Does it sound clichéd when they say you have to be at the right place at the right time ?
(But I bet successful people swear by it.)
Something similar I experienced when I was as the Rodinhoods Open house on 22nd Aug .
This was my first experience with #trh and I was never aware that this community is so buzzing with ideas, energy and stories. Only because this event was in Gurgaon I was able to go for it and the moment I got there, my goodness, every one was infected. They all carried the virus of imagination and conviction for their business ideas. I was quite amazed to see a mix of newbies and veterans at the same place interacting like colleagues. And when I saw Sairee walk into the space, it was something beyond comprehension as she has been my role model since long. The event of course was great especially the presentation by women entrepreneurs and VC keychat but personally what came out it for me was greater.
(At the TRH OH)
On the spur of the moment I just felt it right to approach Asha and ask if she can connect me to Sairee for being my mentor. She simply asked me to mail her the same next day. Asha for me is the lady with a magic wand, she connected Sairee and me in the same mail thread and guess what people, Sairee has agreed to be my mentor !!!
I am so looking forward to our first meet and I can’t thank enough Asha who made this all possible with such ease. I strongly believe that under Sairee’s guidance and with support from the enthusiastic Rodinhooders, my venture Little Charms can and will attain incredible success further on. Now, let me tell about how an ambitious idea, called Little Charms, changed my life…
My business idea was born out of decorating my son’s room. I always used to make room décor accessories for his room, as he constantly whined that he was “too old for cartoon prints all over his place”. With the entrepreneurship gene encoded in my DNA and qualification from NIFT Delhi under my belt , I was determined to start my venture in the kids category.
After quite a research I started my personalized room décor brand Little Charms.With time we have now pivoted to providing personalized gifting solutions for kids.
Fun Fact: My first HQ was, and still is the hallway of my home.
Being a solopreneur and mompreneur, things were not easy. From identifying material sourcing to setting up my small manufacturing unit to getting the craftsmen to reaching out the customers has not been a piece of cake. The huge customer base and diversity of the virtual realm of the Internet sounded more lucrative to me. So I decided to keep my venture in the cyber space. Facebook and Blogger were my business tools as I didn’t have much money and expertise to launch an e commerce website when I started in 2011. Though I have now launched my e comm portal in January 2015 I still need to develop a strong team to handle it.
Being a quick learner has helped me overcome many challenges but a few road blocks just don’t go away. I really look up to Sairee to help me out there 🙂
Through Little Charms I am giving to every urban parent gifting solutions that are unique and made with utter care and perfection. Festival gifting, personal gifting, birthday return gifts, you can all get here . We have pioneered the concept creating customized gift hampers which have a combination of products as per the clients theme, choice and pricing needs.
My future idea is to expand the product range with collaborating with other mompreneurs and event planners. I also intend to draw up an affiliate/reseller program under which the stay at home moms can do direct selling of our products. I also plan to integrate gift packaging services so as to give a complete gifting solution to our clients.
Rodinhooders I am so much looking forward to your feedback and suggestions because I know they will be of great use to me !!
Engage at Facebook
Mail me at roshni@littlecharms.net
Connect with me at Linkedin
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asha chaudhry
🙂 so so happy that you enjoyed your first OH and that something magical happened for you. we have lots of stories where rodinhooders have met their tech partners/co-founders or got some amazing biz contacts at the open house! (do go through stories in our Open House section and you will read all of them there!!)
all credit to sairee – she is awesome! read my story about meeting her 🙂
i totally relate to “My first HQ was, and still is the hallway of my home.” because i’m a mompreneur and i run trhs from my hallway in goa too!!
so i’ve gone through the site briefly – i think it’s a brilliant idea and the personalised return gift market is HUGE. even for new borns it’s a great thing to gift. just one quick suggestion – if you show 3 items in a photo – pls LIST THEM as well so the customer clearly knows what items are included in the gift pack. sometimes images don’t give a clear idea of the value.
pls add your twitter handle at the end of your post – helps me promote you!
all the best – will spread the word (i hope you deliver in goa!!) and will give you more feedback at some point of time….
asha chaudhry
roshni,
feel free to ask some of our rodinhooders specific q’s if you need to. ASK TANYA is a page you should check out – she is the in-house expert on online selling 🙂
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/ask-rodinhooders-anything-under-the-startup-sun
Roshni Baronia
Oh so Sairee is the common link between us other than Rodinhoods !!!!
Will post questions to ASK RODINHOODERS 🙂
Sridhar Rajendran
Hi Roshni,
I had a look at your website and found the concept quite nice. Just trying to understand, doesn’t personalisation mean more cost and you can’t stock up on inventory and in turn delivery will take a hit. Normally how many days does it take to get an order fulfilled?
Btw just some small suggestions:
Roshni Baronia
Hello Sridhar Rajendran
Thanks for your feedback.
Yes since our work is made to order basis , turn around time that we ask for is a minimum of 5-7 working days. For bulk orders it may go up to 10-12 working days. But then since people start planning for theme based parties well in advance, we get sufficient time. Another thing we do to better the turn around time is to keep half finished products ready for the styles that are more in demand.
I will definitely work upon your suggestion of redoing the brand logo. I myself have been sleeping over it for a while now 🙂
Could you please give more ideas on how our kind of products be made more attractive with photography.
Sridhar Rajendran
Hi Roshni,
On the top of my head, I can suggest having a look at the site https://www.makewhale.com/. I came across it here on Rodinhoods. The website is beautifully responsive and the pictures are gorgeous that it makes me want to buy a product that I do not even need 🙂
asha chaudhry
sridhar is referring to this post roshni –
https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/makewhale-customized-premium-3d-printed-gifts
Roshni Baronia
Thanks Sridhar
The site and the concept is really very inspiring.
Glad that you mentioned it. Will definitely look at getting photo shoot done for my products and enhancing the visual appearance of the site.
Roshni Baronia
Thanks for the link Asha