss.

I Nepal har vi nu äntligen fått fram de ekologiska tygerna. Det har tagit lång tid, men med tanke på att leverantören i Indien var tvungen att färga den ekologiska bomullen med växtfärger och sen låta det torka utomhus innan det kunde skickas till Nepal får vi vara nöjda. Nu har vi 500m ekologiska tyger som väntar på att bli skjortor.

Idag har vi släppt en light-version av vår site. Vi har fått så mycket frågor om man t.ex. kan köpa presentkort innan jul så vi har beslutat att lägga upp en sida där man kan se alla produkter förutom skjortorna. Det ska bli spännande att se hur det utvecklar sig.

Vår facebookgrupp fortsätter att överraska oss. I snitt ökar den med över 20% i storlek varje dag. Helt otroligt! Den responsen är utan tvekan något som gör det här jobbet så fantastiskt.

På söndag ska jag träffa både Tirtha, som är VD för Child Watabaran och Björn Söderberg, den svenska entreprenören i Nepal som blev årets talare förra året. Förhoppningsvis ska jag få till en intervju med dem som jag kan lägga upp på YouTube.

Sebastian Stjern
THE FAIR TAILOR
- Dress responsibly
Skräddarsydda skjortor, rättvist producerade, via internet

Saturday, November 7, 2009

The final stretch

If you have signed up for our newsletter you received a fresh update a few days ago.
Right now we are on the finishing stretch of the race to launch the The Fair Tailor website. We are getting ready for the launch. The website is almost finished and by now the fabrics should have cleared customs in Nepal. Soon we'll be making tailor made fine dress shirts for you. Stay tuned!

Last night Lina and I were talking about how so many things have gone our way. Then we started thinking about the things that haven't gone the way we've wanted and the list grew and grew. Well, that didn't work out. That failed. We had to skip that. The life as an entrepreneur consists of setbacks, lots of them. Don't give up just because somethings fail. Just find a way to solve it.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Read about us in GöteborgsPosten

Today there is an article about social media in GöteborgsPosten, one of Swedens largest newspapers.
You can read the article here.
The journalist, Per Nygren, asked me how we are benefiting from our use of social media such as our two bloggs, our Twitter account, our Facebook group.

The lastest information from Govinda says that the fabrics will clear customs today! (YES!) and arrive in Nepal on Tuesday. Finally we can get started.

Lina and I are trying to take the weekends off, in order to save strength. It has been a lot of work for a long time now. We managed to take the entire day off yesterday. Today? We'll, I'm sitting here writing the blog, I'm communicating with Govinda in Nepal, I'm preparing a newsletter. But hey, one day without work is a good thing. I didn't even start up my computer yesterday.

Stay tuned, soon you will be able to buy our products from the live shop. Until then, have a look at the sneak preview at www.thefairtailor.com.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Clearing customs

Hi there all you fans of The Fair Tailor.

We are currently moving forward towards the launch at a high pace. A luckey few have got the chance to design their own unique shirts at our beta site. Their respons has been very positive and helpful. We are now changing a few things after their tests and opinions.
The website looks great, the IT crew at Monator are doing a great job. I cant let you see the site yet, but you'll have to trust me.

When we launch the site we will have more products than tailor made shirts, we will also sell towels in ecological Egyptian cotton, cuff links made from recyckled circut boards and paper products made from in Nepal from recycled paper.

We are currently planning to move this blog, so that it will appear under our main website www.thefairtailor.com. But we will of course let you know all about that.

Right now the fabrics are clearing customs between India and Nepal. As soon as they get to Kathmandu we will start making the first shirts. Govinda, our employee in Nepal is doing a great job to get everything up to speed.

On Sunday you should try to get a hold of the newspaper Göteborgsposten. They interviewed me this Monday about social media. It's going to be interesting to read the article.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Saturday, October 3, 2009

A stylized logo and a press release

Earlier this week The Fair Tailor sent out our first press release. It is only available in Swedish, you can read it here. We used a service called MyNewsdesk to send it, I can highly recommend the service.

I promised you guys the new stylized logo and the black/white logo once they were finished and here they are.
We decided to go with a black button thread on the black/white logo to make it more visible against the grey button.

We wanted to keep the font of the logo and at the same time make the button cleaner, to be able to use it for example on logos.

