‘To become an entrepreneur, just start executing your plans’

Vibhor Jain is an Apeejay Faridabad alumnus from the batch of 2013. He is currently running his own e-commerce store: Freakin’ Lit. He has vendors in China and markets their products to customers based in the USA, Australia, UK, and Canada. The products are mostly household items, baby care and kitchen accessories. In a wide-ranging interview, Vibhor shares details about his entrepreneurial journey and advises budding entrepreneurs to directly work on their goals instead of engaging in dead-end research. Edited excerpts:

What was the inspiration behind starting your own e-commerce venture?

After finishing my Masters from the University of Leeds in the UK, I joined my family pharmaceutical business. However, I did not have any inclination towards pharmaceutical formulations and manufacturing. I always wanted to start something of my own. Just the idea of working on my own business excited me in my college days. I just wanted to be an entrepreneur from the very beginning.  

Tell us about the journey behind founding Freakin’ Lit?

When I started my business in 2018, I struggled for the initial one and a half years. Nothing happened during that time. It got very frustrating as there were no sales. For some reason, my account also got shut after the first six months but luckily I did not give up. The business picked up during the first lockdown. In 2020, the business became very profitable.  

In the first lockdown, everyone was confined to their homes. My entire work is from my laptop. There is no warehouse or office involved.  E-commerce boomed during that time in 2020 as all other competition got flushed out. The ad expense also decreased. The business picked up very well. The item ordered from my store would go straight from China to the country in which the client has ordered from.  Now, I have moved my entire set up to Hong Kong.

Please tell us some of your best memories from school life?

We were a group of five friends. We had accidentally fractured the elbow of one of our friends while giving him birthday bumps on his special day.  Luckily we did not get suspended. I remember this now as a very funny anecdote.  I think my class 12 board results were a very proud moment.  I had scored 88%. I was never good academically, so I was never expecting to score 88% and that too 95 in accountancy (laughs). 

What life lessons would you give to budding entrepreneurs in Apeejay Faridabad?

I would say simply start doing it! Just start executing your plans. I had done courses in digital marketing but they did not help me. Instead of 6-8 hours of studying and researching, it is better to simply start working on your goals consistently for 3 hours every day. Then you will be far ahead of your competition.  

How did Apeejay School, Faridabad, help you in pursuing your goals?

School helped me to figure out myself. It did not help me with regard to entrepreneurship but it helped me to understand who I am and what I actually like. When I started my entrepreneurship journey, I remember how excited I felt. I never felt that excitement in academics or even in my family business.

What are your next targets?

I want to scale things up. I have a business partner in Thailand. We are planning to scale things up and dominate the e-commerce sector, systematise things and work on some new projects.