PSFK mentions Fuwarinka Gum that upon chewing, gives your skin a mild sweet scent. And then there was the Five Hotel in Paris that diffuses scents to match your moods. I also read about a particular perfumier who was commissioned to create a signature scent for a major luxury retail chain store. Stores like Wal-Mart and Krogers are also jumping into teh game as are candy giants like Mars. According to Ad Age, Mars recently employed the use of scent technology at its M&M world retail stores and Pepsi published its black-cherry vanilla scent in an ad. in People Magazine recently.

How long before scent-technology overpowers the other points of appeal?

A history major and basketball player at Columbia University, Jason worked his way through college. Knowing well that there wasn’t a trust fund waiting for him after graduation, he took an internship on Wall Street to learn how people in New York were making their money. At that point, paying off student loans was the most important task at hand. For four years he worked on Wall Street, paying off his student loans and saving money. “I liked it, but that was just it,” says Jason. He was sure of quitting and he began to look around for ideas to start his business. “I always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit and I knew it was time.”

Jason grew up in a household that cherished traditions. Christmas preparations in his family start as early as August. A few years ago Jason decided to try his hand at contributing to the Christmas dinner and decided he’d make cheesecakes for the family. Weeks of practicing with ingredients, quantities and time- Jason had nailed the perfect recipe for the cheesecake. Thus was the beginning of Luscious Living – the most stylish cheesecakes I’ve ever seen. A series of chance meetings with the right people pushed Jason along the tumultuous journey of operating a food-based business. A close buddy from Columbia helped him design his concepts and the business was ready to go.

The initial plan was to supply Luscious Living Cheesecakes to every grocery store in the area and  major retailers like Costco’s and Whole Foods. Although the business was doing well, the cheesecakes weren’t at any major grocery chain yet. “To take it to the next level became a challenge. Doors kept slamming and I was frustrated. We knew we neededa  change, but what?”

And then serendipity struck.

At a Columbia University event, he met with a friend who mentioned that his market research class did research for startups as a case-study. Jason agreed to let the students use his business as a case-study and by the end of the semester he had solid knowledge about his company’s target audience and the market. “It didn’t translate into sales, but the wealth of knowledge I left with was amazing.”

At the end of the semester, Jason launched his own research and dissected his brand. “I learnt that gift-giving was a strong niche market and my cheesecakes fit in perfectly there.” The more he thought, the more sense it began to make. He decided to ditch his efforts to push his brand into grocery chain stores and instead focused on positioning his cheesecakes as the gift item and sold them exclusively online “I also started focusing a lot on the low-carb, low-fat cheesecake. That was another niche market.” With two new ideas, Jason breathed life into his brand again and made it a self-sustaining business.

Jason is a voracious reader. During our interview, we started talking about books and he read a few titles off the shelf of his library. He peppered our conversation with book recommendations, site recommendations and anecdotes he had read. I was both envious and amazed. Envious of his exuberant energy and amazed with the possibilities his mind. He also often referred to Steve Jobs’ “connecting the dots” speech. “It’s funny,” he says, “but that dots-idea has been very predominant in my life.” And as his story unfurled, I saw it how.

“I had built a nice clean business with the cheesecakes and I don’t have to do much for it anymore. I was ready for another challenge,” said Jason as he narrated the story of Onegoodie, By targeting the low-carb and gift markets, Jason had really understood the power of niche markets and with one eye on trends, he began to bounce around ideas centered around niche markets. Again, serendipity struck.

“A friend of a friend introduced me to a guy who was interested in starting a niche shopping site.” The concept was based on the already successful idea of woot.com. The intent was to target the entire family by providing one product a day for a great price. The minute he heard the idea, he knew it. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with all the useless information I’d picked up with the cheesecake business."

But another dot connected and his cheesecake experience in supply-chain management and dealing with manufactures and distributors became indispensable with the new business. Onegoodie.com had a soft launch early this August. They emailed a few friends and let the word spread. Slowly blogs and other online sites picked up on it and before they knew it, the site was inviting tons of traffic.

By the end of my interview with Jason, I’d come to expect ideas for yet another business in the pipeline. Jason laughed saying, “I don’t know abou the future right now, but for now all my energies are focused here.” And so be it!