The webdesign on our future site will follow the style of these logos and the x and the button will follow us for many years to come.

Our fabrics are currently on their way to Nepal. According to the latest reports we will keep our time plans. I just hope everything will work out well at the Indian/Nepali border.

The work at the production house is going well, Govinda and Tirtha are working together to get all things up to speed for the start of production.

As I wrote in my last post we are giving some fans of The Fair Tailor the chance to become one of our first customers and the response has been great. Next week we will have a raffle to decide who will get the chance.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Fabrics are on their way to Nepal

Monator, the guys who are creating our website, are doing a great job. What they have showed us so far looks great and we are really excited to see the final result.
Our logo is finished and I am currently working on a newsletter in which we will present it. So if you've not signed up for the newsletter yet, send an e-mail to info[a]thefairtailor.com.

I have been back in Sweden for almost two weeks now and I have not been able to lose the cold I caught in Nepal yet. It's starting to take its toll on me, so I'm trying to slow down a bit.

Right now we are working on improving our budget and business plan. Since all of Nepal is closed for Dashain celebrations until October 2, nothing happens in the production house right now. But the fabrics are on their way from India. The organic cotton fabrics have been dyed outside Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in the north west of India. The egyptian cotton fabrics are beeing collected from storage and packed for shipment to Nepal.
It's going to be really exciting to get all the fabrics to Nepal so that we can start making the tailor made shirts.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm back in Sweden

So after a 28h journey from Nepal to Sweden I am finally at home again. Right now I must admit that I am a little bit jetlagged. But come on, can you really blame me. But I do warn you, some of the words might come out a little strange in this post.

I have just got fabric samples of Egyptian cotton fabrics from India and the quality is so good. Much better than I had expected and I had high expectations. We have maybe 500 fabrics to choose from and we have samples of them all.

The trip to Nepal was a great succes. It took 15-16h workdays but we pulled it of in the end. But I could not have done it without Tirtha, Govinda and the other guys. Thank you all.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Who brings a granade launcher to the opening of a childrens home?

Yesterday was the day for the big inauguration of Child Watabaran center's new childrens home. We were 300 guests.
I went there with the Child Watabaran minibus together with people from Leaseplan, who has funded the new childrens home, from Net4Kids, a Dutch NGO, Magnus from Xdin and some of the Child Watabaran staff.
After we had passed a point on the road, the miltary started shutting the road down, since the president was comming to the inauguration. 300 guests attended and there were 1200 military/police guarding the event.
The Maoists are threathening the president, hence the big security detail.
I can understand why they could find use for M16s and sniper rifles,
but I can not really understand why they brought granade launchers to the event.
Did they plan to shoot granades at the childrens home if something would happen there?


Anyway, in the last minute the president canceled his visit due to security reasons.
Despite the fact that the president didn't show up it was a nice ceremony and it is amazing to see the result
of all the hard work put into this project.


For The Fair Tailor things are going really well.
We have finished the 20 sample tailor made dress shirts that I set out to get with me back to Sweden when I fly out tomorrow.
Govinda is doing a great job and we are soo lucky to have found him.

I have had some troubles with YouTube this morning, so I can not add any video right now.
But stay tuned, it will come soon.


There have been something wrong with this post. It looks a bit strange and some of the words are missing. I have tried to fix it, but I may make it look even more strange.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

We have organic fabrics!

We have found organic cotton fabrics! I have today received samples of organic cotton fabrics from a supplier in India. The cotton is basically as clean as it gets. It is grown without pesticides, it is dyed with organic natural dye from plants and it is produced under fair conditions. And I am impressed by the quality.
It is of course not quite as good as the top quality cotton fabrics that we have, but they are better than I had expected.

I am currently conducting the interviews for the position as quality inspector and I have met some really good candidates. Hopefully we will know more soon.

Every morning at 6am an orchestra across the yard from my hostel starts practicing:



I changed hostels to get away from a huge cockroach, but it looks like he found me after all. It took him three days to travel 1km. I hope some of his little friends will stay behind at the old place... One is OK, 10 is not.

The work here at Child Watabaran is really crazy right now, there are so much to do for all of us.
I made a video of what it's like in the office. Tirtha and Poonam are busy with the inauguration and I have my hands full with the start of The Fair Tailor production.

