This article is contributed by Mr. Rajesh Kumar Subramanian, Founder, Ghoshak.
When you are on an entrepreneurial journey, you have a blank canvas in front of you to paint it. You can choose the colors you want, draw anything you want and paint the picture of your dreams. For the right outcome, one needs the right set of paintbrushes, proper canvas, board, and a suitable environment. The proper support and mentorship can help an entrepreneur to focus on the primary goal.
What is Mentorship?
Today a mentor is more than a teacher or a guide. A mentor is a supporter, a friend, a helping hand, and a guide. The general conception around mentors is that entrepreneurs seek someone more learned in the same field or industry, have more experience, or support them financially. While someone with this definition is a mentor, anyone can be a mentor if we are open to learning and widening our horizons.
When you are on an entrepreneurial journey, you have to be more open to new ideas and learnings. Of course, there will be obstacles in the path, but one needs to get up, learn and get going.
Jack of All Trades but Master of One
Being an engineer by nature, my core competency lies in all things technology. I (Rajesh Kumar Subramanian) have built software and led technology teams, but when it comes to other crucial aspects of business like Sales, Marketing, Finance, and HR, I do need the support and expertise of colleagues and team members. My co-founder is my biggest mentor, support, and friend in times of crucial business decisions and vice-versa. It’s a team that makes or breaks the startup or any company. They are your strength and can give you expertise and niche advice and take the workload off.
Here’s how your mentors (team members) can lead to the successful growth of the business:
More Innovation & Creativity
When people from different fields and backgrounds come together, they bring their own set of creativity that aligns with the company’s final goal. They shape the company in such a way that is fun and is abundant in ideas. The path to grow and move forward becomes more transparent and easy with the combined strength.
The startup world is quite competitive. Sometimes companies with enough cash flow and resources lack in the market due to a stronger team. However, having the best minds from diverse fields can make the business stand out and give it a competitive edge.
Attract Investors & Funding
Whenever an investor wants to invest in a company, the first thing they look for is how driven the team is and their aspirations. This is how they judge how well the team will be able to support or mentor the founder(s). When the team consists of strong and qualified people, even the investors are assured that their investment would be put to good use and safe hands.
Aid in Business Diversification
When entrepreneurs start a journey, they always have a plan to diversify the same into different businesses. But, to do the same, they again need the support and mentorship of a good team and investors. From marketing, sales, supply chain, production, finance to quality control, one needs strong people to help you achieve your vision and goal.
These days many young entrepreneurs start their journey just after finishing college or even before that. But, they have the drive and zeal to create a difference and build something unique. Whether young or old, we all need the right mentors by our side to achieve our goals and see our dreams unfold. They can be friends, family members, investors, seniors from the industry, or even acquaintances. Therefore, always be open to learning new things and have the right people by your side on your journey.
The new technologies today have made the idea of startups more popular than ever before. Gone are the days when people were afraid to try out new ideas. Nowadays the young passionate minds are more driven towards the ideas of a startup.
With startups progressing well, the idea of startup investing has become lucrative. More investors are now interested in startup funding. Funding an innovative startup in the initial stage can be profitable in the future.
Yuvraj Singh, former Indian team cricketer has now become a venture capitalist. Yuvraj launched his investment company, YouWeCan Ventures in 2015. With this venture, he planned to encourage entrepreneurship and online startups. He has invested in various startups like Healthians, EazyDiner, Wellversed, etc.
Funding is the capital needed to start and run a business. Startup funding, in simple words, is a financial investment. This funding made by an investor helps the startup ideas come to life.
Startup funding involves equity financing or debt financing. In both cases investment proves to be lucrative, except if the startup fails.
Many entrepreneurs, cricketers, actors are entering the ecosystem of startup funding. They do funding as venture capitalists, angel investors, and private equity.
YouWeCan’ An Initiative by Yuvraj Singh
YouWeCan Logo
Yuvraj Singh, a former Indian Cricketer was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. He fought cancer and came out as a survivor. This journey inspired him to start an organization for cancer patients, YouWeCan.
It aims to support cancer patients in various ways. These are raising awareness among patients, helping in their treatment processes and, equipping the survivors with opportunities.
Yuvraj Singh as a Venture Capitalist
Yuvraj Singh turned into a venture capitalist. He expanded YouWeCan by starting YouWeCan Ventures. He announced to invest 40-50 crores (Indian rupees) in technology-based startups.
Since it was introduced, YouWeCan Ventures has invested in several startups. Yuvraj has thus, made a great contribution to the Indian startup movement.
The fundings came to a halt during the time of covid-19. But soon in October 2020, Yuvraj Singh invested in Wellversed.
Startups Funded by Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh has invested in various startups. These are as follows:
Healthians
Healthians Logo
Healthians is a tech-based startup that provides lab test services at home. It provides convenient, faster, affordable, and dependable healthcare services. Deepak Sahni founded it and is also its CEO.
Healthians uses various technologies like HTML, jQuery, Google analytics, etc. This tech-based health startup has proved to be profitable and useful in the field of healthcare.
Healthians started from Delhi NCR. Now, it has its presence in more than 30 Indian cities. YWC Ventures-backed Healthians also acquired Mumbai-based Healthy Labs in 2019.
Yuvraj’s association with the brand proved to be a great marketing measure for the startup.
EazyDiner
Eazydiner Logo
EazyDiner is an online restaurant reservation platform. It provides recommendations and reviews by top critics for a great dining experience. It also provides great deals on every reservation.
The company entered the market in 2015, backed by six investors and Yuvi was one of them.
Its headquarters are in Gurugram. It is active in 150 Indian cities and Dubai. It has partnerships across the restaurant industry. Some of the key partners are Leela Hotels, Taj Hotels, Marriott Group, Burger King, etc.
It was founded in 2011 and Ishan Gupta is the founder. Five investors are backing up this startup. YouWeCan Ventures and United Finsec are the most recent. Later in 2016, Paytm acquired it.
EduKart has made a great remark following the need for online learning in recent times.
Chqbook
Chqbook Logo
Chqbook is a fintech startup. It helps the customers compare, book, and get personalized finance products. It offers services like banking, lending, insurance, and rewards.
Vipul Sharma is the CEO of Chqbook. Founded in 2016, it has 14 investors. Yuvraj Singh is one of the lead investors in Chqbook.
Wellversed
Wellversed Logo
It is a technology-based startup. It deals in nutritional products. This healthcare startup’s products span many nutrition regimes.
It aims to help people with healthy transformations in their diets. The products of Wellversed are available on many online sites. These include Amazon, Snapdeal, etc.
The CEO of the company Aanan Khurma. Wellversed is funded by eleven investors. Yuvraj Singh made an angel investment in the company. Along with being an investor, he is also the face of the brand.
It is the latest investment made by Yuvraj through YWC Ventures in October 2020.
Naturals@Home
Naturals@Home Logo
Naturals (before Vyomo) is a mobile application for beauty and wellness. It allows women to book their beauty appointments and enjoy the services at home. The services are rendered by trained and verified professionals.
Abhinav Khare is the founder and also CEO of the company. It has three investors. These are Naturals, Rocket Internet, and YouWeCan Ventures.
Yuvraj Singh was an early investor in Vyomo, now Naturals.
Black White Orange Brands
Black White Orange Logo
This is a new-age startup that provides merchandising solutions. It offers services of brand consulting, creative solutions, retail distribution. It provides services in India as well as overseas.
Bhavik Vora is the founder and CEO of Black White Orange Brand. It has two investors- Collaborative Ventures and Yuvraj Singh’s YWC Ventures.
