The journey from being a teacher to a businesswoman
Arpita Vasudev, the founder of 'Elysian Ceramics,' was a very brilliant child since her childhood, apart from that she was also into co-curricular activities. She was very much interested in academics and always wanted to be a scholar, so she chose subjects like sociology in her school.
Sharing an incident, Arpita says, " I don't know how I topped my university for that I also won a gold medal. Everyone, my parents, my professor, and my friends praised me. That was the time when I saw my destiny and decided to do something in the same genre."
No need to mention that she appeared second, again in the university as she loved academics.
These incidents made Arpita take a strong decision that she would pursue a career in the same background and she did; she became a teacher afterward.
The journey
She completed her UGC, and then she applied for being an educator.
She got selected and later she started her job as a teacher in a school in Chandigarh.
She taught in St. Joseph, Chandigarh, and admits that those were the best days of her life.
After a few years of her teaching journey, she took a break from work for four years.
Within those years she got married and came to Ludhiana.
According to Arpita, Ludhiana's environment was quite different from Chandigarh's.
She faced many problems in Ludhiana to find a job, especially a job that suited her.
Arpita shares that she was very introverted during her initial life and she had assumed that nothing would suit her apart from teaching.
She says, "my first choice was always teaching. At that point in time, I couldn't even think of doing a business, but my husband encouraged me and made me realize that I can perform really well in a business as well. The only reason I couldn't do is that I had believed so strongly that I couldn't do anything apart from teaching."
After this incident, Arpita made her mind that she would do something different.
How the idea come?
Arpita wanted something of her own, something different.
Now that Arpita had already decided to do something out of the box, something out of her comfort zone, she needed research.
She invested a lot of her time in researching what to do.
Arpita says, "financial independence is something that makes you do things that you have never imagined. Who knows, this Covid will last how long? So, one day I had just made up my mind and started searching, something to do from home."
On Pinterest, Arpita found about makeup artists. She already had some interest in makeup so at first, she thought of starting her own business as a makeup artist but then in Chandigarh, there are so many makeup artists already available in the market.
Arpita understood that in being a makeup artist, there is a huge competition.
Arpita shared that many of her friends are already makeup artists in fact one of her friends is even thinking of owning her own makeup studio. Arpita already knew that this is going to be tough because of the competition raise hence, she dropped the idea of a business in makeup and decided not to waste time and think of something else.
Suddenly, one day the idea of crockeries came to her mind and the rest is history.
Arpita says that she could not sleep that night and she kept scrolling her phone for researching more about ceramics and crockeries, the suitable brand name as well as the manufacturers.
Arpita admits, "that week I used the phone as much as I haven't used in my 4 years of life."
Arpita also says, "that night, gave me a push and I knew that this is the one I was searching for."
Later she selected a name for her business and shared the idea with her husband, Arnnav and he liked it a lot.
Challenges
Soon after this thought hit Arpita, she started working for it. But who doesn't face challenges? For Arpita, being a homemaker for 4 years, having a husband and a child, the biggest challenge was managing time and it still is. As Arpita handles everything from getting the manufacturing process done to packaging to getting it shipped, another problem is the workload. But she is very positive and shares with a smile that she loves what she does.
Another challenge that Arpita is facing currently is the promotion of her business. As mentioned already, after she moved to Ludhiana, she lost her network, promoting her commercial page and her business is getting a bit tough for her. Also, the major problem is investment and shipping. As Arpita's business is a crockery business, shipping them needs too many precautions.
There is always a chance of getting them broken if the packaging isn't done properly.
At the same time transportation is another problem that she is facing in online deliveries.
Books, Arpita recommends
Talking about books, Arpita suggests that everyone should read the great book, "30 women in power."
" I read this book almost 5 years back and I was very much influenced by it. The book contains some stories of the women who have done amazing in their life and are the great motivation for those who want to do some kind of Business." Says Arpita.
Future
About the future, she's quite positive because she is getting a very positive response from her customers and she is positive that her business will grow and it will do great. Arpita says that she is quite hopeful and her husband keeps on motivating her.
"One must keep faith in himself or herself and work hard because hard work is the key. You can't earn even a single penny without hard work and be disciplined in whatever you do."
