We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Neelu Kharbanda. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Neelu below.
Alright, Neelu thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
Success is a subjective term. My definition of success is achieving what you want as an individual. In my opinion, the top 3 things to achieve your goals would be :
- The want to do it- You should want your goal or vision, not because someone told you but because you want it
- The discipline to achieve what you want- Set your priorities
- Being consistent- Put this on repeat. Remember leaders are people who don’t quit
Neelu, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Neelu Kharbanda, I am the owner of ART Z, Art Studio in Trophy Club, TX. I am a mother of two beautiful girls who are very good artists and my favorite people to hang out with. I started the company from my home home studio in 2012 and absolutely loved sharing my knowledge and passion for art with kids. We grew every year and added more and more to our program. We currently teach online and in person art classes, pottery classes, we do art birthday parties, corporate events, fundraisers, holiday camps all around the metroplex. We teach kids the skills of sketching/painting so they can create pieces that conveys their feelings and creativity This is the first business I have started and owned and I learnt a lot along the way. I was confident about my ability to teach and guide but I had to learn the business side of things from scratch. I learnt how to make my own website, I learnt about accounting and HR of running a company, I learnt marketing techniques, and lastly I learnt time management skills trying to shuffle between lesson plans/teaching and managing. Have I grown as an entrepreneur? For sure I have, but I still have a long way to go. I want to achieve a lot more and grow and share this beautiful idea with all budding artists. It brings me joy to touch and connect with people through art. It makes my day when my students come and tell me that their art class is the best activity of their week. The idea is to make ART Z the most colorful concept in the nation. I want ART Z to be the best workplace and creative hub. A place where you can dream and paint your dreams!
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
In my opinion there are two key objectives to keep in mind when managing your team. One is knowing your team, which means knowing whats important to them, how do they measure their success. For some it can be making more money and for others it might be flexibility in working hours/certain days off/child care help etc. Next, is to motivate the team keeping those personal success measures in mind. Once you know your team, you know how to reward and motivate them in order to keep performance at its best. Happy/motivated employees leads to happy workplace which will have the best performance ratio.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I am sure all of us were tested for resilience in 2020. I truly feel that not knowing something is the worst kind of fear. Everything was so unpredictable, we faced challenges that we never expected to face. As none of us knew what to expect in the coming months or years it got extremely difficult to have a vision. Most of us doubted survival during those times. I went through that myself. I thought I was going to loose my vision. I had to work harder to stay motivated and focused. Coming out of that year with motivation to keep going is the best example of resilience
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artzstudiotx.com
- Instagram: art_z_studio
- Facebook: facebook.com/artztrophyclub
Image Credits
Sarah Marie Photography