Starting a Business - Lessons from Experience

About a year ago, my wife took the bold step of starting her own company, Bhaasha Basics. It was a culmination of her lifelong passion for education and culture, both of which took on a new meaning after we had kids. The company sells a handful of products that help expose kids to a number of different Indian languages in a more modern way than what our parents used with us. If you're Indian or know anyone Indian, please tell them to check out www.bhaashabasics.com or @bhaashabasics on Instagram - there are some awesome things that would make for a thoughtful Christmas gift!

I'm writing about this today though not as a marketing piece, but rather to share what I have learned about starting a business through her experience. I haven't gone to business school, but in many ways, I feel like I have obtained a partial MBA. I would love to hear from others who have started a small business and get advice on what we can do better.

1. Manufacturing anything is incredibly challenging and expensive. This is compounded when you're a small business and can only order in small quantities. Whether it's printing a book, cutting wooden alphabets or buying blank onesies, it takes a lot of expense and efforts to build up inventory.

LESSON: If you're thinking to start a business, see if you can find something that either 1) is already being manufactured by someone else and purchase it from them, or 2) has a large market such that you can take the risk of buying a larger quantity of inventory.

2. Building off of the last lesson, while it is always awesome to start a business based on your passions, it is equally important to do market research to understand the market opportunity BEFORE launching your business. You may decide to start the business regardless of the economic opportunity because of your personal passion, but being realistic will help you move forward and also make plans accordingly when you're setting prices and creating a marketing strategy.

LESSON: If the market size is small (like the market for Indian language-learning materials), then know that you will have to work incredibly hard to reach out to that limited market and create awareness of the availability of your products.

3. Social media marketing, while incredibly helpful, is not everything! People will often follow you on Instagram and Facebook, but converting them into purchasers is an entirely separate matter. Indians are particularly known to be cost-sensitive and will question the value of anything you are trying to sell. Social media cannot convey this - you have to get in front of these people and do local, in-person marketing.

LESSON: If you want a small business to succeed, you have to dedicate the time and energy to get out in the field and build actual relationships on the ground. You have to show up to the local events and meet your target consumer to tell them your story and help them understand the value in your products.

There are many more lessons and I'll continue to update this as I get time, but if anyone is thinking to start a small business, especially e-commerce, I'm more than happy to chat with you and share our experience. Being a lawyer, I'm happy to share any legal tidbits as well if you're confused. Thanks!