Women entrepreneurs in our country face unique challenges. From minimal support, raising fund for their business to creating a work-life balance, the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs are many. Today, women-owned start-ups and enterprises are playing a critical role in the economy, in building the nation and inspiring other women to start their own ventures. They have shown that business ability is without gender. Given the same opportunities, women can be as good as men in business. Women are not inferior in any way when it comes to starting a business, managing it or making it successful.
As we celebrate Woman’s Day, Farvi Motiwale Wadhwa brings to you, some inspiring stories of women who have broken the boundaries and have started achieving their goals.
Damini Oberoi, Owner & Founder of Q Events and Weddings (2015)
I have had my own struggles in all these years. Being a young woman entrepreneur in the wedding space and been taken seriously has been my biggest pet peeve, which I’ve managed to win over eventually. I’ve grown from a small town event planner to a national wedding and event planning company in all these years and we offer a one stop shop right from planning to creative designing to decor designing and execution.
Sakshi Goel, CEO, Rent N Flaunt (2020)
Quote you live by: Phil Knight – the founder of Nike- ‘ Life is growth, you grow or you die’.
I don’t think we can define ‘successful entrepreneur’ , I’d rather talk about my journey as an ‘entrepreneur’. Building your company is like raising a child, it’s one of the most fulfilling experience but full of new challenges everyday. You really can’t predict how’s your next week gonna look like. Experimentation, pitfalls, learning from them and executing better the next time is the mantra for us. I think the biggest quality any entrepreneur has is patience and resilience. Everything else you learn on the way at your pace but what can bring one down is the anxiety and fear of losing. It’s a never ending journey but the joy, satisfaction and pride you feel when a happy customer gives a review is unparalleled and that builds the confidence that you are on the right track.
Rima and Raashi Kapadia, Founders, Oceana Clutches (2019)
In the Indian fashion and wedding sector, we want to bridge this gap and make our mark on the international map as well, to be known as a highly detailed and ethical Indian homegrown brand. We strongly believe that a purse completes a woman and a wedding.
Anamika Singh, Founder, The Memory Keeper (2011)
I always had a creative bent of mind and was drawn towards stories. Photography became a medium to tell stories and document real moments. My constant endeavour to do soulful work and passion for photography was the driving force to inspire me to start my photography business. Being a self taught photographer, the learning curve was steep but I was committed to learning, working hard and thriving. Today I feel incredibly blessed to be a successful creative entrepreneur and touching so many lives and making a difference.
Misbah Quadri, Founder & CEO, Monofys Media (2020)
Not long ago we witnessed India’s first ever Metaverse wedding. This piece of news made headlines across the media. I think it’s pretty great how millennials these days want to stay completely tuned into ongoing trends. Its all about the desire to stand out amongst the crowd and get the number of ‘likes’ rolling. I would say that PR awareness and understanding is still at a nascent stage in India, however, the manner in which the newer generation is pivoting itself to make use of this mechanism for their profile building is pretty neat.
Vinita Singh, Co-founder, SUGAR Cosmetics (2015)
SUGAR Cosmetics was born to cater to a growing customer base who were more tech-savvy and opinionated, who valued self-expression and being bold. It was during this time that consumer behaviour was changing because of more awareness and exposure to international makeup trends. Women were now doing 12 step makeup routines, indulging in full face glam looks, not only for their own weddings but also the ones they attended. Catering to this audience, SUGAR Cosmetics built an entire range of products, filling the market gap providing with in-trend products that were going viral globally – be it launching one of the first matte lipsticks and matte eyeliners in India, a range of 22 shades in a foundation stick that came with an inbuilt brush, a brow definer with a triangular tip in shades to perfectly match indian tones and more!
Archana Batra, Dietitian nutritionist, Wedding expert
Most of the to-be brides visit us for figure correction and skin improvement. Our main aim is to help them achieve their set targets in the healthiest possible way and according to a given deadline. Most women join our wedding diet plan a couple of months before their wedding. We customize their diet plan to suit their individualized needs and ensure that it is in sync with their other work and shopping schedules.