Jason’s Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs:

1) Don’t find reasons why not to do something. A lot of people get mired down in writing endless business plans. I understand the importance of a business plan but listen to your guts. You have to go for it, wherever it leads.

2) Don’t be married to making something work. Don’t be married to make it something you thought will work. Be open to change and accept it.

3) Now is the right time.

"What I love about Being My Boss: that the buck stops with you. I love it that I am building something, contributing something, shaping something and creating something. The greatest thing about being an entrepreneur is taking an idea and executing it. "

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In the coming weeks, I’ve lined up an impressive set of interviews. So don’t forget to check back. I’m just begining to learn this self-promotion bit and am shamelessly asking you to return to this blog. Simply because, the stories of these people deserve to be read and circulated and re-read. Starting this week, I will also publish a set of links to stories about entrepreneurship and being your own boss from around the internet. And any comments or suggestions to make this better are more than welcome. Email me at jshah28@yahoo.com

My first two interviews were with entrepreneurs in their early stages of business. I picked Stephanie Sakoff, founder and owner of Lucky Chick beauty products who has been in business eight years for my third interview to highlight yet another facet of being an entrepreneur. Her company has been featured in top beauty magazines and her products are sold at top stores. And yet, she’s constantly thinking about evolving to the next level. "It never gets easier," she said to me in the begining of the interview. And you’ll find out why.

The Story

Stephanie always knew that she was going to be an entrepreneur. When she was in school, she made pretty little hats on her sewing machine and sold them to her friends and neighbours. "I dreamt of being featured on a show called Style. It was the it show back then." However after graduating from college, she ended up in corporate America designing shoes and spending her time traveling between factories in Asia and her American office. When she wasn’t working, she was nursing her jetlag.  "I looked at the women’s lives around me and I didn’t want my life to look like theirs." Her colleagues and friends led busy, stressfull lives with little or no time for themselves. When realization dawned, she knew quitting corporate America was the best decision she could make for herself. And so, without a backup plan, she quit.

The Idea

Plenty of discarded ideas, long nights spent with the thinking cap and several positive comments later- Lucky Chick happened. "I was living in a lovely apartment in Chelsea, New York, and all my friends called me lucky chik. I just thought – hey why not take the idea of Lucky Chick further and create a concept?" She toyed around with the idea of creating a footcare products line but then decided to go head-on into full body care. So the decision was made, but there was one tiny problem. She had no experience in the beauty industry or in creating beauty products.

"I was 28 when I was starting out…it was like 8 years ago. I had no idea what I was going to do," Stephanie laughs. "Internet was just becoming popular and I bought this gigantic whiring computer for research and it froze every few seconds." She drafted out her concept and shopped around labs with the hopes of finding a chemist who would help her create her product line. She shopped her idea around at industry trade shows and slowly began to meet the right people. A few hits and misses and she found a lab that was willing to create her first line of products and finally, she was in business!

During the early years, her parents supported her endeavor with just as much ardor and passion. "My Dad owns his own business. I didn’t even know how to create an invoice! He also had a warehouse for that he let me used. I have to say, he provided me a great deal of help." Her family and friends would stop by at her office and help her with packaging and other small tasks around the office at all times. Even now that she has employees to help her out, her family helps her out whenever they can.

The Big Bully

In the multi-billion dollar industry beauty industry, competition is severe. More dangerous is the encroachment from large corporations. "A huge company didn’t want me to use the word lucky in my brand name and they sent me a cease and desist order. I was unnerved. I had just started out and had no money to fight such a huge corporation." But it was either fighting for it or allowing the behemoth to gobble up her business. "I learnt everything I needed to know about the legal issues and decided to fight them. I was doing nothing wrong and they weren’t going to shut me out." Stephanie’s company had not breached any copyright laws or stolen intellectual property from the said corporation. She declined to change her business name and was willing to fight the case when the company decided to back off. "That was one of the biggest lessons I learnt in business, and the one piece of advice I always offer other small businesses is that when big companies come after you, don’t back down. Fight out the battle. (unless ofcourse you are blatantly copying something off!)"

