We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lekha Shah. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lekha below.
Alright, Lekha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Diving deeper into my feelings and the answer I always find is “NEVER GIVE UP” mindset. I feel along with the scoop of hard work, focus, consistency and support, the never giving up attitude is the main ingredient to success. In a life of an entrepreneur where you have to wear multiple hats brings lot of challenges, you constantly have to self motivate and keep going. If you love what you do, if you hold a true passion in what you do, you just have to start and figure the way out. Also it depends on what you call a success. For me people visiting and ordering from our site is a success – success of making a user friendly website, if a client places a big corporate order – its a success of the efforts put in right direction, if people liked your reel – that’s a success of all the efforts that went behind making that 30 sec reel. Its all about being patient and keep working towards your goal.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Hello from this new mama and a women entrepreneur. My name is Lekha and I run a full-service custom gifting company and help people connect via gifting.
What’s the first thought you get when there is an invite to birthday party, or planning to thank your valuable clients in a way that represents your brand or to appreciate employees during holidays? “GIFTS” no wait “THOUGHTFUL GIFTS”. Gifts that are unique, well received, gifts that reach on time, and is altogether very thoughtful. I was there when I wanted to get gift for my husband for Christmas in 2017. After 5 Christmases of perfumes, tie, wallet and few other items, I wanted to gift him something that was very thoughtful and handmade. I then curated a gift box out of the products that were locally sourced, carefully handcrafted and were beautifully packed. And that’s when the first Artsy Box was born. I always have loved all things creative and wanted to showcase amazing craftsmanship from artisans around the world by curating modern, high impact gift boxes.
After my mom passed away and dozens of rejections for 9-5 job, finding my true passion and starting something of my own brought back that creative energy out of me and helped me see the potential of being a business owner. I wanted to make gift giving not just impactful and high end but also EASY. On our website you can build your own gift in just 3 easy steps or buy from pre-curated options for quick gifting and when it comes to corporate gifts, we do all the heavy lifting from designing to product sourcing, inventory management, custom branding and shipping.
CUSTOM CORPORATE GIFTING is what we specialize in and we have helped big brands, photographers, wedding venue owners, event planners, motivational speakers and so many more in curating the most outstanding gift boxes that represents their brand. We have served in almost every industry, have sourced products from more than 300 women owned and small business, and have shipped in almost every state of the country.
Helping clients find the right gifts that speaks their brand, make gift giving experience seamless, being a one-stop shop for all kinds of gifting and an unparalleled customer service is what brought us here today as we celebrate our 4th anniversary. I always felt a lack of presentation and classiness in store bought cellophane wrapped gift baskets. So I wanted to bump up the idea to make absolutely all gifts more presentable, sustainable, unique and so exquisite that anyone receiving them feels the thought behind it.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
It was November 2021, out of the hospital post delivery and straight to The Artsy Box studio to work on a corporate gift order which became the highlight of the holiday season! With being mom to a newborn, my business also needed me. It was when I was in hospital that we got a last minute request from our biggest recurring client for the holiday gift boxes for their executives and board of directors. Our team was working very hard to process all the pre-orders but we still decided to take on this project. This was also the first time that we had designed such extra large gift boxes in such short time. We couldn’t afford any mistakes as the products in them were also very high end. I had to be present with my team to make sure each and every box is precisely packed and shipped. We just had less than 2 weeks to finalize the gift, order necessary inventory, pack and overnight ship them. It was next to impossible but we did it. It was definitely a tough time for me as I had to take care of the newborn, learn all this new mom life and simultaneously look after my thriving business. Although this was a last minute order, we successfully fulfilled it on a short time thanks to my amazing team that I’m so grateful for. This is a prime example of our unparalleled service where we always go an extra mile to deliver what we promised.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the 2020 pandemic hit we saw a sudden pause in retail orders. Just like others, our small business also got affected. Fewer orders, Shortage of inventory, shipment delays, delay in getting any product, low man power and so much more.
But the one thing that my business always had but was not much focused on was a bulk corporate gifting. I soon made a plan to pivot my business and serve the industry on large scale. It was a time to navigate this idea by showcasing our skills of handling large scale orders, provide shipping options, designing themed gifts and altogether provide a seamless gifting experience. After doing lot of research and adjusting to this new norm, I decided to go with the idea. Working on website content, social media handles, and word of mouth helped us to spread the word. It was around mid 2020 when we started getting lot of client & corporate gifting inquires for work from home gifts, happy hour gifts, self care gifts, holiday and client thank you gifts, etc. Pivoting our target audience, services and style of business really helped us get through the rough patch of pandemic. And today that became our niche. We now specialize in custom themed gifts and passionately design and fulfill each and every inquiry that comes our way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theartsybox.com
- Instagram: @theartsyboxusa
- Facebook: theartsybox
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-artsy-box
Image Credits
VG Photography