At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur – Richa Jain for an exclusive interview with us. Richa is the Founder of The Silhouette Store. Her venture is a homegrown fashion label that brings the trendiest urban creations for women. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Richa:
Talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I come from a very humble background. Hailing from a small town of India Sagour, which has a rich history of educationists & politicians and selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagship smart cities mission and listed top safest city of India 2018.
I am a fashion enthusiast and an avid traveller. As a child, I was always intrigued by fashion, style and design but never got a chance to pursue it professionally.”
Even though after spending over 8 years in the corporate world and the chance to work with large global corporates like HCL, Microsoft, Canon, etc proudly enjoyed the moment of building India’s largest Train Portal for Indian Railways, I decided to follow my passion and started my own venture with a premium fashion brand called ‘The Silhouette Store’.
The journey has not been an easy one as I had a one-year-old child at the time I started the venture but I was determined to prove myself and not give up no matter what challenges came my way.
After a few years of stint in the corporate world, I decided to follow my passion and started my own venture with a premium fashion brand called ‘The Silhouette Store’.
My mantra for life is –
“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
A 9 to 5 job never fascinated me. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
I like challenges in life. Starting your own venture is like jumping from a helicopter with the hope that the parachute will open and you will land safely.
It is the feeling of self-satisfaction, adrenal rush, having control of your life in your own hands and overcoming your fear to face challenges and come out of it with an impact.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to convert ideas to reality, to solve problems and work towards success.
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
‘The Silhouette Store’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving?
The Silhouette Store is a homegrown fashion label that brings the trendiest urban creations for women.
We believe that fashion is how you present yourself to the world and hence we thrive to bring global trends that are easy to wear in different shapes and sizes. We support MakeInIndia and VocalForLocal and our entire manufacturing process is local. We are proud of our country’s vast resources and are on a journey to utilise them effectively.
The brand “The Silhouette Store’ was started in 2016 and ever since then, we have dressed up lakhs of customers including celebrities.
What does your company specialise in?
The Silhouette Store is a homegrown fashion label that brings the trendiest urban creations for women. We support MakeInIndia and VocalForLocal and our entire manufacturing process is local. We are proud of our country’s vast resources and are on a journey to utilise them effectively.
The label gives reasonably priced garments while still maintaining high standards of quality.
The Silhouette Store is a place where you will find upbeat and spirited, sharp lines, bold and strong colours that will accentuate your sass and boost your confidence. Whatever your personal style statement be, your uniqueness is what sets you apart!”
We believe that fashion is how you present yourself to the world and hence we thrive to bring global trends that are easy to wear in different shapes and sizes.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
The Silhouette Store is an online fashion brand and is not affected by COVID-19. In fact, online sales have increased like never before.
To ensure that our customers feel safe while ordering, we take all precautions of sanitising the warehouse facility every day with all parcels thoroughly checked and packed with all sanitisation has taken care of.
We work with minimum staff in the office at a given time and meetings are done on video calls as much as possible to avoid suffering disruption in business during the pandemic.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Challenges drive me. As they say “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
I have always taken failure/challenges as a learning in my entrepreneurial journey and this positive thought process kept me going.
If you don’t have big dreams and goals, you’ll end up working for someone that does. Dreaming big and envisioning myself where I want to be has driven me to face all hardships and kept me going on.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My family has been my biggest motivation. My husband and both my daughters have always encouraged and supported me to work hard and achieve what I deserve.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
(i) All businesses have their ups and downs. Not taking setbacks from failures instead of learning from mistakes and taking corrective steps to overcome them.
(ii) Approach to never give up.
(iii) Always being a student ready to learn and unlearn.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Believe in yourself, set goals, challenge yourself, don’t quit.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
(1) Being mindful
(2) Always being resourceful
(3) Taking extreme ownership and responsibility for my actions Courage
(4) Ability to take risks & venture into uncharted territories.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
When we create new designs, we always think from a customer’s perspective like comfort, fitting, wearability, affordability etc which helps us in making products that are loved by all.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
In my opinion Determination, Perseverance, Focus, Hard work and Positive Attitude are some of the qualities which can lead you to success.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
A piece of advice that I would like to give to young professionals is that find your passion and create your ideas around it. When we love to do something, it never feels painful.
Also, working your ideas around an existing problem and making informed choices, finding appropriate solutions with the right approach and guidance will lead you to a successful journey as an 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.
