Employing 170 tailors at home; Entrepreneurship with a sewing machine, creativity and will

30 km from Gorgan to the east, you will see the sign of the village of “Qoliabad” on the left, a small village with a population of about 1,600 people. It was just a small settlement on the map of this province, but the determination and perseverance of a 62-year-old lady turned Qoliabad into a superior village in production and employment.

Mrs. Kamal Gharibi, with a turbulent past, developed the basement of her house to such an extent that 170 women’s sewing machines are spinning in villages near and far to sew her clothes, and the products of these houses have conquered the women’s clothing market of the province and other parts of the country.

We talked to Ms. Kamal Gharibi on a hot summer day when the workers were doing construction work to develop the workshop space.

Ms. Kamal Gharibi! Is the cooperation of 170 tailors with you true? Is this figure very large and unusual at first glance?

Yes, it is absolutely true. Currently, 170 seamstresses work with me to produce all kinds of clothes, but if I had a little more free time to cut patterns, this number could be more. Every day, I design the pattern of the clothes to be sewn in the basement of the houses and cut them to the required number. This work starts at five in the morning and lasts until around eight and maybe a little longer. After that, I take the patterns to the tailor’s house for sewing. The distribution of these patterns is also different based on the quality of work and free time of these women. A tailor may say that I have a guest today or that I am not able to sew for any reason, or on the contrary say that I have more time to sew clothes today, so I will hand over the patterns to them based on this situation. Usually, a few hours after the delivery of the pattern, I go to their house to check and supervise the sewing, and in the evening I go to their house to deliver the clothes and I do all these things alone.

How did you come up with the idea of ​​working in the sewing sector?

As far as I can remember, I was very interested in this work since I was a child. I have been sewing and patching with thread and needle since I knew myself. I would save my allowance money and use it to buy fabric to make clothes for my imaginary dolls. The children of the family, who had discovered this interest, would hand over their dolls to me with some cloth so that I could make clothes for them. I had this interest since then, but I had not tried to use this interest. After several decades, 11 years ago, I was suddenly struck by the spark of producing home clothes. I didn’t have a specific idea for this, I just wanted to sew clothes. I didn’t have much money and with the same amount, I bought a sewing machine and sewed the first dress with the idea I had in mind. My plan was to show this dress to a few people and if they buy it, I will continue the production, but if no one buys it, I will wear it myself, and finally I will limit the work to meet the needs of the family, which fortunately, I sold that dress in a short time and Because its quality was praised a lot, I sewed more clothes and, in simple words, I “worked”.

How did the idea of ​​using other tailors form in your mind?

After I received more orders, I saw that I could not produce them all by myself. I went to the women of our village, but no one welcomed me, so I had to go to the nearby villages, and finally, some women accepted my offer and started working with them. At first, these jobs were for a few jeans per day, but slowly, as the sales of clothes increased and as a result, the income of the tailors increased, the demand for cooperation with me began to expand, and the women of the village of “Goli Abad” began to sew and embroider clothes along with the women of the villages of “Qarq”, “Nodeh”, “Mian Abad”, “Taghi Abad”, “Hussein Abad” and the cities of “Fazel Abad” and Gorgan cooperated with me, and this method of participation in production is still continuing.

Why didn’t you go to the idea of ​​setting up a workshop to produce clothes and take your activity to homes?

When production increased, I wanted to develop my activity by setting up a workshop in the parking lot of my house, but I thought that if I wanted to do this, I would have to remove women from their living conditions. Qoliabad and other surrounding villages where the ladies work with me, still maintain the rural texture and the role of women in production and accompanying men in household affairs is more pronounced than in cities. In order not to harm this social fabric and to keep the quality of our production high, I turned the houses into workshops, and after 11 years of doing it, I think I did the right and logical thing. Now I deliver the patterns to the tailors according to their conditions and I have no obligation or obligation for their work. Even the conditions have become such that sometimes a seamstress uses the company of her husband and children for production and in this way increases the number of clothes produced and ultimately her income. That is, the idea of ​​production at home has helped to increase the livelihood of families and I am happy about it.

What is the average income of these seamstresses?

Their income depends on the number of clothes they produce, but its figure varies between 40 and 100 million Rials.

How much is your income?

I do not know these at all. My daughter does the auditing of the works and sales and income (laughs).

One of the problems of the production sector, especially small home workshops, is finding a sales market. What method do you use to sell your products?

Since the beginning of production expansion, I thought about selling products in the market. With complete confidence in the quality of my products, I went to the markets of other regions, including Astara, Ahvaz, Qeshm and other places, with some jeans. Because my clothes did not have a special brand and proper packaging, the shopkeepers refused to buy them, but with my strong insistence, they agreed to sell them on trial and on loan. A few days after I returned from this long trip, these shopkeepers started calling to send goods and their number increased day by day. Now, for example, 37 big bags of our products go to Astara every week, and in almost all big cities of Iran, strict and constant buyers are waiting for our products.

What do you think is the secret of buyers’ acceptance of your products?

There are 2 important secrets in the production of such products. First is the design and quality and second is the price. I studied only 2 classes in the literacy movement. In the past, the environment of our village was not suitable for girls to go to school. Later, when I grew up with my wife and children, and then producing clothes, I did not have the opportunity to study, but despite my illiteracy, I have a creative and dynamic mind for production. You may not believe it, but I have drawn the pattern of all the thousands of dress models that have been sewn by me and the seamstresses myself without the help of another person. I have a lot of relationships with people, especially young people, and for this reason, I am well aware of the needs of society. On the other hand, since the beginning of this work, I have been satisfied with low profit and I sell all my clothes now with a profit of 100 thousand riyals. I also buy the fabrics from an intermediary from the factory, which makes the price of the products to be minimal.

What do you think about developing activities, especially using the capacity of virtual space for more sales?

I do all the work of production, pattern drawing, and quality control and sales alone, and I only use the help of my daughter and daughter-in-law in the accounting department. On the other hand, the sales of my products are high and my products do not remain in warehouses, so I want to think of a new way to sell them. Of course, at some point we thought of using this capacity and after that we sent 1,200 postal packages to different parts of Iran in just one day, but due to not having enough manpower, we gave up on continuing this work and started traditional mass sales to customers. We are satisfied that we are very satisfied with it.

What is the method of employing seamstresses?

Since our production work increased, many women applied for cooperation, some of whom do not even have a sewing machine. At first, I try to teach them the necessary training in a few sessions, and then, if they want to cooperate, I provide them with clothing patterns and sew the clothes under the supervision and presence of me or one of the experienced tailors. If production continues according to our taste and needs, this cooperation will continue, which is the case in most cases. High income and floating working hours according to the tailors’ free time are among the positive features of cooperation, which has made these women always have the desire to continue working, and through it, the production of our products is increasing day by day, both quantitatively and qualitatively. .

The idea of ​​expanding activity and production in homes, which was implemented by Mrs. Kamal Gharib, is a suitable model for earning money and creating employment, especially in villages. The winding road that will lead to more financial independence of rural families and will move the production wheel of small settlements at a faster speed.