Meet the SHEROES - Minnat Lalpuria

Your wedding is supposed to be the most important day of your life. So why get bogged down with all the arrangements. Especially when there is a seasoned planner who can help you with everything, right from the venue booking to the floral arrangements? This is what fuelled Minnat's idea and that's how 7vachan came to be. Let's hear what Minnat has to say about her venture here today!

How did the inspiration for 7Vachan come about?
Well, the idea of starting with 7Vachan was definitely not a bolt from the blue for me! Love lives, marriages, and family get-togethers have always been very close to my heart. Like every other Indian girl, I grew up attending various events and was fascinated by the fanfare. Conceptualizing my work around weddings was therefore always on my bucket list.

However, bewitched as I was when it came to weddings, there was always this one question that intrigued me the most: I observed that there are 10 million weddings happening in India annually, yet a wedding planner does not do more than 20 weddings a year! So how do people, who don’t hire a wedding planner, plan the wedding?

It was then, that I found an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those million people who go about the entire wedding planning process without expert assistance. That’s how 7Vachan was born – to simplify weddings! My educational as well as technical background coupled with my digital marketing experience has helped me all along in this enthralling journey of 7Vachan.

In the short term, what other products or services do you hope to add to the scope of offerings?
After conducting a market research of engaged and married couples, we found out that scouting for the perfect wedding venue was the most challenging part for couples. Thus, our primary target was venue booking.

We have now made venue booking even easier than before. Currently, the entire venue booking experience is as easy as booking a flight ticket. It’s just a 30-minute process. All that a customer has to do is share their requirements with us via straightforward filters and within minutes the site will generate the best-suited list of venues from amongst 450 venues in 16 cities. They can then interact with our team and seal the deal within 3 days.
With 7Vachan, booking destination-wedding venues along with accommodation rooms for guests, food menu and much more, has become a cakewalk now. Stay at home and stay in your budget – that’s how easy-going the life of to-be-weds would be if they decide to plan their destination wedding online with 7Vachan.

In addition to venues, candid photography, professional make-up artists, mehendi artists, honeymoon destinations, wedding card vendors and engagement ring selection are on offer too. We have now added them in our portfolio of services making the count go up to 5000 vendors overall.

Going forward, we plan to introduce the 7Vachan mobile app for our mobile-savvy customers so that they can make wedding decisions on the go. In short, whatever be the wedding need, multiple affordable options are guaranteed!

How is 7Vachan different from what other wedding planners do, in your own words?
Well, taking a service from 7Vachan is not really like hiring a wedding planner. To be honest, we are like a wedding concierge service with a personal touch. Our aim is to make life simpler for the to-be-weds by addressing the four major pain points when it comes to booking the ideal venue and vendors i.e. availability, pricing, quality and planning.

We let them have the DIY feel when it comes to taking decisions about which vendors they would like to choose. But, when it comes to the booking, negotiating and the executing part of it- we lift the weight off their shoulders.

Couples can browse through a plethora of wedding vendors online and book them at affordable rates in a jiffy. While most other websites provide listing, 7Vachan takes it one step further by assigning Wedordinators (“Wedding Coordinators”) to couples. Basically, these Wedordinators do the running for the couples while they sit back at home and relish the much-coveted pre-wedding phase.

What does it take to be a successful woman entrepreneur according to you?
According to me, the most significant attribute of a woman entrepreneur should be – self-conviction. She shouldn’t break out in cold sweat due to the dogmatic views of the society that tells her to act in a stereotypical fashion.
Believing in yourself and your venture is the key here. When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I did not charge a specific fee from my customers for 7Vachan services. Instead, I asked them to pay a fee, which according to them would best suit the services rendered. I had faith in myself as well as my business idea, which is why 7Vachan has come a long way.

Also, another critical attribute is the acceptance of the most crucial fact in your mind i.e. the glass ceiling has broken! Women must never look down upon themselves as the weaker sex. Also, they must understand that success will not be a bed of roses for them just because they are women.
Having said that, we need to understand that when it comes to success in your entrepreneurial venture, there is nothing called gender gap. The rules of the game stay the same irrespective of the age, gender, race, nationality and religion. At the end of the day our venture has to connect with people and that is pretty much it!

Any words of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs out there?
Entrepreneurial ventures are increasing by the day and people are leaving their high-paid corporate jobs in order to give a shot to their business ideas. While, they will be loaded with advices and suggestions, I would just like to give them two of my most-momentous tips:

Answer your why!
At the outset, this may seem to be a rather nonchalant question. However, one must understand that without a clear vision, you are just shooting in the dark. Understand your why and work towards achieving it every day. Success will come easily to you. After all, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

Say ‘Yes’ to failure!
Entrepreneurial ventures are always risky. But believe you me, it’s not like the cake is not worth the candle. Be prepared to encounter the worst failures of your Life when you are on your entrepreneurial journey. But never be taken aback by these failures. The real failure will be when you stop trying.