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Name: Ranjani Iyengar

Business: Pink Whistle Man

Location: Mumbai, India

Industry: Arts & Entertainment

Reason for starting? As my own wedding approached, back in 2012, my dad in his customary style went about looking at a standard check list for a traditional Wedding. I never thought that I would be a fussy bride but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I micro managed every single detail and designed all the creatives keeping my family’s sentiments in mind. By the end of it I realized two things.1) There were hardly any resources to find offbeat stationery for Weddings in India 2) People were breaking out of traditional mindsets in going about their Weddings and I had a huge opportunity to fill this gap. This also extends to other occasions such as baby showers, naming ceremonies, birthdays, anniversaries etc.

Related: Read about another female entrepreneur working in the wedding industry here. 

How do you define success? Every client to date, has written back to me after their wedding saying that their guests continue to preserve their invitations as a souvenir or use their invitations on a daily basis (we try to make elegant and simple invitations that can be reused in some form). This to me is the most gratifying. Also coming up with an idea that appeals to the senses and sentiments of both the young couples and their families is something I strive to achieve with every design.

Biggest success: Most of the designs have been consistently featured by top bloggers and newspaper columns. This year two of the designs were nominated by the ICWF Great Indian Wedding Awards and one of them won the bronze. This is one of the most prestigious recognitions in the Indian wedding industry world.

What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? Scaling up is by far the most challenging thing in a niche business like mine. We’ve addressed this by making thematic templates available through an e-commerce portal with a basic amount of customization. This means getting high quality stationery which is more customized than a regular photo card or a pretty floral template. As add ons, we also sell stationery such as welcome letters, program cards and gifting solutions from the same family of design

Related: Scaling Up: When Equity Matters

Who is your most important role model? My mother definitely. Because she works so enthusiastically and tirelessly without worrying about the end result. And I’ve realized that when you’re extremely passionate about something, you do not need glamorous degrees or elaborate strategies. The answers just come to you organically.

[box_light]Website   www.pinkwhistleman.com
Facebook   www.facebook.com/pinkwhistleman/
Instagram   @pinkwhistleman[/box_light]

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Edited by The Story Exchange