Sweekruthi calls herself an explorer. Throughout the entire time that she has been in the workforce, she has been exploring ways to make experiences fun. She now makes board games fun at Now Boarding Cafe. The place was conceived in a way that it just become like a community for people to come to chill here to find their own tribe of people, to just have fun. That's the whole idea of the place. 

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What do your mornings look like?

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It's been very different since we started the cafe. Before the cafe, I used to have an early morning. I would go to the gym by 7:00 o'clock. But now, because my days and really late, my mornings start only at 9:00 o'clock. But I still make sure that I'm taking the one hour to hit the gym or to go swimming.

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This really grounds me in a way that it gives me energy for the rest of the day, so I think that's really important.

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Another part of the morning that I really like is just taking some time to spend with my pet Casper. Casper and I have a great quality morning and we just like to talk to each other. I groom him, I just enjoy really doing that. That's what my morning looks like ☀️

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What do you do in the evenings?

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In the evenings I am at the cafe. The cafe starts at 12 and closes at 11. So I'm here pretty much all of the evening. But if you'd ask me what I do post-bar, me and my husband take some time to watch some of the series that we really like Mandalorian is something that we're currently watching, so just ensure that I get the time to unwind and just chill is very important for me.

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How do you maintain a work-life balance?

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Actually, while conceiving the cafe itself, we made it very, very sure that we had one day off of the cafe. Just to ensure we'd get that time we'd get the break. So every Monday our cafe is closed, that's the day then when we just chill and don't do anything and think about work at all. I'd like to say that, but there are some things that I think about work. But Monday is the day that we take off.

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And because we have like different people in the family helping us out as well if we find it too much to handle.

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It's great that we can take like a couple of hours off where somebody else is covering for us and we come back when we are energized. 

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How do you stay on top of trends related to your work?

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At the cafe, we have weekly meetings every Sunday night we sit down with the staff, and ask them what they liked about the week, what they didn't like, and what they have as an area of improvement for themselves and for the cafe as well.

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During the discussion, we figure out what we want to do and we put down two or three things that we are going to consciously do better in the next week and we discuss that in the coming week as well.

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Personally, what I do is I do take some time to reflect. 

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I think of the goals that I have set for myself in the year and I see if I am on track for it, if I am going in the right way, if I am happy generally. 

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That's my track meter for everything metric for everything. If I am happy, then yeah, that's what I want to do. If something is not making me happy, I think of what is it and then I figure it out and work on that. 

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What do you do for your mental health?

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I heard the saying that, you know, it takes a village to raise a child.

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It actually takes a district or like an entire city to raise an entrepreneur, I would say.

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I have been extremely lucky that I have had fantastic support, not only with family but with friends as well. Every time I am feeling overwhelmed, I just go. I talk to them and they make me like see what is working, what is not. So they give me the perspective that I really need at that point of time. So most of my mental health care or like my personal time comes from just having these conversations with the people that really matter to me.

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But otherwise, like just binge watching shows or reading something is what like takes me away from the stress as well.

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Any advice to other entrepreneurs?

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I think it is really important to find like people who you work with or like different people who are on the same path.

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Because being an entrepreneur honestly is a very solo journey. It makes you feel very alone at most times. 

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So if you have other people who may be on a similar journey as you are, it really helps to just share experiences, talk to each other. I think that would be my primary advice. Thank you 🧡