The Food Entrepreneur Series: Go Organic

Dhiren:    [00:00]      This episode of The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast is brought to you by the Cloudscape Care Package. This care package is designed specifically for retail and restaurant business owners. If you've got a retail or restaurant business or are considering opening one, then talk to us at cloudscape.ae, or drop us a line at hello@cloudscape.ae, and we'll show you how the care package and all of its features including training, implementation and support can help you set up for success.

Meenaxy [00:28]      Focus on the product and have a plan, invest in marketing, and hire people. What happens with new business entrepreneurs, they try to do everything themselves. And I've seen so many of them, they got fed up. They give up on every single thing because they're so fed up, they're overwhelmed with work. So one is focus on the product. Second is outsource the work, don't do it yourself. Third is invest in networking and marketing.

Dhiren:    [01:00]      Hello, and a very big welcome to The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. If this is your first time here, then I'm thankful and grateful that you chose to spend some time with me and my amazing guests. And if you've listened to me before, you know that we put on a phenomenal episode because each guest is special, and they have an amazing story to share. And today is no different. If you haven't already, before we get into the episode, I'd love for you to check out the website at elevatedentrepreneur.fm where we have amazing content, and together with all of the amazing goodies that come with each show, including show notes and transcriptions. Now, back to this episode. 

Today's episode is episode number two in the special Food Entrepreneur series that I'm running here at The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. And it is with an amazing founder. Her name is Meenaxy Vashishtha, and she runs the company Go Organic, which is an organic juice company right here in the UAE. Now, what's even better about this story is that Meenaxy started her company when she was pregnant with her second kid and she suffered from terrible backache. And when she realized the power of juices, and how she cured her back pain with just juicing, she knew she had to get started. But what's interesting is that all she had when she started her company, there was no plan, there was no vision, and that's how she got off to the races. And there's so much more for you to listen in to, and how Meenaxy stumbled in the first few years, and finally, she found her footing post-COVID. You heard that right. She found her footing post-COVID where she's launched some amazing product lines with her team. So tune in and listen to how Meenaxy got started. Let's cue the music.

                   [03:02]     You're listening to The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast, a podcast designed to help retailers, restauranteurs and entrepreneurs simplify business operations and use modern technology to elevate their business. Here's your host, Dhiren Bhatia.

                   [03:21]     Meenaxy, welcome to The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. It is so nice to have you here.

Meenaxy: [03:26]    Thank you very much, Dhiren.

Dhiren:      [03:28]    It's a pleasure to have you; I’ll tell you why, because one, I am a super juice person. I love having juices. And when I heard about Go Organic-- In fact, I told you the story, we were at a cafe the other day, and my wife and I were having breakfast and we ordered breakfast and juice and guess what shows up? A really nice, lovely bottle of Go Organic orange juice. And I'm so glad that you're here because I want to hear all about how Go Organic started. So before we get into all of that, tell me a bit about yourself.

Meenaxy: [03:56]    So I'm from Mumbai. So I was hired street from Mumbai over here so that's how I came to Dubai. And then I got married - I met my husband here - and then I took a break. So I took a break for three years and that's purely because I had back to back kids. So within one year, two months, I've had two kids and two C-sections, and that's actually how Go Organic started. So because I had children so quickly and in such a small gap of time and I had two C-sections within such a short period, the C-section in general puts a lot of pressure on your body. And having two kids at such a small gap, it literally put me under a lot of pressure. My back was paining, I literally put on so much weight and no energy. It had drained me down. So I had taken so many medicines - I had to take calcium supplements, multivitamins and iron and a lot of things. And what happened was every time I took a pill, the pain subsided, and after that, it came back again, and this went on and on for like two years and I was going nowhere with it. It was just a temporary relief kind of. 

The whole brainchild behind Go Organic is my husband. So he comes from this place called Rishikesh in India. So it's more into holistic living, organic living spirituality. So he then told me to give up on all these medicines and let's start juicing, and that's how I actually got into juicing. So then I started having green juices, straight green juices, nothing, absolutely no food as well for two months with food. It was not just juicing. And I did that for two months and within two months, my back pain went off. It's been so many years, it's still not there. And my energy levels came up, I shrunk, I had so much energy, I slept better. It suddenly made me realize all I did was just juice, there was nothing different that I did. I still followed the same lifestyle. That's when I realized the power of food, and so I wanted to know more about it. Then I came across the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and then I started knowing more about it, and that's how this whole journey of Go Organic started. So it started with me having very, very small children, didn't know what to do, I had no vision for Go Organic, I was just doing it for the sake of doing it, some time passed, it’s happening for me. But I guess it was the right time because there were not many players in the market and people were actually looking for those products. So we then hired a nutritionist, created juice cleanse plans, created like 19 different juices, and that's how we actually launched. And as I said, the time was right so there was a huge demand for it, and still is, it still is. I guess we come in the health food category. So it did pick up quite a lot.

Dhiren:     [06:37]      I want to go back a little bit in time. So you said to me that you landed straight from India, you were in a corporate job. What job was that?

Meenaxy: [06:44]    So I worked in multiple companies. I worked in Emirates NBD. I've worked with all jobs, kind of. I worked for DAMAC, not that I was very happy doing that. I was like at the wrong place. This is not what I'm supposed to do. So I guess with Go Organic I’m thankful because I actually found what I'm passionate about, and I really enjoyed doing it.

