From an HR Executive to Founder of a Multi Million $ Pet Care Company – Rashi Narang of Heads up for Tails

Some things just fill your heart without trying. This is certainly true for pet parents, who have unconditional love for their pets! Pets have become such a huge part of our lives. Even if one does not parent one themselves, they surely have friends or family that have one and they love to spend their time with them.

A report from 2019 shows that pets contribute to healthy aging. Pet parents aged 50-80 years, owning a pet reduced 79% of stress. 64% of them were more physically active thus healthier. 65% of them were more connected with friends, family and neighbours.

Constantly stuck to their electronic devices and under extreme workload, pets help the younger generation get away from it all. Long walks with your pet, cuddling and even bathing helps one have a break from the stress that surrounds one.

Many pet parents have faced trouble finding the right product for their beloved pet, for example one might not be able to find a comfortable blanket, bed, toys etc for their pets, as each of them are very different from each other. One such pet parent is Rashi Narang who, not only solved this problem for her own pet only but found Heads Up For Tails which provides products to help build a deeper relationship between pets and the owners. Hear Rashi speak On Scaling with Unconditional Love for Pets.

Being Rejected 200 Times And Being Away For 7 Years to Now Raising 5 Million In Revenue.

Unconditional love for her pet and not being able find the right product for her beloved puppy, helped Rashi discover her entrepreneurial side and she founded Heads Up For Tails, a brand that provides solutions to pet parents, to help them understand their pets just as well as the pets understand their parents!

From having to leave her first store for 7 years after going to Singapore, to coming back and raising 5 Million in revenue and having 38 stores under her brand, Rashi’s journey is filled with passion, love and most importantly the support from her family.

 Listen to Rashi of Heads Up For Tails on scaling with Unconditional Love for Pets, being rejected 200 times, the support from her family and much more on this episode of Maharajas of Scale Podcast.

Here are some excerpts from the Episode:

Growth Over The Years

So if you want a comparison, we started out as a tiny, homegrown business, literally, you know, out of home. Almost no investment, just a couple of products.

We are now at 38 stores nationwide, well, primary primarily metros with a couple a couple more and fit out. So we hope to be at about 60 in the next year, lots of leases being signed, etc, etc. Plus, we’ve grown strongly online as well.

Rashi Narang 2:05

Understanding and Solving Customer’s Problems

So it was really about building it from scratch. And we’ve also had to educate a lot during the way to build demand for our products.

So, you know, people used to ask. Why does a dog need a toy? You know, they’ve not grown, I mean, in the wild, they don’t have a toy. And you know, so we’ve had to educate them saying, Listen, here is a being with, you know, very strong senses, who, for example, in the forest, would, you know, hear and feel and taste and smell 100 different things, versus being in a small apartment where they have nothing to do.

Rashi Narang 27:54

Being Away for 7 Years!

Well, you will be surprised to know, actually, but my husband got posted overseas. So I went away for seven years. And I came back in 2015. And that’s when the next store happened.

This happened in early 2009. It was that fast? And you know, there was no one mean, everybody thought I was crazy that I wasn’t even thinking of closing it down and saying Okay, now I’m moving overseas, I said, No, this is going to run. I’ll come back as often as I need to.

Rashi Narang 30:04

Despite The Odds She Kept Growing

And then we started off with our store expansions , you know, we met a couple in Delhi couple in Bangalore, again, you know, went wrong with some locations did really well in the others, it was a very steep learning curve to understand even retail and the processes and the operations and the government and the laws and the 100 rules and compliances. And it was crazy.

We have to be able to create products which are comfortable. We have to change the way that people look at them. I think it was just so much hustle and so much push, relentless to learning, trying, you know, We made zillions of hiring mistakes.

Rashi Narang 43:16

Rashi’s Open Minded Approach Towards Her Business

I’ve worked very hard to kind of keep myself updated as well. Because, you know, at every stage, I think starting a business is easy, scaling it is enormously hard. And so, you know, I’m constantly learning, growing, reading up, you know, trying to see, you know, what we can absorb from other companies who are doing it right.

Rashi Narang 01:05:55

Show Notes

Follow Rashi Narang On LinkedIn (@rashinarang)

Do Check Out Heads Up For Tails Online Store at headsupfortails.com

Here is what the world cloud from the episode looks like:

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