[CTQ Smartcast] Lessons For Solopreneurs And Small Businesses From A Business Success Strategist, With Kavitha Rajeevkumar
Kavitha Rajeevkumar is a B-School lecturer turned entrepreneur turned coach and marketing consultant for self-service businesses. She is also a mentor to the Women Will program by Google and Kerala State President of Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s WICCI Entrepreneurship Council.
In this Smartcast, hosted by CTQ co-founder BV Harish Kumar, we have talked in-depth about the challenges faced by solopreneurs and small business owners and the changes required to realize the potential of small businesses.
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(Read the shownotes below or skip to the transcript)
SOME OF THE THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT
Kavitha’s definition of small businesses and solopreneurship
What should solopreneurs be looking at in terms of defining business success?
The gaps in the Indian education system
What can solopreneurs and small business owners do to survive and thrive?
The challenges faced by women entrepreneurs
How to multitask and prioritise?
Kavitha’s work with Sheroes and WICCI Kerala Entrepreneurship Council
How have things changed for solopreneurs post-covid?
PLUS
Future relevance of solopreneurship, podcasts and YouTube in India
CONNECT WITH KAVITHA
To Get A Complete Guide To Start An Online Business, click here.
To Enroll For Kavitha's 5-Day Expertise To Profits Bootcamp, click here.
LINKS TO BOOKS, PODCASTS AND PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THE SMARTCAST
BOOK
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
PODCAST
PEOPLE
Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Group
Tony Robbins, American author
OTHERS
If you enjoyed this Smartcast, you will also like Lessons In Sustainability And Preparing For Multiple Futures, With Ravina More
TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
00:00:00
Harish: Kavitha Rajeevkumar is a B-school lecturer turned entrepreneur turned coach and marketing consultant for self-service businesses. She helps them get more clients and accelerate their businesses. She is a mentor to the Women Will program by Google to empower rural women in India via entrepreneurship. She is Kerala State President of Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s WICCI Entrepreneurship Council. Kavitha is on a mission to help 100,000 Indian women earn at least 1-2 lakh rupees per month doing what they love to do. So we wanted to pick Kavitha’s brains about what are the different challenges faced by solopreneurs, especially women. What was her own journey like and what are the mindset changes required to realize the potential of small businesses? Kavitha also gives tips about how to manage time and schedule your priorities. So if you are curious about the world of solopreneurs or know one, you will find this episode very useful.
00:01:18
Harish: Welcome Kavitha, and welcome to the CTQ Smartcast.
00:01:21
Kavitha: Hi. Thank you.
00:01:23
Harish: So we will get started with the slightly tricky one. Kavitha, so what do you know about small businesses and solopreneurship that most people don't?
00:01:33
Kavitha: Well, see, what most people believe is that a business can be taken to success if you have the right education or experience or know how to apply certain tactics or strategies, or they think that the success can be attributed to a better team and so on and so forth. But what most people don't know is our own, when I say our own, your own, you as a business owner, your resolution to succeed is the most important than anything else. In truth, motivation comes from within the individual. No one can motivate another person. You motivate yourself. See, others can only inspire you to get motivated to achieve what you have desired or what goal you have set forth. And so the secret sauce is in you. Ultimately, it is you and your mindset that comes.
00:02:47
Harish: Right, and I think this becomes even more important for a solopreneurship because they're always fighting the unknown battle where they don't have others. So having a co-founder who's also going through the same trials and tribulations makes it slightly easier because you know that you have a co-passenger. But for solopreneurs and small businesses, I think it can be a huge struggle at times.
00:03:16
Kavitha: Because they have to perform more than one function. In most cases, they are all-rounders.
00:03:24
Harish: Yeah. But we usually talk about this team where there's a goalkeeper. The last podcast we had was this conversation where one of the founders spoke about his team working as a football team, where there are the goalkeepers, defence, midfield and striker, everyone contributes. So in the case of a solopreneur, it's the same person who's doing all the jobs.
00:03:51
Kavitha: Yes, exactly. And that is where the mindset plays a very important role.
00:03:59
Harish: Right. Yeah. So before we get into the mindset, one thing that struck me in your answer to the first question was the word success, right? So what are the different definitions of business success that a solopreneur or a small business entrepreneur should aim for which is very different from how we look at the larger start-ups, where they're looking at IPO or acquisition or something like that? What should solopreneurs be looking at in terms of defining business success?
