In Kulpahar town of Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh, Ashfaq Khan never got the chance for much formal schooling, but unlike many young men from his area, he never had to move to a big city hunting for work. For the past 10 years, Ashfaq has run a door-to-door clothing business, loading his bike with goods and riding through villages to sell them. He changes his stock depending on the season, though bed sheets, mats, carpets and pillow covers make up most of what he carries. Travelling through the villages and small towns of Mahoba and Chhatarpur districts, he easily earns around Rs 1,000 a day in sales.
School stopped at class 8, his father's trade became his path
Ashfaq says he realised while still in class 8 that he would not be able to continue his studies, he simply couldn't focus on schoolwork. So he stopped studying after class 8. Once he left school, his family advised him to find a way to earn money. His father was already running a cloth business, and that felt like the right path for Ashfaq too. He slowly learned the finer points of the trade and then began gathering the capital to start on his own.
A business built on just Rs 20,000
Ashfaq had no savings to begin with, so he pooled together money from various sources to start his cloth business. His total capital was just Rs 20,000, nowhere near enough to open a shop. That is why he chose the door-to-door peddling model instead. He says this business needs a bike that consumes less petrol, since it means riding around all day. He loads the cloth onto that same bike and sells it across towns, villages and neighbourhoods. According to Ashfaq, anyone with capital of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 can start this kind of cloth peddling business.
Talking to customers is the real capital in this trade
Right now Ashfaq sells bed sheets, carpets, mats and pillow covers, items for which demand never really dries up. He says communication matters enormously in this business. The better you can describe the quality of your goods, the faster you can pull customers towards you. While talking to a customer, he says, you have to read their eyes to gauge whether they are going to buy or not, but you must keep at it until they are convinced enough by your pitch to buy the goods. In his view, this entire business rests on selling, the more you sell, the more profit you make.
Covering Chhatarpur's villages and towns
Ashfaq originally belongs to Mahoba district but travels to Chhatarpur to do business. He covers Rajnagar, Lavkush Nagar, Ishanagar, Harpalpur and Maharajpur in Chhatarpur district, along with all the surrounding villages and small towns, selling his goods.
Stock priced for every kind of customer
Ashfaq keeps goods priced anywhere from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000, which means customers across every budget end up buying from him. Some buy goods worth Rs 100, others spend up to Rs 500. After accounting for the petrol expenses of his bike, his daily effort leaves him with Rs 500 to Rs 700 in earnings.
