At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week we invited yet another Passionate Woman Entrepreneur Sindhu to know more about her interesting entrepreneurial journey and the way forward. She is the Partner at Travellathon. Let’s learn more about her inspiring entrepreneurial journey, way forward and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with her;
Talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I graduated from Jain College; I did my Bcom and PGDBA in general management after that. I got into KPMG as a part of campus placement. I worked there for two years and during this stint, I helped plan a few company trips internally. I tried a couple of other jobs post this but none of them made me happy to sustain long enough the most of these places I was always focused on getting things to be organised whether it was events or short day trips I enjoyed doing this the most.
My love for travelling began while I was younger, when my father took us on family trips where he would sit with an open map and check places, routes and I would look with all fascination. Most weekends he will plan to take the entire family of 10- 30 people to places short getaways and during longer vacations to far off places India. We have driven in tempos and caravans, done treks and gone fishing. Lucky enough after I found the right partner to travel with and the journey continued. We just set across travelling the globe. During the whole travel journey, I started connecting with agents, the respective countries and travelling to hotels resorts all these and tied up with the overtime and singers.
I started getting requests from family and friends to plan similar trips for them where I can find the best rate which was not matched by any of the other travel operators. Considering this the number of referrals grew significantly and hence I started my company called Travellathon, hired a few employees and this is how we started growing. We have had a great response among our clients because of the service given, customer experience and our passion to help them find the best options possible.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I always enjoyed being my own boss and a leader to my employees. I like to sell, I like to earn revenue for myself and while my direction is sorted I get the satisfaction to make ends meet. I ensure that my customers are happy and they get the best service as compare to anywhere else.”
I have worked in corporate jobs but I never enjoyed it. Waking up every Monday was no less than a nightmare. In a 9-6 job post, I had no direction and used to wait to hang out with friends.
But with entrepreneurship, everything I started doing was in the right direction and gave me a sense of success for myself. It offers great learning. I learn more and do more and get a lot more people to be happy with what I was doing for them.
This feeling of being content even if I had to stay up numerous nights is something I would have never achieved in a corporate job. It is not always about the money even though as a proprietor you know the numbers needed to make ends meet and the direction towards what you’re headed and this clarity makes you want to thrive for more success.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
Major challenges are always offering the best prices, negotiating with clients who get hourly rates from other agents and going back & forth on this and at the end of it in case you don’t get the client, it is very disappointing and de-motivating. Also keeping in your employees intact, training them and keep going on to stay with you long term it is the end of the day for them it’s just a job but for an entrepreneur, it is everything from the core.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
I would say Discipline and Ethics do come first for me. A lot of people get into the business line in order to make money where emotions turn meaningless. But if you do what your heart wants money follows.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Well, there are good and bad days some days are absolutely chaotic! When there is high pressure I just decide to put aside everything and do something relaxing. Same goes with the stress, I try not to get too worked up because it’s not finding the way to find the solution and work on it then just was out and make things worse for yourself and for people around you. Having said that there are some days when stress is so high that you feel like your head might toast blow up but you got to deal with it since you choose to do things a certain way. Sleepless nights at times with all the calls I receive but you yearn looking out for the next day since you learn a lot of every day. Being an entrepreneur, we have to learn to live with it.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success for me is having a healthy organisation, consistent growth, happy customers, happy employees, everything well managed in place, and the business flowing just makes you feel complacent.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Just go with your passion and gut feeling you will accomplish what you desire to do wholeheartedly.
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.