Keeping up the the Joneses

Stephanie still maintains that owning her own business is very hard. The market is always in a flux- constantly changing and re-inventing itself. "Things are different now than eight years ago. Big box chains are taking over the market and it is a challenge to think about getting my product out to women at the right price points." In a fiercely competitive industry such as hers, innovation is key. If you’ve been to the Victoria’s Secret store lately, chances are you’ve admired the snazzy new Lucky Chick lipgloss that lights up when you take out the wand. Another key breakthrough: a beautifully designed two-way lipgloss that packs tiny mints on the other side and yet another lip-gloss comes with solid fragrance on the other side. "My customers are a true source of inspiration," she says. Women often always carry their lipgloss, mints and fragrance in their handbags – no matter how tiny the bag. "I thought, why not combine these essetials into just one pack?" Stephanie collaborated with a company that holds patents in product design and created these innovative new lipglosses. The lipglosses are just one of the 30 odd products that her company is launching in the coming months. The future for Lucky Chick looks just as promising — Stephanie is working on expanding the brand to create a special line of cosmetics and beauty products for teenage girls. "I constantly think about how can I keep my brand fresh? How can I use new technology to make better and different products for my customers? how can I manage my sales better abroad?!" When you own your business, you own it all the way. "You can’t bring it to a certain point and hope it will continue to grow on it’s own."

The Lucky Chick Tip for Success: From any challenge comes an unexpected opportunity. Don’t miss it.

By offering free episodes of it’s most popular showsABC has probably made the best decision a TV network can in this day and age. Last season, I downloaded episodes of LOST from itunes for $1.99 per episode. Now, I can watch most of my fave ABC shows online for free, with only four 30 seconds long sponsored advertisements. Two minutes of advertising in about 40 minutes of programming is absolutely acceptable to me. If this became the norm, I’d forgo TIVO anyday.

There is much debate centered around ABC’s decision to broadcast shows online. Some call it an experiment, some think this is the future of television. I checked out the site traffic to spot any irregularities. The Alexa chart displays the usual waxing and waning of a program cycle so it is difficult to say if the online videos have bought in extra traffic. Until we have solid figures from ABC and a word from their advertisers, lets just relish this new developement!

25 year old Joanna Alberti knows a thing or two about running her own business. For Joanna college and her sorority formed the perfect playground for one-off gems like, "If you need to confide in someone, pick a drunk friend." So amused by those passing moments where life seems to hold still for laughter and bonding, she began to keep a journal with her at all times so she could capture these dialogues, diatribes or just meaningless junk from her imagination. "I called it my book of philosophies," she muses. "And I still carry one with me at all times." Who knew a random book of mismatched words collected over years would become the foundation for a small but beautiful business?

After graduating from Boston University’s School of Management, Joanna accepted an entry level position with Hill Holiday with the intentions of moving up to the art directors role. A chance entry at an arts fair organized at her company inspired Joanna to characterizie her philosophies into greeting cards. "I played around all night with the word philosophy, because thats what I always called my little journal." It was an eureka moment when she figured out both her character and the name of her greeting card line — philoSophies. Encouraged by the response at the arts fair, she shopped around a few stores in Boston "just to see if anyone would buy my cards." And they did! Soon, philoSophies were making the rounds of Boston’s paper boutiques and friends and family were calling in for cards. Sophie had become the centerstage of her business.

"I didn’t always think of myself as an entrepreneur. Making cards was only a hobby for me, and a way to build my portfolio," she says. She eventually quit Hill Holiday to fuel her newfound passion. “I was making around the same salary as I did when working at the agency, so I thought why not immerse myself in this full time?” But building a small business comes with it’s own share of challenges. Sometimes surmountable, sometimes impossible.

Joanna’s biggest challenge came in the form of a plagiarist. A friend first alerted Joanna about an east-coast company that had an eeirely similar idea, color scheme and feel as philoSophie. Even their Sophie-like character’s body positioning mirrored Sophie. Soon after, Joanna’s web-designer was approached by the same company with a request to create a website similar to Sophie’s PhiloSophies.  "When you are starting out, you can’t afford lawyers," and yet Joanna had to do something to curb this encroachment. Fortunately for her, she met the alleged company’s founder at a trade show in Boston and asked who did their illustratons as their concepts and websites were very similar. (Killing with kindness -ah!) A month later, the plagaiarising company had mended it’s ways and taken  a different strategy.