Dhiren:     [07:05]     So you were working, you weren't happy, you got pregnant, and I got to see some of your kids before we started recording, and I will say to you, you're such an amazing negotiator, which we'll talk about a little bit. So you're pregnant, and you've now started to realize that you can do something better and your husband and you started to juice. You mentioned this was your husband's idea and he comes from this place called Rishikesh. Did he already have this idea of wanting to do something in the food business, do you think?

Meenaxy: [07:32]    No. So he has his own market research, do he's from market research. He does his own thing. I do my own thing, but the brain behind it is his. So he's also a mentor for many companies. 

Dhiren:      [07:42]    Amazing. And I know I heard of your husband recently, you and I also know a mutual friend. His name is Lee Joe. He's part of your BNI chapter. And he was on Lee Joe’s podcast, which I will make sure we link to in the podcast show notes so that anybody who is interested in the marketing podcast, they can listen to your husband. And he was speaking very highly of him. So what I want to get to is, you've seen that there is a lifestyle change through juicing, and it has a big benefit on your health. Did you know that you wanted to go into creating a brand called Go Organic at that point? I want to figure out how that started.

Meenaxy: [08:15]    No, I never planned anything. So when I started Go Organic, there was no vision, there was nothing. I was just made to do it. So there were many issues, there were many hardships. Children were so, so small, and it was so difficult. And there was such a small gap between both of them, there's so many times I must have wanted to give up because it was really difficult to handle the kids. When you're very small, you have a limited amount of money for marketing, and then you do events and this thing, and then you have children. It was very, very difficult to juggle but it just kept me going. Something in me kept me going. As I said, this whole concept, the whole idea was my husband and that's how I actually started it. So we started very small with license from [inaudible 08:53]. This was 2013. Within a year, we took our bigger space here very close to where I live. We took our kitchen, we rented it out.

Dhiren:     [09:04]     It's 2013, you've launched Go Organic, as you said, it's a very small space. Were you juicing at home? Is that how you decided to start the business? 

Meenaxy: [09:12]    No, we couldn't juice at home, so we did rent a space before.

Dhiren:     [09:17]     And what was the team like at that point when you started? It was just you and your husband?

Meenaxy: [09:22]    No, my husband was never a part of it. So one thing which I also very quickly realized is when I started I was all alone, and there was one person who was doing juices. But one thing I very quickly realized in my life is a very common mistake which a lot of entrepreneurs do is they try to do everything and I think that's a very big mistake they do because I understand there’s cash flow always and you want to retain as much cash you want and hence you don't want to outsource. Very quickly I realized that's not correct. I had to do it because my children were small and I was like, “Forget it. I don't care for the money. It's okay if I don't earn anything for a few years.” But when I start hiring is when I saw that the company started growing because then you have enough time to do something better in your life. And thankfully, I learned it very, very quickly, I guess within a year, even before that six, seven months, I literally started hiring people for every single thing. Within this country, you have enough people who we can outsource the work to. So that's really, really helped me and that's when actually we started trying to grow, the numbers increased. So every time I used to hire I used to think, “Oh, no, will I be able to pay these people? Oh my god”, like Namita. Namita came to us; when she told me her fees, I was like, “Oh, my God, will I be able to pay her?” But when we hired her, that's when we realized it actually works. You have to give it out to people without [inaudible 10:42]. You take those risks, and then you move forward.

Dhiren:     [10:46]     And so who were the first few people that you hired?

Meenaxy: [10:50]    There was this Filipino guy, JR, who went back to Philippines. Then we had two kitchen staff, one from Sri Lanka, one from India. And then as I said, when we started growing, then we started hiring. Now we have quite a few as we are not a very big team. Even now we are quite a small team. We are like 10 people. A lot of our functions are outsourced.

Dhiren:     [11:14]     And when you started Go Organic, like you said earlier, obviously you were juggling so many things, just have two kids. You launched this idea that juicing will help others. Did you have the recipes already? Did you figure them out as you were going? How did that piece come on?

Meenaxy: [11:31]    The first set of recipes were done by Dr. Asma whom we were working with. After that, whatever we did, we figured it out. So honestly speaking, all the innovations came in just recently. So one thing that happened was within Go Organic is we just stuck to doing juices and juice cleanses, and that's what we've been doing for six years, seven years. Thanks to COVID-- And then we got into all the retail outlets. So we got the contract for Carrefour and even all the retail outlets. Thanks to COVID, we pulled out of it because we didn't want to work on credit terms. And that's when the whole concept of launching new products came in because we need to recover the extra income and that was a good decision. So all these new products, the keto shakes and the protein smoothies, whatever is coming, we research and we create it. For we're launching kombuchas and kefirs but for that, we had hired a chef. So she taught us everything. The kombuchas, the kefirs, the broth were all taught. So we usually outsource. We hire people to teach us things.

Dhiren:     [12:35]     Okay, so back in 2013, you've got Dr. Asma, who's helped to come up with these juice ideas, you've launched the product, you've hired a few staff, and you're off to the races. That sounds like a dream come true, right? Was it really a dream come true? Or were there any challenges that you had when you started?

Meenaxy: [12:51]    Initially, too many because you don't have the resources. I have a huge thanks to BNI because I changed me, transformed me completely. It gives you a huge network. But before BNI I had no network and I did not know anyone, so no, it was quite hard. You make so many mistakes, you just don't know. You're always stressed when you don't know what to do.

Dhiren:     [13:14]     And I'm not sure a lot of people know what BNI is but you and I are part of this group called BNI which stands for Business Network International, which was where we give and get referrals from. That's a phenomenal platform. I probably will do another episode on it at some point. So did you join BNI in 2013?

