Podarona - Behind the brand

Behind The Brand

Podarona

Tell us a bit about yourself

Greetings, I’m Veronika. Podarona’s founder and gift-stylist. I’m a wife, mom, world traveler, and totally in love with dancing, quad roller skating, and having a cup of tea. I’m originally from Russia but, for the last decade, have lived abroad. I always thought about myself as a creative person, I like to do DIY projects, cook and make my own cosmetics. I also had an eco-blog for a couple of years when I came to Hong Kong, because consumerism, the amount of waste, clutter, and plastic in the sea just shocked me here at the beginning when coming from Europe. I was an eco-warrior and a motivated zero-waster (not anymore though.. as it induced a lot of anxiety in me, so I’m doing it slowly now). Nevertheless, it shaped the way I design and pack my gifts, for sure (hand-made products, essential oils, and no cellophane).

What made you start your company?

In short, one of the reasons why I created the gifting company “Podarona” is because my birthday is in August. I almost never received birthday gifts, because all my friends were away on holiday. Podarona is my way of helping gift-givers to send a beautiful gift box to someone celebrating a milestone or an accomplishment, making it possible to show care to this person even if you are far away or busy. During Covid, this type of gifting is on-demand, as people, unfortunately, got separated from their family with no travel, or simply left their friends when moving away for good.

Tell me about your product and brand?

Podarona is an online gifting studio, specializing in curated gift boxes for women. You can order an elegant ready-made gift box on www.podarona.com, and your beautiful surprise will be sent to your recipient anywhere in Hong Kong with a handwritten card. The most popular thing now is to send a cheer-up gift to the friend in the hotel quarantine. All the Podarona gift boxes include the most natural products and a lot of them are locally made, which is more eco-conscious and supports local creatives and small businesses like mine too. The other part of the business is corporate and event gifting made-to-order.

What struggles have you faced when starting up a business?

Overcome fears to start a business, to be able to say out loud about you and what you are doing. Also need to learn a whole new world about entrepreneurship, photography, branding, social media marketing, website, etc. As I’m mostly doing everything alone with the occasional help of freelancers. Another struggle is being a mom of two babies and being organized and focused to make your business move, having a work-life balance while working from home during Covid kindergarten and kids activities cancellations

How did you get over them?

Step-by-step, learning, trying things, adjusting, experimenting, getting help.

Any advice for others just getting started?

First, to get actually get started. I had a dream to start a gifting business for years and was scared to really try. Now I’m glad I did! And helped some people to show their care with Podarona gift boxes along the way! Another piece of advice is to be able to ask for help, be it with kids or with copywriting. Because I always think I can do everything by myself and I get stuck if I can’t manage. There are also more benefits in the power of asking, which I’m still discovering. The third advice is to get over your perfectionism. For me is one of the hardest.

Do you have a favourite quote?

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

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