00:04:37
Kavitha: The definition of business success differs from person to person, from entrepreneur to entrepreneur, and from solopreneur to solopreneur. But according to me, a business's success isn't measured on the days when the sun shines. It has to be measured on dark, stormy, cloudy days. If you can't absorb failure, you're never going to meet success. And success means embracing difficulties, overcoming challenges, and making the most of those bad days and difficult situations. It is what is going to make you stronger and better. So, success is not just about making money. It's more than that. Sharing your knowledge with others who are in need, helping others, making an impact in the lives of people, and bringing a change. It can be even the slightest change and make the world around you a better place to live.
00:05:45
Harish: Yeah. So coming back to you Kavitha, what did your journey be like and what got you to where you are right now? I know that you started off teaching and then you did a bunch of things. So if you can just quickly take us through your own journey.
00:06:05
Kavitha: So when I wanted to know the options of working from home after quitting my 9 to 5 job, they weren't anybody to help me out, in the sense they didn't know exactly how to guide me with what talent I had. Later, when I started my chocolate business too, I had to learn many things on my own by trial and error. Let it be how to start a chocolate business from home or how to sell online or how to market locally? What are the legal requisites? Whom to approach for some information, way to get my graphics done, etc. An important thing I struggled with at that time was to market my small business. I didn't know how to brand, how to position my business in the market, and how to use social media for growing my business. What are the ways to automate some of the tasks? I didn't even know whether I could automate at that point in time. Now I know. So it took me 12 to 13 years to learn all these. So at first, I used to just share this information with my students and clients if they asked me something pertaining to this. But later, I decided to come up with a coaching program where I included all these things to help women start, build and grow their businesses. Moreover, this helps other women who are talented but don't know how to earn a living using that talent or skill. And this enables me to help other women start, build and grow a business around their passion or expertise, thereby empowering them in a real sense. Because I personally believe that real empowerment comes when a woman is financially independent and her own family or society starts accepting her as an integral part of the family or society.
00:08:27
Harish: All right. So give me some examples of these businesses that people are taking up, especially women entrepreneurs. What kind of business are these?
00:08:38
Kavitha: People who come to me come from different niches, right from starting a brick and mortar store, like a boutique or food business or a cafe or chocolate gifting service, or it can be from a home, like offering or coaching around some kind of cooking or a home gardening, herb gardening, crochet stitching, pattern designing, phonics training, even digital marketing agency. So people come from different backgrounds and different industries.
00:09:23
Harish: Right. Yeah. And where do these people typically get stuck? As you said, that information is not available freely. Has that changed now? And what is that point at which they realize, yeah I need help, which could help our audience also to either for themselves or to point out someone else to think that, yeah, this is the point when you need that external help. Where do they really get stuck?
00:09:54
Kavitha: The first place they get stuck is before starting their own business. They might be having an idea, but they don't know how to validate that or do the market research and find out exactly before jumping into investment and running it for a couple of years and then realizing that this was a mistake, they shouldn't have done this. And secondly, they struggle with funding in starting a business, though, there are a lot of schemes and loans available but due to various reasons, they are not reaching the right people who need them. And thirdly, and that is probably the biggest reason, the biggest factor where they get stuck in marketing their products or services. So nothing much has changed, though right now the youngsters know how to utilize social media to grow their business. But still, people are not much aware of the various strategies which they can utilize to market their products.
00:11:16
Harish: And is this generally a gap in terms of education as well? Because I mean, I did my MBA in 2002, passed out in 2004. I don't remember from my curriculum anything that would have helped me in starting a business of my own, whether a start-up in the traditional sense or as a solopreneur. Like I said, maybe youngsters are more aware of social media now they're seeing other people. But are there enough courses to plug that gap in terms of education, or is it just making mistakes, stumbling and learning on your own?