Meenaxy: [13:31]    No, I joined BNI much, much later. This is my third year. I just finished three years with the BNI. I joined in 2017.

Dhiren:     [13:39]     So you said you had lots of challenges. Can you tell me an example of a challenge that you had when you were starting out? Because the thing is, actually a lot of business owners, we all get started on similar pathways. And we all have these challenges that we come through, but we don't talk about them, and we don't give the opportunity for somebody else to feel like, “Oh, I've been there. I've done that” or “I'm going to get there.” So I want you to maybe take me through a problem that you had and I want you to tell me, how did you recover from it?

Meenaxy: [14:09]    So because I had no mentors, my husband was quite busy with his business, so I had no idea how to do business. I only knew recipes. I know I had to make it. What to do next? I don't know. So juices we used to make and then you need to deliver it, right? So I didn't know you had to approach delivery companies or anything. There was this lady who had also got a shop over here, so I used to hire her drivers and pay them separately so talking to them was a headache. And sometimes the drivers used to not come, and we have committed to the customers and we have to do it. So there was a time when the driver said, “I'm not coming “and the customer is waiting for the delivery. And that time, my oldest son was like three and my younger one was two, and it was seven in the evening. So they sleep by 7:30 so I was feeding my older one; my maid was feeding the younger one. So I was feeding him and that's when I got a call saying that “No, I'm not coming.” I was so stressed. I just did not know what to do. And then I just left his food and I started calling everybody, whoever I could call.

Dhiren:     [15:13]     Because you had to get the juice to the customer. 

Meenaxy: [15:15]    Yeah, because they were waiting for [it]. I forgot that he was there. By the time I realized, it was almost one hour which had passed. And then I came back, I saw that my son was already sleeping on the chair. That is when I realized that I will not do this anymore. He was sleeping there and this really broke my heart. So yeah, these delivery challenges I had too many because I really had no mentor. I did not know that you had to do these things. There were times when I used to just hire a taxi and I used to do the delivery myself. I had to do that. But there are people who would have a business plan, a business strategy and then put everything in place then it becomes easier. Someone who has no idea what to do and where to head to, that's how I actually started, with zero knowledge of anything.

Dhiren:     [16:02]     When you started Go Organic, what was going through your mind? Is it, “I'm going to launch this amazing juice company. We have some amazing recipes.”

Meenaxy: [16:08]    No, no, no, trust me, I had no such dreams. 

Dhiren:     [16:11]     But you just had this idea that you wanted to get juices to people because it was super helpful.

Meenaxy: [16:15]    Yes, that's about it. Honestly, I mean, I have a huge thanks to God to where Go Organic has reached to be very frank. And no, I had never even dreamt that it will even reach this level ever. And I'm very focused with my work as much as I want to work and as many hours as I need to put in. But no, I never had that I have to hit these numbers. Now I’m like that, yes. It's been two years now, we have investors. In fact, even when it started growing, it started growing by itself and I still didn't have a vision. So I still didn't know. And I used to always tell my husband “I lack ambition. I really lack ambition.” We grew very, very quickly.

Dhiren:     [16:57]     It's very interesting that you say that you lack ambition; I feel the same sometimes. And I think that the problem with that is as entrepreneurs, as leaders, we don't give ourselves enough credit. When you say it just grew on its own, there's your sweat equity, your team's sweat equity. But what you're saying is so true and I'm getting goosebumps just listening to you because we all do the same thing. We don't pat ourselves on the shoulder and say, “What an amazing job we've done to get to where we are.” We don't enjoy the small victories and I think sometimes we have to do that as entrepreneurs, as founders. We have to do that. We have to look back at our successes and say, “Wow, we've done phenomenal.” So thank you for bringing that up. I congratulate you because I don't think Go Organic would be where it is today if it wasn't for your efforts and your hard work so well done. 

                   [17:41]     So you've got these delivery challenges, you've got kids crying at home, and you're thinking to yourself, “Do I stop? Do I go?” How did you overcome that delivery challenge? What did you do next to fix that problem?

Meenaxy: [17:53]    That was when I realized that whether I earn money or whether I lose money, whether I don't have money, whether I be on losses, we will have to outsource work, we need to get organized. So that's when I actually started finding delivery partners, hiring people. So we started hiring drivers. There was Transport Company, which had just started then. I don't know if you know about them. So Transport had just started and they came up with this whole [inaudible 18:17] concept. It was expensive back then, but then we still decided we'll go ahead with that. At the end of the day, we need to see how you give the best product to the customer before your profits. As long as you do that, profits will follow. This is what I believe.

Dhiren:     [18:38]     A hundred percent. I completely agree with you. The product has to be really, really good and it should fill a need. And then like I said, if it's the right product and the right market, money will follow it. So when you started doing the juices and now you figured out the delivery company, was it a target audience that you had in mind? Was this for end consumers like you and I? Or was this designed for bigger--

Meenaxy: [18:57]    Always end consumers. 

Dhiren:     [18:59]     And how many flavors did you launch?

Meenaxy: [19:01]    First, we started with 12, then we launched Ayurveda. That became very popular. So because I'm so much into greens and vegetables, so the first flavors which came out with our Low Glycemic Cleanse, which is heavily vegetable-based, and super green because I like it. But then I realized because I like it doesn't mean everybody will like it. People wanted to have more fruity flavors, more sweet flavors so that's when we launched the Ayurveda. And after that, we launched the Refresh, which is a very mild cleanse. It's nourishing, it's healthy, and those kinds of juices. It was in phases. It took us like a year and a half to launch the entire range.

