Passion of creativity turns into business

The saying 'Fortune favours the bold and if you're bold enough to chase your dreams your fortune is good enough for you to own things,' suits well for this 24 year old Aanchal Aggarwal from Surat who has taken up her creativity and artistry as her full time profession.

Since her middle school, Aanchal always used to love making crafts and was really good at doing that. It all started for her by making small crafts for her school teachers during proxies and it leads to so much more.

Aanchal says, " As a kid I always aspired to become an astronaut. That is the reason I took up science stream but then realised it isn't something I see myself doing for my long-term career. It was all flowers and shines till I was making cute little bundles of joy for my friends and family on their birthdays and occasions and the smile and appreciation was the only thing that I wished then."

Belonging to a typical Marvari household, Aanchal's dad did not support her as he wanted her to only focus academically whereas her mom was always supportive just and would always motivate her by saying 'Do what makes you happy. I am with you!'.

Aanchal worked at night when everyone was asleep and cleaned the room spik and span before anyone would wake up "I still remember I used to wait for everyone to sleep so that I can get my stuff out and work," recalls Aanchal.

However later her friend suggested her to create an Instagram page.

She shares, "Everything was the same until one day my best friend suggested that I create a page for fun and let's see how people react as back then in 2014 Instagram was in trend and we started a page on Instagram for fun after that. Back then I didn't really have much content nor the clientele. It took almost a year for my page to gain a kick start and from then, there was no looking back. Not even a single order came through. But I still kept waiting and consistently posted all my handmade momentos and eventually, my work caught up with time."

By the time she joined college, she started getting orders in a huge number. From a naive girl who'd create cards for friends on their birthdays, she soon became a manufacturer of most handmade products in business. Gradually when Aanchal's parents saw her grooming and taking this seriously they started supporting her.

"I am glad that i took it as a full time profession as it gives amazing returns, because that is something which will be there with you till the end. I felt like an accomplishment every single day. But the cherry on the top was when dad started encouraging me. When he felt that it was not just anything that I started and had concrete to it, he supported with full vigour," shares Aanchal.

Now, after six years and having a family of around 65k plus followers Aanchal and her talent is growing and reaching more people every day serving happiness to almost every city in the world by collaborating and keeping in touch with so many celebs and stylists and so much more.

Like every other business, the nationwide pandemic also affected Aanchal's business. Seeing the difficulties in dispatch Aanchal made all her business digital.

"In future, I wish that the handmade giftings will increase worldwide and when one thinks about gifting they opt for handmade gifting. I am also planning for a workshop on zoom where people can learn this and with Diwali coming near and keeping the pandemic in mind we can send them a personalized gift as a token of love," she concludes.