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Name: Akanksha Sharma

Business: Indspire Me

Location: Faridabad, India

Industry: Media & Publishing

Reason for starting? I started Indspire Me because I have always loved to inspire and motivate the people around me — my family, my friends and my loved ones. I wanted to take my passion for illuminating possibilities and potential in people to another level. With this in mind, I started my journey of making Indspire Me such a platform.

How do you define success? To me success means creating value for other people through what I do. Creating value for other people means giving them something, be it information or inspiration, that will help them surmount the obstacles they are facing in life.

Biggest success: My biggest success to date has been my first brand collaboration for Indspire Me. It enabled me to create a revenue stream. This empowered me to keep the focus of the website on what I truly love: sharing inspiring stories. It also gave me a taste of financial independence from the business, which is always amazing.

I would really like Indspire Me to have a flourishing community of writers who are passionate about their areas of expertise. I want each and every piece of writing on the website to have something of value for the readers. My goal is to have 20 dedicated contributing writers for Indspire Me by the end of this year. I am very dedicated to growing the personal brands of any writers who choose to write with us. I heavily promote their articles on all our social media and always advocate for their own brands/businesses wherever I go.

What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? My top challenge with Indspire Me was how to stay true to the spirit and intention of the website, while monetizing it at the same time. I resolved this by allocating a share of content (such as brand collaborations) towards revenue generation, while keeping the majority of the content focussed on sharing inspiring stories and creating value for my readers.

Being an Indian woman of 25, I encounter the well-meaning relative who tries to get me married off from time to time. I am very clear about my business goals though, and I always explain them to people in such detail that they very quickly get bored and don’t pursue the marriage question again.

Who is your most important role model? My most important role model is Yosha Gupta, an alumna of my college, Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She is so driven and successful, while being compassionate and kind at the same time. She’s doing a lot for India’s traditional artists through her venture, Meraki. I really hope to learn a lot from her.

[box_light]Website   www.indspireme.in
Twitter   www.twitter.com/IndspireMe
Facebook   www.facebook.com/indspireme[/box_light]

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Edited by The Story Exchange