Making economic sense of a hobby

Everyone likes to receive gifts even as gifting is in itself an art.

Giving or receiving a gift quite easily beats every other known form of salutation, expression of love or as a thanksgiving gesture. The best part of gifting is that it is not restricted to any specific festival, anniversary or celebration.

Moreover, they go beyond the traditional card or bouquet.
It can be a daily ritual, one that brings about an inner joy like no other, as far as a personalized touch is concerned.

In the backdrop of the huge potential there is an understandable demand for any new form of gifting, which explains the spurt in the availability of gift ideas in the market.

Taking advantage of the ever-rising demand, home-made gifts have flooded the market to the extent that one is spoilt for choice.

Hoping to cash in on the demand, Bhavana Rachapudi, a 20-year-old girl from Hyderabad, is giving a creative shape to her bachelor’s degree in interior designing.

She has created a complete bouquet of gifts for your loved ones which will not just surprise them on special occasions but will also bowl them over with creative outpourings.

The gift bouquet ranges from explosion box, Infinity box, happiness box, treasure box, photo bouquet, greeting cards and customised candles.

On her foray into the already competitive market, Bhavana points out that it began more as a passion and not something that she wanted to pursue as a career option.

“I did not want to depend on my family for my expenses. In fact I attended job interviews in many MNCs but did not like the culture.

I have been blessed with a creative steak and this is what I am trying to cultivate. I would surprise my friends and family with hand-made gifts that I created.

On my brother Kaushik’s suggestion, I translated my hobby into an effective self-employment module,” reasons the youngster.
On how she explores the potential, Bhavana says, “I am very active on the social media.

It makes me happy that one lakh people follow me on Facebook and my Instagram profile has 40,000 followers. So I took to these two potent mediums to market my wares and created a special page Giftionary.7 for procuring orders.

“Till now I have delivered more than 500 orders. The best part of my job is the feedback I receive from my clients, who are very happy after seeing gifts bearing their personalised touch.”

Bhavana receives majority of orders from abroad, “Yes I receive majority of my orders from abroad and they want me to deliver them to their loved ones in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chennai and Bangalore.”

On how she b lends academics and Giftionary.7, she says that “It is quite hard to bring about a balance. I am lucky as my mom supports me a lot here, I attend college three days a week and in interior designing we have a lot of assignments.

That helps me accomplish them within the deadline.”
If one though Bhavana is content with the ongoing business, then it is a misplaced notion.

She is already looking to expand into newer horizons with Vings Entertainment, an event management company that she hopes will also help promote her business interests.

“Vings Entertainment will be launched in Secunderabad on Monday. In a way, this is just an extension because I have been into promotion of events for quite some time now.

I understand the logistics that go into event management. That hands-on experience will be my biggest strength.”