Pallavi Goorha Kashyup: Disruptive Entrepreneur

Passion, inventiveness, zeal to improvise, listen to others and a strong determination to succeed is what make a disruptive entrepreneur. A perfect example of all these traits, Pallavi Goorha Kashyup, Founder & CEO of PG Communications is a mother of 7-year-old girl and wears multiple hats; looks after the family, constantly in touch with senior leadership in her professional circles/ clients, engaged in social service activities of a well-known NGO, managing arts and craft websites of her late mother, and passionately engages in extracurricular activities as a forum leader and event organiser.

After her Post graduation in Journalism from Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi, she had a successful stint with leading print, on-line media brands including Exchange4media, Mint, Cyber Media, and The Times of India.  She started her entrepreneurial journey 8 years ago by setting up PG Communication, a boutique agency focusing on external and internal communications, Public and Media Relations management for a large number of Corporate, SMBs, and individual professionals/brand leaders. She is supported by an all women team of media experts spread across various metros in India.

PG Communication is a boot strapped venture. Having given up a fat salary job, Pallavi worked hard to meet expenses and support her team every month to achieve  growth in the business.

When asked Pallavi what compels her to start this business she articulated, “After being in journalism for 18 years but mostly in full time salaried jobs, I wanted to test the water on the other side.  After a detailed analysis of various business opportunities, I zeroed in on Corporate Communications. There was a clear gap in the market place and I decided to set-up a boutique agency for growing medium size companies in different industries.”

Key Driving Force to Become an Entrepreneur

According to Pallavi, there were two main drivers. First: to package and offer these Corporate Communication services to Medium size organisations, which weren’t being managed by large PR agencies. The second was to build a success story in this domain. There are not many agencies, which could sustain in this middle segment. “I must add: an important personal reason was to get some flexi-time and enjoy the early childhood of my only daughter,” says Pallavi.

Pallavi works for 8 hours on an average daily. But if a client’s assignment needs to be delivered, she and her team will work round the clock to ensure completion with no flaws.

Motivation, To Deliver Quality Services

Provide ‘quality services’ and add “extra” value to the client is Pallavi’s motivation. “It’s nice to hear from the owners and their senior management teams about the growth of their business and recognition of their brands, products and services. I feel humbled when they acknowledge that we have contributed to their success stories in many ways. Having a successful business brings a feeling of accomplishment,” says Pallavi. “We do justice to our client’s assignments and we pride on doing the best possible job even with limited resources, at times.”

She also added her father’s entrepreneurial journey of over 30 years through thick and thin has been a great source of inspiration.

Family Life

Starting a business can be emotionally consuming, stressful and is likely to affect your family life as well, Pallavi opined and says, “The stress in a business is extraordinarily high because of the endless challenges an entrepreneur faces. Early years can be quite stressful sometimes, but then one learns to handle it. As my company grew, I started building a support infrastructure both at work and home. I am very fortunate that my team at home as well at work has been with me for last 8 to 10 years and are always there with that extra efforts, when things get rather hectic. This allows me to have more time with my family regularly and we do manage to take short family holidays to cool off.” 

‘Perform the best and work it out’

“While facing a challenge, firstly I take a deep breath and remind myself that the world is not going to end. Then I come up with a plan quickly to figure out the people who can help me execute the plan. I ensure to give them very clear instructions, explain the urgency of the situation, and keep motivating them all through the crisis cycle.”

“Most of the time, we do perform the best and work it out jointly. We have also learnt to handle a beating, when it hits us, even after our best efforts. We all say it loud, “Hey… come on…. that’s life….no sweat over this one.”

Building a Successful Customer Base

“In the last 8 years, my best source of new customers has been my current clients. Yes, “referrals” as it’s commonly known has been my real business spinner and I’m truly grateful to those clients.”

“Further, understanding customers’ needs helps us get better insights and drives us to develop services that are matched to clients’ requirements. It keeps us ahead of the competition. We keep our website updated with fresh content. I keep promoting my business on social media networks and have a large number of followers.”

Establishing a Strong Company Culture

Formula to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

“It never was, it never will be. Learn entrepreneurship by going through the drill and keep learning again at every turn and twist.”

Biggest Failure

Pallavi is writing a book on entrepreneurship but it never got completed according to the deadline. “It’s still a WIP but now on the top of my bucket list. I hope to complete it soon.”

Future Goals

“I have to take the company to next level.  I’m discussing with my clients the “value-added” services they will need in the changed business environment post the Covid situation. I’m also working on increasing our reach in the International market.”

“Keep it simple”