Albeit education is deemed as the gateway to the future by great leaders like Malcolm X, the education system has the huge flaw of overestimating data’s importance and underestimating the true power of passion. Especially, in our ‘doctor or engineer’ Indian culture, very few have the fortune of following their heart, and hardly a few have succeeded in their desired field despite their educational background. Padma Somireddy, Founder & Chief Designer, Divine Designs, an innovative interior designing service providers, is one such achiever, who stepped-out of her successful IT career to explore her passion – interior designing.

Being an artist himself, Padma’s father pushed her towards art since childhood. However, the first spark that lit the blaze of her passion for interior designing was the joy she experienced when she had to redecorate her house in the U.S. by herself. As more and more of her friends & relatives appreciated the work and sought her advice, she started developing this in-built talent towards choosing the right colour, styling & other accessories. But with people recommending her to others as well, she took-up interior designing as a part-time job in weekends and tasted the commercial side of her passion as well, which thrusted Padma to get formal education at Middlesex County College(U.S.). When her family moved back to India, she quit her job to incept Divine Designs and interior designing occupied her entire calendar.

Fast forward to 10 years, today Divine Designs stands tall as a 30-40 people strong company that has successfully accomplished over 100 projects, solely through word-of-mouth publicity. How? Divine Designs had the habit of working very closely with the client’s entire family to clearly understand their budget, diverse needs & tastes, and delivered those unique projects with utmost quality. “The fun part of my job is,

at the end of the project, the whole
family becomes a friend and refers me to others. I love the networking, not for business purposes, but the fact that I have happy clients makes me feel good,” adds Padma.

With a positive attitude, Padma learnt from her mistakes and turned her clients into Divine Designs’ brand ambassadors

Surfing through Ebbs & Flows
From entering into the IT field with a zoology background to acclimatizing to the U.S. work culture, Padma’s professional life has witnessed a drastic change in every 12 years. But getting into uncharted waters like construction field with no professional help, Padma tumbled through several ebbs and flows.

However, she never stopped giving maximum effort. During initial days, due to unforeseen circumstances & minor oversights, a couple of Divine Designs’ works fell short of client’s expectations. But with a positive attitude, Padma learnt from her mistakes and turned her clients into Divine Designs’ brand ambassadors. “When people recognize me as Padma, the interior designer – my talent and not by my family name, I know I’ve made it. It encourages me to go forward,” says Padma impassionedly.

Though being a woman stopped her from crossing certain boundaries in networking, the gregarious Padma earned her client’s trust by investing more time to do a perfect job. Padma reminisces an incident where a client fired the architect in the middle of a project, as they felt that he didn’t meet their expectations and the entire project fell on her shoulders. Space planning being her forte, she didn’t have much experience in architectural side. Taking-up the challenge, Padma did her homework, cross checked everything and accomplished the project successfully. “On the positive side, clients prefer women for interior designing, as they believe that we’re patient. But most people don’t take a lady’s voice commanding, so I have to be more tough,” divulges Padma.

Having worked at corporate level for a decade, where customer

satisfaction is the top priority and everything happens by schedule, Padma managed the team structurally and passed on her traits of working in a well-organized fashion with dedication and giving one-on-one attention to customers for attaining customer satisfaction. Considering her team as her greatest strength, Padma not only shares their work when they have too much on their plate, but also helps them financially in times of distress. Padma’s hard work eats-up several hours of her family time. Fortunately, she is blessed with a supportive family that discusses her work, appreciates it and recommends Divine Designs to others. “My family is very proud of me. My husband has been a great help. As we started our life with the U.S. culture, there has always been a give & take even in household chores, since the beginning,” says a grateful Padma.

Padma is a fitness enthusiast who has made fitness a part of her daily schedule. A classical dancer since childhood, Padma is curious to reinvigorate her childhood talent, while aims to foray into the fashion industry soon. “Be confident. Your educational skills don’t have to define you. Find the field that gives you joy. Organizing & communication skills, dedication and management style play a bigger role than education in managing a company,” Padma shares her advice to budding entrepreneurs. When asked about her favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur, Padma responds, “You’re financially independent and creating jobs. More than that, you’re creating something that makes someone happy. It’s a great feeling. I won’t stop doing this until I have some strength left”.

Key Management:
Padma Somireddy, Founder & Chief Designer
A well-organized, dedicated entrepreneur, Padma has successfully executed several projects in India & U.S. She is a creative personality with gregarious nature & patience, who incorporates innovative ideas into every project with a consistent focus on quality & personalized services.

Office: Hyderabad
Offerings: Interior Design Service specialized mostly in residential & commercial spaces, including Show Homes, Restaurants, and other business premises