In a world dominated by digital distractions and loneliness, Surprise Someone emerges as a beacon of love and joy. The platform offers an array of wonderful and unique handcrafted gifts, carefully designed to create everlasting bonds of happiness. The team at Surprise Someone puts immense thought and creativity into crafting each gift, making them truly one-of-a-kind. Every present tells a story and adds a touch of magic to life’s special moments.
Welcome to an exciting session at ConflatingVisions, where we are delighted to have Pinky Maheshwari, the visionary founder of Surprise Someone, among us today. Let’s dive into Pinky’s inspiring journey as a Mompreneur and her mission to spread happiness through creative and unique surprises.
Hi Pinky, glad to have you among us today in this session at ConflatingVisions. To start with we would like you to say a few lines about yourself and other founder(s) [if any] of Surprise Someone.
Hello! I, Pinky Maheshwari, desired to do something creative, inspiring, positive, different and individualistic. The idea of creating something tangible and spreading smiles was endearing.
Let’s just say that spreading happiness and giving surprises is in my blood. It’s a part of me, it’s how my friends know me. It’s something I always had at the back of my mind while doing a regular corporate job for 10 good years with the world’s largest ad agency and a couple of years with telecom. When one of the most important person entered my life, my baby boy Udit, that’s when this mommy converted her passion into a profession and decided to be a Mompreneur with Surprise Someone.
I and my Mother Sharda, started last year with almost zero investment. The perfect duo as we call us, travel all across and locate and grab the creative minds and get their creative muse running and with their help we present and produce beauty before the world. We have clearly divided our roles.
While I take care of the ideas, execution of plans and being the front face of the market, my Mother Sharda travels across and finds the talent in our deep roots and utilises them in the best possible way and helps them give a voice. We have a good team of craftsmen and artisans working for Suprise Someone. I wouldn’t say it was an easy road but as they say “It happens, all you need is to wish for it.”
Please tell us about Surprise Someone. How does it work?
We live in a world where we forget to take care of ourselves let alone our dear ones. That’s where Surprise Someone comes into the picture to create an everlasting bond of happiness and spread sparkling little things from our mysterious bag of surprises and attempt to make everyone feel really really special.
Surprise Someone has a website www.surprisesomeone.in offering an array of wonderful and unique artefacts. Keeping in mind the customer’s desire of going out of their way for their loved one, Surprise Someone team puts a lot of thought into getting it right for you. We specialise in creating unique gifts for the customer. Working in the fast-paced world of digital, these gifts are definitely unique as they are handmade. Some iconic ideas have been a contemporary twist and each gift tells a story.
What invoked you to think of creating Surprise Someone?
It seems impossible to take out time for your loved ones in today’s humdrum of life where mobiles and iPads take over real conversations. Facebook friends outnumber your real friends. It has become a digitised world and along comes with it, a lot of loneliness, stress and depression. The need of the hour is to take out time for your real special people, let them know how much they mean to you, surprise them, and spread smiles with good cheer and positive vibes. It’s rightly said “Your energies follow your thoughts.” So if we do things with positivity and in a happy mood, we will tend to spread happiness in multiplication.
Making people feel special was always in my blood and that gives me real pleasure. That is what I am known for amongst my friends and family. This passion actually invoked me to create www.surprisesomeone.in
Share the investment details.
When my mother Sharda and I started this business last year it was with zero investment. We weren’t and still aren’t funded by anyone. We believe small things can make a big difference, add value to your life and bring smiles to loved ones’ faces. It’s all handmade and heartfelt. And thus business started flourishing.
We keep recycling the same money that customers pay us and have managed to grow. No doubt resources are needed, but this wouldn’t have been possible without the kick-ass team we have. Our skilled artists and craftsmen are also enjoying with us because all they needed was an opportunity and #surprisesomeone became a platform which helps them to reveal their hidden talent.
We only create a product when the entire team buys into the idea/concept because we strongly believe that our actions and our thoughts create energy. And we only want positive energies resonating from our products and in our environment. Only if it gives “WOW” we go ahead else we will become another gift shop. There would be either a surprise of the cost of the product or the concept of the product.
How is the journey so far?
Every day has been the “ever best day” of my life. Every single day, we get a call from avg 7 – 8 customers saying “Surprise Someone made a difference in our life, thank you.” What better can anyone want in life!
