ST16 | Sahil Mehta On Building A Profitable D2C Brand Portfolio

Business is all about focus they’ll tell you. Focus on one product, one service, one customer profile, and maybe one geography. But what if you want to do it all? What if you don’t want to limit yourself and instead want to sell a range of products or services aiming for the widest market possible? Can you even be successful that way? Well, today we are talking to Sahil Mehta of Emmbros Overseas, who has not one or two, but actually multiple brands, in multiple areas, spanning skincare, nutrition, fitness, women care, baby care, I mean, men, women, babies, well, that’s about the widest market that I can think of. And he’s gonna tell us how he got started down this path, and how he manages his portfolio of brands profitably.

Discussion Topics: Sahil Mehta on Building a Profitable D2C Brand Portfolio

• Going after D2C E-commerce
• Learnings from working with manufacturers
• Challenges come with market penetration and building diverse portfolio
• Smallness is an advantage
• Growing multi-brands and multi-platforms successfully

Transcript: Sahil Mehta on Building a Profitable D2C Brand Portfolio

Amit: Welcome to another episode of the ShopTok podcast. So with that said, Sahil, thank you so much for joining us today. Maybe before we begin, you could tell us a little bit about yourself and your business and how you got started.

Sahil: Hi, Amit. Thank you for inviting me to ShopTok. And as you said, this is a real goldmine for several entrepreneurs as a learning journey, to begin with, I should say. So, I’m the Founder and Director of Emmbros Overseas, as you said, I have founded several brands ranging from personal care to Lifestyle and Health and Nutrition. And I begin my journey by entering into the E-commerce segment. While I was in the E-commerce segment, I learned designing, development, WordPress, HTML, and everything drop shipping.

And that’s how I entered into this E-commerce segment, way back. And I also learned SEO, whatever scripts, and also, I learned entire coding and everything so that I could do it independently because when I was starting up my business, I didn’t have any kind of employees who can help, who could do all my work. In fact, I learned Ayurveda, I have learned health from my dad, and studied several remedies from books even in fact, on one of my first websites, I wrote the entire content, several blogs, and several pages and after that, I wrote multiple websites.

So that’s how I entered into this segment, and ever since that, I have been to the E-commerce and the personal care space of Health and Lifestyle, educating people and learning about several things. I learned that there is so much of a lack of ingredients being used by other companies, good companies, they are not using one of the main actives, which are required.

And they’re also not disclosing what all ingredients they are adding, the percentage of the main actives, and how effective that product would be. So, all these factors led me and the pricing was rocket high without knowing what is added in that product and at what percentage. So, everything was just a marketing gimmick. And that made me enter into all these kinds of products and segments where I could deeply dive into all these ingredients and then launch products to offer something better.

Amit: Okay, this is really interesting. I mean, you’ve not only self-taught yourself the whole, basically the industry and then the products themselves you also taught yourself, or rather learned through your work, how to run an E-commerce Company and everything that E-commerce requires. So, are you trying to emulate like, these days, it’s called D2C brands, the Direct to Consumer kind of brand? So, is that what you’re kind of trying to go after?

Sahil: Yeah, D2C is a new term, which was there earlier, it used to be B2B and B2C. So I’m from the era where we started from B2C and then entered into the D2C segment.

Amit: Yeah, that’s true. So it’s always good to have new acronyms. So, it’s impressive that you did everything yourself. And you said that when you first started, you used to do all the work by yourself, is it? like from website to product development and everything?

Sahil: Yeah, in the initial stages, but when I entered the launch of brands, and when I launched the company Emmbros Overseas, that time I had a good staff with me, I was able to hire more resources, I was able to train them and get things more practically done in a better way.

Amit: So let’s talk about your early days. So, when you first got started, what were the first few things that you did? And how were you feeling when you first got going?

Sahil: See, it’s always been very challenging to start a new company and being specially from a very small town, Chandigarh. So people those days, were not very much aware about how things work on E-commerce, how to sell on E-commerce platforms, as you know that time people were also very reluctant to buy products online, and delivery challenges were there, warehouse charges were there, and in fact, listing challenges and even marketplace were learning that time how Indian would, they were establishing in the country like they were resolving their bugs and issues.

