As part of our constant endeavour to identify and share some of the unique and compelling stories from India and around the World, we spoke to Smera Mehta to understand more about her inspiring entrepreneurial journey. She is a passionate young entrepreneur, fashion designer and influencer. She is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arems by Smera Mehta. Let’s learn more about her journey and her background!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Smera:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I completed high school from Nagpur. My main goal was to always get into Pearl and after studying really hard I had cracked that. I am right now studying in Pearl, doing an interior design diploma from London School of Trends, digital marketing from NMIMS Mumbai and BA in arts from Mumbai University.
I am just interested in every field that gives your brain the exercise of being more creative day by day.”
See, being a woman entrepreneur is very hard. People don’t easily trust you; they feel that it’s not “worth it” if you are not a man running a business. You know it’s very funny whenever I call someone like any vendor, they pick up the call saying “hello sir” and to be honest I always laugh. I feel that even if people feel that women can do something in today’s world, they still are not sure about it in the back of their mind.
I am not scared of even mentioning this but in today’s world, women are the ones who are leading in every field.”
To pick up a phone and knowing that someone is judging you on the basis of your gender is the worst thing you can face as an entrepreneur. I mean what are people trying to do? Demoralise all the women out there? Let me tell them this one thing that they can’t.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
The fact that I am so attracted toward entrepreneurship is because firstly I belong from that background, secondly, it’s so fascinating to watch someone wear that you have created. It is is the best feeling ever.”
I mean you give so much time and energy into something and looking at people actually buying it, wearing it I mean I love to watch that. It’s so fascinating that people actually wear them.
I love being creative for people, for myself and everything around me.
‘AREMS BY SMERA MEHTA’ 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 with the help of your startup?
‘Arems by Smera Mehta’, well this is a very memorable story. So when I was a child I used to get confused while even pronouncing my name so my mother used to teach me by pronouncing it backwards. This is when I thought that this should be my brand name when I grow old.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
So The few measures which I took to continue my business was that firstly I provided with a safety kit to all my employees which included gloves masks and sanitisers which is supplied to them every month and I make sure that they are wearing it while making products also whenever there is any local delivery I make sure that my delivery guy is wearing a mask and gloves while delivering everything because it is very important for me to keep everything safe.
I know how bad the situation is in India. We also took a break for 2 weeks in between because it is very important for everyone to stay safe at the moment. Later when the situation got a bit normal we continued with our work.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
To be honest it’s very tough to manage my studies and also the brand which I’m working on because you just can’t stop working when you have started something and I can’t leave things incomplete. I need them to reach some level that satisfies me.
It really is hard and is very challenging to wake up every day and know that there’s going to be some new task in my life that will be coming up, it can be a very happy customer or a very unsatisfied customer though we haven’t had many bad feedbacks but there were three which actually disturbed me a lot in these past 8 to 9 months but I obviously overcame those situations.
What inspires me the most is that every obstacle I cross is going to make me stronger, it’s going to make me learn how to cross tough barriers in life.”
There are times when I myself lose hope because there is so much going on with my education and there are things which I can’t just let go and I still have to work on. I can’t just stop with my education. I obviously have to complete it because it’s the most important asset one could have in their life and I can’t stop with my startup because that is already an asset in my life so things sometimes do collapse but there is my family who has helped me.
There have been weeks where I used to just sit and stare at the wall and wonder how am I going to complete so many tasks. But I think what inspires me the most is myself. I know for each problem, there is always going to be some solution.”
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
I think choosing one would be unfair because a good team gives you good ideas and a good idea would actually make a start-up successful so I think both things are very important for a startup to run.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
The fact that someone is going to wear what I made inspired me the most. It makes me wake up every morning to do more work. Whenever I meet my customers they always say how they love my brand and this is what I have dreamt of since my childhood.
The day I thought that I wanted to come into this field I wanted to start my own fashion company.
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.