And before anyone for us, our team is our boss. We ensure we do surprises with each other every day. It could be as small as writing a note on his desk “You have been doing an awesome work” or we send surprises for families, and in return, we get priceless smiles and blessings.
Share some of your success stories.
We receive so many calls, customer reviews/testimonials where they are raving about us. A lot of customers remain connected with us after their first buy. We believe in not selling items but winning hearts. Word of mouth is our best publicity and that speaks a lot about the success we have achieved.
Our first success came when we planned a surprise for our client who was celebrating their 15th Wedding Anniversary. The surprise made her husband feel out of the world. They felt like newly married and were totally rejuvenated by the entire idea. So like we say, it’s not money with which you come to surprise someone but only your efforts.
We have so many clients writing back to us “You not only made our day but helped us make our bond stronger.” Materialistic things can make you happy for a while but effort-driven things straight away touch the heart and remain for lifelong. We celebrated our first success in style by surprising families of the team at work followed by lunch for all our artisans. And also with a promise to carry on spreading smiles in this world and make it a happier place for you and me.
How do you go about building a successful customer base?
Word of mouth and customer service.
We proactively approach and help people give ideas to make their “Someone Special” feel really really special.
What has been the most challenging part of your entrepreneurial journey so far?
When we started business we had a vision of touching lives. The idea of creating something tangible and spreading smiles was endearing. Initially, like every first step, it was childlike and was extremely difficult for me as every business requires all kinds of skills in a person and not just passion till the time you build up your own team. In the beginning, I only had my passion, creativity and a belief that “I can and I will” whereas business requires all “M” and all “P” of marketing.
How did you overcome the challenge?
Slowly and gradually we developed that business acumen and that’s when Surprise Someone saw its light. Undoubtedly, it’s the team effort put upon by fellow employees that helped us to sail through. Without the excellent capabilities of our wonderful team, we wouldn’t have come this far. We have zero bad debts and zero debtors even if we give or sell bulk orders on credit or with 50% advance. The reason for our success is the astounding team effort.
What are your future plans?
I would say we stand at a happy place, with happy customers, a kick-ass team, zero bad debts and zero debtors, good market value and most importantly have managed to create a niche in the market for helping people plan surprises as well as build unique products.
I am forever grateful to God for reaching these heights and excited about what the future holds. Soon we aim to enter the corporate market where we want to touch their mechanical lives and make them more interesting. We will soon be working for telecom and banks where we will be helping their HNI base surprise and connect emotionally with them. But that’s not all of it. Surprise Someone starts thinking after everyone stops. We are very soon starting in-flight surprises where you can surprise your dear ones in the air and not just in the air but while you watch movies and on top of it also while you dine in by making personalised menu cards.
Anything else you want to share…
I am a firm believer in Pranic Healing, where the prana can heal the body by contributing to the person’s energy field. I strongly believe in energies and aura. Everything we think creates energy. We as a team have positive energies and we build a larger aura around us.
We tend to make a product with double the positive energy and when it’s bought by people it spreads positivity and happiness. It’s rightly said “Your energies follow your thoughts”, so when we do things with positivity and in a happy mood, we tend to spread happiness in multiplication. Happiness shared is happiness multiplied. That’s the basis of our business at www.surprisesomeone.in.
When we are happy, we radiate positive energies, joy and euphoria. It’s like happiness is contagious. And when our artists and craftsmen are building a product for our customers, from the first step of conception to the actual production of the gift, there is a lot of positive energy going in from multiple people. We believe that customers buying from us will feel this positive aura. And in turn, spread it to the near and dear ones. It’s like a cycle of joy. By spreading positive energy we are trying to boost happiness around you and within you. With these gifts, we are trying to send positive energy in a discreet but surprisingly efficient way. Positive energy will make a lot of positive changes in your life.
And one last question of this session, if you have had one wish…
Well, every day I have a new wish and there is so much energy to accomplish that wish. As I said, I strongly believe in prana and energy which helps me create my own aura and my own energy the way I want. You can say it is a miracle. With such positive energy around me, I think and it just happens. Every day is ever best day for me. Every day surprises me with something special in my life and that keeps me going!
