Do you want to convert your photo into a painting? PortraitFlip can convert your photos into a handmade Oil Painting, Acrylic Portrait, Charcoal Drawing, Pencil Sketch, Coloured Pencil Sketch, or a Watercolour Painting.
We invited Sunny Choudhary, Co-Founder at PortraitFlip, for an interview with Most Popular Stories. Let’s get to know about his entrepreneurial journey.
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an
entrepreneur.
I am Sunny Choudhary, a 24-year-old co-founder of PortraitFlip with a B.Tech in mechanical engineering from VIT, Chennai.
When we started with PortraitFlip, we did not expect to make it here. It was all in fun and games and began as a side hustle. The main idea was to experiment and earn some bills alongside our education.
From 2017 to 2020, the journey has been worthwhile. We are growing with every step, becoming better humans and working towards a successful future for our brainchild.
2. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
Being an “entrepreneur” and initiating a start-up has never gone out of style. It was fashionable and cool to be called an entrepreneur when we were in college too.
The entire idea of being the creator of an idea, and watching it grow into something big always intrigued me.
My father has had a great influence on me since he is into a business. I grew looking up to an entrepreneur in my father and always wanted to be like him.
I had decided to start something that I could call mine from a very young age and it is a beautiful experience to finally see it happen.
3. What was the vision behind it?
There wasn’t a vision when we started, per se. PortraitFlip was born out of a sob tale and was just a sidekick for us when we were in college. However, after two-and-a-half years of my association with PortraitFlip, I have developed a vision for the firm.
I want to endorse and promote all the artists around the world who otherwise had to compromise their passion for an outbound job. I want art to flourish and artists to be recognized and appreciated.
We also want to provide as much employment as possible to the potential and promising youth of the country thereby performing a responsible duty of generating better living standards and economy.
4. Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what
ways they are unique?
We provide only one service and that is of handmade portraits. We serve as the bridge between the artists of the world and customers who wish to transform their most prized memory into a handmade portrait.
What makes us unique is our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. For us, customer’s need is the priority and we can go to any extent for that. We provide an array of mediums and categories to choose from. We also work with blurred, old, and black and white images. That way we try to cover all possible ways for our customers to cease their favorite memory.
Additionally, we provide 100% satisfaction, unlimited art revisions, and a money-back guarantee. With so much on board, we make sure that our customer feels secured, leaving no room for disappointment.
5. What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
I think “challenge” is a better word than “difficulty”. We have never seen difficulty as one. It is always just a fence that you have to jump. Sometimes the fence can be higher, but if you have the right resources, determination, and a rock-solid team – nothing can appear difficult.
You have to keep doing what you are doing. A lot of people will say a thousand things but the motive is to go on despite everything. There may be hurdles, and there are hurdles all the time. Because of a minor mistake from our side, we were removed from our ETSY platform overnight.
A customer got extremely angry and before we could damage control, he had filed a complaint email on ETSY and we were removed. It cost us a lot because it was our major customer base.
However, we didn’t lose hope on Facebook. Facebook had mysterious ways of working and since we were almost new in the market, it did not have proper data for customers of our-like. Interestingly, what Facebook did to our surprise was to pull our data from other sister platforms of Facebook, and started increasing our sales.
If one door closes, the other is bound to open. There were a lot of shipping issues and delays in the beginning. Receiving negative mails had become a thing for us and it affected our sanity tremendously. It was because we relayed majorly on one shipping partner which caused the confusion. To avoid further troubles we took up the express shipping option of DHL and it came as a blessing to us.
6. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Stress? What is stress? If you think it to be one, it will not let you sleep nights. Take it as a part and parcel of business, and do not strain your self out. If you want to do something big, there will be “stress”.
I, personally, started taking care of my health – both physical and mental. To have your health in control and to remain sane is a blessing for both personal and professional spheres. Meditation, regular workouts, eating correctly, and waking up early were a few of them. If you do this, no stress can harm you.
7. How do you market your business?
We are an E-commerce. Our major marketing happens through SEO, Social Media, YouTube, Google and Facebook Ads, and Email Marketing.
Apart from that, we use only three tools for the entire business are Photoshop, WordPress, and Klaviyo.
We work on Photoshop for most of our digital editing and graphics. WordPress takes care of our On-page SEO while Klaviyo is this brilliant tool that manages our Email and SMS Marketing.
Another tool that we have recently started using is Tawk. It is a free online tool that manages the online chat service for our website.
Apart from that, we use TrustPilot as our review tool and I take pride in saying that PortraitFlip is rated 4.7 out of 5 on it.
Social media works on Ads majorly. We have received a lot of love on Instagram as well. I guess almost everything is working for us. There will always be ups and downs but again, that is a part of learning.
8. How many hours a day do you work on average & can you
describe/outline your typical day?
I believe in “productive hours.” You don’t have to work day in and out. Work for 10 hours, but work thoroughly.
I generally wake up early, have a decent workout session (not to drain myself out), have a wholesome breakfast. I leave for the office and stay there for a good 10-12 hours, work myself out, come home, and sleep.
Sleeping and waking up on time is very important. There may be situations that demand a disorganized schedule but to be able to tackle such situations, you need to have a proper routine.
9. In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I can go on saying the same top cliché “hard work, determination and endurance” words but honestly, that is not your key to success. Yes, it does help you move ahead but there is no one key to success.
It is subjective and can alter with every business. Multiple factors influence your business and push you towards success, and we can’t name them.
Success is a collective effort, and can never be achieved overnight. There may be a lot of strands coming together to make you one cohesive whole.
I don’t think there are keys, there are just people who slowly mold the way through – some influences appear obvious, while some do their work silently.
10. What advice would you give to someone starting as an aspiring
entrepreneur?
- Know that you cannot do anything. You need to know when to hire the right candidate.
- Outsourcing can be a great help. You don’t have to hire people all the time. Outsource whatever you can instead of hiring.
- Fund management is very important. Most of the entrepreneurs I see today spent so much on unnecessary things – buying an expensive gadget, renovating their office, spending on cars. Is it helping the business grow? No! Spend where you have to – in the growth.
- Art of saying no. Saying no to a friend who is calling you to go, saying no to wasting your time when no one is watching, saying no to anything that does not benefit you, or your growth.
- You don’t have to be secretive about your startup. I have often seen budding entrepreneurs being secretive about their idea. No! Nobody is going to steal your idea. Half of them will forget, half of them will not care – the rest may try to steal it but it is always the survival of the fittest. If you take the right steps and move ahead with a vision, nobody is going to stop you. Food apps started with Swiggy, Uber, FoodPanda, Zomato but who is ruling?
It is okay if people steal your idea but you gotta keep moving with original ideas and a strong will to conquer.
Connect Here,
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunny-choudhary-90b608101/?originalSubdomain=in
Website: https://www.portraitflip.com/