Awemonk is a start-up that provides Curated Corporate Gifts to enhance your company value. It would be not wrong if we say that the term Awemonk comprises 7 adjectives that represent their gifting idea and service.
And the master brain behind this venture
Mrs. Pallavi Vyas- the lady behind this thoughtful and unique corporate gifting venture. Pallavi’s entrepreneurial journey is going to inspire many who aspire to take a leap from their job life to fulfill some bigger goals.
This venture has been launched by Mrs. Pallavi Vyas. Pallavi hailing from a Marwari business family has witnessed her father build his empire brick by brick from scratch. It was ceremonial for her to be part of this tradition & watch him in action from the by-lines. Before starting Awemonk, Pallavi has worked in distinct industry domains and all were mostly start-ups by choice as that helped her to get much closer to the action & work closely with the leaders and watch the functioning of a company up close and personal. Pallavi says,” It’s the necessity to solve a problem, deliver quality & bring new ideas to the table in the field of corporate gifting & hamper curation that led me to consolidate and start Awemonk.”
The 4 aspects that Pallavi focuses on are the purpose for the gift, the client’s budget, unique way to personalize the hamper, and timely, hassle-free delivery service.
Pallavi says while designing each gift hamper they focus on how the gift can strengthen customer relationships. For customization, they use silkscreen and laser engraving to put the message or name on the gift hamper.
Recently we got a chance to interact with Mrs. Pallavi and to know more in detail how the idea of Awemonk started.
What are your key driving forces to becoming an entrepreneur?
For me, it is my 4-fold mantra- Knowledge. Focus. Adapt. Execute.
I exercise honesty with what I see & learn every day. You will often hear me asking things to understand better. Ultimately knowledge gained is one less problem for the future. Coming to the focus part, a mentor of mine once took a leaf out of Arjuna’s (from Mahabharata) playbook and made me understand the importance of having the focus on things I set my mind upon. Focus has helped me a great deal in organizing my day-to-day activity very efficiently & effectively. Eventually, your brain becomes less cluttered & more organized.
Hamper curation is a very creative industry to be in if you are not chopping & changing, eventually, you will not stay with the current trend of requirements in the industry. We have worked with clients who have come to us with an array of varying inputs for identical events. In simple words, one client’s treasure is another client’s trash, and adapting to each client’s requirements has leveled up Awemonk’s creativity.
Execution is the home straight part of the marathon. It’s full of vigor, there are no other sights in front of me apart from the finish line. Just do it – Approach!!!
Have you ever faced any gender bias situations in your entrepreneurial journey?
The gender-biasedness is not so thick in my industry at least. But occasionally I do bump into vendors where the existence can be noticed with their discomfort. But it doesn’t worry me much as it normalizes after a few conversations. In the hindsight, this era has given us Indra Nooyi, PV Sindhu, Falguni Nayar, and Nirmala Sitharaman (managing our finance at large) to look up to. A Lot can be bagged as learnings from their extraordinary professional journey.
How do you come up with your company?
The idea to start something of my own was back of my head from the time I remember. I was waiting to discover a business idea where my strengths can be used at its best, until that time I was working with multiple startups to gauge – what It takes to run a new age business. What are do’s and don’ts.
Creativity has always driven me, I just needed a platform to make it flow in a pattern. After working on a few ideas, I laid my confidence to contemporary gifting. It was easy for me to foresee myself creating something unique out of any ordinary product. Short after that I got a quick vision for Awemonk.
Soon after that I started working on the idea. Though I have a long way to go in this & learning is immense.
What are the tips to build a successful customer base?
We like to engage our clients on a repeat business model, engaging them time & again!! This not only gives them confidence in using our services on more of a regular model but also, we get familiar with their choices for gifting. Our constant effort is to ensure the best quality & timely manner delivery. This helped us iron out the details and debugging the production process for a satisfied delivery.
What kind of work culture you have established within your organization?
My team is buzzing with young – enthusiastic – energetic employees. They have a zest for systematic learning. We have a process for everything. This has welcomed efficiency in our execution. We are liberal in our approach, you will see our Instagram posts celebrating Valentine’s Day or Republic Day, or Women’s Day. We work when needed & enjoy unapologetically for the hard work we do.
Have you raised funds for your venture? If not, are you looking for it?
Our fixed expenses & working expenses are not out pouring at present which is why I don’t see the need of getting funded at the current stage. But we do have plans of raising funds once we meet our goals for 2022.
What motivates you most?
What motivates me is being able to creatively improvise with every project. We also have our growth plan in place – which has been fuelling our everyday energy. We are getting better with each passing day and would thank our client bases for showing trust in us. As a founder I have learned so much in this small period that (jokingly) sometimes I feel if ever I had taken up astronomy as a career, confidently!! I would probably have carved out my space there as well. Don’t confuse this with overconfidence, but when you crush your weak belief with your actions and replace it with positivity, it works magic to your confidence.
How do you balance your work and family?
I am blessed to have a husband who supports my dreams like his own. Our home & family responsibilities have been strategically distributed between us. This has been a proven method for us to balance home & work. When it comes to communication both of us are early risers. It’s the morning tea & coffee where we get to have each other’s time with no disturbance. We also do a lot of stay cations to relax & distance ourselves from our daily mundane lives. Having an understanding & communication has helped us achieve professionally as well personally. We are always on the same page, if not we ensure we come to one.
What do you feel what are your set of responsibilities and targets for the next 5 years?
Awemonk is 1.5 years old company and we have seen a huge leap in terms of growth. For 2022 we are revamping our b2b website to have a user-friendly experience for our clients. The change will enable them to pick & choose items to make a hamper of their choice. They will have a dedicated dashboard to see the progress of their order. In unison, we have been getting a lot of inquiries for weddings as for birthdays and similar events from our direct customers (basically retails). So, we are launching a separate vertical to cater to this section. So basically 2022, will be a game-changing year for us & we are looking forward to being invested in the growth of the company.
Awemonk with its head office at Bengaluru serves on the PAN India level. Awemonk is a full-service contemporary gifting company. From ideation, design to delivery everything is done under one roof. Each of the gift items undergoes several quality checks for every single gift box going out.
To know more visit https://www.awemonk.net/