Software engineer who started selling Konkan Cashews- here’s my update
Just a few weeks ago I posted about my new business here. This sub helped me get my first 20 unique customer orders, and many of those early supporters re-ordered giving me huge boost in confidence that I have a great product in hand different an unique from all the cashews that is being sold elsewhere.
How and why I started?- I have grown up eating the cashews my father bought, whenever I ate cashews by someone else I wouldn’t like it coz I was being spoiled by my father with the best cashews available to mankind - The local Goan Konkan cashews. I always wondered why these cashews aren’t available everywhere and why are people eating such low quality cashew wherever I go and I soon realised these are produced in small batches and are locally grown and are exported and can never be mass produced and sold in India, so yes my product is niche and rare and can’t be scaled like to million dollar brand, but hey who wants million dollar anyways, sending my cashew to even one new customer and getting their wow lights up my day and I am flying like a firefly.
This entrepreneurial start wasn’t smooth and will not be. Three of my orders reached customers completely crushed (ngl- those photos of crushed packets from my customers crushed my morale too, albeit temporarily). I did what I felt was ethically right and took the loss on myself as a learning cost and fixed my shipping packaging and shipped those three orders again. Thanks to the intial hiccup, my shipping packaging now bulletproof 😅.
All of them reordered and gave me reassurance that at least I have a great product in hand that I thought so and also gave a thumbs up to my new bulletproof packaging.
The intial love and support I got gave me the confidence to deep dive and register myself as a business which was not easy at all and had its own challenges (ease of doing business- my foot).
I created my website, acquired all the required licenses (FSSAI, trade license, GST)
Created an Instagram page for the brand, in process to onboard with Amazon, Flipkart and the rest.
Encouraging reviews from customers have got me excited and scared too. It feels like a huge responsibility to fulfill every order I get, but isn’t that what business is all about- Satisfaction.
Sending a packet all the way from Goa to the Purulia in West Bengal felt very special. I am sure everyone who does D2C can vouch for this feeling.
My next step are all in improving the customer touch points, expanding my own entrepreneurial knowledge and embark on this always learning journey of being an entrepreneur.
Packaging upgrade - All my intial orders I sold the cashews in basic packaging. I’m now working on a premium packaging because these premium cashews deserve great packaging and also help me improve my brand visibility.
Going deeper on marketing and growing my Instagram- I need to figure out how to reach my targeted audience in the cost effective manner.
If you have read all the way through and want to know more about the cashews I sell-These are authentic Goan Konkan cashews, sourced locally where they actually grow and mostly gets exported since our Indian market is flooded with cheap imports from Tanzania, Ivory cost and other African countries. These cashews are so rare that even within goa 99% of the dry fruit shops do not sell them because the demand is way greater than supply can meet and hence the market is flooded with cheap imported cashew. Goan cashews have a unique distinctive and very fresh taste which these cheap imports being sold everywhere can never have. We all know how Indian market is taken for granted, all the great quality produce be it fruits, grains, nuts, chocolate, textile etc is exported and our local market is flooded with low quality products. It just doesn’t feel right and feels unfair to our domestic customers being taken for a ride and I just want to change that.
While all the cashews I sell are unique and delicious, my bestseller is the Roasted & Lightly Salted Skin Cashew, most people have never had it and they loved it so much they keeping come back. The cashews are locally sourced, big in size (W180 and W210), minimally processed.
If you want to try them, my website is live kazustore.com or you can also DM me. Will be happy to answer all your questions and clear your doubts.
Instagram - thekazustore