“No one is going to take care of myself other than me. The whole idea of investing in myself is that I’m going to be the person who understands myself best”
Tharmithaa is a university student with a passion for graphic design. During the pandemic, she invested in herself by purchasing an iPad and turned her hobby into a business! She uses her talent to create custom cards for her customers. Keep reading to learn more about Tharmithaa and her business!
The Initial Investment
SincerelyTharzy started with Tharmithaa purchasing an iPad for her birthday. She made a conscious decision to invest in herself and started creating portraits using graphic design. She had an interest in graphic design from a course she had taken in high school but had not quite explored her interests in the capacity of a business. Not until she had more time on her hands during the pandemic.
History shows that economic downturn can lead to innovation and to the start of entrepreneurial ventures. Uber, Airbnb and even Microsoft started during a time of recession. During COVID-19, Tharmithaa had a bit more time on her hands and she invested this is creating custom graphic portraits for her family and friends. She did not initially charge for creating custom cards but, as word of mouth spread about her creations, she started to receive messages on Instagram. This is when it clicked for her; she could turn her talent into a business!
“Everyone’s home. It’s the time to appreciate each other so let me just make a few cards and give them to friends and family. This gave me the exposure … But the turning point for me was when I started getting ‘actual orders’ from people I didn’t know around Father’s Day”
Running a Business on Instagram
As Tharmithaa started to create custom portraits, she created an Instagram page. Initially, her page was a way for her to display her art. However, an increase in demand for her work led to Instagram becoming the primary business platform for her custom creations.
She frequently posts her custom cards on Instagram and has over 1000 followers who continue to admire her work. Check her amazing creations out on her Instagram page!
Challenges of a Custom Creation Business
There are several challenges that arise when running a business but what is unique to creating custom portraits is that every product you create is personalized. For this reason, only the commissioned artist can make the product that customers are looking for. This challenge was something Tharmithaa faced when she had to go in for a surgery. She had other graphic designers in her network who she asked to help her out. However, the customer appreciated Tharmithaa’s unique spin on custom portraits and wanted her to make the personalized card.
Tharmithaa persevered through these challenges and the customer was able to wait for her to recover. But this is an important lesson she continues to keep in mind when taking on additional orders; her capacity as a person and as an artist.
Getting Personal
Everyone has different love languages and Tharmithaa took a quiz a few years back that identified as a ‘words of affirmation’ type of person. This speaks to her value of creating custom cards for her family, friends and her customers. Tharmithaa sets a positive example by finding out what matters to her and letting those values guide her business.
Tharmithaa is a social butterfly who loves to spread love in any way possible. Sincerelytharzy is her way of continuing to spread her love in the form of her digital portraits; empowering her followers through her art and passion along the way. The goal of Sincerely Tharzy is to create cards and portraits to capture what the client envisioned, and to ultimately bring a whole new life to existing memories, and to cherish the future ones.
Check out and support sincerelytharzy here!
This article was authored by Pallavi Dutta.
Image and Video credits: Tharmithaa
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