Do you love decorating your home and work space? We all do, don’t we…..with time the interior designing space is disrupting in a large way; artists, designers, entrepreneurs are exploring creativity in various dimensions and are spreading various emotions through their designs. Personalization and adding Character are the top favorite we experience in today’s world.
We are witnessing an evolution in the interior designing industry brought by amazing artists, entrepreneurs and professionals. We experience that the interior designing entrepreneurs are committed to enlivening your space whether it home or work space, and are evoking happiness and soothing your souls by bringing four walls to life. The work space interiors has also come a long way and the modern work spaces talk volumes about its cultures and values, thanks to the globalization. The concept of interiors inspires and creates a sense of confidence and empathy at our work spaces.
Meet once such entrepreneur who with her courage and creativity is disrupting and personalizing the interior designing space for big corporates in India and abroad, and recently has also seeded a unique idea of building safe and affordable homes specially for women. She is on a mission to deliver innovative architecture and eye pleasing designs that accomplish spatial quality. It was a summery afternoon in London when I (Pradnya Punekar) had the honour of interviewing our 19th Inspiring Entrepreneur. I was filled with heaps of inspiration, strength and endless entrepreneurial lessons and was in awe of her courage. I am sure you/our readers will find great value and gain great insights from this story which will help you in your journey of entrepreneurship and career. It is our great pleasure to bring such inspiring stories to you and alongside have inspiring entrepreneurs a part of our growing KATHA-Stories Unheard family of entrepreneurs.
“Running a business and being an entrepreneur is a journey. Your business and personal life go hand in hand and you have to keep walking ahead in a rhythm. And along the journey you have to be open to new ideas, thoughts and expand your journey”- Pradnya Ponkshe.
Meet Pradnya Ponkshe, Founder of Trimit Rachana and HER Highnest. Trimit Rachana is a Architect and Interior Designing Company founded in the year 2012 and HER Highnest is Pradnya's second baby is what she calls, it is a company which envisions to provide safe and affordable homes for women, founded in the year 2018. Pradnya is a Courageous, Determined, Dashing and Creative entrepreneur who strongly believes that the word entrepreneur does not have a gender and that a woman can achieve anything and everything she dreams of achieving. Brought up in the city of dreams in India- Mumbai she spent her childhood and her growing up years dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur. She often looked through the window of her home and in her small eyes she had a big dream- Dream of owning a big company with multiple offices around India, AND SHE DID IT.
An Artist at heart, Pradnya is extremely passionate about her work and she is bringing work space walls to life which talk about the company’s culture, value and spirit of making company’s vision turn into reality. She is a passionate fine artist who has turned her passion into purpose and with her designs which get etched in 3D she adds aesthetics, functionality and character to her work. Starting from scratch, today she has onboarded a long list of clients and she does not stop there, her new company HER Highnest envisions to build 1000 homes specially for women who need a shelter. A project which she calls is an “Emotion of every woman” and she also calls it “By the Women for the Women”. Pradnya led TRIMIT RACHANA to huge successes, bagging prestigious projects from Fortune 500 MNCs like Lafarge, Xerox India, Bridgestone , Flipkart, VFS Global , Ferrero Rocher , SITEL, Roche and eminent Indian organizations like Reliance, Godfrey Philips, ERDA, Glenmark, Mastek to name a few. They have expertise in the design & development of Commercial office spaces, corporate houses, Startups and Contemporary office spaces.
Journey from a Fine Artist to a Entrepreneur- The Secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Pradnya is an artist at heart, having graduated from Raheja School of Art, Mumbai, with a degree in Bachelors of Fine Art specializing in Design, she further pursued her passion for art, by completing her Masters from Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai. With a strong background in art and design, she set foot into the challenging world of architecture, where she accumulated valuable experience by associating and working with many eminent architects for several years before starting her own Architectural and Interior designing firm in the year 2012. "TRIMIT RACHANA" when translated, means 3-dimensional Composition, every project at TRIMIT RACHANA commences with the team translating the client's brief into an imaginative blueprint that finally comes to life as a concrete, 3dimensional reality.
“It's not just about ideas; it's about making ideas happen”…..she says.
Pradnya recalls that memorable moment which triggered her with the idea of starting her own business. She began her career as an associate and was working with a company owned by one her friend, she loved and enjoyed her work which took her on a steep learning curve at the same time she earned good money. Although she was just as associate she had taken up complete ownership of end-to-end delivery for every project. Right from lead generation, to leading meetings, presenting, estimation, to planning, to closing deals, to execution, to delivering the project on time, she undertook complete responsibility. Along the journey one of their project which she was working on lost a huge amount of revenue due to the negligence of another team member which hampered her share of revenue as well. That moment she decided that she will start her own business. She says there was a voice which whispered in her mind:
“Success is also mine, failure is also mine, I will start my own business”………
From Ideation to Execution-Pradnya started Trimit Rachana from scratch with 5 employees and didn’t have any projects in her hand. But she took up the challenged and after working hard through the initial days she bagged her first project which came in after 6 months of starting her company. It was a small project of furbishing a toilet for a CEO’s office of an IT organization, she did’nt think twice because it was small, she took up the project and completed it on time and with sincerity. Over the last decade she has put in her heart and soul in creating Trimit Rachana a company that delivers quality and on time projects.