SportyBeans
SportyBeans Logo
SportyBeans is one of India’s reputed sports programs for children. It aims to promote fitness and a passion for sports among pre-schoolers.
YouWeCan Venture is the lead investor in SportyBeans.
Yuvraj Singh has also funded JetSetGo and Moovo. JetSetGo helps with private aviation services. Moovo is a tech-based booking platform for mini-trucks.
Yuvraj Singh has made great contributions to society. He started YouWeCan to support cancer patients and help with their treatments. Then started YouWeCan Ventures to support young entrepreneurs with their innovative startup ideas.
Yuvraj calls startup funding a risk one takes. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. He feels happy to see any startup funded by him turning into a big company. Here, Healthians is a great example. Since covid did not hit the health sector, Healthians has seen great growth during the pandemic.
FAQs
Who is Yuvraj Singh?
Yuvraj Singh is a former Indian international cricketer.
How many Startups has Yuvraj Singh Funded?
Yuvraj Singh is Invested in various Startups like eazyDiner, WellVersed, Healthians, EduKart, etc.
What is YouWeCan?
YouWeCan is a non-profit organization established by Yuvraj Singh that aims to support cancer patients in various ways. These are raising awareness among patients, helping in their treatment processes, and equipping the survivors with opportunities.
The moment we hear the word Royal, the first thing that comes to our minds is huge Fortune. Our minds automatically create a picture of palaces, King and Queen in precious jewellery, and tons of money.
When we hear the term ‘Royal Family’, the first one to come to our mind is the Royal family of the UK. They are no doubt the most popular royalties in the world.
The British Royals are wealthy. Looking at the family’s palace, properties, staff members, and lifestyle, we cannot help but wonder what is the source of their money?
At present, Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the state of the United Kingdom. The queen’s father King George VI died in 1952 and she has been a monarch since then.
The family consists of the Queen, her 4 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Queen’s late husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was also a member of the Royal family.
The other important family members include:
Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth’s eldest son. After the Queen, he will get the throne as the King.
Prince William, the firstborn of Prince Charles. He will be the next successor in line after Prince Charles.
Prince Harry, the second son of Diana and Charles. Last year, however, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, stepped down as the Senior Royals. Even though they live independently, Harry being born in royalty is still a Prince.
The Monarch’s Relationship with the Parliament
In the United Kingdom’s Parliament, there is the House of Commons, House of Lords, and the Monarch (the Queen, at present).
The Queen enjoys the power of Royal Assent in the Parliament. To pass a bill in the parliament, it is approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. After that, the bill goes to the Queen for final approval.
This approval is the Royal Assent which converts a bill into Parliament’s Act. She invites the leader of the winning party to form a government and become the Prime Minister. She also plays an important role in the case of the dissolution of the Parliament.
Today, but the constitutional role of the monarchy in the parliament has been reduced to a certain extent. It is now more of a ceremonial role.
What are the Sources of Income for the Royal Family?
The following are the sources of how the British Royal Family makes money:
The Sovereign Grant:
The first and the most significant source of income for the Crown in the UK is the Sovereign Grant. The monarch has official duties and for that, the government pays this grant.
The Crown Estate in the United Kingdom belongs to the throne. It means it belongs to the monarch during their time on the throne. A monarch has no power to sell the estate. It is not their private property. It is neither owned by the monarch nor the government.
The Crown Estate is super valuable that helps to generate revenue. A percentage of profits of this revenue makes for the Sovereign Grant. It is like an annual income for the monarchy.
This grant covers the expenses of the monarch’s official duties. This includes security expenditure, press meetings, basic maintenance, and travel.
The Treasure of the Royal Collection
Queen’s Crown
It is one of the most significant and enormous art collections in the whole world. It consists of more than a million objects. Various vintage objects are ranging from fine to decorative art. This collection is living proof of the personal taste of various kings and queens over the years.
Buckingham Palace Exhibition
The Royal Collection gets maintained under the queen as a Sovereign. This collection helps in the generation of a lot of money. The items under the collection are given on loan to various museums. For this, there are annual visitors. All this makes a source of money for the monarch.
However, this trust income is not profitable for the royals. A major amount of this income goes into the maintenance of the queen’s public residences. Also, the artwork and jewels of the crown require maintenance expenses.
The Duchies
The Duchies are the properties and financial investments of the royals. It refers to their private estate. There are two royal duchies in England.
The Duchy of Lancaster, owned by Queen Elizabeth II. The second, the Duchy of Cornwall functions under the Duke of Cornwall. Prince Charles heads and enjoys the privilege of this private estate.
Duchy of Cornwall
These private estates are separate from the crown properties. The revenue generated by these is for the royals and their family’s private and public activities.
Inheritance
Inheritance and blood are what makes for a royal family. The members of the royal family also generate income from their inherited properties.
For example- The queen has her income sources under the Duchy of Lancaster. It was inherited by the queen from her father King George VI.
In the same way, Prince Charles gets his income from the Duchy of Cornwall. Prince William and Harry are also entitled to the revenue of this Duchy.
Prince Harry and William have also inherited money from their late mother, Princess Diana.
Princess Diana
Apart from the crown properties, the royal family has their investments. Even the queen has her investments which are not revealed in public.
Prince Harry and Meghan- No Longer Entitled to Royal Wealth
Harry and Meghan Markle in America
In January 2020, Harry and Meghan decided to step down as the Senior Royals. They decided to shift to North America and be financially independent.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry revealed when he left, he got cut off from any financial help from the royals. He shared that he was grateful for the money inherited from his mother, Diana. This money proved to be helpful in his journey to new life.
Harry and Meghan are using their wealth to work further. Thus, maintaining their decision of being independent.
Conclusion
The royal family holds great importance among the people of the UK. The power is shared between the government and the crown. The queen has official duties and ceremonial powers that make her role important.
The royals of the UK get money from both public as well private sources. Thus, the royal family has various sources of money to enjoy their status as royalty.
FAQs
How much do British taxpayers pay to the Royal Family?
As per the latest Sovereign Grant the taxpayers are paying nearly $96.28 million.
How much is Buckingham Palace worth?
Buckingham Palace is worth an estimated $4.9 billion.
How many properties do the royal family own?
The British Royal Family owns 20 properties in the UK.
It is the day and age of marketing and advertising. Anything from a business to a job needs advertising. Everyone has to advertise to market their products and services.
The demand for strategic advertising is increasing day by day. Advertising includes television advertising, radio advertising, direct mail, podcast, social media, etc. One of the most popular modes nowadays is video advertising. A video ad intrigues interest among the customers to know about the product and services.
People are now keener to know about something shortly and interestingly. Thus, video advertising is here to help the owner as well as the customers, in the best possible way. So, if you are planning to promote your brand with the help of video advertisements this is a complete guide for you.
A video advertisement means framing the desired content in the form of a video. It is a way how a company or an organization takes the help of video content to market itself.
In today’s digital age, video advertising plays a vital role in marketing a product. It helps to present the company’s content in an explaining and interesting manner.
Video ads help in brand promotions. It displays how-to guides, shares customer reviews, and recommendations, or live stream events. These often appear before, during, or after a video stream on the internet. But now they have taken up the centre stage as well.
Video ads include web series, explainer videos, unboxing videos, Behind the scene videos, and more.
What are the Types of Digital Video Advertisements?
Linear Video Ads:
It is like age-old television commercials. These also appear before, during, or after the mainstreaming content.
These ads tend to promote a brand. It can also display new offers or discounts. These ads can also include interactive options for the audience.
Example- YouTube ads
Non-Linear Video Ads:
These ads often include texts and images. Unlike linear video ads, these do not disrupt the user’s content view.