Dhiren:     [19:42]     In that point in time, how do you do market research? How do you know what the customers like?

Meenaxy: [19:47]    No, nothing. What market research? No. But having said that, without anything also we did very well so we never invested in any marketing or we never invested in any ads or anything. Those were the times I guess 2014 and ‘15 especially, it was a huge rise that we had seen, and people were looking for these products. So even if you just do an SEO, you are visible. You do a few events, you're visible.

Dhiren: [20:16]         And I know you mentioned Namita. Namita, by the way, for those of you who don't know her, Namita is an amazing marketer. She's actually been on the podcast herself and we talked. We had a great episode about how business owners can do better marketing. And like you're saying, SEO is one of those aspects where you can put a little bit of money. As long as you put the right strategy in place, it will help deliver results. Is that how you got popular because of SEO and marketing?

Meenaxy: [20:42]    So initially, what we did is because we had lesser budget, there are a lot of these Facebook groups - Arabian Ranches Women, Green Community Ladies - we used to go and post in it the offer that we have and that's how we actually got-- So we didn't do any ads, any marketing for a very, very long time. We just posted in all the Facebook groups, and that's how we got people. And then we kept on contacting them; they referred us more customers. And then we used to do-- There were so many events at that time, so we used to go to events, and we used to do samples juices, take down database. So it was a lot of groundwork.

Dhiren:     [21:14]     And you're doing all of this yourself, right? You’ve got two kids at home, you got a very skeletal team, but you're doing all of this yourself, you're running around, doing all of this?

Meenaxy: [21:22]    Events, I kind of gave up as I said, because I saw that I can't do it anymore. I was very guilty to leave them, so I give up the events very, very soon. Within nine months of starting Go Organic, I gave up on events. And all we did was put it on Facebook groups. So as I said, I always had people. Most of the housewives, if you just give them a target, they will do the fieldwork. So we thankfully got good girls who were doing it for us, and they used to do the marketing. It was a different economy at that time.

Dhiren:     [21:52]     Such an interesting idea to do that level of marketing. Most times you will call it grassroots marketing like going into each group and you post, which is phenomenal. I don't think other people can think of that idea, and it's a very innovative idea. And sometimes we forget that something as simple as that can be such a powerful change maker. 

Meenaxy: [22:08]    It's very powerful, but then after some time, the Facebook admin of those groups will tell you to stop. It's not something which can stay for a long time but it did help after the first two years. 

Dhiren:     [22:20]     Amazing. So you've now got a team, you've got the delivery guys sorted, you've got your juice flavors sorted. So it's 2015, I think, now from where we were initially. What's happening now in Go Organic? You're still doing juices, right, because you said all of the new products launched very recently. Back in 2015, It was still juices?

Meenaxy: [22:39]    Yes. Until last year, it was just juices and juice cleanses. That's about it. This year [starting] in January, we've launched soups because we realized that people are not just wanting juices. Juicing can be quite difficult; cleansing can be quite difficult for some of the people who would want to really eat as well. And during winters especially, they want something more comforting. And that's when we launched our range of soups. Soups are very low in glycemic index and again, very high in fiber. So people who are looking into weight loss, for them it's quite powerful. That picked up very, very well because it opens a whole lot of new audience. And during the COVID times, we launched a lot more products. We launched keto shakes. So we launched three flavors of keto shakes, which is doing good. We launched celery juices because there's a big demand for it. That is still yet to pick up. Now recently, we’ve launched our protein smoothies in five different flavors, and protein cleanse and power up cleanse. And that's purely because when a person is doing a cleanse, people who are into working out, they're not able to work out because the body works very hard during the cleanse and they get tired and they want to exercise and they're not able to exercise. So that's when the whole need of launching something which is high in proteins. Just last week, we launched a protein cleanse, but our best-selling are still the super juice cleanse, the soups, the juices, juice cleanses.

Dhiren:     [24:08]     So I just want to go back in time. You mentioned you've launched, it's 2015, you've grown quickly, you ended up being featured at Carrefour and all these big stores. What was going through your mind at that point? Were you thinking of expanding into other countries?

Meenaxy: [24:22]    So Dhiren, sometimes it's not that you plan things. There's something in you and there's an inner voice in you, which will tell you, “Okay, do this.” I don't know if you believe in that but I do believe in that.

Dhiren:     [24:33]     I do. It's your gut. It’s your instinct. 

Meenaxy: [24:36]    Why we got into the Carrefour is because the inner voice in me told me to get into it. So the reason why we could never grow beyond e-commerce is purely because the shelf life of the juices is just three days. So anywhere we go, nobody's going to take us, and we didn't want to pasteurize. Pasteurization is actually heating the product which ruins the nutrition. We didn't want to do that. We are all about cold.

Dhiren:     [24:59]     And pasteurizing gives it longer shelf life. 

Meenaxy: [25:01]    It does, but we can't do that.

Dhiren:     [25:03]     Right. 

Meenaxy: [25:03]    So there is a process called cold pressuring or HPP. It's widely used in the States, actually, in most of the juicing companies. So the process is, you juice, you seal the bottle and the sealed bottles, they go under cold water chambers. A lot of cold water pressure is put on the sealed bottle, and this increases the shelf life to 45 days. 

Dhiren:     [25:26]     And that's what cold pressing means?

