Entrepreneur Bhagyashri Dixit talks to Violet Vaz about her organic brand of clothing SheepStop and explains the working of her user-and eco-friendly business model

Wearing bright red pyjamas and a white t-shirt with a cool catchphrase, Bhagyashri Dixit looks comfortable and at ease at work. And why not? When you have your workplace at home, you can take the liberty to dress informal. But more importantly, the tee that the 31-year-old flaunts is available at her webstore SheepStop, an organic clothing brand, started by Dixit and her husband Parag in 2009. Besides tees, they also have colourful, quirky badges and designer shot glasses.

Dixit, who pursued her MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, quit her lucrative job at a Pune software company to start her business. Coming from a typical Maharashtrian background, her family did have some apprehensions about her start-up. However, the strong-willed Dixit stuck to her guns.

Ask the CEO why she calls her brand SheepStop and she promptly replies, “Our tagline is: ‘Stop covering up’. We want our customers to flaunt their tees and stop being shy like sheep, hence the name SheepStop.” Explaining her business model, she says, “Our website (sheepstop.com) allows anyone with a creative streak to upload their designs to the page”.

The audience vote for their favourite designs and every week the design with the maximum number of votes gets selected and is printed on the tees. The designer is sent an email whereby he declares the design to be original and transfers all copyrights to SheepStop.

“More than a brand, SheepStop is an art promotional platform — of the people and by the people,” says Dixit, who makes sure that the designer gets royalties for his creativity. Also, his name and place he hails from are printed on the tees, thus giving credit to the designer.

Affordable organic tees

The Dixits did a lot of brainstorming before they decided to start their own clothing brand. “Since ours is an online store we are not restricted by location and we didn’t require a large capital to launch SheepStop,” says Dixit who claims that they are the only ones selling branded organic t-shirts at an affordable price for teenagers.

Having an online store is convenient, but the initial phase of setting it up was hectic, confesses Dixit. She would work 9 to 11 hours at a stretch all 7 days a week. But now, she takes Sundays off.

Designs from across the globe

Over the years, SheepStop has branched out from being a purely online player to displaying their products at exhibitions and other retail outlets. They are also into corporate selling and bulk orders.

About participating in the Kala Ghoda festival in Mumbai two years ago, Dixit says, “The response was simply overwhelming. People not only bought our t-shirts in bulk but also appreciated our designs,” says she.

This self-funded company relies heavily on social media for their sales and promotions. Today, the brand has tie-ups with 50 retail stores across the country and has designers from across the globe sharing their designs on her site.
Connecting with clients

SheepStop has a tie-up with a courier service. However, Dixit believes in personally following-up with them to ensure that her customers receive their product well before the third working day.

“We have never received a complaint about our products being delivered late and I take pride in that,” says she and adds that the clients’ testimonials on her website say it all.

Dixit takes extra effort to add a personal touch and connects with her customers by hand-writing a personal ‘thank-you’ note.

Business tips


The internet is core to her business, but what if the net did not exist? “I would have then started my own food chain!” jokes Dixit and says that she is a big foodie and enjoys cooking.

For women who want to start their own enterprise, Dixit has this piece of advice: “Start early, and make sure you nurture it properly, so that it grows well. Treat it as your first child. I do.”

An all-women workforce

Dixit works with a team of six women including herself. Although she never planned on having an all-women workforce, it just happened by chance. Three of the women helping Dixit are from economically-underprivileged families and are the sole earning members of their families.
“When they approached us for work, I believed in giving them a chance,” says Dixit and adds that these young women have shown tremendous maturity in handling deadlines and work pressure.

The other two women help her manage online sales and promotions and social network pages like Facebook and Twitter. “Working with an all-women team has been fun. We understand each other better and all this has significantly contributed to our performance and growth,” says Dixit.