So there were so many kinds of challenges here and there, even challenges are right now as well. Because every day, we face some or other challenge, and then we overcome it and then the next step. So this is always a learning procedure and a learning stage. And every day, every month, we come across new and new things. And we have to overcome these challenges, whether it’s a beginning or whether it’s in the middle stage, or we are proven.

Amit: So what are some of the let’s say, guiding principles or something that you’ve employed to keep you going through all of this?

Sahil: See, guiding principles like, I trained myself, as I said, was a designer, developer and had an E-commerce background. So I became one of their teachers to teach them, to guide them, and to do most of the work myself and then train my staff to take over the work rosters and all. So our first focus was to launch the products, launch the brands, and then we started with the cosmetics section.

We began our journey with personal care cosmetics and the challenge was to tie up with several manufacturers in the country. And I always believed that we have to deal or I have to deal with top-end manufacturers only because if I am getting a product manufactured by some other person, I have to be totally assured of the quality of the product, I have to deal with only the best one.

I cannot just compromise by dealing with any small manufacturer compromising with the quality or just because they can do a small MOQ I should deal with them. No, our first aim was to tie up with the top-end manufacturers of the country, to convince them, to make them believe in us. And that’s how we begin a journey with personal care, we set up the team over here and we trained the staff to do all kinds of activities. So this is how we began that time. I will answer you more in detail, with your questions.

Amit: Yeah, sure. And in fact, one of the questions I have is about what you just said about top-end manufacturers. I think it’s an interesting piece of advice because when people are starting out and they don’t have too much money, to begin with, it would be a natural temptation to go to whoever’s giving you the cheapest service versus the best service.

So, number one, how did you convince these manufacturers to work with you? Because I’m sure they work with a lot of big brands. And number two is how were you able to afford them? Or what are some of the tradeoffs you made when you went to these better manufacturers?

Sahil: So, it was very challenging and difficult, we used to pay them money for doing the sampling, and it was very difficult even to reach the corporate offices, some high-tech corporate offices, Bombay, Bangalore, and the production facility was in Himachal, or something like that.

So it was very challenging to get hold of the Directors to make them believe I had to do several kinds of visits with them. And ultimately, yes, with smaller MOQs and a wider range promise and with the repeat orders promise, we had to convince them. And they believed in us after doing several kinds of follow-ups, they got to believe in us that yes, we should give it a try, maybe they used to charge a bit, maybe a higher amount for what it is we were trying to buy.

But our concept was we wanted to launch several new things. And they were very keen on doing new things with us. Because of these kinds of requirements, they were not getting the time that new ingredients to explore, new products to explore, and things in new packaging. So these were the kinds of things they were liking and it made them keen to work with us.

Amit: Wow, this is a really good insight, Sahil. I have not heard this from others so far which is, even if you’re going to larger manufacturers you might think, no, they do everything and so why would they care about you and charge you and they will charge you money?

Sahil: If you just go to them and say you need the same product in the market, of course, they will say, why would they show interest in that kind of brand? If you just go to them, oh this is a new ingredient, which they might have heard about, they might be knowing that it’s doing very well in international countries, but there’s so much demand upcoming in their country and if they’re getting this kind of requirement for the first time, and they get to hold off doing things differently, obviously, they will say yes, we will be able to work with you. So, that’s the kind of difference.

Amit: That’s a really good insight, Sahil. I’m sure most people won’t have thought of things that way. You’re right ultimately, even big company wants to do new things because otherwise they will also become backward and people will stop working with them. So, tell me more about the whole product planning process. How did you decide on your first product? Like what were the steps you had to go through to bring it to market and maybe what were some of the issues you faced back then?

Sahil: See the first product is always the main ingredient, which you believe has to be the hero ingredient of your brand. So the first product, the second, and the range are always dependent on the hero ingredients of your brand, on the basis on which you have made your brand, new model, and the concepts in your mind.

So those are always the first products and they are very difficult to work upon. Because we always believe that we have to do something innovative, and we have to do something different from the market. We don’t have to follow the market, the market has to follow us, that’s always the aim we work at.

