Bootstrapping with dad,Roshni Vora Sapra shares her journey in the male dominated printing industry

Roshni Vora Sapra, RR Packaging, shares her journey…

I pursued my PGDM in Business Design (2011-13) from Welingkar Institute of Management & Research (Mumbai), and started my career with Cognizant Digital (a part of Cognizant Technology Solutions). As a Lead Design Analyst (for building websites and mobile applications), my profile included : Client Interactions to understand their design & business requirements, Business Development activities & Leading a design team during various projects. After almost 2 years of experience (2013-15) with CTS, I still remember, it wasn't an easy decision to make...to move from the tempting corporate life to an unknown business side. And amidst my struggles and anxieties, my father walked into my life as a true angel, held my hand and gave me the strength to take that tough decision. And his role didn't end there...My father, Mr. Narendra Vora, runs an offset printing factory. Having 46 years of experience in this industry, he has expertise in pharmaceutical carton printing. From printing to creating the final medicine cartons, our factory runs all the processes under one roof. Looking at my passion to start my own business, he offered me to join him and help him grow his business. That's when I left my full time job and started interning in my father's factory. Having spent some good amount of time at the factory, I started to notice a few grey areas that could be explored further, to benefit the business..minimizing the Intermediary influence, Gap between design & printing,lack of awareness about diversity of printing services etc.When I spoke about these challenges my father encouraged me to explore these areas further. I bootstrapped with my father and started my firm, RR Packaging (July 2015).

I started my journey doing cold calling (which use to be 'literally cold' in all aspects :p). I created a list of companies to approach (Gosh ! what would have i done without google?!) and scheduled meetings with them to showcase my portfolio.Direct client work helped me to reduce my father's dependency on the middle agents for work. Also, since i approached the companies directly, it became a lot easier for us to understand their requirements and deliver at effective costs. Before entering into a business with my clients, I try to understand their products and the target audience of those products. Depending on various factors viz. the budget, shelf life, retail vs B2B use, markets where the products would be sold, etc., I then suggest to them, various kinds of printing fabrications to opt for, to make the cartons look eye catching and attractive, while maintaining the economies of scale. Since I come from a business design background, I usually prefer to work with the designers from the beginning. If the printing needs are known from the start, it becomes easier for the designers to create cartons of optimum sizes, patterns, colours, etc. which play a major role at creating cost effective cartons with minimum time to market. I have also started offering design services for new product development. Challenges I faced... Coping up with the dynamic times we live in was not easy, especially because every customer is cost & quality conscious today. Having said that I too have been facing challenges in different forms, every day ! : be it managing the clients, handling factory workers, dealing with contract labourers, executing the final orders, consistently maintaining the quality of cartons or...(surviving in this male dominated printing industry ! ) . At each step there have been several hurdles, but what has kept me going each day is my father's support. If I am stuck at any step, he gives me the freedom to come up with an independent solution and at the same time direct my thoughts in the right direction. According to him, if the approach is right...the execution will never fail, despite n number of challenges one might face during the course. I would be lying if I said, I never doubted myself. I did and still do a lot of times! But every time I fall down...I remember my father's experiences & stories, that he had shared with me (which definitely act as live case studies for me), and they motivate me to get back on my feet again...