Meenaxy: [25:28]    That's cold pressuring, HPP. Cold pressing is a different method. 

Dhiren:     [25:32]     Oh, wow.

Meenaxy: [25:33]    Cold pressing is a way in which you retain the entire nutrition. So there are no blades, there's no heating. It's just crushing the vegetables and fruits, taking the pulp out, and a lot of pressure is put on the pulp. It’s a two-step process. That's cold pressing. Cold pressuring is a way to extend the shelf life without harming the nutrients. It's a very expensive process and a very, very expensive machine, and hence it was not here. So in 2016, somebody bought that machine over here. So that's when it was like, “Okay, great. Now that the machine is here, now we have a bigger market to tap.” So once we did the testing and everything, and we saw that the shelf life has actually increased, we approached Carrefour and they very happily took it. So that's how the whole retail actually kind of grew for us. Retail, and then we got into quite a few restaurants.

Dhiren:     [26:21]     So up until that point, it was purely e-commerce. You'd get onto the website, you'd order the juice and you’d deliver them. 

Meenaxy: [26:25]    It's still that. I mean, that's 90% of our business to be very frank. 

Dhiren:     [26:30]     Okay, and because you’ve just, like I said at the beginning of the conversation, you decided to exit out of all of your corporate arrangements because of the market situation. But up until then, it was purely e-commerce, and then, like you said, your inner voice told you that there's a better way to do this. You found this machine and you decided to use HPP to increase the shelf life. How much does HPP increase the shelf life by?

Meenaxy: [26:51]    45 days, but it depends.

Dhiren:     [26:53]     Wow. 

Meenaxy: [26:54]    The juices’ shelf life is 45 days. The keto smoothies, anything which is based out of nuts, it's just seven days.

Dhiren:     [27:01]     Even though you’ve run it through the HPP process?

Meenaxy: [27:04]    Yeah. So smoothies will be just 15 days. So it's actually dependent on the kind of ingredients that go inside.

Dhiren:     [27:11]     Wow. So now you’ve found this amazing machine, you've gone into Carrefour. What happened next in Go Organic’s story?

Meenaxy: [27:17]    So next is, as I said, we started going a lot in retail, but we very quickly realized that retail is not something which we can do at our scale. We are quite a small company. And competing with huge brands who have got huge investment, that's not where my passion lies. I mean, that's not something which I envisage the company to grow. Obviously, I would love it, but it's not something [inaudible 27:39] I belong to. So during COVID times, we had to pull out and I'm so glad that we did that because that's when I got the time to think something different. And the whole focus started coming on the e-commerce, and it was a very good decision. We launched so many products. Today, people come to our website, and they see so many-- We have a cutting edge over all other competitors today.

Dhiren:     [28:04]     So when you say in COVID you decided you had to leave your corporate arrangement, why was that? What happened there?

Meenaxy: [28:10]    Because we didn't want to work on credits. We wanted cash.

Dhiren:     [28:13]     Because part of the problem here in this market also, I think, as many other markets, is there's a lot of credit that's given out. 

Meenaxy: [28:19]    Yeah, we had 90 days credit period. 

Dhiren:      [28:22]    And did the companies actually pay in 90 days?

Meenaxy: [28:24]    Some of them did. Some of them we're still chasing. So that had put us into debt actually. That's the reason why we got out of it completely. We didn't want to work on it. So that was a good decision that we did.

Dhiren:     [28:37]     Yeah. And I think like you said, as soon as you got out of that, not only did it help you create new product lines, but also, I think bring back the focus to what you initially started out with.

Meenaxy: [28:49]    Yes, something which I absolutely like to do. We’ve marginally lost what we had [that] we were earning from the retail and other chains. We are still close to what we were earning so it's okay, and our [inaudible 29:02] has hit us

Dhiren:     [29:07]     This episode of The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast is brought to you by Cloudscape and Cloudscape’s many different products designed specifically for retail and restaurant business owners. If you are considering opening a retail or restaurant business, or maybe have one already, and are looking to solve technology problems, then let's speak because we can give you a helping hand and make sure that you're set up for success. For more information, check out cloudscape.ae, or get in touch by emailing us at hello@cloudscape.ae. 

                  [29:39]      Yeah, and not every channel is right for every business. I think you choose your channel mix over time, and like you said, through experience, you get to learn what's working and what's not working. So you've talked about COVID quite a bit. I know COVID has impacted almost everybody, some in bad ways and some in good ways. We've already told me that COVID forced you to think about new flavors. What are some of the other challenges that you had during COVID that you had to break through?

Meenaxy: [30:07]    Actually - and thankfully - nothing to be very frank. We were actually quite skeptical what [would] happen. We thought we [would] have to pay our staff half, especially the kitchen staff because they don't earn much in any case - the cooks and the chefs. We thought we would have to do that but very quickly, we kind of moved out of it, and the e-commerce really picked up during COVID times.

Dhiren:     [30:27]     And you mentioned earlier in this conversation that you had decided to outsource, like your marketing, your accounting. Did you think that was a big key factor in helping you be successful even despite COVID?

Meenaxy: [30:38]    Yeah. So marketing? Yes. So marketing, now we have in-house, so we have hired our own marketing manager so now, we do not outsource it anymore. Yes, accounts is outsourced. HR is outsourced. What others? The designing, the SEO, those part of things are outsourced. It does help.

Dhiren:     [30:54]     Keeps the cost low internally.