00:11:55
Kavitha: Yes. Now that's a great question, actually, much debatable also. We need to talk more about this and discuss the various aspects of this. My personal opinion is that we should be teaching all this right from our school days because see, there is no right age to start your own business. Especially when it comes to a small business or solopreneurship. There is no right age to start that or the right educational background. If we look at our own Indian culture, you have numerous examples where we had talent and we had been utilizing that to the best, which we are doing in today's time. So it is high time we rethink the syllabus, what we are offering in our schools as well as colleges, even for that matter, the B-schools have to rethink this. And they should teach all these things because even though I'm also an MBA, what we learn and what we practice are totally different.
00:13:19
Harish: Yeah. And some of these professions that you're talking about, the small businesses that you're talking about, like a design agency or a bakery or somebody trying to teach something to someone or an artist, these are very basic problems that they are trying to solve there. It is not like they're coming up with something radically different or anything like that, but it is extremely important. You need it for society, need it for people. Each of these owners and entrepreneurs will have their own niche market segments, right? So I'm sure this is also a very competitive environment for them. There will be 100 bakers that you can search for if you do a Google search today. So how should these people not just survive but actually thrive in an environment like this? And what are the things that they can utilize? You mentioned things like funding and you mentioned things like the coaching that you are doing. But what else can these people do in order to thrive and not just survive?
00:14:29
Kavitha: Yes. This is where they have to think about standing out from the competition instead of just following successful people. Because in our country, the one trend, what we see is irrespective of the industry, if one business has become successful, there'll be hundreds of people who follow exactly the same thing. But instead of that, come up with something different. Let us take the case of bakeries. India has got a rich food culture. We have numerous delicacies and dishes which are not available in other parts of the world. So instead of offering the same cake and bakes and Indian sweets most of the bakeries and more than 90% of the bakeries offer more or less the same menu. Instead of that, let them come up with a different menu. Let them stick on to a speciality so that they'll also get business. The competition will be less and they can survive in the longer run. This is something that we business people call the “blue ocean” and the “red ocean”. Most people are trying to struggle in a big ocean where there are big fishes as well as various types of fishes which can pose a threat. If they try to become a big fish in a small pond, they can rule that pond.
00:16:17
Harish: Right. Yeah. So coming to the next question, Kavitha, you mentioned these entrepreneurs and small business owners. Is it anything different or any kind of typical challenges that women entrepreneurs face, which is different from what men do or others do?
00:16:40
Kavitha: Yes see, entrepreneurship itself is a challenge when it comes to women, and especially if the owner is a woman, then despite their efforts and expertise or the skills or the educational background or the work experience, what they have, even the family background, female entrepreneurs and business owners and when I say business owners, only small business owners, they often struggle a lot more than their male counterparts to make it big and get recognized in the industry, in society, and even in the business community. One reason could be a lack of social and institutional support, the difficulties that they have in balancing responsibilities between family and business, the poor funding prospects for women, the pressure to stick on to the traditional gender roles, and lack of skill upgrading. Because women in India, especially women's education, get over once she gets married and has kids. After that, there are very few people who pursue education. So there is stiff competition from their male counterparts. So generally, our society is not that woman-friendly. So all these are challenges faced by women entrepreneurs.
00:18:30
Harish: And any examples that you can give of challenges that you overcame yourself being a woman entrepreneur or people that you helped, the examples that you can give which can be an inspiration for people to learn from.
00:18:46
Kavitha: Yes. See, when I started my chocolate business, I had approached different organizations for guiding me on how to start and what are the requisites for starting a chocolate business from home. And nobody was able to help me out there. And though our government claims that there is a single-window clearance system, at that point in time, I still believe that it hasn't changed much, that is available only for big business houses, established corporates, and established business owners with political influence. It is not available to a common man like me or anybody like me in society. So that is one thing where, like, I had to walk from one department to another department and I actually quit. I quit. Then they decided that I'm not going to take any of these favors, and that is when I started looking out for opportunities online, doing my business online. The second thing where I struggled a lot was to get some kind of funding to start my own chocolate manufacturing unit as well as an outlet, which I wanted to do in a specialized way that we only get to see in countries like the U.S, Europe and Switzerland and when we go there, people get to experience chocolate making and also taste and purchase that. So, at that point in time, there wasn't anybody, I was jobless, and I didn't have the assets to pledge for taking a loan. So no proper guidance or help was received for getting the fund. Ultimately, I had to stick on to that as a home-based small business which I could never develop further. Even today, like in my community, where I work at WICCI, I just drop into the banks when I have time and inquire about loans to know whether the situation has changed or not. And I don't see much change even today. So this incident made me think that there is no point in running behind the schemes and loans and you can earn money doing a lot of other things online nowadays. You make your own money and invest that in your business. That is what I advise my students and my clients.