Ever since she finished her first project she has not looked back and continues to work and create work spaces for top corporate organizations in India. Their client list includes Lafarge, Xerox India, Bridgestone , Flipkart, VFS Global , Ferrero Rocher , SITEL, Roche and eminent Indian organizations like Reliance, Godfrey Philips, ERDA, Glenmark, Mastek to name a few. Reliance being one of their biggest client they have delivered upto 25 projects a year in the past for Reliance, and along side completed 4-5 projects over and above those projects.
“Every client is a new client for us and with each client we are giving the same exam we gave on the day one. So as a business woman you have to prove yourself again and again every single day”.
Pradnya is committed to delivering quality to each of her clients and does not compromise when it comes to the delivering quality, in her soft yet strong tone she shares the vision of her company which has helped them grow over the years.
“The team at TRIMIT RACHANA understands the basic human need to create a positive, vibrant and happy environment, while utilizing the available space to its optimal potential, at the same time. They reinvent their designs to cater to this very need. Every project is designed to enhance and capture the positive energies of the environment, with respect to form, function and mindset”.
Taking one step at a time and growing business amidst challenges.
Over the last decade Pradnya has poured immense amount of hard work and has worked relentlessly to grow and expand her business. Talking about how she has grown her business from scratch and has onboarded top corporates in the list of her clients………she says the biggest source of client generation for Trimit Rachana has been through “References”, especially during the initial days Their biggest source for client lead generation is through references, and she ensures that she delivers “Quick Service” and “Innovative” solutions to each of her clients, this strategy has helped her to grow her business clientele. But challenges have been a constant in her journey of entrepreneurship, just the way while we are climbing a mountain we face ups and downs similarly she has faced many challenges but she has soared high with each challenge. She recalls a specific emotion which has stayed with her all these years of her growing her business, she says:
“As a single mother I feel I am the HERO for my son. Like the HERO in a movie who faces many challenges, sometimes gets beat but finally bounces back stronger. Similarly i bounce back after each challenge and my son keeps me going, he gives me strength and no matter what challenges in face I fight back, get up and move on”.
Surviving through tough times of Covid
Talking about how Pradnya has sustained her business during tough times of covid she says:
“Today the world is of Collaborations and Partnerships. We have to come together, collaborate and go. I have collaborated with a firm in dubai and few other companies and have expanded my business even during these challenging times. Times are very difficult to my business as well but we must not let anything stop us from moving forward”.
HER Highnest- By the woman for the woman
“HER Highnest is my second baby, it is a emotion of every woman. Being a woman myself I feel very deeply hurt when I see that women are not safe in my country. Hence I deeply wish to give women HER OWN HOME which includes her own name plate, a safe space where she can live happily and with freedom and confidence in her own space”……says Pradnya talking about HER Highnest, a project which is very close to her heart.
HER Highnest was born while in a hotel room of Frankfrurt while Pradnya was travelling to Germany. Soon after she returned to India HER Highnest was born in the year 2018. As the name goes, it envisions to provide safe and affordable homes specially for women.
A woman plays various roles such as a daughter, a sister, a friend, a wife, a mother. Although, this shouldn’t be all that defines her because she is, above all, an individual who deserves respect, love, gratitude and most importantly, independence.
Despite being considered a valuable part of society, a lack of financial independence is still evident in women. Even today, she is rarely asked how she wants to live her life, what she expects to achieve, what are her dreams. The time is ripe to move one step ahead and think about women as individuals and help them be self-reliant. And what better way for women to gain independence than having a house to call their own!
But, even though quite many women in India are revered within the limits of four walls of home, buying a house for themselves isn’t easy. The road to women buying a house is fraught with numerous restrictions, archaic laws and financial obstacles. Hence germinated the idea of HERHIGHNEST” – an affordable housing scheme exclusively for women. “HERHIGHNEST” will be a self-contained apartment complex with a well-stocked mess, a crest, an Amphitheatre, an open garden and a club house which will include a fully-equipped gym.
HER Highnest is associated with reputed brands such as Mahindra Happiness , Lodha Group, OSR Group, Regency Group to name a few in various locations. With her mission, she is in association with HDFC HOME LOANS reputed financial organization all over India so it helps women to solve a problem of finance. They have recently signed their first client, a independent woman based in Mumbai and just as they receive the signing amount from her they plant to celebrate and recognize her achievement, as Pradnya strongly believes that we need to celebrate every woman and her achievements as the society seldom does it.
Pradnya is a visionary she in the process of ideation and planning couple of more projects where in she envisions to create hostel facilities for women who cannot afford home at the stage of their life and also create co-working space specially for women.
We thank Pradnya Ponkshe for sharing her inspiring entrepreneurial journey with us and we wish her and her businesses heaps of success. If you wish to avail services from any of her companies please visit their websites below or email on the email ids mentioned below.
Websites- www.trimitrachana.com www.herhighnest.com