10 Lessons I Learnt From Starting My Own Business

Entrepreneurship comes with a HUUUGE set of learnings... a very DIVERSE set of learnings. It is nothing like a job or a profession, where you keep gaining expertise in one specific domain or skill... rather it is more like an ALL-ROUNDER training, where you get to learn how to handle many different things at the same time. Especially if it is a DIY kind of micro business, wherein...

• YOU are the policymaker sitting at the very top, charting the course of your business - what products/services you will offer, what consumer segments you will cater to, when you will diversify, what areas will you consolidate away from...
• You are ALSO the frontline executive, the "face of your business" - doing the same routine tasks day-in and day-out, handling the customers/clients, answering their queries, making the sales, providing the support, maintaining the customer relations...
• AND you are EVERYTHING in between - the "middle management", translating the business goals and policies into ground-level actionables, handling "situations" when they "blow up" or "show up", doing damage control when required, maintaining a balance between the needs of the "business" and the "business person/s".

Yupp. You get to put on a whole lot of different hats, play many different roles, as an entrepreneur. I shared my FIRST 10 lessons in entrepreneurship, soon after starting my own retail business, and then I updated the list and republished it 3 years later (on 28th February, 2017). Sharing it below on this new blog as well...

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This is what I posted three years ago (in March 2014), when I'd just started my store... 10 lessons I learnt from starting my own business. Three years later, as I go through this list again, I realize that most of these points still hold true, while for some, let's just say "I've become wiser with age". So re-blogging this post with the changes highlighted in green.

Over the course of my very new and still-very-brief 3-year-long entrepreneurial journey, I've learnt some important lessons. While most of these apply to entrepreneurship in general, a few are specific to small-scale retail business only. Journaling them here, as I'm sure I will enjoy going through them some day in the future.

10 Life Lessons I Learnt From Retail Entrepreneurship

1. Every single morning, especially in winters, there WILL be a few minutes when you will ask yourself - "Why did I have to start this business when I could comfortably work from my home?" But after you spend your first summer at your store, in the sticky heat, with all the mosquitoes and various other kinds of bugs, you'll realize that winters were a piece of cake!
   
   
2. You will soon realize that doing all the domestic chores (viz. cleaning the house, the dishes, the laundry etc.) on your own is much faster than waiting indefinitely for the maid to show up! But if you DO get a maid who comes on time and doesn't take unscheduled leaves, then there is nothing like it!
   
   
3. Fast food, take-aways and eat-outs will no longer tempt you. On the contrary, you will crave solid home-cooked food. Especially if your body is still recuperating from serious illness. Even the tea-time biscuits will gradually lose their charm.
   
   
4. Those meal-time movie sessions with your Dad will soon become a thing of the past! (Those good ol' days! Siggghhhhh!) But, if you keep your laptop stocked-up with some movies, you might get to watch them at the shop, when business is slow. (Which is definitely bound to happen whenever holidays fall close to weekends! Do all retail business owners hate holidays as much as I do?)
   
   
5. You will become "brutal" at prioritizing! Where to spend money first, what expenses to postpone. Even at home, your "to-do-list" will be numbered! (Preparing the day's meals is STILL my current "number one" priority! You really can't do much through the day if you haven't taken care of the meals first and got them out of your way.)
   
   
6. You will realize that the retail business comes with a serious social obligation. Once you open a shop, you simply CANNOT take an unscheduled off any time you please. It can COMPLETELY disrupt the entire day's schedule of your customer! However, you CAN change your schedule completely, if you allow for a brief transition period to inform your customers, and put up prominent notices about the change. Oh, and if you don't keep making changes repeatedly!
   
   
7. Your work hours in the evening will stretch further and further, until you start returning home so late that all you have time left to do is to make the chapatis for dinner, eat, and sleep! In fact, very soon you will find yourself watching "excerpts" of your favorite TV show - Dance India Dance - in "news updates", during lunch break! (LOL! I'm exaggerating that bit! There are no D.I.D. updates in the news these days... it's all just politics mostly.) But, after a few months of this late-night schedule, the stress will start showing in your body and in your productivity, and you'll be forced to cut-back to a healthier work routine, even if it comes at a loss of good business.
   
   
8. Socializing will soon be restricted to phone conversations, WhatsApp interactions, and Facebook chats, and even those will be interspersed with loads of "customer-breaks"! And personal emails that were once-upon-a-time replied to within 24 hours, will now sit in your inbox for days! And even after three years, you cannot find a way to change this. Bottomline: Small-scale retail business leaves you with no social life.
   
   
9. You will still not be able to differentiate between weekdays and weekends, as previously, each day was like a holiday, and now each day is working! Only till you realize that you are NOT a machine, and that you NEED at least one weekly off, even if it makes some of your customers very unhappy.
   
   
10. Every single day, there will be AT LEAST one customer whose smile and heart-felt thanks will make you feel glad that you opened this shop! Despite the less-than-ideal working conditions. Despite the shoplifters (very rare, but very real nonetheless). Despite those handful of uncivilized people who believe it is their right to be rude to shop-owners. (No really! A shop is a great place to observe human psychology at work.)
    

Dad always said that small-scale retail business is a tough job, and I can see why now. There's just not enough mental stimulation. You sure get adept at crisis-handling, but other than that, once you've put all the "systems" in place, there is really nothing new to learn after a certain point.

But I think I STILL quite enjoy it... at least MOST of the time. Perhaps that's because I'm not just selling products, I'm also doing creative stuff here. I have plenty of working space, good lighting, well-organized storage space, all the craft material and other resources I might need. AND... MOST IMPORTANTLY... I get to step out of my house and interact with some humans every day! Especially kids!

Another reason could be That's probably the main reason for me sticking with my shop for so long... the fact that most of my customers are children, and it's usually a delight interacting with kids. (Read this if you haven't already: When Kids go Shopping... Alone!) Their simple innocence gives you an entirely different perspective on life, doesn't it? You realize that life is not as complex as adults make it out to be.

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Hmmmm. ALL absolutely valid entrepreneurship lessons that STILL hold true. There is just one point that I don't quite COMPLETELY agree with now. I mentioned that there is NOTHING new to learn after a certain point. I change my stand on that. The "domain" knowledge, just like in any other job or profession, keeps getting refreshed... evolving market trends, government policies, new products, new competitors even! So, you need to keep yourself up-to-date at all times.

More importantly, YOU are the decision-maker, and hence, YOU get to decide what NEW learning experiences you seek, and how you can integrate them into your existing business model. As they say, entrepreneurship is a JOURNEY. There is NO FIXED DESTINATION, just MILESTONES along the way...

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