So, we faced different kinds of challenges and sourcing that ingredient manufacturers face challenges in sourcing that ingredient, this is a time-consuming process in working with that ingredients, whether it’s a health product, whether it is personal care, health care, we work upon percentages to be used, we work upon different flavours to be used, we worked upon different fragrances to be used or different ingredients which can be added along with that.

Amit: Okay, and is it difficult? I mean, was it more difficult the first time you did it and now obviously you have a running operation so it’s easier to launch new products. What were some of the starting troubles that you had?

Sahil: See launching a new product at that time was also the same stage and today also it is at the same stage because right now, the market has evolved so much, so many entrants have already come up now. And the market is full of so many products now, the opportunity is untapped or getting minimised day by day.

But the only opportunities now left are the things that are only coming from China to develop over here in a better way, in a more innovative way. And to do it from India. So even now we face these kinds of challenges and how we have to do things differently and how to source new manufacturers to get things done in India, rather than importing anything.

So, even right now, I have been working on several different categories, which has taken me more than six months to find the right manufacturer, the best manufacturer, so it takes a lot of time to enter into a new category, where we have to deal with the right kind of manufacturer who can understand your product, to your new concepts, and who has that capacity and capability of doing that kind of category.

Amit: Oh, okay, because I was actually going to ask you, why would you need to look for new manufacturers if you already have trusted existing ones? But I think it’s because they don’t work in that category. Is it?

Sahil: Yeah, when you’re launching a totally different category, it’s always better to look for a new manufacturer, why put all your categories into your existing manufacturer itself, because they’re already burdened with your existing category, and variants of those categories are coming up, and then repeat orders of those categories are coming up.

Amit: So actually, this leads me to another question I was hoping to ask, which is, you have a very wide portfolio, right? It’s not focused only on men, or only on women or children. It’s not only skincare, it’s also nutrition.

So, how do you manage such a diverse portfolio of things, doesn’t it lead to a lot of complexity or is there some way maybe at the backend or something that you are able to consolidate things and make it more streamlined?

Sahil: See, I consider them as only two things that are two categories: Health and Beauty. So, there are health manufacturers, who might I deal with, and then there are beauty manufacturers, whom I deal with, but there are several different categories so it gets divided. But when I started, I wanted you to start both of them Health and Beauty because beauty was also one of my interests and health also I had studied all those things.

So whatever products I daily come across, daily use myself, that was my main interest in using those kinds of products or taking those kinds of medicines and supplements in a better way. Because that time I was not able to find any kind of good stuff which I can trust, which I can say yes, this is the best product or a better product.

So, that made me lead to all these kinds of products and categories till today, I’m using all my products, all my beauty and cosmetics and health products, my entire family uses all those products and from there, I get several kinds of ideas, concepts, which are then explored whether they will be able to work in the country or not, but your family, yourself need, your requirement is the first step which made me think about those kinds of products, whether they are available or not.

Amit: Yeah, this is actually an important point, if you can be a user of your own product that I think helps a lot because you get ideas from there.

Sahil: Yeah, because sometimes you are using an international brand. And so when you question why you’re using this international brand, why is it not available in the country? You will get an answer; you don’t get this quality in the country. That’s the main answer you get. So that makes you lead that you can then make a better product than the international product in India. So that makes me lead to that kind of product because their product has a demand, this family is using, your friends are using, but the same equivalent quality is not available in the market.

Amit: Okay, so your inspiration for new products comes from using something that is international, some international brand, and then wondering why an equivalent thing is not there in India. And if you’re able to spot that gap, then you try to get into it, assuming it is Health or Beauty related. Okay, this is interesting.

So, when you first got started, obviously, to run a business, especially a profitable one, you have to get customers, but you’re sitting in a fairly, I would say the way location in India, you’re not exactly in Mumbai, or something like that. So, how did you plan your customer acquisition? How did you get your first few customers?

Sahil: So marketplaces were one of the first methods we deployed to enter into this E-commerce sector. And Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, all these kinds of platforms helped us to approach new customers, to showcase our product, and at much affordable expense rates.

Amit: Okay, because you didn’t have the whole cost of trying to build out, like a real physical presence. And so even if you pay commission to these platforms, it still works out better.

