Bootstrapped & Bold: Khushi Verma’s Journey

Entrepreneurship

India

27 Years

I am Khushi Verma, Founder of GraphFix, a marketing and design agency. We help in growing the socials of brands and companies providing services such as social media marketing and management. We also provide graphic design services such as website design, logo and branding.

I am a lover of art and have been practicing it since my childhood. This passion brought me to the fashion industry, I did my BA and MA in Fashion Design. Designing and learning about graphic design was both included in my curriculum. I turned my art pieces into digital art during the COVID-19. After my graduation I was looking for jobs. I came across a book - Rich Dad, Poor Dad. While reading his book , it hit me and gave me the motivation to quit my job and build something of myself. This is how I thought about starting my own agency. I built my website, my socials and started attending networking events to provide my services. We started in graphic design first. but later included digital marketing as my clients started to ask for that too.

“Everyone has their struggles. The difference is: I didn’t quit.”

How did you turn your idea into a business?

I learnt graphic design in my college where we were taught a few software, post which I took some guidance through YouTube and Coursera, did freelancing and then built my website on my own using Wix. I then designed business cards, managed my LinkedIn and developed my Instagram account. I attended some networking events which really helped, and started telling people about my agency.

I learned about marketing through my sister, who helped me in understanding the fundamentals of marketing.

Key Highlights:

Worked with 15+ brands
Hiring the employees (designers, strategists, copywriters, etc.)
Consistently managing and securing 5+ recurring clients

How are you funding your startup?

It is bootstrapped.

What is your average monthly revenue?

Currently, it is INR 2-3 Lakhs Per Month ($2300-$3500).

How are you doing today and what plans for the future?

LinkedIn has been pretty good for me. I have been getting leads from there. Networking events have been really helpful.

We have had times when we hired interns and then left within a week as they couldn’t manage work. Sometimes running a business can overlap with your personal life and my work was affected. But I’m learning as I go along.

What advice would you give to budding founders?

I thought starting a business would be a smooth journey but it’s not. Making money is tough. Everyone has their struggles and every entrepreneur goes through them.

Every business has tough times. There will be times when you will feel alone, stressed, demotivated but you need to have faith, belief and don’t quit.

Where can we find you?

Book Recommendations

Rich Dad Poor Dad
Money Works

Podcast Recommendations

Podcasts on Creative Boom