Indoor and outdoor decor
JUST like chefs and bakers Sharon Prasad and her partner Ajeshwar Prasad have their own little touch when it comes to their furniture business.
The pair who own Wooden Fiji — a family owned business specialise in furnished outdoor and indoor furniture.
Ms Prasad said what started off as a hobby from their garage one and a half years ago has turned into a successful business venture.
“My partner and I both have carpentry and tools hardware background,” Ms Prasad said.
“We started our business using reclaimed timber making smaller wooden built furnishings such as outdoor furniture and planters. After getting connected on Facebook and other social platforms we decided to expand our business and started making other types of furniture and items.” She said they worked closely with bakers and other small businesses in the food and retail industry by supplying them different display items.
“We’ve built quite a lot of TV cabinets, book shelves, outdoor and indoor furniture and now we’re making bigger items like bed frames, breakfast bar chairs and minor home renovations.”
Ms Prasad says their families have been their source of inspiration and they would not have been where they are today without them.
“Our motivation would have to be our childhood and family backgrounds both my partner and I grew up around tools.
“His father was an amazing carpenter who my partner learnt all he knows today from by watching his father build, and I grew up in my father’s pawnshop so I know every tool by heart and I’m great with customer service.
“We have a great support system, we have such supportive family and friends, they were our first customers and helped us grow and promoted our little business.
“Thanks to our business we’ve met a lot of people and have made wonderful life long friends and established great relationship with everyone we’ve met during our journey.”
She said every individual has their own unique talent and their own little touch.
“There are so many little businesses like ours, and we love watching their work, creativity and their businesses succeed.
“I believe we all are talented in our own different little creative ways.
“Just like chefs and bakers we all have our own little touch to our products.”
Like most businesses Ms Prasad said the COVID-19 outbreak affected their business and unfortunately for them they had to close for more than three months.
She said they overcame their problems by thinking of new creative ideas, having a positive mindset and faith in their products and business.
“We did have to close our business due to COVID-19 as we had positive family members, but we kept in touch with our customers, made sure we were healthy, got vaccinated and got right back to work, to accommodate our pending orders which are still keeping us busy.”
Ms Prasad says maintaining a successful and growing business goes a long way as well as offering excellent customer service.
“When you have learned that those qualities are one of the most important foundations of starting a business you’ll surely succeed in whatever business you’re in.
The best advice is to not give yourself too much credit when times are good and too much blame when times are bad.
“Once you realise that luck plays a necessary role in success, it makes you both more humble and more self-confident at the same time.”