Sahil: Yeah, because at that time, we believe that if we launch our own website, and then promote those websites, we won’t be able to scale that much which is where we can do it in a better way on a marketplace that time because the marketplace was spending so much amount those days in the marketing, to get new customers. And if you are one of the new players over there, if you are one of the only players over there, then you are taking the benefit out of their marketing expense.

Amit: This is good. You’re right. I mean, if you’re starting from scratch, you might as well ride on somebody else’s kind of visibility. So then you got to some kind of scale and then that scale gave you enough I guess, cash flow to then build up your own presence. And then how did you go about building up your own presence? Like is it that you’re still predominantly marketplace oriented? Or is it now moving more to your own websites or retail presence?

Sahil: Marketplace now is a broader term. It is much broader than not just Amazon, and Flipkart, it is more than 20 marketplaces now. So, the marketplace is now kind of and you say you have 20 distributors, who are distributing your product so it is now a very broad term, and along with that, then we have built up our own presence through our own website, social media, influencer networks and all.

Amit: Right, actually, let me ask you a kind of a bit of a tactical question here. So earlier of course you were dependent on the marketplace or distributor model. But today you’re not, you do have your own D2C things or you have retail so do you actively try to do something where you acquire a customer through a marketplace but then somehow bring them for the next order you’re able to bring them to your own channels?

Sahil: No, we never do that because it is against their policy as well. Neither do we intend to do that customers should buy it from here or there. We are selling a product and even if a marketplace is charging us 20, 30% even our own expense to bring the customer to our website is 20, 30%. So the customer should be able to buy from the nearest place, within their comfort zone and that is what we believe in.

Amit: Okay, that makes sense. So you are saying effectively the cost is going to work out the same so it’s not even worth trying. So again, talking about the marketplaces. So, when you first got started I’m sure it was, okay, let me just list something, you know, write some stuff, but maybe a photograph, and then that’s it. How did you evolve from there? Or what are some of the things you’ve learned about marketplace listings that other people could benefit from?

Sahil: Again, as I said, we have to do things differently. So different from what your competitors are doing. And you have to see what the other brands are doing, how they’re doing, and what better things you can do from them, whether it’s a site test, whether it’s the images, whether it’s a price point, whether it is the display page because the customer only wants to see that image, main features what you have given and how beautiful you have highlighted your key factors why one should buy that product in a precise way that you have only five seconds to display everything. And in those five to ten seconds, you should be able to convince the customer to stay further to read everything and to start trusting, start making trust in your product and your page.

Amit: So you’re trying to create trust in the page through essentially every element of it, the photo, the copy, all of that has to build up to the fact that this is a real and quality product, and therefore, you should trust.

Sahil: This is also never a one-time work, it has to keep changing with new and new things and new ideas, which you come across because you just can’t make it once and then forget it for years. You have to keep changing.

Amit: Okay, got it. So not only do you have to set it up and be, I think pretty intentional about it. You also have to keep updating all this content. How often do you think one should update listings on these platforms?

Sahil: We always try to do it once a year or one and a half years, we always try to entirely change the look and feel.

Amit: So like a full refresh, you must have I’m guessing hundreds of cues on these platforms. So let’s talk a little bit about the team side, we’ve talked so much about the product. So, on the team front, you said that you started out solo, and then by the time you launched your products you had a few team members and so on. So how did you make your first few hires, were they all local like from Chandigarh, or from where you are? Or were they from elsewhere? And why did they join you?

Sahil: I had all the local stuff only and our strategy was to hire the freshers because the freshers and people who have intellectual level, who are educated and have good qualifications, those were a preference because we were able to mold them according to our requirements, we can train them to task which is required and they were happy to learn all these kinds of things then they became a long term resource who could sustain with us, who could be there with us in the long extrude.

So at that time, people were less knowledgeable about E-commerce so it was difficult to find those staff, so it was much easier to train them because I had always kind of done all those kinds of learning and all. Once we train them then they are able to grasp more things, they are able to do things practically, and even we learn several new things along with them. So the journey is all about learning, we learn things each day, they learn new things each day then together we make a better way.