Small businesses like Joanna’s not only struggle with competition from other tiny companies but also behemoth greeting card companies. To keep her business fresh, Joanna constantly innovates her current offering and thinks about the future. "I think about Sophie all the time. Where is she in her life? How can I try to make her relate with women in different stages of their lives? Or do I need more characters?" Her education at BU’s management school and ad agency training gave her the necessary business expertise but it remains a challange to balance the business and the creative singlehandedly.

“But I wouldn’t want it any other way,” says Joanna.

Whats next for philoSophies? “I’m starting to do more paper products and stationary. Maybe customized stationary. There are just so many possibilities that I need to keep my focus!” Wrapping up the interview, I ask Joanna the best thing about owning her own business. Her response, “Having ownership of something that is completely yours and being responsible for whether it fails for succeeds.”

Indeed!

***

Joanna’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
Stick with it. And your gut instinct is always right.

Check out the website and add Sophie to your friends on myspace!

But yesterday I was talking to a friend in India who mentioned that this year people were actually quite excited Gandhi Jayanti.  Why ? Read on.

‘Lage Raho MunnaBhai," a bollywood movie about a one-time crook who resorts to the Gandhian philosophy to win his ladylove has been responsible for this newfound interest in Gandhiji and the Gandhian philosophies. In the movie, the protagonist, Munna Bhai, appears on a radio program where he inspires his listeners to observe the path of truth, non-violence and tolerance. He invties his listeners to call in and promises to solve their problem by Gandhigiri. (Gandhigiri is a conjoint of two words: Gandhi + Giri, where "giri" reflects highest, top-notch or zenith) So when a sucidal son who lost his father’s meagre savings in the stock market calls in, Munna Bhai, pushes him to confess the truth to his father. Another time, a young woman was about to meet a prospective husband and wondered how she would gauge him on the basis of one meeting. In each instance, Munna Bhai provides a solution to their problems with grace and clarity that Gandhiji would have used.

The movie worked because Munna Bhai spoke the language that this generation understands: casual, vernacular and sparkling with wit and comedy. What the history textbooks failed to convey, Munna Bhai with his troop of comical goons did it in a way that was convincing and endearing. And like most Bollywood movies, this was generoulsy sprinkled with playful songs and a happy ending.

Bollywood movies have profoundly influened the Indian populace ever since the very begining. If you ask me, I have a bollywood movie I associate with every significant period of my life and my assumption is, most others do as well. Bollywood has not only inspired trends and fads, (Kajol’s sarees from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Anu Agarwal’s ‘Ashiqui’ ribbons) but also controversies and riots. But the charm of Gandhigiri attriuted to Munna Bhai, is probably one of the first trends to have (IMHO) a positive impact on the nation’s psyche. As Taran Adarsh, movie critic puts it, "“Hardcore moral preaching doesn’t sell, but if you package it with entertainment, it works."

Students in colleges over Bombay had organized quiz competitions based on Gandhiji.

"Members of the Council told DNA that in order to make the competition more interesting, they have decided to divide it into two parts. “The first part will observe participants answering questions on Gandhi’s life and his work. The second part would be more exciting. Taking cue from the film, Lage Raho Munnabhai, the judges will ask the participants to solve a particular problem through non-violence and truth,” said Kulbhushan Yadav, USC deputy general secretary. – DNA

Another group of young students have founded Gandhigiri.org. Flooding with optimism, they ask ‘If Munna Bhai can, why can’t we do gandhigiri ?"  Here’s a post by a forum member:

Topic: GUYS THIS REALLY WORKS     Posted: 22 Sep 2006 at 3:10am

there is a residence colony near my office called indira nagar , they had a big headache of regular eveteasers , finally a group called young mens forum & the girls who were subject to eave teasing together started visiting the houses of evetasers and distributing sweets & garlanding mothers & sisters of the eveteasers , there were intial problems including a scuffle among them & the group , but they were persistent & kept doing this everyday …finally after a week the eveteasers stopped completely and are not to be seen… Edited by santhubhai – 22 Sep 2006 at 3:33am

India’s top social networking sites, Orkut, has a community called Gandhigiri. As of today, it has 37 members. I’ve also been hearing random reports from friends of how people are sending flowers to their enemies and radio stations are encouraging listeners to  solve their problems the Gandhi way. On the political front, Rajya Sabha Member Mohsina Kidwai has suggested all members of the Congress Working Party to watch the movie. Talks of introducing a Gandhian chair at colleges are also in works. Condensed versions of books on Gandhiji and his writings are in the making. Newspapers are reporting on an increase in the number of Gandhi related books being borrowed by children.