Meenaxy: [30:56]    It does, but having said that, it's not a great quality of work when you outsource things because they are not just doing your work. They are doing 50 more companies and you are just a part of that. Rather, if you have your own staff who's working, I know it's costing you but the dedication that person has for only your account is much higher, significantly. We actually saw that with the marketing. So we worked with many marketing agencies, and we did work with Namita as well. We worked with Sangita as well from your chapter. But then eventually, we hired our own marketing manager and that really changed the whole thing. That was one of the best decisions we did because she's not just doing 20 different accounts. She's just doing our account, and it's focused. The numbers actually spiraled up after she came in. Even the operations and accounts. Initially, we used to hire like a small term person who is to handle the whole operations. This time, we actually paid someone double the salary and asked him to come in-house and that guy has actually managed to bring down the cost. So that's what I mean. You need to really think it's okay to pay people but there are other benefits to it. 

                  [32:01]      So yeah, having your own staff is actually much, much better, I think, over outsourcing. But yeah, again, things like HR, we don't need. It's okay, we can outsource it. Auditing, yeah, we'll have to outsource and that has to be outsourced. Designing and all the others. So those things as of now [are] all outsourced.

Dhiren:     [32:20]     And how do you go about making this transition? So you said you worked with multiple marketing agencies. How did you go from testing with them, like trying with them and then suddenly, figuring out you need to get someone? And how did you find this person? Did you need to know a lot about marketing to find the person?

Meenaxy: [32:36]    Sangita will kill me if I tell you.

Dhiren:     [32:41]     We don't need to go to Sangita’s story.

Meenaxy: [32:45]    The thing is, we were working with Sangita and it was a fabulous job done, okay? The thing is, the girl who was working on that account was no longer working with us. So the day she was leaving, I had called her up to ask about my account, and that's when she told me that “I'll no longer be handling it. Somebody else is handling it.” She told me that she's not going to be a part of that team anymore. And then I was like, “Okay.” But even before that--

Dhiren:     [33:09]     I can see where this is going, by the way. 

Meenaxy: [33:12]    Exactly. Even before that, I had already told the marketing agencies that “We don't want to work with you guys” because we saw that you're just one of their accounts and we were not getting the results that we wanted. It was a good job done. It grew from where it was and then it plateaued. So then I just offered her, “Why don't you join me?” And for her, it was easy because she was anyways working on our account. She knew everything so to get her was a very good decision. Yeah.

Dhiren:     [33:40]     I think that brings up a good conversation. I say that if you find talent, no matter where it is or how it is, if you find it, great to bring that in-house or great to pursue that and take it somewhere other than letting it go. Because a lot of times we come across these opportunities where we see good talent but we're too scared to ask as entrepreneurs or we don't want to talk about it because we may think maybe we are not able to afford it but unless you don't ask, unless you don't offer you never know. And for you, that has worked really well, right? Bringing that talent in-house has changed your marketing. Like you said, she’s now fully dedicated to Go Organic and you’ve seen numbers change considerably. What other pieces did you bring in-house after your experience? 

Meenaxy: [34:21]    We outsourced as well so we had our own delivery service and so we had our own van, we had our own drivers. We stocked everything. Right now, we just have one chiller van, one driver, which also will be closing. We’ll be outsourcing it all to three different delivery companies. That's purely because having your own drivers is more expensive, but not that we have terminated their jobs. We've just moved them into different departments. Having your own drivers is always more expensive and paying for the vehicles. So outsourcing is much easier is what we realized.

Dhiren:     [34:51]     Very interesting. There are certain things that you should outsource and there are certain things you bring in-house. And like you said, you started with in-house having your drivers, but now you outsource them because there are much better companies that do it better, faster, cheaper. 

Meenaxy: [35:05]    And nowadays, it's much cheaper. Before, it was double what we're paying. 

Dhiren:     [35:10]     Things have changed, especially with the landscape with Pickup and Fetcher and all these companies. They're commoditizing delivery completely so it makes sense. And I can't understand what you're saying about why it makes sense to outsource that. So 2020, COVID has happened, you’ve exited Carrefour and all of your other retail channels, you’ve come back to the basics, you’ve come back to e-commerce with new products. How have things been since then?

Meenaxy: [35:36]    Things have been good, interesting. We have grown quite a lot with regards to the e-commerce - we've doubled up our revenues. We're still not there where we want to be. It's like you've reached this level, now you want to do better. That thing is there. “Okay, I've got this, I want to double up the revenue now.” So we are kind of working on our marketing because we're launching so many products, you have to reach out to everyone. So the next phase is to launch everything. So we're launching 28 different products, everything to be launched by 2021 December. And it becomes a full-fledged platform. People just don't buy juice cleanses, people buy every single thing. Even if they want to buy coffee replacements, they can buy that. If they want to have a meal in a bottle, they buy that. If they want to have something with apple cider vinegar, they buy that. If they want to buy kombucha, they buy that. So even if it's 150 dirhams to buy that, if they want to buy something 1500, they buy that. So it becomes a full-fledged platform. This will need a transition. So that's my vision actually, making people aware of those products and reaching out. As a small business, we just have this much money to put in marketing. We still invest quite a lot, but we just have this much, and a big shout has to be done about it.

Dhiren:     [36:49]     Absolutely. There is no story told. If you’re not marketing then you're not selling. You need to market, right?

Meenaxy: [36:54]    Exactly. It's all marketing. Trust me. People that don't market will not survive.

Dhiren:     [36:59]     Yeah. I want to ask you, you mentioned earlier in the story that you got funding - you reached out to investors. When did that happen?