Who would have known it would be so difficult to make Fair Trade tailor made shirts =)

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Saturday, September 5, 2009

A meeting with Björn Söderberg

After yesterdays tour of the fabric markets to look for fabrics for our fair trade tailor made shirts this has been a much calmer day. Saturday is the day of in Nepal so I thought it would be more quiet today. Little did I know that the neighbours have an orchestra and the orchestra had practice time a 6am today. I am glad that I can sleep fairly well despite of the noice.


Me using public transportation on the way to the fabric dealers
If the video doesn't work, use this link.

Today I have met with Björn Söderberg, a Swedish entrepreneur that is the reason that we have decided to put our production in Nepal. We had originally thought of having the production in Cambodja, but we started talking and here I am, 8 months later, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

We talked for hours about what can be done here in Nepal and why some things can not be done. It was interesting to get his insight to the situation in Nepal. He also had some really exciting projects planned for the future, but I can reveal here what he has planned. Today we discussed entrepreneurship, our business and Nepal. On Friday we are going out to see the Watabaran paper production facilities.

I have uploaded nine videos on YouTube now, you can find them if you search for The Fair Tailor.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Friday, September 4, 2009

Cockroaches in the room and ants in the laptop


Yesterday I met with Tirtha and Poonam at the new office of Watabaran. It was great seeing them again and the new place looked great. They have changed offices to try to get many of ther projects located in the same area.


This is a video showing me and Tirhta going over some CVs and Poonam working by the computer.

During my visit Tirtha and I set up a busy schedule for my time here. I'm fully booked until Thursday so far, but I have a feeling that more things will turn up.


Video showing the outside of the new Watabaran office and the production house.



After the meeting with Tirtha and Poonam i found myself involved in a game of some kind with the locals. I don't know the name for it in English, but it is a little bit like pool.

I didn't get much sleep last night. I am a little, but not to much, jetlaged. But one thing that definitly kept me up was my bed company...
Big Bob, the king of my friendly room mate cockroaches
My first night here I was to tired to notice it, but the rooms was filled with cockroaches. I know that they'r not dangerous in any way, but I still don't like them. When I started my computer this morning I realized that I had some more friends. Suddenly there was an ant on my laptop keyboard. I flipped it away but soon there was another. And another, and another. I guess they moved in to my computer over night...
I have already called a new hostel, I'm moving after I have finished breakfast.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Hanging out in Abu Dhabi

I'm on my way to Kathmandu and right now I'm changing flights in Abu Dhabi. It's going to be fun to get back to Nepal again. It is the end of the monsoon season right now, so I suppose it will be a little rainy...
We are planing to conduct several interviews for our open position as quality inspector and I am also planning to meet with Björn Söderberg.
I'm a little tired right now, but this time I managed to get a few hours sleep on the flight from Frankfurt.
I just realised that they have a free wifi connection here - much better than the public computers.

I hope to be able to update the blog in Swedish - http://blogg.va.se/entreprenor as well before I leave here.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Getting ready to go to Nepal

It's just two days until I'm going to leave for little more than two weeks in Nepal. The work has been quite intense these last weeks and I doubt that it will slow down anytime soon. If everything goes as planned I guess I will be able to take a week off in about a year... But hey, the trip to Nepal will take about 24 hours, I can rest a little then. Right now I'm working on getting some pictures to use to describe to Watabaran what we mean with certain things. I have a short window when I'm able to work before Lina gets up. She doesn't like me working on the week end... And she is probably right, It would be better to get some rest right about now.

I have not started packing yet, but I think I know where everything I need is at least. I should be able to make it in time.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Friday, August 28, 2009

An inspiring environment

I must say that it is very inspiring to have an office in an company incubator and meet interesting entreprenours on a daily basis. There are currently a start up program with about 50 companies at IQube, the company incubator where our office is located, and there are maybe 20 more established companies here. Every single day I talk with someone whom either I get an idea from or that I give and idea or tip to. There are down sides as well of course. Everyone is very much in love with their own project and hence likes to talk about it. A lot. But generally that is not a big problem. Had we not been recommended by Trygghetsrådet to apply here we would probably still be sitting in our apartment.