Non-Linear video ads appear along with the content. These ads should be short, clear, and crisp. These qualities ensure brand promotion without interrupting a customer’s view.
Example- In-article videos, In-feed videos, etc.
Types of Video Ads for Marketing
Interactive Videos:
These are some of the most popular types of video advertising. The best part is that it helps to increase engagement. It can include options like sign up link, app link, click to know more, etc. Interactive video ads pause the user’s content and occupy the whole screen.
In-Page Videos:
These videos do not need a specific video streaming platform. These are placed on the web pages. Such video ads have embedded video players that allow a video to play automatically.
In-Text Videos:
In-text video ads are placed within the text. It appears between any two paragraphs of an article. It auto-plays when you reach the video and pauses when you scroll further.
Event Videos:
Event Videos help to promote business and motivate the employees. Event videos include a company’s meetings, announcements, social events, and parties. Such videos help in business promotion by highlighting a company’s atmosphere.
Customer Success Stories Videos:
It promotes a business by showing its advantages from the customer’s perspective. In this video, customers speak about their successful experience with the brand.
These type of videos builds trust among the customers. The potential customers can look at the advantages of existing customers. This encourages them to trust the brand and give it a try.
Q&A Videos:
Question and Answer videos play an integral role in advertising. It not only promotes a company but also helps the company to know its customers better.
A company collects questions from customers and answers them in the video. This is a great method of marketing as it builds the customer-company relationship.
Behind the Scene Videos:
These videos show the scenes that are not displayed on the face of a brand. How a company works, the fun behind the making process, the inside jokes, and more.
These videos should be interesting and fun-loving. It helps the customers to feel the company’s atmosphere through a video. Thus, a good way to advertise.
Top 6 Video Ideas for Advertisements (With Examples)
Branded Short film:
This is one of the most effective video ideas for advertising. You have to create a short story related to your brand. Then you have to include your product or service between the story.
A story helps the audience to relate to the brand. Thus, a branded short film creates an emotional connection with the audience.
Descriptive or Unboxing Video:
If your product or service has many features then this video advertisement is perfect for you. You can make an explanatory video for it. In the video, you can describe how your product or service works, its specifications, and more.
You can also make an unboxing video. This helps the customers to know about your products on a first-hand basis. Such videos help to build a sense of trust and authenticity among the customers.
Customer Review Videos:
Another popular video-making idea is customer review videos. You can ask your customers to send their video reviews about your brand. The customers can share their experience with the brand through videos. These videos develop trust and attract new customers.
Comic Content Videos:
We all know that the idea of stand-up comedy is getting more and more popular. These comedians not only make us laugh but also know how to promote a brand in between.
You can create funny dialogues, stories, or animation and relate them to your brand. It is always a good idea to advertise your business in a fun-loving manner.
Web Series:
This idea is effective but also expensive. You can conceptualize a short series revolving around your brand or business. Example- For a clothing store, you can make a series called ‘Diaries of a fashionista’.
This video advertisement idea can be difficult for conceptualization and production. But it is super quirky and unique.
Reels, Stories, and Shorts:
We all know that social media advertising is super lucrative. The customers are all over the social media apps. All these platforms have now introduced short-form videos. These are Instagram reels, Facebook stories, YouTube shorts.
So, if you want to advertise your brand and attract new customers, this idea is a must. On one hand, you can create these videos yourself. On another, you can pay influencers to make videos for your brand. This is very profitable as you can leverage their audience as well.
Advertising is the most important part of any business or brand. People cannot find time to read and research about brands. They prefer videos over other mediums.
Videos are more understandable and interesting. This helps the customers to know about a business or brand in a fun and easy way. So, every business should invest in video making for advertisements. Also, it is always better to keep the videos short, crisp, understanding to keep the interest alive.
FAQs
What kind of videos are used for marketing purposes?
An explainer video, product demonstration video, company culture video, behind-the-scenes video and customer testimonial video are some of the videos used for marketing purposes.
How to Make an Effective Video Ad?
Your first few seconds are important, make them count, Highlight what makes your brand stand out, and Use a call to action are some of the ideas you can use to make an effective video ad.
What are the types of advertising?
Display Advertising, Video Advertising, Mobile Advertising, and Native Advertising are some of the types of advertising.
Burnout has become so frequent in our society that it is sometimes regarded as a sign of success. We value productivity and hustle but often neglect our mental and emotional health as a culture.
Burnout, often known as “high achiever disease,” is a type of persistent stress that produces psychological, physical, and emotional pain, rendering many people unable of continuing. Burnout is becoming a major problem, particularly among young hustlers.
Running a business is stressful whether your company is in its fledgling stages or beyond. Many entrepreneurs experience burnout and lose their entrepreneurial enthusiasm as a result of their exhaustion. Not everybody deals with stress well, and not everyone has someone to talk to. Here are some of the best ways to avoid burnout when starting a new business and reduce stress level to a great extent.
It can be a significant source of worry if you don’t control your day-to-day company administration tasks, files, revenue and other data. Disorganisation is nothing more than a distraction while you’re working hard and focused on your job. Taking the effort to arrange your computer, files, workstation, and routines might help you avoid stress-related burnout.
Avoiding unneeded stress is a big part of preventing burnout. Setting goals and objectives by generating a to-do list the night before or first thing in the morning when you have your breakfast before starting your day is one approach to achieve this. This can help you stay focused and relieve stress by allowing you to see where you are on your to-do list.
Getting active is one of the most effective methods to combat burnout. Exercise has been scientifically proved to increase mood, reduce general tension levels, improve sleep, and boost self-esteem.
You don’t have to begin your training as a wrestler or an athlete. However, dedicating 30-40 minutes to exercising each day might help you prevent burnout. Yoga, spinning, jogging, kickboxing, or simply a brisk 20-minute stroll around the neighbourhood can regularly improve your attitude and energy levels.
If you don’t have time, walk to your office if it’s not too far away, or walk to the grocery store when you purchase your groceries. It is also possible to walk while conversing on the phone.
If you work from home, take a stroll around the house; grab a wired or wireless headphone and take a walk around the building if you work in an office. If you exercise in this way, it will not feel like exercise since it will blend in with the work you’re doing, and you will have completed the appropriate amount of activity while completing your tasks before you even realise it.
Caffeine Intake Management
Never forget that coffee is a narcotic and a stimulant, not a healthy beverage. Caffeine withdrawal causes headaches in many people who drink coffee, even decaf. The objective is to consume coffee or caffeine-based items at a pace that is no higher than before the startup.
Misuse or overuse may lead to issues such as consuming too much or too late before night, preventing you from falling asleep and leading to destructive sleep patterns and feeling weary and drained in the morning, resulting in zero productivity at work. You can also get so reliant on it that if you don’t have it, you’ll feel sluggish and in desperate need of a pick-me-up.
Having to be boosted by coffee rather than your thinking is a crutch; instead, drink some water, eat some fruit, or eat anything wholesome that will provide natural and good energy. Eat an apple if you want to stay up for a long. It has a decent dose of caffeine.
Give Yourself a Break
The difficulty with being exhausted and anxious is that it’s difficult to see things. By overworking yourself, you’re trapping yourself in a vicious cycle of completing short-term goals one after another, giving yourself a sense of accomplishment but never allowing yourself the space, tranquilly, or time to elevate your vision and move the business ahead.
The burning need to show others how hard you’re working, as well as the concern that if you slow down, they’ll claim you can’t keep up, is another significant difficulty for many business owners. The critical thing to remember is that you are the only owner of the company. Thus it would be best if you thought more competent rather than faster.
