How She Did It: Dipika Parihar

There’s nothing more powerful than a beautiful and confident woman. That’s the belief that led us to Dipika Parihar, a self made beauty entrepreneur from Mumbai, India, When it comes to having a successful business of fashion Dipika has literally nailed it! how-she-did-it-dipika-parihar

Dipika is regarded as one of the finest nail artists in the country, a lot of Indian celebrities form a major part of her clientele and nail technicians trained by her are recruited by many of the major salon chains for their nail section.

Being in the industry for over a decade now, Dipika, has grown from a Freelancer, to owner of a nail salon to opening her own nail academy and owning a successful nail a polish brand.  Dipika, is now a journey to expand her chain of academy to different parts of the country, how-she-did-it-dipika-parihar

The Journey

But, it’s all not as rosy as it looks. Back in the days, when Dipika started her journey, nail art wasn’t taken seriously and clients were very limited. She would mostly work around the time of fashion shows, or a few celebrities, the masses were unaware of the magic nail art can bring to complete ones look.

Talking about her struggles, Dipika, shares, “Definitely it was not an easy path to get in the beauty industry especially the nail industry as people were unaware of. Only a few places in Mumbai did nails which could not be afforded by the common crowd, and lack of product supply was another hurdle where I felt it made difficult to make things work smoothly. No good brands were available for nail products. still with whatever products readily available I started my own nail studio in 2012. But it was difficult to cater to clients with the latest trends and art globally. That is when I thought if I need to make my mark in this industry I need to do something related to nail products as well. Since 2010 I was aggressively doing my work of getting and learning’s different types of nail products available in the market, then I collaborated with my partner for importing nail products. After lots of research and development, we developed our own brand with the name GLAM in 2012. I always wanted to spread my love for nails and educate people about nails, that is what led me to start, ‘The Nail Art School’ in 2014.”

After working as a freelancer, when Dipika decided to open her own nail saloon, she put in a part of her own savings into it and her father helped with the rest of seed capital. Her’s is a bootstrapped venture, and now to expand the Nail Art School, she has opted for a franchisee model.

Business Inspiration

I was always fascinated by the beauty industry, be it the glamorous makeup, gorgeous hairstyle or nails on point and buying various colors nail paints have always been my priority since my college days. To be honest it’s my love for nail paints that inspired me to get into the nail industry. Youtube has been my other inspiration to make it in this industry. I started learning by watching videos on youtube and the internet. Basically a self-taught nail artist. After my graduation (B.Sc Chemistry) in 2009, I started practicing more of nail art and got to work as a freelancer nail artist with multiple salon tie-ups. but till this time it was pure passion-based work for me. I used to do nail art for my friends, family and they motivated me to do it professionally.” shares, Dipika.

Business Growth Challenges

“Major challenges for running nail business /nail academy is being consistent with the quality of service/ education to be given to our clients and students within their budge which maintains their requirement of learning the need of the market. So, we need to maintain and curate trends and techniques as per the Indian nail market to be at the best to give nail education.” Dipika mentioned.