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Prachi Garg is the Founder of Ghoomphiro, a travel planning service that specializes in organizing corporate tours.
In this series, ‘Day In The Life Of An Entrepreneur’, we invite women entrepreneurs at work in India, to share their stories, and tell us what their life is all about. In this edition of Day In The Life Of An Entrepreneur, Prachi Garg talks about the genesis of her travel firm and what ‘good’ and ‘bad’ days as an entrepreneur are like.
It was the crazy desire to start something on my own, together with travel as my passion, that gave birth to Ghoomophiro.com. Ghoomophiro is a travel planning service that specializes in organizing corporate tours. We offer various options such as including adventure and leisure corporate team events, with a focus on less explored places.
The idea occurred during one of my holidays at Pachmarhi, where during an interaction with a local person, I thought of converting my travel passion into a profession.
It felt like I was standing in front of a bridge; it was upon me to cross it now. In my mind, I knew I had to cross it. After all, this world is dotted with men who have crossed bridges in their imagination far ahead of the crowd. These thoughts have always inspired me to strive for excellence and innovation.
My greatest challenge came when I began my first startup, a journal for MBA aspirants from tier-II cities named Managing Minds.
As a second-time entrepreneur now, I find working at ghoomophiro easier as compared to Managing Minds, as taking risks has broadened my mind and perspective.
It is going to be three years now since ghoomophiro took its first clients out on a trip. In a year, the company achieved its break-even. I started this firm with just Rs 1 lakh as capital channelled purely through my savings and today I have managed to earn enough profits that can be put back into the business.
Most of my trips are customized. Right now, I design the trip, based on the inputs from my clients, with places to visit and things to do. The aim is be a one stop shop for an end to end trip for our users.
I love zeroing in on the place and doing the research by myself as this goes with my passion of being a backpack traveler, who always wants to go to not-so-known places.
The best part of the day for me is when I get positive feedback from a client and hear a “Wow” from them.
Wherever I go, I contact local folks, who are into travel and take their help to make the tours more adventurous. The best part of the day for me is when I get positive feedback from a client and hear a “Wow” from them. Also, whenever I get to hear from a new client and if it is a referral, my day is made.
Usually, my work begins with researching on behalf of my clients, arranging the entire trip for them, coordinating for them and (not to miss) checking how their experience has been. Feedback plays an important role in the service industry. There are good days and bad days too as part of business and these bad days include whenever I get to hear of some goof-ups or lose a deal due to the client’s budget constraints.
I travel frequently as part of my job and have personally checked almost 50-60% of the properties on ghoomophiro’s list. So far, with my family, I have covered a good bit of India!
I believe a positive attitude towards success and a firm belief in yourself when combined with the right services always ensures customer satisfaction. My family, especially my parents and sister have been crucial in making my craziness worthwhile and ensuring that I do achieve my dreams, and understand business intricacies in better ways and never get disheartened with failures.
My future plan is to offer free travel consulting to people and help them create a great itinerary for trips in India and abroad. I would love to extend ghoomophiro to more cities, and help more women come out of their household shell and see life through a different lens.
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