So today it’s much easier, today you have so much work from home facility has started. You can hire anyone across the country or maybe have a word and just ask them to work from home from their destination place, there’s no need to come over, to relocate yourself, people are not opting for relocation they are preferring work from home these days.

Amit: Right actually, how do you adapt to that kind of world your world should be heavily manufacturing-oriented, right? So, are you comfortable with this work-from-home and remote work setup?

Sahil: Yeah, we are comfortable with working from home because we are able to get more valuable resources that way, more people who have more experience and more talent and they generally lead the team.

Amit: Okay, that’s really good to know. I mean, you’ve actually made a benefit out of this whole situation. And you mentioned something about you bringing in freshers and then they learn and then they eventually start learning things by themselves. So, how have you created this magic like, what are you looking for in these freshers? Because not all freshers are created equal.

Sahil: These freshers used to be in the earliest stages when we were starting the company. But now you get resources, who are having like one-year experience, three years, five years, ten years. So depending on them, depending on the requirements, we are able to hire a mid-level or maybe a junior or maybe a senior on the basis of the requirement.

Because every company has its own way of working. You cannot just ask any senior or mid-level to join your company and start doing things he was doing over there. You have to tell them, this is the way of our doing, this is our method because you have to again train them, you have to tell them each and everything again, that this is how we do, this is how we report, this is how we take the production, take the productivity, this is how we are measuring the things.

So, you have to train them, guide them whether it’s a senior or whether it’s a mid-level, it’s one and the same thing.

Amit: And like when a new person joins, do you have some sort of an onboarding program or a training program? Or is it on the job kind of learning?

Sahil: Yeah, we have seniors in-house now and then there are Team Leaders who also are able to take over all these duties. So, this training is almost like six months to one year, or maybe more sometimes it’s more than that, and then that resource becomes a very strong pillar, that can compete with any person across the country, any senior leader.

Amit: Actually, also speaking about talent nowadays I know a lot of business owners are finding it difficult nowadays to hire and also to retain talent, because people, especially from work from home, can move around more easily. So, are you facing similar challenges? And do you have any ways that you’re trying to retain your best people?

Sahil: See, if it’s the resource find there is nothing more to learn over here, if the salaries are not good, or maybe the facilities are not good, or the main thing, I believe that people don’t look at the facility, or the salary they see the learning stages, the kind of work they are doing, whether it is maintenance work, what kind of work they’re doing, what kind of learning they are getting into, what kind of responsibilities, or maybe how the management is and how the team leaders are there, how good their scaling in the company. I believe personal growth matters in all these things.

So that makes one retain the employee, rather than if you have a large scale company, and the manager is handling 50 employees. So over there, I believe there will be issues coming up because people would be just reporting to the managers and just doing the same kind of activities, and maybe their ideas are not appreciated over there, and their work is not looked into with great depth.

Amit: You know, Sahil, this is a good way of looking at things. Often, I guess small business owners feel like, well, we are small. And so, therefore, the best talent will want to go to other places, larger companies, they are paid more and stuff. But you’re actually saying smallness is an advantage, which is you’re able to give better attention to people, it’s a smaller group of people.

Sahil: Yes, they are able to connect with us more effectively.

Amit: Yeah, connect more, have a bigger scope, learn more things. This is good. I think this is a very interesting viewpoint and one that maybe at least I hadn’t considered earlier. It’s a good way of looking at things. So, I think Sahil, well before this conversation, you’d mentioned that you are not only a profitable company you have been profitable, right from the start.

So that’s obviously an amazing achievement to be profitable from day one. And especially when you’re selling physical goods, because I’m sure you have to manufacture, there’s inventory, there are storage costs, sales teams, whatnot. So, initially, what were some of the challenges that you faced in meeting profitability targets and how did you actually overcome all of them?

Sahil: Always our aim was to be in a profitable situation, whether we have to compromise on the MOQ or whether we have to compromise on the marketing aspects. We always believe we have to make such a product, which is different from the market, people give more attention to that kind of product. And there we have to do less marketing.

So that factor and the pricing have to be set accordingly so that all these factors are taken into consideration, including placement, product costings, and all kinds of expenses. I never see the competition pricing, because I know what the product I’m making is.

