I grew up in a very friendly atmosphere. My parents have always been my first friends. My mother is my rock - happy, strong and finds a way out of every problem. Never have I ever seen her sulk or curse life. Watching my dad work as a lawyer, fascinated me and hence I chose the profession. I studied law at Amity Law School and started my career as a lawyer with the Delhi International Arbitration Centre as one of the core team members.
I have always found a sense of achievement and pride in creating something new. I am proud of setting things up from scratch and taking it to great heights.
Converting Passion Into Work
I love to dress up. The immense joy I get by wearing new outfits is immeasurable. Even during college days, I could never hold on to money. Every time I had some, I would go buy new clothes. There was a time I used to hide my shopping bags from my mother as she was sick of seeing my cupboard bursting out with clothes. This love grew stronger with age and I would spend almost all my earnings in buying clothes. Even while hosting parties at home or after working all day, my husband would find me missing in the evening and he knew I would have gone to the mall to get a new outfit for the evening. I adored new clothes/accessories and the charm lived only till I wore it the first time. I rightly have converted my passion into my work. Now I love to dress others up as well!
Rent It Bae is a luxury fashion rental service offering a range of ethnic to western clothes and accessories from various designer labels and brands on rent, at a fraction of the original cost. We offer our services to 11 cities via our website, m-site, Android and iOS app. We do have some competition in this market which only testifies that there is a massive potential in the shared economy sector.
The Business Model
Our distinguishing factors are 1) Quality of service; 2) Wide product range - Ethnics, Westerns, Jewellery, Watches, Handbags, Clutches, Sunglasses; 3) Massive collection of western clothes; and 4) A unique product - Monthly Fashion Subscription.
Rent It Bae has introduced India's first Fashion Subscription Model to satisfy the unlimited fashion craving of women.
In just Rs. 3999/- per month, women can dress new every day. And on 21st March this year, the company has launched a mini version of the Monthly Subscription called Mini Subscription which is a fashion feast for 7 days in Rs. 999/- (Discounted to Rs. 799/-).
We have a feature specifically catering to Fashion Emergencies, which we take very seriously, wherein our team makes an effort to get your dream product to you ASAP.
Under this feature, in our initial orders, we delivered 18 ethnic outfits to 18 Mexican women staying at the Taj, New Delhi within a span of 3.5 hours.
At this time, we had a small team and everybody got on to the job as soon as we received the order, which was very well executed.
How’s It Going?
Educating the market and making women accept the newfound ways was one big challenge amongst many others. But once women use our services, they become our regular clients. The company has an excellent repeat-user percentage. And yes, as a startup, you always have trouble with funds and a good team.
We are a self-funded company and have managed well so far, as all my team members don't perform just one job, they are capable of handling and managing many tasks simultaneously. My rule of hiring so far is you should be open to performing all kinds of tasks in the company, including the delivery of orders.
Keeping a good team to run the business is extremely important and also, a continuous challenge. I always say that the crown you wear is earned and belongs to your entire team.
Current fashion trends: Pastels are going big for ethnic products. Back and side cut out bodycon dresses are very popular at the moment. And in terms of accessories bold is in - one statement bold accessory is all you need to do the trick.
My advice to all the women out there would be - always listen to your inner voice. Do it your way. Do not succumb to societal pressures. Never let your husband/boyfriends, kids, family take decisions for you. It won’t be easy and you won’t be able to please all the people around, but it will definitely be worth it. It is our TIME TO RISE!
Aanchal Saini is the CEO & Co-Founder of Rent It Bae. Her story is a part of our ‘Women Entrepreneurs’ series. Aanchal was our guest moderator for the Fashion and Lifestyle community wherein she helped answer the questions by community members, shared her experiences and her inspiring journey. Come, be a part of the SHEROES community and connect with like-minded women.