Changing your attitude about rest is the most effective strategy to avoid burnout. Rather than thinking of it as lazy and unproductive, think of it as working and preserving your energy for later tasks. If you want to develop a long-term profitable business, you need to take time off. To be fully productive at work, your brain must focus on things other than work. At the absolute least, take a 20-minute break every couple of hours. Also, don’t forget about weekends and vacations. Taking longer breaks might help you make better decisions.
Meditate
Mediation to avoid burnout
Meditating is a highly effective method to avoid burnout. According to many highly successful entrepreneurs, meditation may help you prevent burnout and help you feel peaceful and enhance your productivity. Meditation has several advantages, including reduced heart rate, blood pressure, anxiety, and stress, among others.
Meditation is an excellent approach to prevent burnout since it can be done anywhere and at any time. Take a seat, straighten your back, and focus on each deep inhalation and exhalation.
Humans are social creatures, and for most people, socialising is practically like brain fuel. If you are a lone entrepreneur, this is especially true if you operate in an atmosphere where socialising in a professional setting is not considered socialising at all. So go out and mingle, whether it’s at a family gathering, a relaxing cafe, a cosy bookstore, or even a modest diner. Make time for your friends and family since spending time with them might help you feel less stressed and calmer.
Proper REM Sleep and Nutrition
Food and sleep are almost equally crucial for your overall health. You can stay up late to finish your work or anything else you want to do in that time, but you can’t expect your body or mind to operate correctly if you don’t get appropriate enough (REM) sleep. The same applies to all of your favourite fatty and tasty foods, eating them in an unhealthy amount daily will have a negative impact on your productivity. So make a conscious effort to eat healthily.
It doesn’t matter if your company is doing well, is still in its beginner phase or if it’s not going well. Your mental and physical health must always come first since you won’t be able to do anything if you’re sick or completely burnt out. So don’t be too hard on yourself and never compare your productiveness to someone else’s.
FAQs
What is burnout?
Burnout is a psychological term that relate to feelings of energy depletion. It is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.
How can entrepreneurs prevent burnout?
Entrepreneur can prevent burnout by following simple ways:
Get Organised and Set Goals
Exercise
Caffeine Intake Management
Give Yourself a Break
Meditate
Socialise
Proper REM Sleep and Nutrition
Can meditation restore energy?
Yes, meditation significantly improves brain function and energy levels and helps you out in reducing stress level.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Mellow.
Mellow is a premium Ayurvedic, natural, and herbal skin care & hair care brand. Its product offerings are in three distinct categories – Hair Care, Body Care and Face Care. It brings the best of Ayurveda and the care of mother nature together. The startup aims to bring the wisdom of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic lifestyle to the world.
StartupTalky interviewed Ms. Vaishali Sharda (CEO, Mellow) to get insights into the startup storyand roadmap of the organization. Let’s discover more about Mellow in the article ahead –
Mellow is a premium Ayurvedic, natural, and herbal skin care & hair care brand. Its product offerings are in three distinct categories, namely: Hair Care, Body Care and Face Care. The startup believes in the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda that the body is a temple and to nurture the body with pure and natural products is an act of gentleness, love, and kindness.
Mellow’s long-term vision is to take India to the world- to bring the wisdom of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic lifestyle to the world. In the future, it plans to take the brand beyond India. It is soon planning to launch on Nykaa, Sublime Life, Vanity Wagon, Amazon US, and UAE.
The brand’s core belief is not about progressing alone but to progress with the society and various stakeholders involved. Authenticity is what the foundation of its products stands on and they firmly believe in quality over quantity. The team believes in affordable luxury and is striving to take Ayurveda to the masses instead of just a handful of people in society. Mellow’s current vision is to continue to serve its customers with the best, authentic, and premium Ayurvedic products. The brand wants to make Ayurveda accessible for all. Its aim is to not only find a spot on people’s shelves but in their hearts.
Mellow – Market/Industry Details
In the FMCG and more precisely the beauty segment, Mellow’s market size is quite big because its Ayurvedic products are safe to use from seven to seventy years of age. The startup can already see a lot of awareness and interest among people about Ayurveda in the past decade. In the next five years, it sees the market shifting to more natural and herbal-based products and people adopting the Ayurvedic lifestyle. The day is not far when every other household in India will have Ayurvedic products for their skincare and beauty needs.
Mellow – Idea and Inspiration
“The journey of Mellow is a story of my mother’s love for me and her quest for her independence. Decades ago my mother, Sujata Sharda, a homemaker, and a mother went searching for the answer to her daughter’s hair fall problems” – Says Vaishali Sharda, CEO, Mellow
Her strong resolve to find the solution to Vaishali’s hair fall in mother nature, led her to a journey of discovery across Vaidays (Ayurvedic doctors), botanists, herbal experts, and after many souls searching, research, and experimentation with various natural formulations in her own kitchen, she made the first Sesame Hair Oil– the hair elixir. The oil yielded astonishing results for people and was an instant success!
Initially, it was close family members, friends, and neighborhood people who became the first customers. People loved the hair oil. As the word for the natural elixir spread far and wide among relatives, communities, and beyond, orders started pouring in and demand grew, it was time for her to move beyond the confines of her kitchen.
In 2008, she laid the foundation of the first factory, and thus Mellow was born. It has been 13 years since and still, Mellow stands for artificial and chemical-free natural products to date. Currently, Mellow offers the product range in three distinct categories, namely Hair Care, Body Care, and Face Care.
Mellow – Products and USP
If you look at Mellow’s initial product, the Sesame Hair Oil –it solves a wide array of problems from stopping hair fall, hair strengthening to hair re-growth. So rather than creating five different products for your hair problems, Mellow created a single product that can cater to all your hair problems. Take the example of its anti-wrinkle cream, it not only reduces wrinkles but tightens and nourishes your skin too. So instead of three different products for three different issues, it made one product- the anti-wrinkle cream that solves all your issues in one go.
Mellow Products
Mellow is here to simplify people’s lives. So the basic strategy behind its innovation is, if there are similar kinds of problems faced by people, there should be one simple solution for it. That is the brand’s USP and its approach to R&D and innovationof every product. Each product that comes out of Mellow takes six months to a year of R&D, sampling, and rigorous tests before it is launched in the market. Another big factor is that it has simplified skincare and haircare with affordable products.
“Our USP, I would say is that we are natural, Ayurvedic and herbal products that are free from harsh chemicals. We bring best-in-class and premium Ayurvedic solutions at an affordable price point” – Vaishali added.
Mellow is a natural, Ayurvedic Skincare and Hair Care brand. It brings the best of Ayurveda and the care of mother nature together. It has a range of products that treat and solves problems related to hair and body care faced by modern men and women. Since its inception, the brand’s motto has been to provide the best and purest Ayurvedic products for everyone.
Initially, it was Vaishali’s mother, Sujata Sharda who manufactured all the products from her own kitchen. Mellow is Sujata Sharda’s brainchild. She started the brand from scratch, and used to manufacture, package, and label all the products on her own in the startup years. From there, she nurtured, cultivated, and grew the brand over the years. Vaishali was always involved in the brand but became a full-time contributor from 2020.
Sujata Sharda – Founder of Mellow
As far as Vaishali’s academic background is concerned, she is a B.com graduate and studied Bachelor of Laws (LLB). Before coming to Mellow, she was practicing human rights law and was actively involved in cases/projects involving women and labor rights. But everything changed in 2020 during the lockdown period.
When Vaishali came back home and saw her mother working on the brand day in and out, she was pulled by her vision. She started helping her mother to ramp up the marketing of the brand a notch and very soon she fell in love with the newfound taste of entrepreneurship. In those months of helping her mother, something stirred up in Vaishali, and wanted to join Mellow full time. Vaishali quit her safe, treaded, and secured path of being a lawyer and becoming a full-time entrepreneur.
