CASE STUDY Meet India's first rent-a-tie entrepreneurs Amar Lodaya and Lucy Mehra Source :Rediffmail.com

They're both 26 years old and are running Al'z Creations, India's first rent-a-tie store in Mumbai. -- both management graduates – Their 'store' is on a mezzanine floor of a three-storey building in a wholesale Mumbai market. probably the only retail store on this road. The building belongs to Amar's family and most of it has been rented to shop owners who have been doing business there for generations. Started Business with an initial capital of Rs 40,000 with free rentals Newspaper and magazine clippings about their store adorn a part of one of the walls. The other part simply has various neckties on display. On the opposite side some more neckties and a bunch of t-shirts and jeans. They also sell ties, tees, jeans and trousers," Started off business in July-August 2009.off with this concept and if the figures are to be believed, Al'z Creations is definitely making a mark. “They got about 80 clients in two months time

IDEA GENERATION The idea of renting ties came to Amar and Lucy during their stint at an insurance company. They would often exchange ties before meetings because invariably most of the executives had just few ties in their collection. Lucy, who comes from a garment exporter's family chipped in with her ideas for setting up the business and Al'z Creation came into being.

They have kept two sets of tie collections -- one is purely for rent and the other is for sale. The two aren't ever mixed," In all they have about 800 ties so far and the collection keeps getting updated every month For a concept that is unique, the charges for their services are quite reasonable. One can use 11 different ties over a period of three months for Rs 500. And one can also get a tie of his choice from retail collection for the keeps Target clients are the average middle class person The cost of tie comes to less than a first-class monthly (suburban) train ticket

They confess that they haven't really faced a lot of challenges per se. In fact neither foresee too many hurdles either. The big issue, according to them, is that of hygiene. "Many customers are wary because they are sharing ties with absolute strangers. So they dry clean entire collection once every fortnight to ensure that clients get the cleanest ties possible,“ They won't charge a fine even if client damages one of their products. "However they let that customer keep that damaged tie and terminate the contract immediately.

To expand their business, they plans to further add to their customer base especially young MBA students. "Besides targeting corporate houses they also plan to reach out to the many B- schools in the city because their students are bound to require ties for a long time to come. It's always good to catch 'em young," They also Had plan to set up franchisees so that more people can access their collection as it grows. But that will happen about six months down the line.“ For now Lucy and Amar act as 'proprietors as well as peons' of Al'z Creations. “They done pretty much most of the work in store including hammering nails and sticking wallpaper,“ They say that after all apple started from Garage