Interview with Mr. Harish Chouhan, Owner, Dreams Media & Webtions

An interview with Mr. Harish Chouhan, Owner of Dreams Media & Webtions

by Nida Shaikh, Content Writer of BMS.co.in

•  Tell us something about yourself?

I had a simple upbringing. One thing I was always certain about was to be in a creative field where my work involved creating something even if it was small. Even since I could remember, I wanted to become an Architect and after HSC I did join Architecture College. However before joining Architecture, I was introduced to Internet (thought bit late than others) and before I could be web savvy, I was reading my brothers computer since he was completing his Bachelors in Computer Engineering. The reading made me wonder and be amazed at how things could be so interconnected and really open my mind to lot of things that I had never imagined before.
As I had always planned I did go to study Architecture and also tried to start a web design business but after 5^th semester I decided to drop out and focus on Web Development business.

• Tell us something about your business?

Dreams Media, is the main firm through which we offer custom web design & branding services to local companies and our outsourcing partners abroad. During our initial stages, many companies offered us work without us having any experience. The best thing that happened to our business was to work for Mr. ChetanBhagat (Indian author). Once he was in our client list, we never had to worry about proving ourselves to new customers if we can deliver.
Our other venture “Webtions” was created in 2008 when we realized the need to be able to offer every essential service our customer would need to have a strong presence online. Webtions stands for “Web Solutions”. We decided on this name, as we wanted to create a company that simply could cater to local clients who are going to use Internet to do business for the first time and offer them information and help them to decide what to do in the simplest way possible.

• How did the idea of this venture came in?

Initially, I was learning HTML & Online Marketing as it was new and exciting. I was also planning to build an online platform for youngsters to share and communicate their ideas. While building this, I realized that I had learned a lot and could actually offer web design services to local customers.

• What is your philosophy towards work?

I have a simple philosophy of trying to do something different every day and learn from it.

• What skills and technologies are you the most interested in improving upon or learning?

Technologies mostly change with time, however the skill I would like to focus on and improve upon would be to build large scale systems on cloud.

• What are a few of your favorite development tools and why?

Adobe Fireworks is my favorite design tool. The other option for graphic designers is Adobe Photoshop which is complex software. Mostly web designer’s user Photoshop for creating layouts, however 90% of web design work could be done on Adobe Fireworks much faster in much simpler steps.

• What or who (person or ideology) motivates you? (Professionally and personally)?

Like most I would say the Steve Jobs was and is the person who motivates me. However personally, I like to take inspiration from nature & animals, who have adapted over the years to survive in their respective habitats. I think anyone who starts a business should learn about adapting to the market fast and being flexible. No matter how cool your product or service is, it does not stay so for long. Being open to change, observing everything around you, helps us identity opportunities and rely less on chances or luck.

• What are a few sites you admire and why?

www.2advanced.com would be the site I admire the most. My work has never been able to match this quality and this site is also the reason I wanted to get into this field.

• What secondary services do you offer?

Web Hosting, Domain registration and subscription based instant website.

• Earning more & more is the motive behind any business.” Is it justifiable?

For those whose motive is more money, they are correct in their own way. Everyone wants different things in life. If a person takes more risks in his life to build a business and if they want to earn more, I think they have a right to do so. Being unethical just to earn more is however not justifiable.

• Tell me about your proudest achievement?

Honestly, I don’t think I have reached a stage where I could be proud of anything. I still have lots to do and I am far away from my goal. Maybe in few years I might be able to tell about my proudest achievement.

• What is your definition of success?

Finding a ladder that you wish to climb, and then climbing it.

• What is the scope of Web designing?

In India web designing is an unorganized field and since there is no community, freelancers & some companies work against each other instead of working with each other. However being a very new industry there is a huge scope of talented designers and developers. Also since even till today, we have millions of businesses that still do not have a web presence. This provides enough opportunity for all to get into this field.

• What message would you like to give to the students aspiring to take web designing as a career?

If you wish to get into the graphical work of a website, please make sure you have good design sense. And if you wish to get into web development, make sure you have good logical and analytical sense. It’s easier to get into this field and make money, but without being strong in either design & development skills, it would be hard to go beyond the initial stages.

• Your feedback for BMS.co.in?

BMS.co.in seems to have well structure information and the developers seem to have used open source software “WordPress” and a ready-made WordPress theme in a nice way. However, there can be lot done in aspects related to user interface & usability.

COMPANY PROFILE

• History-

We are a small company with a team of 3. Founded as a freelancing business in 2004 under the name “Dreams Online” it was later changed to “Dreams Media”.

• Vision/Mission-

To be the best & enjoy every process of the work.

• Products & Service-

Custom Website Design, Customized WordPress based solutions, Branding, Search Engine Marketing, Web Hosting & Domain Registration

• Marketing Strategy-

Through existing client & through online marketing.

• Existing Market Presence-

We have a very small market presence as we undertake only few projects each month from local clients (Mumbai) and relay on outsourcing projects for profits. However this year we are going to expand to other cities and focus more on clients within India.

• Future Plans-

To be able to be in par with the rest of the web design companies in the west in terms of technology usage & be able to offer unique set of services to help local businesses take advantage of the web.