They say that if you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life. Rashi Narang, founder of Heads Up For Tails, has decided to do just this. Combining her deep love for pets and her drive to give back to these loving companions, she designed and created her own line of pet products to suit the particular needs of our pets. This was 10 years ago. Fast forward to 2018 and Heads Up For Tails has multiple retail stores all over the country. Besides designing their own products, these stores offer pet parents a collection of useful and relevant pet products curated from international brands.
Heads Up For Tails – Committed to Variety and Customization
Heads Up For Tails is one of India’s first retail brands that caters exclusively to all ‘paws’. It was when Rashi hunted for a present for her own dog, Sara, that she realized that pet parents had a limited range to choose from. This inspired her to stock her shelves with as much variety as possible. “Every pet has their own individual needs and by offering plenty of variety, we hope to cater to them,” says Rashi. Heads Up For Tails aims to provide pet parents with everything they could need to make their pets happier. Their product range includes comfy, customized dog beds, chic collars, leashes, fashionable dog apparel and even safe, sturdy, utilitarian products like seat belt harnesses, specific shampoos, special dog food and even raincoats! They hope that with these products, pets’ lives are not limited to staying at home and they can safely take on bigger roles in their parents’ lives – whether it is accompanying them on road trips or going hiking! They sell their products online via their website and also have offline stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru.
A company that hopes to celebrate the lives of pets, their core team is committed to the well-being of all things furry. Being pet parents themselves, they draw on their own experience to create and curate pet products that are useful to strengthen the pet-parent relationship. By providing quality products and services, they also hope to promote responsible pet parenting.
The core team keeps up with the latest research in the pet world, so that they can offer their customers products that keep their pets healthier, safer and happier. Heads Up For Tails’ inventory goes beyond grocery-store variety and includes pet products from trusted international brands like Kong, Ruffwear, Orijen and Little BigPaw. Besides sniffing out the best from brands across the world, they have their own ‘Barkery’ which dishes out freshly baked, wholesome and handmade cookies, cakes and cupcakes for pets.
Hard Work Pays Off
Though there are many special moments that stand out despite the challenges she faces every day, Rashi is truly proud of certain achievements that have been possible thanks to the relentless hard work of her entire team. One of the biggest achievements is winning the Lufthansa Runway to Success 9Season 4 from amongst 60,000 top entrepreneurs of the country. Rashi says “Being grilled by a top jury and investors on live TV over several weeks, and competing with many of the BEST entrepreneurs in the country and WINNING was definitely something that I cherished!” She is truly grateful to be able to reach out to thousands of pet parents and their pets across the country.
Heads Up For Tails was also named “Brand of the Year” at the prestigious World Branding Awards – Animalis Edition that was recently held at the HofBurg Palace, Vienna. She was also a recipient of a Women’s Icon Awards, Asia held in Singapore and the Sparks Awards by Your Story. She was one of the 50 Most Impactful Social Innovators by Global CSR Awards in March 2018.
Rashi’s Advice to New Entrepreneurs
It’s not easy, but with the right idea and a strong mindset, dreams can be made reality. Rashi says, ‘Follow your dreams’ to those who want to start out their own businesses. “What’s important is to have a clear vision of where you are headed, and execute as much as you can. Without execution, an idea just remains an idea. You will never have all the answers, so seek out people who can help and learn every day.”
The beauty of entrepreneurship is that everyone has their own story. There is no one path that works for everyone and no conditions that are set in stone. Follow your heart and believe that you are much more capable than people may think. What worked best for Rashi was understanding her customers by putting herself in their shoes, and empathizing with them. This is how Heads Up For Tails is able to provide pet parents with relevant and useful products. It is also what sparks innovation in design that Heads Up For Tails is known for.
What does the Future Hold?
Scaling up is definitely a challenge for any company and the team at Heads Up For Tails has learnt a lot in the last two years. Now, they are focusing on really growing the company via more offline stores along with their online presence. Over the next twelve months, they are aiming to expand their offline presence with ten stores across the country. They are also focusing on growing their ‘Pet Parenting Partner’ vertical via the content on their blog, social media and YouTube channels. They aim to connect to their customers on a pet parent to pet parent level so they are able to share their experiences, tips and stories of pet parenting. The organization feeds many dogs in need every day so hoping to scale up that effort multi fold with the HUFT Foundation. The company is also working on launching the ‘Heads Up For Tails Foundation’ to help animals in need and to support as many animals as they can.
Rashi Narang: Your Pet Parenting Partner