Mellow’s CEO – Vaishali Sharda
Currently, as the CEO of Mellow, Vaishali’s role and responsibility is to actively market, grow and revamp the brand. She is involved in all the aspects of marketing, social media, strategizing, digital marketing, building the team, and also the social aspect of the brand.
On the other hand, Vaishali’s mother Sujata does all the back-end jobs. She is involved in every aspect of the brand from research, manufacturing to packaging. She is always looking for new information, research, and recent developments in the field of Ayurveda, naturopathy, herbal experts, to find solutions to problems faced by modern men and women. She is the driving force behind all the product development and actively contributes ideas, inspirations, and solutions to the R&D team.
Mellow – Ideology behind Name & Logo
The name and branding of Mellow reflect the Ayurvedic philosophy. It reflects the fact that the team at Mellow is inspired by the Ayurvedic traditions and the gentleness of mother nature. It reflects the calmness, the gentleness of mother nature with the potency of Ayurvedic solutions. The founders wanted a name that conveys to the customers that the brand is completely natural, materials used are derived from nature and it is gentle and soothing on your skin and relaxes your body. After much thoughts, strategic sessions, and brainstorming, the founders came up with the word Mellow which was very apt. It’s every product, every jar will make you feel connected to nature, bring you closer to your roots, to mother nature. Hence Mellow- Closer to Nature.
Mellow Logo
Mellow – Startup Launch
At the initial stages, Vaishali’s mother used to manufacture all the products from her own kitchen. She would do everything from manufacturing, packaging, and labeling all the products on her own. Initially, it was on small scale for close family members and friends. The most important strategy for the brand has been word-of-mouth marketing. The first 100 users and beyond came because people benefitted from Mellow’s Sesame Hair Oil and recommended it to their loved ones. The word of the natural elixir spread far and wide among relatives, communities, and beyond, orders started pouring in and demand grew. It was time for her to move beyond the confines of her own kitchen. In 2008, she laid the foundation of the first factory, and thus Mellow was born.
“We definitely believe that when you are giving a quality product that is affordable, sustainable, and it is solving your issues, and making our customers happy and satisfied then customers will choose you over other brands. It gives me immense pleasure to add that we have developed deep relationships with customers that have stuck to the brand for more than a decade” – says Vaishali.
Mellow has been able to retain customers by giving quality, premium, and natural products that solve their skincare woes. Customers are central to all the brand does. Mellow’s quality control, learning, customer-centric approach, and constant innovation helps not only attract but also to retain customers.
Mellow – Challenges Faced
The most challenging part when it comes to Mellow was not to come up with the product but to market it, to find the strategy, the tonality, the brand story, and to come up with and implement all other aspects of marketing has been the biggest concern. Initially, it was Vaishali’s mother Sujata who took care of everything, putting her heart and soul into the development of the product, growing the brand but at the end of the day she was a homemaker and marketing was a whole new dimension for her too.
That is where Vaishali came in. She took the helms of marketing, strategizing, and all other aspects of the brand. She read extensively, talked to a lot of people from end consumers, Ayurvedic doctors, manufacturers to marketers. She also did a little bit of market research to understand people’s wants and desires more intimately. It helped her a lot to develop a suitable strategy and to market the brand better. Now things are much more structured and systemized. Branding, promotion, and all other aspects of marketing have picked up. Moreover, people are discovering Mellow.
Just Herbs, Kama Ayurveda, Juicy chemistry, Ohria, Pahadi local, Soultree, Moms and Co, Blue Nectar,among others are competitors of Mellow.
Mellow – Future Plans
Mellow’s aim is to find a place on the shelves of every Indian household. It plans to take the brand beyond India and is planning to launch on Nykaa, Sublime Life, Vanity Wagon, Amazon US, and UAE in the coming years.
The way the brand looks at the future is holistic success for not just the brand but the society too. It wants to create a community of like-minded people, a society around Mellow. Its product packaging is often done by local communities to give them financial assistance. For example, the cloth used for Mellow packaging is done by local slum women for whom the brand provides vocational training. It is the brand’s small bit to give back to society. All in all, Mellow is trying to build a community around it and have people rise with the brand.
“Working at Mellow has been a humbling experience. I have learned a lot about the beauty industry, Ayurveda, and people in general. One thing which I have realized over the years is there is a yearning among people to come back to their roots-to mother nature. People are now open and experimenting with Ayurvedic products made of natural ingredients and saying no to harmful chemicals” – Vaishali added.
Mellow – FAQs
What is Mellow?
Mellow is a premium Ayurvedic, natural, and herbal skin care & hair care brand. Its product offerings are in three distinct categories, namely: Hair Care, Body Care and Face Care.
Who founded Mellow?
Mellow is Sujata Sharda’s brainchild. Vaishali Sharda joined Mellow full-time in 2020 and is the CEO.
Is Mellow an Indian brand?
Yes. Mellow is an Indian company headquartered in Rajasthan.
Who are Mellow’s competitors?
Just Herbs, Kama Ayurveda, Juicy chemistry, Ohria, Pahadi local, Soultree, Moms and Co, Blue Nectar, among others are competitors of Mellow.
This article is contributed by Mr. Sumit Garg, MD & Co-founder, Luxury Ride.
Ever been awe-struck looking at the stylish luxurious car with terrific design, running dynamically down the road. While attracting the crowd’s gaze, there must be many who are invigorated with the desire to own an exclusive luxurious car. But are unable to fulfill their dreams owing to financial constraints.
Realizing the unfulfilled aspirations of the consumers, Sumit Garg incepted Luxury Ride to provide pre-owned best quality luxury cars to the consumers at the most competitive price. Luxury Ride started in the year 2015, is certified India’s biggest pre-owned, multi-brand luxury car company, and is the leading dealer in the pre-owned luxury car segment.
It all started with Sumit Garg’s unflinching passion for luxury cars since his childhood which could not be evaded even during his engineering days in RVCE Engineering College. But after completing his graduation, when he was faced with two options, one leading to the conventional path of making a career in engineering and the other of pursuing the childhood passion, he without any doubt decided to mold his passion for luxury cars into a promising career.
Hence, in the year 2012, right after his education, Mr. Garg Co-founded KoiBhiCar.com, an online marketplace for pre-owned luxury cars. While being in the industry, he soon realized that owning a luxury car came with acute financial obligations. The youth formed the major bulk of this aspirational population desiring to own a luxury car. Even though their disposable income and buying capacity raised substantially over the years, they still were unable to buy luxury cars and settled for economical cars with their hard-earned money. Additionally, he perceived the need for venture dealing in luxury cars that promoted inclusivity of more brand names with the help of a pivoted business model.
Sumit Garg was perceptive enough to counter the problem with his enthralling idea of venturing into the pre-owned luxury car segment. This led to the inception of Luxury Ride in 2015 which was aimed at organizing the otherwise scattered pre-owned car industry by exceptionally raising the service standards.
Sumit Garg – Co-Founder & MD, Luxury Ride
What is Luxury Ride?
Luxury Ride is an end-to-end quality product and service provider which monitors and assists the customers throughout the process of buying the vehicle to support them in maintaining the car even after the purchase with the after-sales services. It is focused on elevating the experience of the customers. For a hassle-free experience, the pre-owned luxury car aggregator offers 15 days money return guarantee. It even provides easy premium financing options and lucrative insurance deals, showing value for the customer’s money.
Nonetheless, the purchase from Luxury Ride has been backed up with a 1-year warranty assured of genuine, authentic parts, coming with 6 months warranty on the gearbox and engine. For the convenience of customers, it also provides a doorstep test drive facility. Understanding the complexity and importance of documentation, verification, thorough inspection in purchasing a pre-owned car seamlessly takes care of all the legal paperwork and testing procedures prior to handing the vehicle to the customer.
