Harpreet Ahluwalia, Founder at Earthly Creations

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Harpreet Ahluwalia: Earthly creations is a socio-economic venture in the space of garden pots and decor and it was incorporated with a clear mission and vision of --to establish a synergy between environment, potters, and consumers and also to redefine and rethink how gardening and gifting needed to be done. I traveled the length and breadth of the country to meet the potters in their workplace, understand their procuring, manufacturing process, and design set

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During the interactions, I was intensely moved by the economic challenges, constricted mindset, competition impact, faced by the potters - more so the women potters, after the arrival of contemporary, non-biodegradable products in the market.

The competition in the market forced the potters to compromise on their process, quality, designing, aesthetics and functionality and eventually resulted in the loss of customers.

I resolved to turn the tide, by hand holding the community of the potters, to save the artisans and the traditional craft. I contemporized the designs and invested my time, effort, energy, and money wisely, consequently created customized terracotta pots in bird and animal shapes, aqua bodies, garden decor in all shapes, colors, textures, and sizes.

Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Earthly Creations

Harpreet Ahluwalia: We specialize in animal and bird-shaped pots and bring nature closer to one's homes and workplaces.We design balconies, terraces, home and society gardens, and much more. Beautify interiors and exteriors with our designer pots and plants.

We create specialized gifts in form of tray fardens, bottle gardens by using air-purifying plants.

Develop theme-based setups, corners, and walls. We make learning interesting for young minds by creating specialized corners, jungle trails, and defining relationships through pots.

Great Companies: What makes Earthly Creations different from hundreds of other garden pots makers?

Harpreet Ahluwalia: Pottery has been an integral part of our evolving society but unfortunately it was dying a premature death as it was not geared up and prepared to take on the changing times. So a new direction had to be effected, a new dream had to be woven, a new belief had to be inculcated and a whole new vision coupled with an impeccable discipline of execution needed to be imbibed.

Earthly creations brought in contemporary and new sets of design- which were in the Now.Also upgraded the systems to match the ever-dynamic market requirement.Created checks and balances for quality control, and timeline adherence.Redefined the marketplace for the potters from being local to pan India.

Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?

Harpreet Ahluwalia: Being a management graduate helped me to understand better the ways of doing business yet challenges came as avalanches every day. Starting from product designing, ensuring quality, adhering to timely delivery, getting the desired manpower, finances, all stretched me. And then I had the unique challenge of creating a paradigm shift, to transform a mundane market where gardening was driven by 'Malis', to inspiring people to personally contribute in enhancing their garden space, it has been quite a journey.

Taking the route of exhibitions we reached out to the customers and started the humongous task of educating the customer on:Accepting terracotta vs. plastic and ceramic-- since terracotta is a breathing medium, biodegradable, ecofriendly and completes the environment cycle 'Mitti see Mitti tak' Advantages of green gifting vs. chocolates and sweets. Creating empathy for both plants and animals and thereby the environment.

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for Earthly Creations?

Harpreet Ahluwalia: Continuous innovation, providing better value for money while improving the functionality helps Earthly Creations to evolve from product-based selling to value creation. Humbling to imbibe a lot of suggestions, given by the discerning customers, thus improving offerings on a continuous basis. It's engaging and partnering that has helped us scale better heights all the way.

In this journey, while creating rural livelihood also started supporting new entrepreneurship especially the urban women in metros and B towns- by partnering with them to resell Earthly Creations product range pan India thereby giving them economic independence and creating self-worth in them.Earthly Creations would continue hand-holding both the potters and the women entrepreneurs and create sustainable, scalable, meaningful, and contributory livelihood for the potters.

Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Harpreet Ahluwalia: Have a dream and a passion to achieve it. Take every setback as a learning field. One needs to prepare for success and keep updating on techniques, styles, trends, material.

Website : https://earthlycreations.in/