Vidhi Chawla, Founder, Fisico Diet Clinic (2012)
Women want to look and feel good about themselves on their wedding day, so they reach out for different reasons like weight loss, skincare like a breakout of acne, hormonal imbalances. Brides usually approach 8 weeks prior to their weddings, although I usually recommend a minimum of 12 weeks for them to see and feel the transformation. Furthermore, what I ensure is daily communication between us, as well as when required, counselling. Hence, based on the client requirement and their schedules, packages like Flab to Fab, Skin Glow, etc, are offered.
Sohini Mitra, CEO, Avant Garde Films (2013)
My main aim was not just to produce content but to delve into creativity and give an experience to the client to experiment with new mode of creative marketing ideas. I have been working with various ad film houses where I felt that I wanted to do more. Thus a germ of an idea came to my mind with the support of a mentor Avant Garde Films was founded in the year 2013. We started as an ad film production unit and soon ventured into promos for top Hindi and Marathi gec channels like star plus, zee tv, color and many more. Due to our past experience in the film making post world we got the leads of working on the post work for various production houses through either VFX, 2d and 3d modes of creative visual output. And when you see the kids do well in the outside world that is when I proudly call myself a successful entrepreneur. It always gave me a kick to give back to society through my knowhow and knowledge.
Anjali Rawat – Co-founder & Director of Design Thinking, Digital Dogs Content and Media (2020)
Weddings are going virtual. Entirely digital and crossing divides. So it is no surprise that wedding invites are also going digital. The creativity, the episodic nature of invitation storytelling and the sheer engagement all make for an interesting wedding invite plan. And of course, with digital at the background, it will be data guided on how many people are opening the invites, their reactions, etc.
Bannya Basu, Founder, Bannya Basu Image Consulting (2015)
I believe when you feel confident and look good, you are more likely to succeed both in professional and personal fronts. My company Bannya Basu Image Consulting was born out of a strong desire to help millions of people who truly deserve to live an extraordinary life. Over the years I have successfully used various image makeover tools and techniques to help people feel confident about themselves the way they look, feel and act. This has given me a larger purpose to serve people across the globe. In addition to the professional qualification my background in the hospitality industry perfectly blends with the business of image management.
Ruchika Rastogi, Founder, Learn N Grow Academy, (2020)
Though I loved being in the company of litterateurs, a desire to achieve something had often left me in tears, which I believe, had led me to move out of my self-proclaimed luxury zone into yet another unexplored zone of struggle. It was my desire only which assisted me in leaving the habit of procrastination, thus helped me in peeping through the tiny window of optimism. From there, my chapter of becoming an educator unfolded, which actually led to the foundation of ‘Learn N Grow’ in January 2020, the institute, in which I tried to mold the personality of a child, with reference to the development of English as a life skill.
Shreya Sharma, CEO, Rest The Case (2020)
One has to run pillar to post to find a good lawyer who can help them with their legal issues. So I thought of working out a way in which people all around the country can find a lawyer based on their own personalised requirement. Then when the lockdown happened, and I came back home to India I saw it getting tougher than ever because people required information and help but there was nowhere to go, that’s when I started working on creating Rest The Case as a One Stop Solution for Legal Information and Services. So that even if a person requires basic information or theyrequired a lawyer for their case they could find it in one place. I have always wanted to have my own business and I wanted to create something that I can be proud of. With Rest The Case I see that happening.
Smita Shetty Kapoor, Founder, Kelp HR, 2013
Over the last few years, as pioneers in the space of Prevention of Sexual Harassment; KelpHR has been successful by simplifying the whole aspect of the law and bringing it to lay person’s understanding. Today we have catered to close to 700 clients. We have touched 2,310,000 lives. Fortunately for me, since I had worked with a few multinationals who had implemented this law prior to the introduction of the act, I had an understanding of the fundamentals and what they encompassed.
Simran Khatri, Publicist & Brand Consultant (2019)
Be thankful for what you have; you will always end up having more. I was very dedicated & focused towards my work. My dedication for my work inspired me to start my journey. I started with one client, now I have a team and we are handling clients from overseas. My journey of being an entrepreneur was amazing. I learned & learned so much and I am loving who I am becoming. I trusted all my decisions and most importantly I accepted my mistakes and learned from them. I am a woman of steel on the inside and exudes a melange of elegance and confidence.
