VINAYA WALAVALKAR

Team TNV would like to introduce you to Goa’s well-known crafter Monisha Jain as she speaks about her life and highlights her journey in this field.
Hi there! I am Monisha Jain, and I am stopping by to give you a brief introduction of my Goa based venture, PaperFiestas, and its journey this far. I have been an ardent crafter all my life. Personally, I always found great joy in making customised and personalised gifts for my family and close friends. Buying ready-made gifts and cards just did not have the same charm for me as conceptualising and creating an exclusive gift did. I enjoyed dabbling in several crafts such as knitting, embroidery, painting, etc. but paper crafts had always been a fond favourite of mine.
Buoyed by tons of encouragement from family members, I finally decided to take the plunge and convert my hobby into a full time business back in 2014. Thus, PaperFiestas, a paper design studio, was born. The initial year was a little slow, as it took me a while to grasp the intricacies of running a business, something I had no idea of up until then.
I had started out by making OOAK (‘One-of-a-kind’) greeting cards. It took me a while to realise that simply being a good crafter wasn’t going to be enough to run a successful craft business. I needed to identify and understand my target market, learn pricing, photography, marketing, accountancy, logistics, distribution, search engine optimisation, basic graphic designing, e-commerce, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience though, and slowly but surely my business started to grow. My break came towards the end of 2014, when orders for Christmas started pouring in. It was then that I knew that I had a viable venture.
In the past couple of years, with the help of reliable vendors and customers in Goa, I have been fortunate enough to grow my hobby into a business with a modest but decent annual turnover of just under Rs. 20 lakh. I have been blessed enough to be able to give a little something back to Goa by training and employing three women, two of whom are widows with children.
Over the years, PaperFiestas has successfully expanded to other avenues as well.
We cater to the events like birthdays, baby showers, baptisms/Christening, weddings, corporate events and even showroom launches. We take care of all the paper needs, from invitations to welcome signs, banners, table décor (food labels, cake and cupcake toppers and centrepieces) favor bags, boxes, gift tags, etc. All items are designed and created exclusively for your event, as per your theme and budget. Our themed birthday products are a great hit with young moms.
I am now a happy and proud member of two Goa groups, one for crafters and the other for women entrepreneurs. The crafter’s group (Creative Crafters Goa) is a small but close group of crafters. We meet to share our love for crafting and introduce each other to our passions, seek feedback and encouragement on our work as well as gain access to new vendors within Goa, and just generally have a joyous and positive influence on each other. The Women’s Entrepreneur group (GoWomania Goa) is a support network for women running small to medium level businesses in Goa. From supporting each other’s businesses to conducting workshops, helping each other with acquiring customers and identifying new business opportunities, this group has a positive impact on a lot of it’s members.
While my venture, PaperFiestas continues to grow and flourish, I hope to also be able to give back more to Goa in the coming years by participating in charity events, helping out NGOs, and being able to employ additional people. Do like and follow us on Facebook @PaperFiestas to keep track of our work, or contact us at paperfiestas@gmail.com if any of your requirements can be met by what we have to offer.
I have always loved the saying, “it’s the possibility of a dream coming true that makes life interesting”, and at the moment, I am happy to be living my dream!