If the competition is selling for 500, I won’t be reluctant to even make it for 1500 because I know the product I’m making and at what price, I would be profitable, I don’t have to see, if they might be selling at a loss, they might be getting funding to sell it at that kind of price, I have to see myself, I have to see my business and how I can sell at that price and how I can differentiate from that price because every product has a placement like the bags have a placement, cars have a placement, everything is differentiated from the features and the packaging.

So it is not that if one product comes for 500 then all products will come for 500 only, it is level, level of differentiation, and the product differentiation should be 500,1000, 1500, 2000, and 5000 also.

Amit: So, essentially, you’re saying two things here. One is, you should price it in a manner that will be profitable, not worrying about the other price points in the market. And that pricing should be defensible, based on how different your product is or the features of that product.

And the second thing is, there are some things that you make the tradeoffs, which is, like you said, initially, maybe you wouldn’t have spent so much on marketing, and you needed to put the product in a manner where it markets itself effectively. And so, therefore, those are the ways that you kind of managed your profitability.

So thanks for that. I think this is also a good insight. So, that was initially and you started out being profitable and stuff, how did you then grow from that point onwards to become multi-brand and multi-platform, successful? I’m sure you need to grow beyond the original minimum order quantities that you placed, and so on. So what were some of the tactics that got you through the years?

Sahil: So, profit was one of the main tactics where we were profitable, and we never had to look for funding from any venture funds, we never had that requirement. So our profits were good enough to launch new products, launch new brands, enter into new verticals, and scale them up gradually.

We never believed that now it is one year so now we need to reach 100 crores, and now it is the second year we have to reach 200 crores, we were not into those kinds of races to show numbers. We wanted to do things in a better way, in an organic way, in a natural way where we can self-do things.

Amit: This is interesting. So essentially, you’re saying because you had profit, you could fund your own business. And because you didn’t have any external investors, there was no pressure that you have to do this doubling, tripling kind of game. And that makes the whole thing sustainable. For how long have you been running the business, Sahil?

Sahil: Well, it’s been a very long journey into this business field, I’ve been working since 2007. So it’s been 14, 15 years of my work era. So, I would say it’s a 15 years long journey. It’s just not a short journey.

Because even if you have launched the brand, two years back, or three years back, so those brands have been three years, four years, five years, all these brands, but my journey, my experience, my past experience, my previous experience, is all that taught me, educated me and what the insights to do all these things.

Amit: So, 15 years is quite a long time. So I have two related questions on this. One is, how many years did it take you to reach a point where you knew that the business is going to be successful? Or how long did it take to be confident that this is definitely working, and it is going to grow into something bigger?

Sahil: See if I had to start something, I’m always confident from the beginning that I’m doing this, and this will scale up, whether you get the success or not in the first few months, but I always have this kind of confidence.

Amit: Because you said, whether it takes a few months or not. So was it like, maybe six months or eight months or a year before the business really started churning and producing large enough numbers to kind of make it feel worthwhile?

Sahil: See I always had confidence in myself, but to my employees, my family, it takes a while to develop this kind of confidence.

Amit: That’s probably true. Okay, and how did you keep motivated over 15 years of this journey? And I’m sure there are many more years to go.

Sahil: My early retirement is the motivation.

Amit: Fair enough. So would you say that you’re reaching that kind of stage sometime soon, where the business is at the stage where you feel like it can actually give you enough to not have to work for money?

Sahil: Yeah, maybe just a couple of years.

Amit: Wow, that’s great. So, I have another 14 years to go before I get there as well. Nice, good to know. So one last question for you, which is, looking back on your 15-year journey, what are the things that you might have done differently? Or what kind of advice that you’d like to give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Sahil: I always believe to always do things differently and never do things that are against your interest or where you are just showing off to other’s numbers, never run after things, always do things that you believe can sustain and give you benefit in the longer run.

Do short-term things and don’t look at others what they are doing, whether they’re spending too much on marketing, doing influencers, or doing celebrity. See what’s your pocket size, what benefit you can achieve out of that, always see your instant profit if you’re not dependent on investors or funding always see the instant profit you’re making from each activity.