00:22:12
Harish: And I'm sure a big part of doing this online has to be how people use social media. And we know you do a lot of things as part of your work. You're active on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. You run two communities along with your coaching and mentoring. So how do you find time to do all of these activities?
00:22:33
Kavitha: I have automated a lot of repeatable activities like social media, scheduling my own meetings, scheduling when it comes to my students or clients, client meetings, scheduling calendar entries, payment collection, etc. Moreover, I prioritize my activities. For example, if I have to decide whether to write a LinkedIn article or do my marketing activity first, I'll be giving preference to the marketing activity first, then writing a LinkedIn article. Or maybe like if I have to make a choice between spending time with my family and spending time on social media. So I'll be giving importance to my family. So prioritization plays an important role. I know what are the major activities that I need to do that will take me towards my goal every single day and I give priority to that rather than simply wasting away my time on these social media.
00:23:48
Harish: Social media is just one thing. But what I picked from what you said was doing the right kind of prioritization and scheduling your priorities. That, I think, is very important. So how do you help solopreneur figure out what their priorities should be? What are the priorities which are going to help them achieve their goal? Because I see that being a big gap. They're doing a lot of stuff. They're keeping themselves busy, but the outcome is not helping them in getting closer to their business goals. So how do you help them understand the importance of priorities?
00:24:27
Kavitha: There are mainly two types of activities, one, that will give you results and two, that will not give you results again like that is a complex thing. I'll make it much simpler. There are activities that will take you to your final objective, whether it is lead generation or branding or creating awareness about your business or getting clients. You should have a goal for why you are utilizing one medium or why you are doing some kind of activity. So based on that objective, you have to decide what actions will take you one step closer to that goal. Say, for example, if it is getting clients through social media, what do you need to do to get clients? What can be done every single day to get clients and give importance to that and spend the first half of the day only for that, irrespective of whatever other distractions are attracting you. You need to be very particular about that. Whereas when it comes to the non-result oriented activities like checking the mail or checking whether your social media post has got how many likes and spending time chit-chatting with your friends and things like that, those are all non-productive activities. Do all that towards the fag end of the day. When you leave, it's time for you to leave the job and stop working. So like that you need to have a clear plan, which is a little difficult, though it sounds easy if you observe it closely and make a list of all the activities which are done every single day for at least one month. You will know exactly where you are wasting your time and where you need to cut down and improvise.
00:26:53
Harish: Right. As you said, I think it's easier said than done. It's very important to first know where your time is being spent, and that is when you can actually make some changes. The big challenge that most people face is not even knowing where the time is going. So then how do you optimize what you don't even know? So can you tell us more about your work as a member of Sheroes? And you mentioned WICCI Kerala Entrepreneurship Council. What are you doing there? How did that come about and how are you helping people there?
00:27:30
Kavitha: Yes, see, in both these places, I was active on almost all social media platforms. I was creating my own brand. And rather than that, like I was posting what different things pertaining to entrepreneurship and now, starting this business, growing online business and things like that. I was just part of the community of Sheroes and looking at the quality of the content as well as the videos which I posted there and I had been helping other women when they asked some questions pertaining to these areas of entrepreneurship, business development and things like that. So Sheroes, people approached me and asked whether I can become a mentor with them. It's a huge community with more than 50,000 members in India. It draws people from every state. So Google India is having their CSR program called The Human Bill, which they are doing in association with Sheroes Community, and they are empowering rural women in India by helping them start small businesses. So I'm a mentor. They are still a part of that community. And similarly, WICCI Kerala Entrepreneurship Council was started very recently, just two and a half, three months back though WICCI has got national presence, the Kerala chapter was started very recently and we intend to help women residing in Kerala as well as women from Kerala who are residing either in Kerala or outside Kerala to build and grow their businesses and get the guidance, support, mentorship, training, skill upgrading and probably even arranging funding options for them.
