1. Anupama Kumar Vijayanand
Founder – VRIKSHAM
Starting up something on your own is never easy. As a woman, coming from a city of dreams like Tirupur, Anupama’s story of starting Vriksham wasn’t easy too. 9 years ago, when Anupama wanted to start pregnancy education classes, a lot of eyebrows were raised. Because they had their Ammachis and Aayas in every house who had the wisdom to guide through. But with changing times, and lifestyles, our body, and wellness needed extra care. In spite of Anupama’s own happy pregnancy with all the support and love from her husband & family, she still felt so many self-doubts and second thoughts inside. success stories of entrepreneurs
She wanted to address this. And not to mention the societal pressure from our closely knitted communities and judgmental society. ‘Why is she toiling when she is already married and settled?’ whispered the society, loudly. Often our degrees end up in the wedding invitations, and our dreams are drained in the kitchen sinks. However, Anupama decided to make a change.
With first-hand experience and adequate education, she started Vriksham to educate carrying mothers on a healthy pregnancy. Abundant information is available on books/the internet, but the right knowledge from the right source matters. And it clicked. Moms-to-be slowly started coming. No advertisements or solid social media handles back then, but the sheer word of mouth. Vriksham became a symbol of trust. She did continue to face her internal fears. But the moment a mother would come and land her baby in her arms with a smile, and say ‘Thank you’, all the fears stood shattered in the smiles and the tears.
Anupama says “Every woman should be educated about the world of motherhood right from her learning roots. I don’t know if there is anything more important than gifting happy & healthy children to the next generation. It starts with the right knowledge. Knowledge gives confidence. A confident pregnancy yields a confident child, who goes on to build a confident society, and nation. It all adds up, doesn’t it? This is important.”
Anupama’s first pregnancy was at 26 and her second pregnancy was at 36, she had a vaginal birth after c section at 37 and is breastfeeding her 8-month-old at 38. “I am proud of who I am. I am prouder of what I am doing. I am Anupama, and I am here to make a difference”
To know more visit – https://www.instagram.com/anupama.vriksham/?hl=en
2. Veronna Damani (success stories of entrepreneurs)
Founder – veronna
“I think that we all reach that point in our lives where we are faced with a simple question, what next? I too faced the same. The answer, my little label for little humans, ‘veronna’”.
Veronna Damani is an advertising major with a love for fashion – a love affair that has led to her making it her career. She started out as an intern at ELLE India and rose to Fashion stylist and writer for the magazine in a few years. In 2017, she decided to get married and when she and her husband decided to move to Delhi for a while, she quit her job and took on free-lance styling projects instead. This was great for a while but slowly she started to question whether this is what she wanted to do long-term. During this time her beautiful niece, Sitara, was born. She used to hate shopping for her locally. There were very few homegrown labels that matched her aesthetic and so she began custom designing clothes for her. The appreciation from people around gave her the idea that there is a demand. But it was still just an idea. She decided anyway to enroll into fashion school.
So in 2018, she enrolled at Istituto Marangoni in Mumbai, for a short diploma course in Fashion Business. Her final assignment needed her to present a completely viable business plan for a business of her choice and she chose to create a kids-wear label because she thought it would be an interesting topic especially since she was more and more fascinated by kids-fashion thanks to her niece.
The business model eventually proved to be a first draft for the actual business plan she made for ‘veronna’ the label.“I got pregnant in November 2019 and this was definitely not part of my plan. But then neither was having to run a business and deliver a baby all in the midst of a global pandemic. But we got through it. The business is still here and my baby is almost 10 months old.” Veronna considers that her role as a mompreneur began when she found out that she was pregnant. Managing a start-up is a demanding job, and doing that while heavily pregnant in the middle of a global lockdown taught her a lot. It taught her to be patient most of all.
“Being a mom-preneur is chaotic – but there is beauty in this chaos, and I’ve found my calm. I am finding my groove and making sense of things everyday. Each day is a new day and no two days in my life are the same.”
Veronna says “As a mother, I simply have learnt to go easy on myself and not try to live up to the absurd standards that society sets. Mom guilt creeps in whether I like it or not but that is okay. Being a mother and running a business no longer reminds me of my shortcomings – or make me feel like I am not there enough for my baby or not giving my all to my business.
It empowers me and reminds me that I can have it all. It reminds me of all the roles I play in a day and it makes me value the time I spend with my baby and the time I spend at work. Both roles make me, me! My 10-month-old has been my biggest strength. He has redefined what I want out of my life. He is the reason I want to be the best version of myself. “
“An affirmation I repeat every day:
I AM A WOMAN
I AM A MOM
I AM STRONG
I AM BEAUTIFUL
I AM AMBITIOUS
I AM PATIENT
I AM DOING MY BEST”
To know more visit – www.veronna.in
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/veronna.in/?hl=en
3. Vaitika Advani (success stories of entrepreneurs)
Founder – MINDMATTERS
Nothing motivates a parent more than wanting to help their child. Vaitika started her journey into mental and emotional health 3 years ago. Her son at that point was going through some challenges in school and she was looking for ways in which she could support him. She enrolled herself to become a Bach Remedies Practitioner with the Bach Centre in the UK as well took a course on mental health counselling and also became a certified sex educator.
Vaitika says “I firmly believe that one needs to balance emotional and mental health to be able to live your best life. Luckily for me, I was able to achieve this by combining the Bach Remedies which are an all-natural alternative form of healing with the practices of mental health counseling. Often people don’t have clarity about their inner thoughts, feelings, and behavioral patterns. I help them navigate through their concerns and overcome them with different healing modalities.”
Vaitika had her fair share of struggles which included getting the word out there as she had changed careers quite late in life. She had to learn her way around social media as that was the way forward and not something she was very familiar with. Then of course comes the eternal struggle of balancing your time, needs and commitments with those of everyone at home, especially those of your child.
“The great thing about going through this journey as a mompreneur is that you learn invaluable tools that help you manage chaos which means you get mentally tougher, you execute better and you learn to prioritize effectively.” She gives credit where credit is due and that goes to her son who has been her sounding board on numerous occasions while she was studying as well as her strength. She was fortunate enough to understand that your child is not just an extension of you but an individual in their own right and that is why working with kids, teens and young adults hold a special place in Vaitika’s heart.
To know more visit – https://www.instagram.com/mindmatterswithvaitika/
4. Pooja Arora (success stories of entrepreneurs)
Founder – Less is more living
Pooja Arora is a NIFT alumni and a retail professional by degree but a home decor blogger and product stylist by passion. Her platform “Less is more Living” is all about interiors and living in a 650 sq. ft. apartment in Mumbai suburbs. She is trying to influence those attached to her profile, for clean, simple, and sustainable living, without compromising on their home decor dreams. Her platform brings together design, craft, and home decor ideas inspired by minimalism in an urban landscape.
Pooja says “As a mother, it is a challenging task to manage work along with children as they always have to be prioritized. So to handle this I have kind of amalgamated my work and the upbringing that I am providing to my children on a single platter.
I’m trying to imbibe simple living habits in my children as well as influencing a similar mindset to my followers. As a family, we are very mindful and plentiful which makes it easier for me to manage both the fronts.“
Pooja’s children are very supportive when it comes to her work and they understand mamma loves to keep things in a certain way and they follow that. Pooja has a lot of fun making content together. Though she is not putting them at the forefront of her platform but behind the scenes, they are very much a part of every single shot that she takes or every single video that she makes.
To know more visit – https://www.instagram.com/lessismore.living/?hl=en
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