Amit: Okay, so the ROI of basically every activity.

Sahil: Yeah. It matters because you can’t see the figures after six months or one year, then you’re under negative and you won’t be able to recover.

Amit: Okay, so thanks a lot, Sahil. These were excellent insights. Where can people find out more about your business? Or what’s the website they could go to?

Sahil: My website emmbrosoverseas.com. And also my brand websites manarden.com, musclexp.com, and mom&world.com

Amit: Okay, great. We’ll put links on our website as well like when we put up the notes. So thanks a lot Sahil, these were great insights. I was noting some of them down while you were speaking. So let me just take a moment to summarise for our audience at least some of my takeaways.

I think the biggest takeaway from me or rather let the headline takeaway is that it is possible to run a successful profitable business with a wide portfolio of products. So you don’t have to believe in the conventional wisdom that you need to focus on one narrow kind of thing to succeed.

The second takeaway for me was, if you’re starting out from scratch, it may be a good idea to start with marketplaces or like Sahil, calls them now they like distributors, which is true. So, start with those and grow to a point, and then build your own presence.

And to be successful in these marketplaces you need to look at your listing quality, like what you look like, and how trustworthy are you. And also, it helps if you’re a new player in a category. So there’s something unique about you, that people will look for. And then the marketplace is also like that because you have something new to offer.

The third takeaway for me was, if you’re building a product, deal with the best manufacturers because that’s where you will get really the best quality and quality is ultimately one of the things that’s going to help you, make it in the market. And it’s not even as if the biggest manufacturers are not going to work with you.

Because if you bring to them some innovative thing that you’re trying to do, then even the big people want to work with you because even they want to experiment and be on the cutting edge. And you’re helping them get there. So don’t worry that you’re an unknown player, worry more about whether you have an innovative product.

On the people side, I think my takeaway was, even if you’re a small company, as long as you have a learning culture, and in fact, because you’re a small company, maybe there is much more learning culture, you will actually find it’s possible to retain good people and to attract them because you have a much better connect with them. They have the ability to grow and build a bigger scope than they would have in a larger company.

In terms of customers, I think what Sahil was saying is that you need to understand your customers. And it helps a lot if you yourself are a customer because that helps you, first of all, figure out whether your product is doing a good job. But more importantly, it lets you look at things that you use, which are from, not made in your country, or it’s something that could have been done differently. And that gives you the opportunity to innovate a new product there.

In terms of profitability, and given that Sahil has been profitable from day one in a physical goods business, there’s a lot to learn here. So, his points were that you need to make tradeoffs, of course, particularly around marketing, or things like that, where you reduce your cost by putting your product somewhere where it can sell itself.

And maybe you have to make tradeoffs on the size of the order that you want to give to your manufacturer and so on. But you can be profitable as long as you price your product at a level at which you will actually make money. And don’t worry too much about competition, and how they are pricing, differentiate what you’re doing and therefore defend your own pricing.

The other thing around profits was that the profits will fund your expansion, and then you aren’t beholden to any kind of investor. And if you’re not obligated to be an investor, then you have a lot of flexibility, you can grow at the rate that you want to, you’re not in a race to show any kind of vanity metrics or numbers, you can just focus on running a good business.

The other point also, I think, is a very important one that Sahil said is don’t worry too much about the competition, they will do all kinds of things, you do what works for you, and they will do what works for them. And you can be successful that way.

And I think the last couple of things were don’t focus on doing short-term things, whatever it is you’re doing needs to build your business in the longer run. So anything short-termism will kind of probably just distract you from making a solid business. And also do things that are instantly ROI positive.

So it gives you some sort of profit or value immediately versus something they’ll give you value one year later because you would have run out of money by then. And then your business won’t succeed.

So Sahil, thank you so much. These were great insights. I really appreciate you being here with us. And for those listening to this show, please do rate us five stars for this episode because at least for me, it was definitely a five-star episode. You can get links to all the different brands that Sahil has set up on our website as well.

Sahil: Thanks, Amit. Very nicely summarised all the points. The perfect one to just read all those points.

Amit: Yeah, thank you very much. So we were Amit and Sahil with ShopTok. See you next time.