A lawyer by profession, Dhruti Jigar Mehta found her true calling in the gifting business with her venture Love Doodle. They specialize in personalized gifting for individuals & corporates alike.
Personal gifts go a long way & are perfect for your loved ones. Sharing here a unique gift which was custom-made by Love Doodle.
Here they share their journey with us.
Tell us about Love Doodle
How did you come across this idea?
This idea has been with me and my husband and in action since 9 years now. We always created something special for our birthdays / anniversaries as we strongly believe that the best thing you can gift anyone is Time and a Memorable celebration and that can come only when you create a special experience for that person.
What was the reaction from your family & friends?
Initially family was skeptical about me pursing this as a full time career, considering I was deviating from my legal profession and a good paying job but later they did understand and see the passion with which I was driving the business and the opportunities that were coming my way. My biggest support system in all this has been my husband who has always made me push my limits and believed in me, he is one the reasons I am in this league of entrepreneurs. Friends have been very encouraging and a strong push by a friend is also one of the reasons that Love Doodle came into being.
Tell us about your startup journey so far?
The journey has been a very interesting one. For me it was a difficult shift from a full time secured job to moving into the business world which has risk, no ensured returns, interesting opportunities and same or more level of stress but with all this it has been a fulfilling one.
When we did our first client celebration of Dessert Butler at Home not only did it go smoothly but we had an amazing response to the service with loads of inquiries and interests in spite of which I felt that may be I missed something in this first service, sometimes when everything falls in place the first time you tend to believe something is amiss from there till date I have garnered the ropes of business.
Until the mid of 2017, I was operating as a single person from marketing to sales, from vendor engagement to client meetings and from legal and compliance to accounts everything was being managed solely but to grow you need a team. I realized that with the current pace of work it was getting difficult to concentrate on every aspect of business and with that came the decision of hiring one full time associate who looks into admin, accounts and client relationship management. We also have an outsourced financial expert who helps us keep our finances in check and helps in business growth and strategies.
I am also building our team for marketing and sales both online and offline. The rest of the Love Doodle operations are handled by me. With every experience and client for whom we executed our service we learnt something new and that has helped us enhance our services and provide some very interesting options which are otherwise not easily available. The personalized attention that our clients receive and the professional service providers that we have on board ensure that our clients are aww struck and that we get repeat or reference business from them.
What was the key challenge & how did you overcome it?
The initial challenge was two fold, one was to on board service providers and vendors with whom we provide our services and the second was to educate the audience and to bring a shift in their thought process with relation to gifting an experience which may or may not have product, but with time we have been able to achieve it and make a break through, although this is an ongoing process but we are proud to have made a difference in lives of many clients.
Please share your road map ahead.
With the advent of this year we commenced pan India operations for Cake and Flower delivery with personalized messages. Our second area of concentration is to take the celebrations to Corporate and introduce the concept of Employee / Client Retention programs through experience style of gifting. By the end of this year and early next year, we should be launching Love Doodle Gift Vouchers.
If there is one thing you would like to give as a message, what would that be?
Never compromise on your service levels and promise what you can deliver. Don't please a client for the sake of it because client's like transparency. Always have clear communication as it brings in more confidence in your client or vendor.
Hey Beautiful wishes her all the very best.
