The Story Of How I Started My First Business In Sweden
Amjad had moved his video store to Rinkeby, a suburb of Stockholm. Now he was selling Indian films along with handicrafts, Pakistani Indian jewellery and clothes and Turkish musical instruments.
There was a time when I was helping out in his shop. One day, he asked me to take over the shop because of lack of time - and that's when I started my first business!
As soon as I took over the shop, I started making huge changes. I got rid of the VHS from the shop after putting the film on clearance sale, I started selling original Indian DVDs and Indian movies Blu-rays in the store. And I built my first Oscommerce based Indian DVD store.
Here's What Happened After Competing With The Competitor.
I built my first Oscommerce store in 2008; it was my very first webshop. I had no real experience with ecommerce, but I had a huge customer database and used social media for marketing Indian movies. After a year of fighting for customers online against the larger competitor, he offered me to take over their webshop.
My Lucky Charm
My wife gave me my lucky charm in the form of @hamza-art in 2009. It was a very busy time as I was struggling to succeed in business while also fulfilling the duties of a father.
When I started my first online DVD store, I was up against some stiff competition. The other store had been around for 2 years and had established themselves as the go-to source for Indian DVDs. I knew that I had to offer something different if I was going to compete.
I decided to focus on customer service. I wanted my customers to have the best possible experience when shopping with me. I made sure to answer their questions promptly and help them find the right product for their needs.
It paid off. Within a year, my store was one of the most popular DVD stores on the web. Customers were happy with the service they received and kept coming back.
I continued to improve my store and added new features. Thanks to my focus on customer service, I was able to build a successful business despite tough competition.
And one day I got an email from Vargo Films who was my competitor.
I was eagerly waiting for that day and I accepted their offer.
My first appearance on swedish TV
One morning I got a call from a lady who was doing a report on the booming Indian cinema in Sweden, for which she wanted to interview me. It was a new and very beautiful experience for me. And this was proof that my hard work was going in the right direction.
Something bigger was going to happen.
My shop has become a hub of community information. I used the rental system data and the customer data of the webshop in a positive way. Whether it was cultural programs or any public event, the organisers used to come to my shop to put up posters. I started adding the same information to SMS groups, newsletters and social media posts and also started adding it to web shop banners.
I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen with all of this…..
I will continue this series, wait for my next post.
Disclaimer
As I mentioned in my intro, from the last 2 decades I have been active on social media, google mapping and reviews, youtube and thatsup. I will share my own past interesting content from these channels, but all my upcoming content I will share on hive.blog first.