Azmina Pirani balances entrepreneurship with giving back to the community

Despite dropping out of university and having a “very turbulent young life”, Azmina Pirani says she always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

She started her first business in her early twenties: a meditation center in McKinney.

“I had no idea what I was getting into,” she says. “I've never even worked in a meditation center before, so I had no knowledge of what it all entails.”

The business closed after about two years, when Pirani realized how difficult it was to start something from scratch without a network.

“I didn't have any family or friends at the time who were business owners, so I was very lonely. I think there were many emotions”, says Pirani. “So I took a break for about a year.”

Pirani recalled a hawker market she attended while running her meditation center. It was November in Celina and quite cold. However, the market's drinks only included margaritas and wine, despite the thirty-something degree weather.

Piran thought of the idea for Comfortable mug right then – a mobile bar that serves drinks hot cocoa with a variety of fillings.

By the end of that week, all supplies and licensing had been completed.

“I knew it was almost meant to be because I had no advertising, I just did this as a side gig to my full-time business, and one of my first clients was the Cowboys,” says Pirani. “That's how I knew it would rise. You don't get big clients like that just in your lap, especially when you have no PR, no marketing, nothing like that.”

This season (October through January) is the fourth for Snug Mug, which will also release its packaged hot cocoa mix this year, and Snug Mug Collaborated Baked Goods can be found at bakeries in Frisco and Allen.

“It makes people so happy,” says Pirani. “If I want to take it deeper, which I will, because of course I ran a meditation center, I think people forget that it's the simple things in life that make you smile. It seems to me that many times adults don't know how to have fun anymore. They limit themselves. They are very stiff. It's nice to see people free and very excited.”

Despite closing her original meditation studio, Pirani continued with a “holistic lifestyle.”

“He never left me. I took a break because I couldn't handle it. I didn't have a community to get away from. I had no friends to ask for advice or to collaborate with,” says Pirani. “But now I'm in a position where I have all of that, and my passion is to teach people that you can have inner peace and inner strength no matter what part of life you're in.”

Pirani opened a pop-up meditation studio and wellness center, Prana & Co., which partners with corporations and organizations to offer yoga classes, wellness coaching, meditation and other services.

“People here, especially in Dallas, are just go,” says Pirani. “A quiet space is not a thing for them even in their home. So if we can bring that to their work or team building, it just makes me so happy to see other people have that peace.”

In addition to these businesses, Pirani focuses a lot of her time working with non-profit organizations and local businesses to raise money for organizations that benefit women and children. Recently, these fundraisers give towards Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF)an international charity providing medical aid to children in Palestine.

“For most of my career, I haven't had the support I expected on a personal level, apart from my fiance, and that's been my drive and motivation as to why I'm so active with fundraising and trying to help women and children in the Middle East”, says Pirani. “And even though I don't physically know what they've been through, I feel for them. I know what it's like to be alone. I know what it's like when you feel like the whole world is against you or you just feel so helpless that you don't know what to do.”

According to Pirani, she has been able to donate over $10,000 in recent years to PCRF.

“I couldn't have done it without local businesses,” she says. “Through 10 years of running a business, I have seen that it is the smaller businesses that lead with heart. They run their business without value and stay true to themselves.”

“I think if you're a business owner, you've automatically taken on the responsibility to improve your community and you have that motivation through your heart. I think if you can't do that, you're not a business owner. You are not meant to do this. Entrepreneurship is far from being rich. I don't know any entrepreneurs who are actually rich. I think we're all running in circles, just trying to figure it out.”