Meenaxy: [37:06]    That was when we got the contract of Carrefour. So once we got the contract of Carrefour-- Our kitchen was not big, it was small. It wasn't the same building, but it was still small. And considering the numbers of Carrefour, we realized that we can't use this kind of kitchen, we would really need to revamp ourselves. As I said, I'm to really be thankful to God for many, many things. Raising money was equally very easy for me. So I never had the stories which other people had. BNI actually, the first investor came in from BNI itself. So there's this ladies group Icons, I don't know if you know about it.

Dhiren:     [37:40]     I do. 

Meenaxy: [37:41]    I posted in that that we are this company, and I am looking for this kind of funds and the first interest, the first investor came in through BNI.

Dhiren:     [37:50]     And when you got this investor, what did you offer them? Did you offer them--

Meenaxy: [37:54]    No. So we declined that, and then basically we secured money from friends and family. So very quickly, we got that as well.

Dhiren:     [38:02]     So this is probably just angel investing people giving you money because they know you. 

Meenaxy: [38:08]    Yeah. 

Dhiren:     [38:08]     Did you give them any part of the business? Any shares in the business? 

Meenaxy: [38:12]    30% of the company is dissolved. 

Dhiren:     [38:14]     Because you had to raise money and which makes sense. When you were raising, did you know how to do this? Or did you learn this while you were-- 

Meenaxy: [38:20]    My husband. No, no, no everything was run by my husband. I don’t know all those things. 

Dhiren:     [38:24]     Because you mentioned he's a mentor. He knows a lot of this. He’s a pretty sharp guy when it comes to business. And before and after investing, how did that change? Because now that you have all this cash coming in, what did you do with that cash?

Meenaxy: [38:35]    So yeah, this is something which you have to be very careful as well. So once you have the cash, you kind of get spoiled. So one thing which also we very quickly realized, and thanks to that, is people tend to use that cash and we did that as well. And that's when the cash starts depleting in your account. You're kind of like, “Oh, it's all gone now.” So when I realized that, I kind of put that money aside, and like, “No, now we are not using this money anymore. We will generate our own money. If we don't have, we will not spend.” And that's something which has to be inculcated because I've seen a lot of people who raise money, then they get spoiled, and then they get bankrupt because they just lose that money. Getting cash is easy. Retaining that cash and using it for the right purpose is another different thing altogether. A part of their money is still kept aside. Whatever we run is completely from our sales. 

Dhiren:     [39:32]     And what was the reason for that funding? Was it like you said to address markets like Carrefour you needed a bigger kitchen? So I think a lot of that was capital.

Meenaxy: [39:39]    Bigger kitchen, bigger machines. All our machines come from the States, the packaging machine, hiring more staff. Also, one thing which a person should realize is just because you have money, you should not hire 25 different people. Let it go step by step. And I think we did that also very well. So once we got also we didn't hire, we just let it continue, let the numbers coming in, that's when we will hire. So we kept doing that. So we first let the sales come in, that's when we will do it. So we needed money for all of that. Packaging material is quite expensive. The cold pressuring, HPP is quite expensive, so we needed all of that money. Marketing, retail-- So we invested a lot in retail. In fact, we used FLC. So they do the sampling at all the retail outlets. We had used them for three months.

Dhiren:     [40:32]     And was that a successful strategy selling in sampling like that?

Meenaxy: [40:37]    It was, but see, we are not at that level. I mean, see how much money can you pour? Really, it’s like a million. A million is nothing when you're talking in retail. You need to be a big player to be able to invest that money, which we don't have. And honestly, do I want to be there? Do I want to compete with brands like Barakat and other brands who sell at four or five dirhams? No, I don't. We don't. That's not even our client base. No. We would rather create something different and give it out to people who are the right audience, and those people are growing. So yeah, we wasted a lot of money on retail. To be very frank, we're bleeding because of retail.

Dhiren:     [41:15]     And I want to make sure I understand. When you say retail, you're not talking about selling to Carrefour, you're talking about selling to consumers through Carrefour and other--

Meenaxy: [41:23]    So we don't sell to consumers, we just sell to Carrefour. 

Dhiren:     [41:26]     Okay.

Meenaxy: [41:27]    Yeah, we sell to Carrefour. We went to [inaudible 41:29], we went Ad north, we went everywhere.

Dhiren:     [41:32]     So how does FLC help then in sampling?

Meenaxy: [41:35]    With a new product you need to sample in-house. When you go to any of the supermarkets, you must have seen the sampling girls. They give out samples to you, you try it. FLC is one of the strongest marketing company who does. So they used to give those girls, we used to give the products, and people tried. 

Dhiren:     [41:52]     Got it. Okay. That's your direct to consumer model, right? 

Meenaxy: [41:56]    Yeah. 

Dhiren:     [41:56]     But when you're referring to retail, you're talking about selling to Carrefour directly, and [inaudible 42:00].

Meenaxy: [42:02]    We only sell to this. So we have our distributors, whom we used to supply and they used to apply to the retail outlet.

Dhiren:     [42:08]     And you mentioned earlier that you've obviously revamped the entire product line, you've changed a lot of things now. It's no longer just juices, you're doing so many other things, the keto diet, protein stuff, protein shakes. And you said earlier on that you want to create this platform where people can buy anything,

Meenaxy: [42:26]    Buy anything which is plan based. So that's a very common concept in the West, especially if you go to the US, you'll see a lot of brands who do that. Something similar to that is what I want to create over here.

