An exclusive interaction on entrepreneurial journey, challenges and tips for young aspiring women professionals with Roshni Agarwal Bawari, Creative Director and Founder of Jump Up High Digital Marketing & Communications, Guwahati.
Give us a bit of background about yourself and your company.
Born and brought up in the humble town of Assam called Tinsukia, I passed my B’Com Hon’s from Dibrugarh University post which I pursued MBA in Finance and Marketing from Pune University. I did the executive certification program in digital marketing certification from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) in the year 2019 to further my knowledge into the field.
Jump Up High was founded by me in 2016 in Guwahati, Assam where I moved from Delhi in 2015. After gaining extensive experience in the field during my previous jobs with Axis Bank Ltd., Ahmedabad & ICT (Information, Communication and Technology Cell) of Chief Minister’s Office, Gandhinagar, Gujarat and ICT Cell, PMO, Delhi where I got the opportunity to work with the best of minds, designers and creative strategists Pan India to brand organizations and personalities, I was ready to take on the entrepreneurial journey.
Where does your interest in entrepreneurship come from – how did you start?
Belonging to a business family while being raised up in Assam, entrepreneurship always excited me. But with changing generations, the model of businesses was also changing. I wanted to work with different organizations before starting on my entrepreneurial journey so that I could learn the latest methods of running businesses, not just in theory but by being on the floor. Formal job settings have the ability to teach us humility, teamwork, capacity building and understanding bigger vision of a company and ways to achieve that in a collaborative manner.
Give us insights into the major offerings of the company. And, how does the company support people with its offerings?
Being a digital marketing & communications organization, all our services revolve around creating compelling brand communication that is well-researched, original and so unique that can cut through the clutter and help the brands create a lasting impression on their customers’ minds, which can eventually lead to brand awareness, trust and sales.
Our services include the entire gamut of branding and communication activities such as logo designing, brand stationery designing, creating content strategy to its execution for an effective social media marketing, website development & maintenance, graphic designing, reels designing, social media ad buying, performance marketing and google ad marketing.
With customized strategies and packages for each brand, our company is helping established companies & start-ups Pan India from across different industries to make the best use of the audience in the digital space through customized communication strategies.
What makes your company stand out in the market?
Our extensive experience of working with companies from across various verticals ranging from finance, real estate, health, education to fashion and lifestyle, engineering, technology has provided us the expertise of creating communication strategy for brands within a very short period of time and at a very competitive cost.
How do women feel in the male-dominated industry? Have you experienced a different attitude because of gender?
I feel those days are gone when industry was male dominated and women were treated differently. In fact, I must mention that I deal with MDs and CEOs of so many companies Pan India who are mostly men and they have tremendous respect for individuals, irrespective of they being man or woman. And I am not even talking about a metro city. Guwahati is a tier-2 city and one must come to this side of the country to see how progressive people are here and how well they welcome women professionals in all sectors.
What do you think is the toughest problem for businesswomen?
As I mentioned, the industry or marketplace is no more a problem for businesswomen. Also, I would like to talk about a challenge and not a problem. The toughest challenge for a woman into business is to manage her time and priorities well, especially if she is a mother. Being a woman, the instinctive responsibility of giving priority to her child remains with every mother and hence, if she has the added responsibility of a business, she needs to really prioritize her schedule well in advance. She can’t be as flexible as men in this regard.
What’s a day in your life like as an entrepreneur?
A day as an entrepreneur is very exciting. The plan for the next day starts a day in advance. All meetings, to-dos, time for family and children are planned to meet the priorities that are set. The team in office needs regular motivation, so remaining self-motivated myself is also very important. The strongest backbone for a woman in business is her team, both at work and at home. If she has the right people by her side, sky is the limit!
Who are your clients? How do you keep your clients happy and satisfied?
We have been blessed to be able to work with esteemed companies who have made a mark in their respective industries. Our clients are spread into several industries such as finance, health, education, technology, engineering, fashion and lifestyle.
We are blessed that most of our new clients come from word-of-mouth references. What we ensure to keep our clients satisfied is a quick response time to their queries and feedback. In the space of digital marketing, it’s imperative that feedback is implemented real-time and we take this very seriously. This quality assurance has helped us keep our clients happy and satisfied.
Though the statistics of women entrepreneurs in India are rising, yet a woman’s ambitions are often doubted in our society. Is it difficult for women to start a business in India?
The biggest challenge for a woman is her ability to communicate her strength and her belief in herself. Most of the times, a woman isn’t able to communicate what she is planning to do and putting those plans into tangible business plan. Without an organized plan, she may not be able to seek as much support from her surroundings (Friends and family). So it is important that women who have an ambition in place finds her tribe through networking in local and digital events and is able to take help from like-minded individuals who can push her to achieve her goals.
After all this success and failure, what do you struggle with now?
Struggles are a part and parcel of entrepreneurship. Even after so many years, there is no day when a challenge is not faced and when crisis management doesn’t come into play. Be it hiring, client acquisition, coordinating with client teams, payment follow-ups, every activity introduces us to a new challenge. That is what differs entrepreneurship to a job.
- How do you achieve a balance between your personal and professional life?
Through time and priority management. If priorities are set and you are good with time management, a very good balance can be achieved between personal and professional life. One more secret for women to achieving a balance is to learn the art of saying ‘no’. She has to decide what is worth her time and what is not, be it choice of clients or choice of meetings or at times choice in personal life, a yes for everything can ruin the mental peace of a woman in business.
What have you learned about entrepreneurship in your journey?
The last 7+ years of my entrepreneurial journey has taught me the following things which I would like to prioritize in the following order:
- Never be fully satisfied with what you have achieved at any stage as that may push you to stagnancy. Businesses update themselves every day, especially in this AI driven world and once you are laid-back with your success, you will be pushed out of your throne too soon.
- Surrounding yourself with motivated, supportive people who always push you to do better, be it your team, family or friends. So choose your tribe carefully.
- Emotional support & fulfillment is extremely important to take on everyday challenges that entrepreneurship throws on you. So never compromise on your family time.
- No matter what others may say, well-calculated risks are better than abrupt risks.
- Poor health and poor time management can be the biggest obstacles in your entrepreneurial journey. So do everything possible to keep these in place.
What is your future agenda to keep growing in the market?
We are committed to keeping our customers satisfied with our responsiveness to feedback, quality service and innovating on our services. And we are confident that satisfied customers will bring more happy customers to our plate.
As a source of inspiration for many, what would your advice be for female entrepreneurs, who are planning to enter in the business world?
I would like to say the young female entrepreneurs that while it’s very important to believe in your dreams and ambitions, the most important step is to act. You may act small but never procrastinate or depend on others to act on your behalf. ‘Actions speak louder than words’ and therefore, the world only takes them seriously who can stand up for themselves and act!
