Meet Successful Entrepreneur Turned Mompreneur Hiral Dhruv
I hope this can inspire you to become a successful entrepreneur too! Why is it important to hear the story of a successful entrepreneur?
Having the vision to become an entrepreneur is great. Making it happen is another story!
In that frame, I had the pleasure to interview Hiral Dhruv, Founder and Creative Head of ThinkInk Design – A Graphic Design And Social Media Agency. Hiral Dhruv is a successful entrepreneur turned Mompreneur. Hiral’s team consists of all moms, who work from their respective home.
1. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e what’s your source of motivation?
Dreams of mine inspire and motivate me to reflect it into reality. It gives me a reason to wake up and work each day getting closer to it step by step. Being an entrepreneur I have learned to deal with failures, it is part and parcel of anyone’s life. I consider myself to be lucky because I paved a way of loving and doing things in unison. Sitting ideally is not my cup of tea since I am an innovative kind of person. I enjoy the way I am doing things and implementing them helps me to make money out of it. I love my work. Work is worship to me. I have never been lethargic, even after 5 days of the birth of my baby I started working again and never took a break in between. And this very attitude inspires my ” designer moms” to work, work and lead.
2. Why should people choose your product/services?
Our attention to detail, drive for perfection and keen insight on understanding the client’s wants and needs attracted a clientele that not only understood good design but also appreciated the trust and comfort that they found with our designer. Our strong sense of design and aesthetics coupled with creative visualization and attention to details soon got an appreciation of clients. Our vision is to continuously improvise and maintain a level of perfection along with our quirky creative touch. We have been recognized for being able to turn out projects with amazing speed and agility meeting tight deadlines.
3. What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
Small but flexible team. Timely completion of the project and uniqueness in our working system can never be copied by others.
4. What risks are you facing?
The biggest issue we have been facing is the upcoming of new designers. These newcomers are ready to work under the pay scale at a very large ratio, which deteriorates the industry. The problem lies in India with young designers is that they seem to be more focused on earning instead of learning.
5. Have you considered any alliance/partnership?
No.
6. What are your cash flow projections? When will you break even? How much will you need in investments?
Well, every business has its ups and downs. The cash flows totally depend on the demand and supply in this industry. There is a high period during the festive and wedding season where we have seen a considerable amount of work which has to lead to great profits for the studio.
7. What comes first for your money or emotions?
Emotions!! Probably sometimes about the money too! But no, fortunately, we are an all-woman firm, especially all are young beautiful Moms who work from their home and handle their kids so emotions are flying about everywhere!
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
I have gained strength from my failures and whenever obstacles come I become more energetic than usual. As women, there are several bars that I had to pass to sustain in society or family. I am always calm in the middle of chaos.
Today, I juggle work, clients, my team and of course, my two-year-old daughter who just demands my attention. I make sure of my presence in all my daughter’s appointments play dates, birthday parties and bedtime is my priority. The bond strengthens itself most in these formative years which I will never have back, so a compromise is never even a question. Thankfully, I also have a very understanding and supportive husband who encourages me in all spheres of life. He is my backbone and a man behind my dreams. His support and zeal give me the will to strive hard every day. My kind of mornings is a three-ring circus of phone calls, diapers, and instructions; but that’s the chaos that keeps one thriving. Every morning is exciting and every minute is an adventure for me.
9. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
I’m proud of all of it! I’ve had a lot of help from my family, but a large part of my journey consists of my patience and hard work through which I learned. Also, I have a team of all young & beautiful graphic designer moms who work from their home and handle their kids too. “An empowered woman is powerful beyond measure & beautiful beyond description” so I am really proud of myself that I give the opportunity to all mothers who are not able to go out and work. And I am glad that all of them are working for me.
10. How do you handle the pressure?
I have always worked better in pressure and come up with results.
I try to keep myself calm during pressure. It’s better to learn to work in pressure and come up with the best because every field has its own challenges.
11. If you sold your company today, what would be the tone of the conversation? What would you want to gain? What would you want to avoid losing?
I will never do that. It’s my Brain. How can I remove my brain from my body? Just look at our logo.
12. What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Never forget “Unless you are royalty, most successful ventures were once struggling startups. Persistence, perseverance, self-belief with a little bit of luck will take you where you want to go.”
13. What challenges you are facing?
Design is an intangible service. So, there is a constant struggle to explain the importance of design and its tangible outcome. Furthermore, the audience is not aware of the diverse potential of design which spans across numerous fields with each one distinctive on its own.
The main challenge, in the beginning, was to understand client expectations.
“I think clients, who are in some way connected to culture, design or the visual arts, seem to understand design and budgeting for design better. However, the typical response from clients tends to be – doing the work right away for very little cost. There is also a bad habit of mine to compare my company’s costs to other places. They do not understand the ‘cost to quality’ ratio. In a way, I understand their predicament, since design – especially graphic design, is a very abstract field where it’s hard to pin down costs for various aspects of the design. I try to explain to my clients the trinity of quality, cost and time. Clients should only select two – with one always being quality – so its either quality and cost or quality and time. This means they have to choose between paying the price or giving the designer the time to work on the project.”
The biggest issue in India with young designers is that they seem to be more focused on earning instead of learning.