00:29:49
Harish: Right. Yeah. And you've been working in this space for some time. As you mentioned earlier before we started recording that you started your chocolate business in 2008-2010. So how have things changed in India for solopreneurs and what has changed in the last two years post-pandemic?
00:30:14
Kavitha: Oh Yes, a lot has changed the way businesses are done, the way buyers purchase, the way mode, the medium of product or service delivery, buyer behaviour, their choices, their preferences. A lot has changed. We saw tremendous growth in digitization, right from customer care to the way education is provided, the education is taken, and even healthcare was provided. Everything saw digitization and artificial intelligence got a lot of importance these days. It has created a divide in the world in the sense now the whole world is in a different era, pre-covid and post- covid and I think we might not go back to the same old days which prevailed till 2019. It's going to be a different world now and it's going to stay more or less like this. I don’t know how long.
00:31:35
Harish: Yeah. As I keep saying that Covid has been one of the chief transformation officers for most companies. Things have changed overnight. So coming to the last question, we had Kavitha. Do you have any recommendations for books, podcasts or people to follow on social media, you know who has shaped your thinking and who you would recommend solopreneurs anywhere in India?
00:32:05
Kavitha: In case somebody wants to have a strong entrepreneurial mindset then Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is one book which they have to read. It’s not enough they read it once, they have to re-read it a couple of times to understand exactly what is the principle behind that Napoleon Hill wanted to convey. That is one book that has really impacted me and I recommend it to every single person who wants to develop or is planning to get into entrepreneurship. Secondly, there are a lot of podcasts out there, it all depends upon your niche and industry. I generally listen to marketing podcasts by Russel Branson and I also follow him online. He is one person who has again impacted me and just like Ratan Tata in India, this is one person whom I have found to be extremely humble in spite of being a big influential marketer in the whole world. Moreover, his marketing strategies have helped me a lot in moulding myself and getting into the online coaching and consulting space. So, I have huge respect for Ratan Tata and Russel Branson. And of course, if you are looking for your own personal development, why I'm coming back again and again to personal development is… as far as we solopreneurs and small business owners are concerned, we are the number one factor that can take our businesses to success or failure. It is we who are stopping ourselves from becoming successful or we who are responsible for failing in our endeavours. So every single business owner needs to develop himself or herself and Tony Robbins is one person whom you should follow because his books are also there, both podcasts and YouTube channels are also there.
00:34:48
Harish: Yeah, I think it's a great set of recommendations Kavitha, but before we let you go, I'm going to end with this section where we ask all our guests what their hot take is on what is the future relevance of some of the things that I’ll give you. I’ll give you a term or a thing or a concept or an idea. And you should give me your hot take on what you think is their future relevance. So the first thing is what do you think is the future relevance of solopreneurship in India?
00:35:20
Kavitha: Huge potential! Small businesses have been growing. So there is huge potential. They have to find a niche market, a specialized market - standoff from the crowd and just go out and get it.
00:35:37
Harish: Right, Okay! What do you think is the future relevance of podcasts?
00:35:32
Kavitha: India is a great potential market and we are still at a nascent stage when it comes to podcasting. So if you have an idea, if you are knowledgeable, this is the right time to start your own podcast.
00:36:00
Harish: Okay! And the final one - what do you think is the future relevance of YouTube?
00:36:05
Kavitha: YouTube, yes videos are the “In” thing. It has been there for a while now but it is going to be there for the coming years too. At least in the near future, that’s not going to change anyone in the near future. So irrespective of your industry or specialization or what exactly you are doing, you need to have a YouTube channel and create videos because videos are the main content that people are liking and watching. And moreover, it's going to remain there for years. If you are planning a business and going to play it for a longer duration then YouTube is the platform that you need to concentrate
00:37:04
Harish: On that note Kavitha, I think you know the line that is going to remain if you’re in it to play the long game, right. And for solopreneurs, they have to be in it for the long game and the big takeaway for me is also the fact that you know the only thing that is stopping the growth of small businesses is the owner or solopreneur himself or herself. The more they focus on developing themselves, the more successful their business is going to be. So thanks a lot. These were great answers and a lot of takeaways for me. I’m sure our audience will also resonate with a lot of what you’ve spoken. Thanks a lot for this excellent conversation.
00:37:50
Kavitha: Thanks for inviting me to CTQ.
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