We talk to Sheetal Goel founder of Cupik Design. Here is her story
Tell us more about yourself
Well I'm the craziest person I know. My work, my family and my tiny circle of friends are my world, and I'm gaga about everything related to kids. So be it clothes, toys, stationery or anything else related to kidstuff, you'll find me around. I think I ended up buying more Disney merchandise for myself than my child at Disneyland last year.
What is the story behind Cupik Design?
I'm an accidental entrepreneur. I was content being a freelance marketing consultant and graphic designer for corporate clients. And then my baby started preschool. That meant everything from her bag to her water bottle and her snack box and her teddy needed to be LABELLED with her name. Now my little girl can't be having her name scrawled on ugly white labels. We needed something classier, and we couldn't find it ANYWHERE! And hence, Cupik Design was born.
What began as a personal fascination for kids' stationery has grown faster than expected in a span of 2 years. Today at Cupik Design, we specialise in creating premium personalised stationery for kids and grown-ups. We offer a whole range of cool stuff like name stickers, gift tags, envelopes, wrapping papers, notebooks, folders, sketch books, bag tags, bookmarks, water bottles, phone cases and a whole lot more! All personalised...all gorgeous! And while we offer some lovely options for exclusive birthday return gifts for kids of all ages, we also create premium personalised stationery gift sets for individuals.
What are your expansion plans?
We've steadily been launching new products every 2-3 months, and our current portfolio stands at 25 products. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There are a zillion things kids need in school and outside, and there is a total dearth in the market for anything related to them. Ditto for grown-ups. Our focus on delivering only high quality products does make launching new products slow at times (and makes my printers hate me for all the wasted experiments). Maybe someday we'd like to offer older kids and teens the opportunity to design their stationery based on their own art. Now that will be personalisation like never before!
How has this industry evolved in the last two years?
Like I said, there was nothing until two years ago when I started off. We're the pioneers in the personalised stationery business in India (and the first in the world for some of our products). Cupik Design was widely appreciated when it began, and with it came the competition too. Which is good, as long as people are creating their own designs and products and not copying ours blatantly (which has happened too!). I'd rather have 30% market share in a 500cr industry than have 80% of the market share in a 50cr industry ;).
All in all, the kids' products market is just about taking off in India and it's a good place to be in. Some excellent Indian brands have come up for kids, and people are beginning to spend on stuff besides clothes and branded toys for their children. That trend is only likely to continue.
A message to all SHEROES out there.
God alone knows how many times I've closed my laptop finally at 3 in the morning and said Ok I'm done!! I can't do this anymore!! It's too hard!! And I've got up the next morning all ready and excited about work again.
It's not easy to be juggling work and life, especially if you have kids. But if it's your passion, if you love what you do, please just keep at it. It'll eventually get balanced out. You're blessed because you love your work, and very few people are that lucky! Have faith that the divine energy which has given you your gift will also give you the fuel to do justice to that gift.