If you ask someone from the luxury space about their work, they will tell you that they feel lucky to be doing something that is still joyful at times of uncertainty.
This ties in to the idea of how young entrepreneurs can find ways to make it work even through hardships if you find something that you truly like doing. Let the rewards come in slowly, start with sustenance and artistic fulfilment. Those are the things you should be thankful for.
What you should aim for in the very beginning:
1) Earning enough for your sustenance
2) Feeling fulfilled every day
As long as you are getting the two of those, sustenance and fulfilment, from your business idea then you should go for it and it will work out. That’s a little bit of idealism which is actually not a bad thing in this ‘oh-so-idealistic-its-bad’ attitude that seems to be garnering traction out there today among young entrepreneurs.
Now getting a little deeper, we can talk about luxury spaces specifically. If you are looking to enter the luxury space, like how CineLove tries to capture its luxury wedding content creation. Then how would you go about it?
Ritin Kumar and Sagar Kumar of Cinelove Productions, believe that luxury is just not about the product or the service you’re creating for your clients, but much more about the experience associated with your services. Every touch point that the clients come across must exude a comfortable or a classic experience which finally results in forming a luxuriating event for them and sets you ahead. Like for say, the idea of a fine customer experience is very simple, it begins with the feeling and impression your customers have upon initial interaction with your business and follows through the whole interaction. However, it contributes greatly to add that edge of comfort for the customers.
In addition, creating a tailor-made experience for the client is fundamental to impart luxury. In our business, we ensure that we take an in-depth understanding of the client’s culture, their stories, their demands, specific choices and deliver them with highly personalised services, photographs and films in our case, which certainly adds to that rich experience for them.
They (Ritin & Sagar) decided that the modern (or ‘post-modern) luxury market isn’t about flash. It’s about quality content that tells a story. If you wake up every morning trying to make a new way to progress in your work with integrity towards your clientele which you have to build one at a time.
This is how brands can enter a luxury space:
1) Find an entry point that is close to the hearts of your market, like Cinelove did with luxury weddings
Luxury brand spaces are of a variety of kinds. Hence, the first thing you need to do is narrow down on the exact spot you are sending in the laser focus from.
2) Stay constantly on the lookout for people who can give you valuable advice, whether it’s your line manager or your friend.
Opportunities are everywhere, and I am of the belief all knowledge exists all around the world and one simply needs to tap into it wherever possible. Anyone around you can offer you words that could prove valuable at a later date, but it’s also important to have someone or maybe more than one person, who can provide you with very honest criticism and advice.
3) Get it done the right way, even if it means waiting
It’s best if you can arrange for some form of formal arrangement for your business. And while you strive to ensure quality, it’s extremely important to follow each and every process diligently for each project/product/service that comes with your name.
4) Dive into your day to day executions and enjoy your work every single Day.
This last point is what must really be driven home. One of the BIG reasons why luxury brands including CineLove have been successfully foraying into the luxury segment of our population, is that we enjoy what we do. We do what we love, every single day.
Parting thoughts…
Since by now we hope to have highlighted the importance of idealism in entering successfully into a luxury space, the parting thoughts are obviously going to be also idealistic in nature. You need to figure out two things: 1) What is your venture truly about and 2) Does it align with any of the spaces occupied by the luxury market today
Once you have these two ideas in place, everything else will show itself. Work hard, study hard and the efforts will bear fruits. Fruits of every kind I might add because it’s really not just about the money for me.
It’s a quest that will never end, as any creative minded person will tell you. You are always discovering new things by running into obstacles none before you had to face. At the same time, you are also empowered by that destiny because there may be opportunities coming your way that you never sanaw coming in your ‘plan’. After all, “Fortune favours the brave”.
– By Sagar Kumar, Director and Head Storyteller, Cinelove Productions