But the journey was not as simple and easy as it sounds while listing the benefits of Luxury Ride. In the beginning, Mr. Garg was clueless as he did not know where to start. He struggled with funding to get the optimum capital required to set up the business. Reminiscent of one such incident, he recounted the challenge he faced during the launch of the first showroom in Delhi. That time he had no cars to showcase in the showroom. He requested his mentors and investors to lend him cars for stationing them in the showroom.
Having overcome the roadblocks of setting up Luxury Ride, organizational and management challenges continually surfaced, requiring immediate attention on issues of regulating and managing manpower, staff training, devising strategies according to the objectives.
But he was never discouraged with the difficulties coming his way. His incessant love for luxury cars motivated him to persistently work hard in his venture. He recognized the loopholes and showed great agility in rectifying the flaws. Undeniably his efforts were rewarded with the launch of the second flagship showroom in his hometown, Karnal. It is India’s largest showroom in the pre-owned luxury car segment. The outlet is spread across a 1-acre space with a 4-floor building that easily accommodates the display of 50+ cars.
Over time Luxury Ride made its foothold strong in the northern belt of India by launching 7 showrooms in the leading cities of New Delhi, Gurugram, Karnal, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Dehradun. By serving all the verticals of customer requirement, Luxury Ride has secured a promising base of 4000+ loyal customers where they have sold 1200+ cars and serviced more than 10,000+ cars.
The achievement can be attributed to the visionary of Mr. Garg who was never convinced and hence never settled with just the buying and selling prospect of Luxury Ride. Rather, he was aspirational for making it a 360-degree service under a single roof. He wanted to build a platform that provided every possible solution concerning the pre-owned luxury cars.
Having achieved a substantial milestone, the journey doesn’t end here. Sumit Garg continually strives to establish leadership in the industry by creating a presence of Luxury Ride PAN India with future plans to open 50 new showrooms across the country.
FAQs on Luxury Ride
What is Luxury Ride?
Luxury Ride is certified as India’s biggest pre-owned, multi-brand luxury car company, and is the leading dealer in the pre-owned luxury car segment.
Is Luxury Ride an Indian Company?
Yes. Luxury Ride is an Indian company headquartered in Delhi.
Where are Luxury Ride’s showrooms located?
Luxury Ride made its foothold strong in the northern belt of India by launching 7 showrooms in the leading cities of New Delhi, Gurugram, Karnal, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Dehradun.
In today’s world, art, drawings, paintings, and illustrations are often viewed as aesthetic experiences. As humans have evolved, they have begun to appreciate the beauty in art, often admiring a painting or illustration purely for its aesthetic value.
Including illustrations or artwork on a website can have a powerful impact on the audience, captivating their attention and drawing them in. Art can also help to emphasize the point of the content and complement the written material. To ensure that the images are effective, it’s important to choose illustrations that are meaningful to the target audience. Ultimately, incorporating art into a website or other forms of communication can be a powerful tool for engaging and connecting with viewers.
Creating illustrations is a crucial aspect of visual communication, whether you’re a graphic designer, a digital artist, or an animator. But with so many illustration tools available, it can be difficult to know which ones to choose. Each tool has its own unique features and benefits, and selecting the right one can make all the difference in the quality and efficiency of your work.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at some of the best illustration tools available, and explore their strengths and weaknesses to help you make an informed decision on which tool is best suited for your needs. This guide will help you find the perfect illustration tool to bring your creative ideas to life.
Best Illustration Software Tools In 2023:
Below are listed some of the best illustration software tools every designer should use to make creative illustrations easily.
Adobe Illustrator – Best Illustration Tool for Designers
Adobe Illustrator is a professional vector graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. It is used by graphic designers, artists, and illustrators to create vector-based graphics, such as logos, icons, illustrations, and typography.
Adobe Illustrator gives its users 2D or 3D graphics manipulation for achieving increased efficiency in the designer’s workflow. Both the designers, including professional graphic designers and digital designers, can use Adobe Illustrator to create different types of attractive digital products.
Adobe keeps its features exciting as well as flexible in Illustrator. These features include easy image cropping, variable fonts, the experience of the modern user, stability enhancements, stylist sets to texts, and faster creation of documents. It also has many more features, which makes it the best and a handy tool for digital and graphic designers.
Adobe Illustrator
Pricing Details:
Plan
Yearly Price
Monthly Price
Individual
$20.99 per month
$33.99 per month
Business
$33.99 per user per month
$79.99 per user per month
Students and Teachers
$19.99 per month
$29.99 per month
Canva
Website
www.canva.com
Rating
4.7 out of 5
Free Trial
Available
Platforms supported
Web, Android, iPhone/iPad
Best For
All your designing needs
Canva – Best Illustration Tool
Canva is a cloud-based graphic design platform that allows users to create a wide range of visual content, including social media graphics, presentations, posters, logos, designing t-shirts, web designing, and other marketing materials. It was founded in 2012 by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams and has since grown to become a popular tool for businesses and individuals around the world. It’s so easy to use that, even if you have no experience with it, it will help you with graphic design with its drag and drop feature.
This platform provides you with a lot of options to select images, backgrounds, fonts, and templates to make your work easier. Canva offers many things to use for free. Canva is doing great as it can work with a large number of industries, all credits to its numerous templates.
Affinity Designer – Best Illustration Software Tool
Affinity Designer is a professional vector graphics editor developed by Serif, a UK-based software company. Affinity Designer is a great choice for projects which are of personal use. Novice graphic designers also use it due to its intuitive user interface. It is the product that can give a tough competition to Adobe Illustrator. This is because Affinity Designer has a varied suite of tools and user-friendly features.
Affinity Designer is designed for creating vector-based graphics, such as logos, illustrations, and typography. It offers a wide range of tools and features, including pen and pencil tools, shape creation tools, color and gradient controls, and typography tools.
One of the unique features of Affinity Designer is its ability to switch between vector and raster modes seamlessly, allowing users to work with both types of images in the same document. It also offers support for multiple artboards, allowing users to work on multiple designs in the same document.
It is tailor-made for users who want to accommodate a budget-friendly alternative without compromising functionality. It boasts 1,000,000% zoom, which puts it easily in the CAD realm. This platform supports various formats, including RGB, CMYK, and ICC.
Pricing Details:
Product
Price
Affinity V2 Universal License (For macOS, Windows & iPadOS)
₹14,900.00
Note: Licenses for businesses and educational institutions are also available on request.
Procreate
Website
Procreate.com
Rating
4.8 out of 5
Free Trial
Not Available
Platforms supported
Web
Best For
Designing digital sketches, paintings, and illustrations
Procreate – Best Illustration Tool
Procreate is a popular digital painting and illustration app designed exclusively for use on iPads and iPhones. It offers a wide range of tools and features that allow artists to create detailed and realistic artwork using digital brushes, pencils, and other tools. The app has gained a large following among artists, illustrators, and designers, thanks to its intuitive interface, powerful set of tools, and ability to create high-quality, print-ready artwork.
Some of Procreate’s key features include layer support, customizable brushes, 4K canvas resolution, and support for a variety of file formats. It is a powerful tool for both hobbyists and professionals looking to create digital artwork on the go.
Pricing Details:
Procreate is a paid app that can be purchased for a one-time fee of $12.99 on the App Store.
Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor that is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It is designed for creating and editing vector-based graphics, such as logos, illustrations, diagrams, and technical drawings. Inkscape uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as its native file format and supports other common file formats, such as EPS, PDF, PNG, and JPEG.