Well, it's almost time for our meeting with our business coach, Christian Zanders from Jetshop. Before that I need to send an email to Tirtha in Nepal.

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly
Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Monday, August 24, 2009

Our website is on it's way!

We have signed a deal with our website suppliers, Monator.
They will produce our soon-to-be-excellent website during the upcoming months. It is a big step for us and it means a huge financial commitment. But it also means that we are really on our way.

The applicants for the job in Nepal has started pouring in. Some of the applicants looks really exciting, I can't wait to get to Kathmandu to meet with them.

Lina did a great job in Stockholm last week. She made a lot of important contacts, both with interesting people that works with social entrepreneurship and with potential customers. I can really understand that she was exhausted when she came home on Friday evening.

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

One thousand and one things

I know that I've written about this earlier, but things are moving forward really, really fast right now.
Lina is in Stockholm right now, getting ready for the Eco Now fair on Thursday-Saturday. She caught the train on Monday morning and will not be back until Friday evening. While she is in Stockholm she is meeting with potential customers and with some interesting people.

I am currently doing everything at once. Yesterday I worked with a tax form between 8pm-9pm before I decided that it would probably seem a little bit more understandable is I waited with it until today. I have not dared to check yet today. It is a two page form and it has a 28 page instruction... I'm trying to find fabric suppliers in India, button suppliers in Sweden, trying to hire people in Nepal, trying to decide on website design, blogging in two languages and loving every minute of it.

We meet so many inspiring people, both here at IQube but also when we meet potential customers, people who work with Fair Trade, at events and at fairs. And it is really fun with all the comments I get at Veckans Affärer.

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet


Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Fair Tailor exists!

I just got of the phone with Bolagsverket, the Swedish company registration agency. Three weeks ago we sent in our registration forms to them and I wanted to make sure that they would approve our name. They informed me that August 7 2009 will go down in history. It was the date when The Fair Tailor was officially founded.

I don't know if it will be make a huge difference on the day to day work but it feels really great that we got the name we wanted, that can always be a little tricky.

Yesterday I booked my flight to Nepal. I will leave Sweden at September 1st and return on the 17th. Last time I flew Etihad and I liked them so I'll take the exact same route again.
Lina is preparing for her trip to Stockholm next week, she will visit the EcoNow fair and meet with some interesting people while she is there.

We are also working on updating the budget. The previous version was made a couple of months ago and since then we have made small changes here and there. I feels better to wipe out all the all figures and make a clean start. Our website project is also moving forward, we had a workshop yesterday. Yesterday we also started working with a designer, everything seems to be happen a once.

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Friday, August 7, 2009

Acceleration

The pace is picking up by the minute and even if I sometimes can feel that I don't have 100% control over the situation I really like it.
We are planning to employ someone in Nepal to work for The Fair Tailor at Watabaran to be in charge of quality and to blog about the work in Nepal on our website. For some reason the didn't teach us in school how to write Nepali wanted ads. But I have learned a lot of calculus and programing...

The plan right now is to go to Nepal in the beginning of September and stay for two weeks, but that can of course change. I will employ the quality control supervisor and, visit the fabric markets and talk to the people who will work for us at Watabaran. But the thing I'm looking forward to the most is maybe the inauguration of the new Watabaran Childrens home. The Inauguration is set for September 14, so I should be able to attend it.

Lina is doing a great job with setting up meetings with potential customers. She is going to Stockholm in a few weeks to visit the EcoNow fair and also to meet with people and companies we are interested to work with or learn from.

We are working on getting the website up and running, that's quite a challenge. Hopefully we will meet our deadline.

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

Monday, August 3, 2009

We're back in business

After having a few days of we are now back in business, filled with energy. It felt great coming back after my vacation, I'm not used to that. I'm supposed to drag my feet when I approach my work place, but it seems like it makes a difference to be self employed. It also makes a difference to work with something I care about and believe in.

Lina is working next to me, and on top of setting up a lot of meeting with potential customers she has also managed to get booked as a motivational speaker at Företagarnas conference for county business representatives. I will probably be in Nepal at that time, so she will have to do it on her own, but I'm confident that she will be great.

I'm planning my next trip to South Asia, the plan is to go to Nepal and India in September.

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet
 
BlogRankers.com Blogg listad på Bloggtoppen.se