Man, the last few months have just flown by. I am sure many will agree. The year 2020 has been just weird. Most of us have been locked at home and life hasn't gone back to normal. No one in their wildest dreams would have imagined a scenario such as this.
When I quit my job in Feb of this year, I never thought I would be forced to spend 2 months locked at home. But so I did. The 2 months of lockdown proved quite tough for my new venture which was something in an already tough area- agriculture.
Anything to do with agriculture in India is just tough. The distribution channels are archaic. Warehousing and storage facilities do exist but are rare and impossible to access for new entrepreneurs. Then irrigation challenges, small land ownership don't make matters easy. I was also very new to the whole field, and the last 6 months of failures have provided so many learnings.
During Jan, I had sowed the seeds of my new business, as well as the crops but 3 to 4 months of inactivity meant that the crop was bound to fail. After I managed to start traveling in May, I still had some hope. However, weird weather patterns ensured that nothing survived.
The business started as a B2B oriented venture but since the restaurant industry has been destroyed, I had to pivot to B2C. However, on-boarding retail consumers isn't an easy job.
There have been many things that I have learnt during the last 6 months, and that is what the post is all about.
Most people in the world feel that farmers in India are not well paid. Given low land holdings, making a decent income is not easy. So I thought that by making them grow something different, I will be able to solve some of the problems. However, I have realized to to make someone that is used to certain practices change their habit is not easy. Farmers are quite used to doing what they are doing and will not change. In fact, govt sponsored freebies make them feel that even private enterprise is there to dole out free stuff. If you want to work with farmers in India, make sure not to invest your own private capital.
There are massive gaps in Indian Fruits and Vegetables market, also the largest such market in the world at $400 odd billion. After I pivoted to B2C, the reviews from customers were incredibly satisfying. People hadn't seen the kind of clean, and fresh produce we were selling. If anyone walks to a 'Mandi' (vegetable wholesale market) in India, they will never buy food from the streets again, or well they ought not to. However, despite making customers happy with quality, they want cheap things. I wonder if it is possible for India to have its own Whole Foods. Anyway, the failures have also helped identify many other gaps that I hope to address in the coming months.
Patience is key in this sector. Most entrepreneurs will tell you that failures are key to success. In this field, no matter how much planning you do, it will not be enough. So I am all over the place now as far as the business is concerned and the next few months will go into simplifying things. Reducing the number of things I am doing to building expertise in a few. Expertise and then scale. It will be a slow growth but at least I will free up some time to execute better.
Starting a business isn't easy. Right now I am doing sourcing, growing, distribution, sales and finance. I haven't had any post of hive in 3 months, may be more. I am happy I have time to breathe. However, I hope to change that as per the above note. Also post a bit more as I have been immensely missing that.
To anyone who wants to dabble in fruits and vegetables, keep it simple, lease land and hire, have enough capital to survive 1 to 2 years and stay patient.
If any of you have any agriculture related experience, please share. Happy to talk to anyone who is thinking of diving into this field too.
The activity such as agriculture is an older one practiced by man, if you are right in traditional methods, but in the business world what is a weakness for one is a strength for another, you have to be willing to change and move away a little From the traditional, there is new technical technology that greatly stimulate this activity, you just have to start with the small producers and teach them.
Starting a new business is never easy. It requires a lot of planning, capital etc, this is also applicable in the area of agriculture. I once thought about the idea of going into agriculture but it was before the lockdown. I still have eyes on agriculture though.
Nice one buddy
At least you commit to your business and you seem determined to make it successful.
I got a sinking feeling in my gut as I read your title. Being able to return our focus on something tried and true, I believe this to be among the most important.
agriculture and botany have always attracted me and I have a good hand (talent) for it.I am currently doing a small experiment, I am growing onions in my apartment with very little space so far it's going well. What I mean by this is that the difficulties of quarantine lead us to look for new solutions, in that sense we are winners everyone.