Inkscape offers a wide range of tools and features, including the ability to create paths, shapes, text, and gradients, as well as support for layers and object grouping. It also includes a variety of filters and effects, such as blurs, shadows, and transparency.
Pricing Details:
Inkscape is FREE and Open Source Software.
Krita
Website
Krita.org
Rating
4.5 out of 5
Free Trial
FREE and open source painting program
Platforms supported
Web
Best For
Creating digital painting and illustration
Krita – Free Illustration Tool
Krita is a free, open-source digital painting and illustration software that is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It is designed for artists, designers, and other creative professionals who want to create digital artwork using a wide range of tools and features.
Krita offers a comprehensive set of painting and drawing tools, including brushes, pencils, and pens, as well as support for layers, masks, and color management. It also includes a variety of features for creating animations, such as frame management and timeline editing. These features make Krita a popular choice for creating high-quality digital artwork and animations.
Corel Painter – Best Illustration Tool for Designers
Corel Painter is a digital painting software that allows artists to create digital artwork that emulates the look and feel of traditional media such as oils, watercolors, charcoal, and pastels. It is designed for professional artists, graphic designers, and illustrators who want to create high-quality, expressive digital paintings and illustrations.
Corel Painter provides you with a wider range of tools with materials and traditional artists. With the help of a mouse and tablet, the designer will be able to create the effect of a real painting or drawing medium such as color pencil, oil, charcoal, watercolor, and chalk.
Some non-traditional features, like F/X, Distortion, pattern pens, and image hose, give designers a free hand to apply less conventional elements to an image. Corel Painter imitates traditional media’s visual characteristics and functions such as charcoal, oil paint, pastel sticks, airbrush, and felt pens.
Pricing Details:
Plan
Price
Corel Painter 2022 – Buy
a perpetual license for a one-time payment of $429.00 USD
Creating high-quality digital art, comics, and animations
Clip Studio Paint – Top Illustration Tool
Clip Studio Paint is a multi-purpose digital painting software that comes with vector graphics. It is widely used by illustrators, comic artists, and animators to create high-quality digital art, comics, and animations. It is quite ideal for inking and rendering with the help of its useful and unique functions. Clip Studio’s asset library enables the designers to test the emerging concepts, create sketches using foliage brushes, and create sketches using pattern textures.
It has characters or items that are 3D models and backgrounds, which would give pose and angle and further helps as a visual preference. It also comes at a competitive price, making it affordable for the designers. It gives a free hand to the artists to draw crisp lines using brushes, movie concepts, or organize games by creating thumbnail grids. It also applies color variations to images or artwork layers.
Overall, Clip Studio Paint is a versatile and powerful digital art software that offers a range of tools and features for artists of different styles and disciplines.
Adobe Photoshop is a popular software application for digital image editing and graphic design. Adobe Photoshop was programmed in 1988, and from then, it has become a major part of a designer’s life. Adobe Photoshop is a versatile and great platform for the efficient creation of patterns and prints to make your result one of the best in the world of designing. And those who are into graphic designers have numerous options, tools, and cool settings for creating new opportunities for you.
It helps you create designs that are authentic and cherished to the eyes that too with proper guidance. It helps mostly in building your confidence while designing. There are many new insights to enjoy here.
Photoshop offers a wide range of tools and features to support different types of image editing and design, including layers, masks, filters, and various drawing and painting tools. It also includes features for working with 3D graphics, video, and animation.
Pricing Details:
Adobe Express
Plan
Price
Free
FREE forever
Premium
30-day free trial, then ₹797.68/month including GST
Photoshop Plan
Plan
Price
Single App
FREE forever
Premium
7-day free trial, then ₹1,675.60/month including GST
CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation. It is widely used for creating logos, illustrations, technical drawings, and other types of vector-based graphics.
CorelDRAW provides a great graphics editing platform that can churn out both vector as well as raster graphics. It comes with a version of Corel Paint software which is free. It is included with Corel Paint to give you a helping hand for the creation of the upcoming raster illustrations.
CorelDRAW offers a wide range of tools and features to support different types of vector graphics design and layout, including shape tools, text tools, color palettes, and object styles. It also includes support for raster graphics, allowing users to work with both vector and raster elements in the same project.
It’s better to have a lot of variations in illustrations and the latest version, which even supports the famous apple pen. It also allows the designers to edit vector as well as raster graphics with various kinds of tools and some of the custom brushes. Indeed, it’s not as efficient as Adobe Photoshop, yet it’s still one of the great illustration tools in the industry.
Pricing Details:
Plan
Perpetual license
Subscription Model
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2021
$499 USD for a full license
$249 USD per year, or $22.49 USD per month, with a 15-day free trial available
CorelDRAW Standard 2021
$299 USD for a full license
$179 USD per year, or $16.50 USD per month, with a 15-day free trial available
CorelDRAW Essentials
$129 USD for a full license
$99 USD per year, or $9.99 USD per month, with a 15-day free trial available
We saw how the evolution took place from the caves to our phones and laptops or desktops. But this is not the end because evolution keeps going and has no endpoint. With growing technology, illustration software is enhancing its design-making capability.
The world of illustration tools is vast and diverse, offering an array of powerful software options to suit the specific needs of artists, designers, and other creative professionals. Whether you’re looking for a robust vector graphics editor or a digital painting software, there are plenty of options to choose from.
Ultimately, the best illustration tool for you will depend on a variety of factors, including your specific skillset, artistic style, and the type of work you’re creating. By choosing the right illustration tool, you can unlock your creative potential and bring your unique artistic vision to life.
FAQs
What is digital illustration?
Digital illustration is an art with the use of digital tools, such as a mouse or tablet, in combination with drawing software.
What are illustration tools?
Illustration tools are software applications or physical mediums that are used to create visual representations of an idea or concept.
What are the top Illustration tools for designers?
Some of the top illustrators for designers to use are:
Adobe Illustrator
Canva
Affinity Designer
Corel Painter
Clip Studio Paint
Adobe Photoshop CC
Corel Draw
Which illustration tool is best for beginners?
For beginners, we recommend starting with a user-friendly tool such as Procreate or Sketch. These tools have a range of brushes and features that make it easy for beginners to create stunning illustrations without a steep learning curve.
What is the difference between vector graphics and digital painting?
Vector graphics are created using mathematical equations and can be scaled without losing quality. Digital painting, on the other hand, is created using brushes and can mimic traditional media such as oil, watercolor, and pastels.
Can I use illustration tools for animation?
Yes, many illustration tools such as Adobe Illustrator and Procreate have features that allow for animation. However, for more complex animations, you may need to use specialized animation software.
Is CorelDraw free?
CorelDraw leading graphic design software suite is free of charge for 15 days trail.
What is Adobe Illustrator used for?
Adobe Illustrator is a design app that is used forcreating logos, icons, drawings, typography, and various illustrations.
Is Clip Studio Paint free?
First time users of a monthly usage plan can use Clip Studio Paint for up to 3 months free of charge.
This article is contributed by the founder & CEO of PitchKrafts, Mr. Aayush Sachdeva. He is is a driven professional who has supported numerous investment bankers, consultants, founders, and company owners in generating important fundraising collateral.
The thought of presenting an idea to a potential investor could take on anyone’s nerves. Even if an entrepreneur has creativity, business sense, and a great business idea in hand, a lot can go wrong if not organized properly. Pitching an idea to someone is not easy for everyone, but it can add to your strength if you are an entrepreneur. In the digital era, there are endless opportunities to present your idea to investors to realize your ideas. The goal of pitching an idea to a potential investor is to convince them to put their money, time, or effort into it. This is where the art of delegation and pitching needs to go hand in hand.
