In our latest Interview, we spoke to yet another promising womenpreneur – Iti Rawat. She left her corporate career to follow her passion and to add value to her clients from the retail industry. She is also on a mission to empower and motivate women entrepreneurs through WEFT. Let’s read more about her journey.
Excerpts from our interview with Iti Rawat:
Talk us a little about yourself please:
I started my career with a decent corporate life with some of the most amazing companies to work with including Arvind Brands, Nike and Apple India. In the midst of the 9-5 job and before losing myself completely. I took a call of doing what I am passionate about. During my maternity leave, I was able to draw my business plan for a Training and Consultancy firm which would be niche to the Retail Industry. The project was a successful one, I started getting clients one after the other but then there was a complete downfall. I guess that is the phase every entrepreneur faces – some come out of it while some stay there. I was lucky enough to work my way out of it. Currently, ‘ThinkHall’ is a booming business and was recently awarded ‘Top 5 Startups in Diversity Awards’. We also started our Foundation Firm which supports and helps more women to become entrepreneurs called WEFT (Women Entrepreneurs for Transformation) Foundation.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I have been always influenced by the great leaders like, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ratan Tata and Azim Premji who were able to accomplish great things starting from scratch. Needless to say, I wanted the same path for myself – I strongly feel that you have to do good to people while you are working – your work should be not just for yourself but for the society. Creating more jobs, helping more women to become financially independent was some of the few goals I kept in mind while chalking out my path. Thankfully, I am able to achieve both through the 2 startups that I am handling currently.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
I have been an early riser all my life. I believe most of the important and productive work can be done early in the morning. It just keeps you ahead of everyone else in the world. I have never used an alarm clock ever in my life. Before sleeping, would generally plan my next day and list out the important tasks to accomplish in my mind. It’s now trained in such a way that I actually get up whenever I plan to get up and start my chores for the day.
Why should people choose your products/services?
We work with Retail industry and we have a team of experts from the retail industry. Our vision is to “Enhance Retail Experience” and we call ourself a “Retail Experience Enhancer”. We live by this vision and whatever it takes to ensure every retail should have an awesome experience – we provide all those services to different companies. We have also created a very strong network of trainers – our largest pool of trainers are covering more than 500 cities of India which localise the training and saves cost for the clients. Very clearly we are customer-centric and have been building customised solutions which are meant for them.
What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
The expertise and experience in Retail our team bring in is our biggest advantage. We also have the largest pool of Retail trainers in India – this has been created with lots of dedication and years of hard work.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Like every company, we also face challenges. During our pivoting stage, we started doing too many things and lost focus. That is when our business went down and we realised how important it is to keep the core business intact and not try to do too many things. We re-evaluated the business and struck out activities we were not great at. This streamlined the concept and we were back on track. Our customer satisfaction rate improved massively.
What are your expansion plans/breakeven projections?
Bootstrapped so far – we don’t even intend on getting funded. As a self-starter, we are generating enough revenue and we break even in the first 8th month itself. We have plans of expansion to the online academy which can be supported by our current business.
Our current resources can help us in our next big mission of #onelakhin2020. with this mission, we intend to train and certify one lakh youth from tier 2/3 towns and provide them employment opportunity as well.
We have already started giving this mission a good shape. This supports our mission to do good for society while you make your own profits.
Tell our audience more about your failures? How should one bounce back?
Failures are the learning school of success. They are as important as the success itself. In business one fails almost every day, starting from rejections from clients or VCs on your business idea, not executing your plan efficiently or even
failures in getting your payment.
Every time you contemplate on the choices of continuing this arduous journey or leaving this all and get in the “so-called” comfort zone of a 9-6 salaried job.
Defining your satisfaction parameters is very important – define it the same way you define your smart goals. Also, craving to do better is good but define what “better” means to you. This will always help you analyse where you failed and next time you will be able to achieve this defined satisfaction level to its perfection.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
Some people do think businessmen don’t have emotions, but there is no business that doesn’t run on emotions. I grade emotions and self-satisfaction much above money. There are plenty of times when we have gone out of our way to ensure client satisfaction is achieved and we execute our projects completely.
I have always had a desire to understanding the people connected to me and my business and then work for their betterment. My rewards and cash always come but what is more satisfying is their appreciation and support we get in return.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I stay a little foolish and selfish. That is to say, I learn from everywhere and every one – so I consider myself foolish as there is a vast ocean of knowledge everywhere that you can grab. Also, I remain selfish by ensuring I always have a “Me-time” every week. I do things which I love doing in that me-time. It is a great soul uplifter. I practice yoga, I love dancing, I am foody and enjoy movies and travel a lot. This small list defines what I need to do when pressure builds in. People say you don’t get time when you are working a lot and there is pressure. I don’t see it as a pressure and I never get stressed about it. My me-time increases my productivity and I am able to do much more and more efficiently than what I could do otherwise.
What advice would you give to someone starting out, particularly to aspiring women entrepreneurs?
Don’t fret – don’t try to do all things yourself. That’s what most of the women do – Start taking help, start involving others in your business. Last but not the least have a Plan B. That what create a better manager and a great entrepreneur.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, Stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
