Business is always competitive, but...

So this is the third year, the kid opened his Mocktail stall, if you did not realize from my last post. In business you learn a lot from experience and its just the third experience, as its a yearly event. He leveraged previous year learning's, to make it better this time, interestingly, my previous posts (2022 , 2023 ) on this chain helped him a lot, as reference. Last year, he anticipated more sell and we ended up having a lot, and distributed them free (instead of wasting), just to come home. So this year, he reduced the expectation, targeting to sell 90 glasses ( as compared to 120 from last year), and accordingly, ingredients were purchased. I was with my Parents, and had to come two days prior to assist the kid ( Father's job on Father's day).

Like every year, I had instructed him to write down the business plan and operational plan, so he had them written on a sheet and shared with me ( business plan not to be shared here, as they are his business secrets). So as per the operational plan, inventory was procured two days before. This year, he added a new flavor, Bloody Orange apart from Blue lagoon as its always in demand.

We keep all the drinks in our fridge as they needs to be chilled. And he calculated the needs of ice cubes and continued to build them and store it in bowls from last three days ( He estimated he would need around 300 cubes). You can imagine, how much consistent effort he had to put, along with his studies. I was loving his excitements and focus to do the business. Unfortunately, on the previous evening, the fridge started malfunctioning, bringing in a big risk. We called several technicians, and one of them came and asked to vacate the upper chamber as well, where the ice cubes were being stored. The kid requested his friends and took them and stored in their fridge, as building ice cubes was not possible, if he lost what was already built. The fridge could not be repaired and he was getting upset, when I advised a back up plan to buy ice slabs from ice factory and use them to chill the drinks and he was so happy hearing this.

So I contacted few people and managed to get the address and went there at the noon, but the guy told, it won't stay till evening, unless an ice box is used. We planned to put in buckets, so I told I would come back in the afternoon. These are some new learning's, which will help in future as well.

Luckily this was the last piece available when I went at 4.30 pm, I brought one third of this big slab which costed 100 rupees. It was not easy to break it to smaller pieces at home and we had to put some effort, but it definitely saved the day. Now this is added as an Operational Risk to his list. He need to analyze all kinds of operational risks and build back up plan.

To make the stall attractive, he designed the banner and built couple of stands, after two failed attempts and it was so much fun watching all these - solving real life problems needs patience and its quite possible that what you plan may fail.

Like every year, he went early to reserve the first table, and even faced some problems keeping those banners, as heavy wind was there. But then we brought some stones, to hold the base stronger. His uncle came to help and keep track of the payments( you always need two people to do any business, and this was a big rescue to me, to be able to enjoy the event), both Cash and digital options were available.

Interestingly, someone else also started a cheap Mocktail counter (another operational risk), serving each glass at only 10 rupees, where as the kid kept the price at 60 rupees for 300ml. So many went to try that cheap brand and it affected his business, due to which, he managed to sell only 60 glasses. People came and told, the cheap brand was nowhere comparable to his quality, and bought from him as well, but that hampered his repeating customers, because one can drink so much.

The best part was that, he carefully prepared the amount, and it exactly ended up, without wasting anything. The ingredients are saved, so I will not count them as part of his Capex, as we will enjoy them at home.

I had to help again wrapping up the set up and the kid was very happy even after working so hard for 3-4 hours in this hot climate. My wife had bought the chicken in honey sauce and some other items from the event and kept at home for the kid and his uncle, as he did not want to be interrupted from his business and eat at other stalls. You can imagine how happy he was to end up his day with a nice dinner and some decent income from his own hard work.

He did most of the work himself and now he understands, setting up a business is hard, but he feels its exciting at the same time, which is a very good sign. And he tracks his Capex as well, this year, he bought an ice box, and now the set up is almost ready, so waiting for next year....May be he can do a regular part time start up, after getting into a professional course. Business is always competitive, but if he can set up his own brand from the ground, then he will have a bright future.

I will wrap this post here, but before that, I must tell you, his stall was treated as the most hygienic and well organized stall - that was a big achievement as I always guided him saying, if you want to deal with food, then hygiene should be your first priority. If you did not realize from the pictures, watch closely, the kid was wearing gloves and also put a hair band, for this purpose.

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