This Architect Duo embarked into Entrepreneurship to explore endless possibilities

Ar. Yogesh Gupta & Ar. Kanchan Gupta – Owner, Archiiron Architects

Based out of Nagpur, Archiiron started its journey 8 years back. Its co-founders Ar Yogesh Gupta and Kanchan Gupta got into their entrepreneurial expedition knowing the fact that it won’t be a smooth ride ahead. But they were ready to take those challenges by the horns. After post-graduating from ‘School of Planning & Architecture’ in Building Engineering and Management, Yogesh gained first-hand experience from Colliers’ Project Management team before setting up Archiiron. Whereas, Kanchan started her career with Archiion after completion of her PG in Environmental Architecture from Pune’s DY Patil.

It’s not that they planned to be entrepreneurs, but need of success and having control over destiny drove them to start their own venture. According to them, having one’s own business gets the best out of them. Yogesh elucidates,

“You can be as creative and innovative as you want to be, and the results are the most rewarding. What we love most about having our own business is the ability to arrange our life around own priorities, energy and preferred work rhythms.”

Every venture goes through an acid test and Aechiiron wasn’t indifferent. Lack of funds and inconsistent income posed a huge threat to the early stages of their setup. And this effected both personal as well as professional life. Through hard ways they learned one lesson in business and that is to save some money from the good months which will keep them afloat during the tough times to come.

Both Yogesh and Kanchan agrees to the fact that understanding client requirement is key to success. Besides technical knowledge, and experience it is pertinent to have a thorough idea about what client needs, their budget, their timeline, their lifestyle and taste – only then an architect can deliver quality output. Keeping in touch with your previous clients also helps in generating business. Hence, maintain a healthy professional relationship with your client base can fetch references. After spending several years in running Aechiiron, Kanchan feels,

“Possessing good experience, along with a sound business plan, capital, focus on customer service and professionalism, are the key ingredients required to start of your own in this field.”

According to Yogesh, being a good listener and polite helps him to get his client in the comfort zone following which his consultancy skills bring in confidence in the client. A successful entrepreneur must possess this unique interpersonal skill. While there are hassles in running your own business, it does come with few perks – it empowers you and makes you completely independent.

Being recipient of “I Design Excellence Awards 2020” for best interior project under the category of “Restaurant, Café & Bar”, Yogesh feels that budding entrepreneurs in the architectural field should have confidence in themselves. He says,

“Firstly believe in yourself, have good knowledge / experience in your field, set your vision, have a business plan ready, implement it, learn from your mistakes and improve it as you move ahead.”

Not everybody takes ownership of their error, but a true entrepreneur will always own it, analyse it and eventually will take every possible steps to avoid it next time and emerge as a winner.

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