A proper presentation to a potential investor is an art and everyone is not aware of this fact. It is challenging for Startups at an early stage to reach out to a potential investor and get funding. The process of perfecting a pitch deck, identifying the key investors consumes a lot of time. A startup wins half of the battle if the pitch deck they create for a potential investor hits the right keynote. A pitch deck not only gets entrepreneurs the much-needed capital but also the support, strategy, network, and more. It is the most important aesthetic in the fund-raising ecosystem.
With an inadequate pitching style and documentations, on many occasions, startup founders often fail in front of potential investors. A well-prepared Pitch deck helps to talk about the business idea, market, and customer. It also tells a story, challenges, and tension in the market. There are plenty of companies, PitchKrafts, Canva, Adobe that help startups to prepare the pitch decks to present their ideas in front of investors in an effective way. They provide all the essential data including market forecasts, financial projections, etc to help investors to understand better your ideas.
Pitch deck proves an essential document to put an impression in front of the VCs. So, it becomes important to identify what goes into the pitch deck. It should not sound verbose. It should emphasize the startups’ market, consumer, and revenue numbers, among others.
A pitch deck helps a potential investor to understand and learn more about the company. It should help to learn four key elements of the business opportunity, which forms the outline of the pitch deck:
1. Product: A product overview should answer the critical questions. Such as ‘What are the unmet demands our product is fulfilling?’ and ‘How different is your product or service different from the existing competitors’. A good pitch deck should highlight these two questions for a better understanding of VCs. Further, A graph or simple table easily proves effective in understanding the data.
2. Market: A pitch deck has to address the market size penetration, strategy and if any, the market traction of the company. You may lose credibility if it becomes evident that the real market addressable by your product is smaller than the total market size you have claimed. It is hard to get customers for most businesses. So, any potential investor would want to understand the plan to make that happen and the cost budgeted to achieve the targeted market penetration. Customer testimonials are one of the most compelling things to have in a pitch deck. Market survey results help to understand the feedback from the target audience.
3. People: Potential investors only invest and trust in the businesses if they have confidence and trust in the management team. To maximize the chances, a pitch deck must explain the key roles of the current employees and why they are fit for their roles. Including pictures and brief bios of the people can make it easy to know about the company’s potential. It’s better to add specific skill sets and achievements and highlight those.
The CEO is the most critical to the company’s success. By convincing investors about the potential of your CEO, you can land towards successful fundraising.
4. Money: A pitch deck must cover the information related to fund spending. A summary of financial projections or the amount of capital currently raising or the milestones you plan to achieve with it. It should also mention the projected investors’ return.
Additionally, presenting the high-end results of the financial model, it must explain the basic business model of the company. How is revenue generated? What are the major cost drivers? Are you acquiring paid or unpaid content? It is advisable to highlight the current raise and use projected proceeds. A pitch deck should include the returns that investors are projected to receive on their investment if the plan is implemented.
There is no perfect pitch deck that fits all the potential investors. With the mushrooming startups, Every investor has their unique way of looking at the opportunity. A pitch deck should address every possible question that anyone might ask. It should be short and crisp and explain your ideas. Let the investors ask to explain the points so you can better explain your ideas.
It becomes important to consider these points to present your ideas effectively and attract an investor with a fund-worthy pitch deck for your business with all necessary research documents, achievements, and attractive designs. Considering these points would lead you to higher chances of convincing an investor and landing an investment.
About the Author
Mr. Aayush Sachdeva, Founder & CEO of PitchKrafts is a driven professional who has supported numerous investment bankers, consultants, founders, and company owners in generating important fundraising collateral. He continues to assist startups and other new business models in receiving numerous rounds of funding and finding additional possible investors with all of the insightful information he has accumulated over the years.
Aayush’s ability to create and place the initial communication tool between entrepreneurs and investors has always given premature companies a strong opportunity to have a financial forecast and run a profitable firm. He continues to succeed and dominate the pitching routine, owing to his extensive expertise in generating Pitch Decks, Financial Modeling & Forecasting, Business Planning, and Valuations.
He is a powerful networker; he and his team have established partnerships with HNIs, VCs, and Angel Investors all around the world, instilling PitchKrafts into the ecosystem with a stronghold through creating close relationships and providing quality. He has guided businesses through their financing path by creating collateral that not only impresses but also imprints in the minds of investors, increasing their chances of acquiring the funds they require.
With the developing technology and resources, numerous companies have been established with the belief of achieving great heights. And these companies are the biggest source of proving employment to the general public. You wouldn’t believe that companies like Walmart and Amazon have employees over the count of millions. Like, how great is that! However, private sector companies are often considered pretty complicated and tough. They lack job security and some do pay little. But, these don’t define every private organisation across the world.
In fact, there are private companies that have millions of employees with tons of benefits. And these companies are the biggest job creators across the world. Speaking of which, we have presented the World’s Top Companies With the Largest Number Of Employees. So, let’s get started!
With a total number of employees of 2.3 million, Walmart is the second company with the largest number of employees. Walmart is in fact counted highest among the Forbes 500 global ranking. Being the largest company with an annual turnover of $559 billion, Walmart owns numerous subsidiaries as well in the United Kingdom and South Africa’s supermarkets.
Amazon
Total Number of Employees: 1.4 million
Amazon Logo
The biggest online retailer, Amazon has around 1.4 million employees. Amazon is currently ranked 5th among the largest employers in the world. In the last two years, the company has gained a massive amount of employees from all across the world. This simply indicates that Amazon hires 1,400 people every day.
Volkswagen
Total Number of Employees: 662,653
Volkswagen Logo
Volkswagen, the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, has an employee count of 662,653. Being a German car manufacturing company, Volkswagen holds a market capitalisation of $123.24 billion, being the 112th most valuable company, in terms of market capitalization. In fact, Volkswagen is considered the most active and superior automobile manufacturer and employer.
China’s National Petroleum Corporation
Total Number of Employees: 460,724
CNPC Logo
Being mainly a monopoly in the oil and gas production of China, China’s National Petroleum Corporation has an employee count of 460,724. It runs with rigs and refiners in over 30 countries such as Venezuela, Azerbaijan, and many others.
Kroger
Total Number of Employees: 465,000
Kroger Logo
With a total number of employees over 465,000 Kroger is counted among the biggest retailers chain in America and third in the country, right after Walmart and Costco. Kroger has around 2,778 supermarkets and departmental stores.
China Construction Bank
Total Number of Employees: 345,971
China Construction Bank Logo
Based on the market capitalization, China Construction Bank is the second-biggest bank in China and fifth in the world. With an employee count of 345,971, China Construction Bank has expanded its branches in more than 13,600 places in china.
McDonald’s
Total Number of Employees: 200,000
McDonald’s Logo
McDonald’s is incredibly famous for its delicious fast food and has several employees of 200,000 all across the globe. This simply brings McDonald’s among the largest employers in the world. And when it’s McDonald’s, who doesn’t know hamburgers!! The company has its classic presence in more than 100 countries and serves around 69 million food items every day.
In conclusion, we can say that private sector companies are the largest source of employment all across the world. Although a large proportion of people are employed in private organisations. But companies like the United States Department of Defense and China People’s Liberation Army and many others provide employment with tons of benefits as well. So, here were the top companies with the largest number of employees across the world. Stay tuned for more updates!
FAQ
Who is the largest employer in the world?
Walmart is the largest employer in the world with approx 2 million employees.
Who is the largest employer in India?
Indian Railways is the largest employer in India with 1.4 million employees.
Who is the best employer in India?
Reliance Industries is considered the best employer in India.
Piyush Mishra