Dhiren:     [42:39]     And how much time do you think is needed to achieve this new vision for Go Organic?

Meenaxy: [42:44]    So we will launch everything by next year. As I said, it’s 2021 December, we should launch. We’re launching in phases. Recipes are ready, but we have to launch them in phases. We need to give time to people to absorb one kind of product. By 2021, at least I presume we should be able to launch all the products. We’ve launched quite a few now. We were supposed to launch kombuchas now, but we’ve launched the protein smoothies.

Dhiren:     [43:08]     And I hope and I pray that you will make it. Like you said earlier on, having no vision, and now having such an amazing dream. You have a direction to head in. I think that's really important. How has your team been since COVID? Have you made any changes in your team? You said you kept a lot of people; you didn't let anybody go.

Meenaxy: [43:27]    We didn't terminate anyone in fact. We kept everybody. No, but I don't think a lot of e-commerce companies suffered during COVID. So we were scared, but everything fell in place for us.

Dhiren:     [43:41]     And do you consider yourself to be an e-commerce company as well?

Meenaxy: [43:44]    Yeah, we are all-- E-commerce? As in we are e-commerce as such. We can't be compared with noon and all. We are a health platform. It's a platform where you find everything. We are a wellness company. We’re still a juices and juice cleanse company but along with that, we have anything which is more than juices and juice cleanses. We will be launching palea shakes, paleo smoothies. So every single person who follows a particular lifestyle, they'll have their solution when it comes to beverages from us. We will never venture into food. That is not our forte. We will do anything which is related to beverages.

Dhiren:     [44:17]     Fantastic. So Meenaxy, what I want to hear from you is-- And like we said earlier on, this is not an easy task to do. You didn't wake up knowing what you wanted to do and where you want it to be. You've come a long way. If you had to do something differently in the last six years, what would that be?

Meenaxy: [44:34]    Differently in Go Organic, I would have taken the steps which I've taken now very quickly. We delayed marketing for a long time. It's only when I met Namita is when I realized the power of marketing. Otherwise, we had hired some very cheap company who charges cheap prices but that doesn't really work. I guess there's also a right time for it. I would have joined networking long, long back and that would have made me a lot stronger because before, I had no clue what to do and how to do. So yeah, I would have joined BNI for sure. I would have joined the other network-- I'm also part of other networking groups like TiE and Endeavor.

Dhiren:     [45:10]     So marketing and networking would have been two things that you would have done differently. 

Meenaxy: [45:15]    Sure. 

Dhiren:     [45:16]     And if there was one piece of advice you can give a new entrepreneur who's just starting out, what piece of advice would you give them?

Meenaxy: [45:24]    So, my vision always and always has been less on how much profits are, but you focus on the product, and have a plan, invest in marketing, and hire people. What happens with new business entrepreneurs, they try to do everything themselves. And I've seen so many of them, they got fed up, they literally got fed up. They give up on every single thing because they're so fed up, they’re overwhelmed with work. One is to hire, outsource the work, give out the work to people. Let it be and focus on the product, which is your core. As I said, it's okay if you don't earn anything. Thankfully, I'm in a space where I probably don't have to shell out a lot of money for the house. Probably something which is good for me but I understand a lot of people don't have it. As long as you focus on the product, it will sell. I had no vision when I started. I learned it as I started working. So one is focused on the product. Second is outsource the work, don't do it yourself. Third is invest in networking and marketing.

Dhiren:     [46:27]     Absolutely well said. I think all of these are very key lessons that we learn many years after. If we had them at the beginning, we would be very different. But then, at the same time, like you said, a lot of people have bills to pay; they're scared to make these investments. But I think what is really underlining this entire conversation is believe in the product. If you believe in the product, everything else will fall into place. So I have two more questions for you and then we will wrap up. One is because you're on The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast, I want to ask you, what do you think makes an elevated entrepreneur?

Meenaxy: [47:00]    Caring for the people who work for you, and also caring for your customers because, in the end, they are paying you. When that thing kind of starts dawning upon you, and with that mindset when you run the business, that entrepreneur for me is an elevated entrepreneur. Driving force is not you. Driving force is beyond that. I follow this [inaudible 47:23]. He says, “Make your vision so, so high that you never reach it.” Why? Because if you end up reaching it, then there's nothing else to strive for. The attempt is not to reach that vision, the attempt is how high you can go while striving towards reaching it.

Dhiren:     [47:42]     Very well said. Amazing. Last question, where can people find you if they want to connect with you, Meenaxy?

Meenaxy: [47:48]    Our products are available in quite a few outlets, the Horeca outlets, restaurants. We have kind of reduced our numbers as well, but otherwise, no, it's all e-commerce only.

Dhiren:     [47:59]     And so Go Organic, obviously we’ll link to the website, we’ll link to your Instagram channel. 

Meenaxy: [48:03]    Yeah. 

Dhiren:     [48:04]     Fantastic. And that's that, Meenaxy. Thank you for staying with me.

Meenaxy: [48:09]    Thank you very much, Dhiren. It was great being on the podcast. Thanks for the opportunity.

Dhiren:     [48:17]     If you haven't already, please consider subscribing to The Elevated Entrepreneur show at elevatedentrepreneur.fm or wherever you've been listening to this episode. And finally, if you would, please do leave The Elevated Entrepreneur podcast a review so that you can make it easier for other entrepreneurs to find this show. Thank you, much love, and I'll see you in the next one.