A growing Kasuti brand sells in more places: its own website, stores in other cities, marketplaces, larger gifting orders and collaborations. More channels bring more buyers – and more ways to run short of cash, because hand work ties up money for weeks. This lesson covers both.

What you’ll learn

  • Five channels for a growing brand, and what each gives you.
  • The difference between wholesale and consignment.
  • How to run collaborations that credit the makers.
  • How to watch cash flow so growth doesn’t sink you.

Five channels

  1. Your own website with a shop. Your story, your margins, your customers’ contact details (with their permission). It needs good photos, a payment gateway, shipping and someone to answer messages. It grows slowly but it is yours.
  2. Concept and design stores in other cities, on wholesale or consignment (see below).
  3. Online marketplaces. A large audience, but fees, rules and competition. See Module 6, Where to sell online.
  4. Corporate gifting at a larger scale, always with an advance and a written delivery schedule.
  5. Collaborations with fashion designers, other crafts (a handloom weaver, a block printer) and institutions. Designers who work with Kasuti have helped bring it to wider audiences (ebook ch. 17). Credit the artisans by name.

Wholesale or consignment?

Wholesale Consignment
Who owns the stock The store, once it buys You, until it sells
When you are paid On agreed terms after delivery After each piece sells
Your risk Lower Higher: unsold or damaged stock
Your share Wholesale price Agreed share of the selling price

Consignment can open a door to a store that won’t risk buying yet, but keep careful records of every piece left there.

Watch cash flow

Cash flow is the timing of money in and money out. A Kasuti brand pays for thread and makers’ hours now, and is paid weeks or months later. Many small businesses that sell well still fail because they run out of cash.

  • Ask for advances on custom and bulk orders.
  • Don’t overstock. Every unsold piece is cash sitting on a shelf.
  • Agree payment terms with stores before delivering, and follow them up.
  • Keep a simple cash plan: for the next three months, the money you expect in and out each week.
  • Pay makers on time even when buyers are late; plan for it.
Worked examples

Example 1: a cash plan. Make a table with a row for each week and three columns: money in (sales, advances, store payments), money out (thread, cloth, makers’ pay, rent, fees), and the balance. If the balance goes below zero in any week, act now: chase payments, ask for larger advances, or delay buying stock.

Example 2: a consignment record. For each store: date left, product code, number of pieces, agreed selling price, your share, pieces sold, pieces returned, payments received. Count the stock with the store every month.

Example 3: a collaboration. A designer wants a Kasuti border on a saree collection. Agree in writing: the designs (whose, and who may reuse them), the quantity, the price method, the timeline, the credit line (“Kasuti hand-embroidered by [makers / group]”) and how photos will be used.

Tips, tricks and hacks
  • Start your website small: a few products, your story and a clear way to order.
  • Collect emails or WhatsApp opt-ins from buyers; this list is worth more than followers.
  • Visit a store before stocking it; see who shops there.
  • Send stores a small display card about Kasuti and the back.
  • Stagger deliveries on big orders, with part-payments at each stage.
  • Use the same product codes on every channel.
  • Keep one channel as your “home” – usually your own site – and point everything else to it.
  • Review channels every six months: what each earns after fees and time.
  • Agree a minimum stock level with each store so your best sellers never run out.
  • Send stores good photos and the three-line story so their staff can sell your work well.
  • Plan festive and wedding seasons months ahead; hand work can’t be rushed at the last minute.
Problems and how to fix them

Sales are good but the bank account is empty.

  1. Make a cash plan for the next few weeks and chase money owed.
  2. Pause buying stock until the balance recovers.
  3. Prevention: advances on custom work and payment terms with stores.

A consignment store loses or damages pieces.

  1. Check your record and the agreement, and ask for payment for lost pieces.
  2. Collect remaining stock if it happens again.
  3. Prevention: a written agreement that covers loss and damage.

Your website gets visits but no orders.

  1. Check the photos show the back, and that prices, delivery times and policies are clear.
  2. Test the checkout yourself on a phone.
  3. Prevention: ask a friend to buy something and tell you where they hesitated.

A collaborator uses your designs without credit.

  1. Raise it politely, with the written agreement.
  2. Ask a lawyer if it isn’t resolved.
  3. Prevention: credit and design-use terms in writing before work starts.

Too many channels, too little time.

  1. Compare what each channel earns after fees and hours.
  2. Drop the weakest.
  3. Prevention: add channels one at a time.
Mistakes to avoid
  • Different prices on different channels that undercut your stores.
  • Delivering big orders without an advance.
  • Consignment without records.
  • Collaborations without written credit.
  • Growing stock faster than sales.
What to ask your CA, lawyer or the office
  • CA: “How are consignment sales recorded and taxed compared with wholesale?”
  • CA: “What do I need to sell from my own website to buyers in other states?”
  • CA or bank: “What should I know before choosing a payment gateway?”
  • Lawyer: “What should my website’s terms, privacy and returns pages say?” (Online consumer-protection rules: check current.)
  • Lawyer: “What should consignment and collaboration agreements include?”

Note: rules on tax, registration and export change. Check the current position with a chartered accountant or the office named before you act – this lesson tells you what to ask, not the answer.

Check yourself
  • Do you know what each channel earns after fees and time?
  • Can you explain wholesale and consignment?
  • Do you have a cash plan for the next three months?
  • Do you take advances on custom and bulk orders?
  • Are artisans credited in every collaboration?
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