Girls rock ! They take total responsibility of their tasks. I never have to micromanage them. It gives me so much time to build the business ! says Sneha Das,COO of an all-girls digital media agency called Ittisa.
Brief introduction about yourself and tell us something about Ittisa? I am the COO & Digital Strategy Head at Ittisa – an all girls Digital Agency. I grew up in Jharkhand and about 10 years back moved to Bangalore for pursuing Grad & Post Grad in Marketing, I have been a Digital professional for about 8years now. Ittisa was born out of a sheer passion for Digital Marketing and a need to do something to level the playing field for women in the world of Digital Marketing. I have been strong believers in the fact that women are extremely hardworking and efficient, we wanted women to have a place where they can get all the freedom they want and can nurture their talents to grow, learn, fail, get up and grow again!
What all challenges did you face and what were your strategies to them? One of the major challenge was hiring – with an all girls agency you have out-rightly eliminated 65% of the work force so it was quite a challenge to get girls in but slowly as the brand became stronger and our clientele grew we were able to attract & retain good talent. We are about 25 girls now with 35+ clients in 7 different countries.
How has your journey been so far, any plans for expansion? The journey has been absorbing & exciting. Individually each one of us at Ittisa has grown immensely thus in turn growing the company revenue by 200% year on year. Yes, we are looking at expanding our business in African continent.
Did you face any specific challenges while starting the venture? While there was always the challenge of hiring or being undermined as women entrepreneurs and women only company, we dint focus on that too much. What we focused on was instilling confidence and capabilities in our girls that help them build their career and not just another job.
What piece of advice would you like to give to the aspiring youth who wish to pursue their dream of becoming an entrepreneur? Choose your path, walk it, own it & defend it. Stay strong & make your moves strategically!
According to you, what are the top three essential skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur? 1. Be a risk taker 2. A hard worker & 3. A self motivated soul
How do you manage the work-life balance? I am blessed that way. At Ittisa, I am glad to admit that we don't have to micro manage every thing that goes on during a day. The girls take responsibility and are very accountable. And at home, I have an extremely supporting family who understand the pressures & needs of a startup.
What are your views and opinions towards the ambiguous need to promote women entrepreneurship and women empowerment in India? All over the world women are not only being recognized as successful entrepreneurs and professionals, most of them are even outperforming men and its high time that India rises and accepts the fact. There has been a welcome change in the entrepreneurial scene in the past decade and we are seeing more women entrepreneurs. The onus is actually on the women entrepreneurs to cultivate and grow more of their breed.
Words for IWIL. Hope the initiative grows many folds and helps many women realize their entrepreneurial dreams.