Ofcourse critics question the sudden optimism and wonder if it’s only a passing fad.  The movie (also!) probably provided ample fodder for political cartoonists for months. I can’t tell you either if this is only a trend or if it’s here to stay — but on a personal front, this movie did give me a different lens to look at the world with. This powerful of an impact can and should only be applauded. These are good times for India — and movies like these, only make it better. (The movie is tax-free now, btw)

And perhaps, students aren’t as disenchanted with Oct 2 celebrations as I was a decade or so ago.

Over the course of next 12 months or so, I will search high and low for entrepreneurs that in my opinion have interesting stories to tell, inspiring ideas to sell and most of all, are following their dreams. I will feature interviews with 101 such entrepreneurs here. There’s no real mission or agenda behind this excercise. Maybe these interviews will inspire a couple of us to follow our own dreams, maybe we’ll just sit back and applaud in support of these entrepreneurs. But we will, most definitely, know more about 101 entrepreneurs, their businesses and what drives them.

Recommedations and suggestions are welcome. Encouragement is most welcome. First in the series right below: Joshua Onysko of Pangea Organics.

The story

While visiting his parents in upstate New York before leaving for a trip to India with a one-way ticket, Joshua glanced upon a soap-making book on his mother’s living room. Curious about the process, he bought the ingredients from Whole Foods the next day and made a batch of soap with his Mom and was quite excited with the experience. After giving some soap away to friends and family, he took two bars with him to India and quickly depleted them in a few months. Short on cash, he returned to America to pick up another job and save some more money so he could sustain hsi wanderlust. But instead, he just made a couple batches of soap and sold them at a garage sale and scooted back to yet another far-flung place in the world. As he traveled through the world, he realized how little Americans knew about outside it’s peripheries and ambiguous ideas about starting some kind of a non-profit started taking form in his head.

By the time he hit 24, he was running out of money and had been traveling for a few years. On one serendipitious moment, Joshua met with a friend in Thailand and revealed to him that he was going to start a non-profit institute in America that educated corporations on sustainable living and business practices. He had seen plenty in the world outside and it was time to go back and do something worthwhile. "My friend said to me, why don’t you start a company that mirrors what you want your non-profit to teach. And you should name it Pangea," said Joshua. (I asked why Pangea —Pangea because when the world was one huge land-mass, it was called Pangea. Remember 4th grade geography?!)

So Joshua returned to America, moved to Colorado, found a job as a baker at Whole Foods and sold his homemade soap at garage sales. Today, five years later, Pangea Organics operates out of a wind powerd 10,000 sq foot factory overlooking the mountains in Boulder, Colorado and is the largest organic products factory in the country.

The philosophy

This is perhaps the most difficult part of my interview to narrate. How do you really convey the rich and profoundly impactful practice that Pangea is founded upon? For instance, the lowest minimum wage that Pangea pays it’s employees is $12.50/hour. "Even if he’s just coming in to sweep the floors," stresses Joshua. "That’s what it really costs to live here(USA)" And all his employees recieve full health and insurance coverage. Additionally, a chef comes in every afternoon and prepares organic meals for the employees.

Every tiny detail from packaging Pangea products to sourcing the materials for the products breathe the notions of sustainability. "It is a new paradigm of corporate culture," says Joshua. Pangea is working on a new kind of product packaging that once the empty package is immersed in water, it will be able to grow tiny plants like basil. Some kind of embedded seed technology, I suppose. But the point is, Pangea hasn’t left a venue un-explored or a method untried if it falls within it’s vision.

I haven’t used any of Pangeal products. I only learnt of the company a few days ago and was intrigued enough to speak with Joshua. But Pangea does not use petroleum based ingredients or artificial colors in any of their products. They company practices fair-trade and all products are handcrafted.

Spreading the word

Even as the company enters it’s first year of profitability, it relies largely on its customers and people that believe in it’s philosophy to spread the word. "I don’t want to band-aid something Jinal, I want to fix it." Joshua tells me. "This is an experiment and if people accept it, it will succeed." Joshua talks to anyone who will listen and to people that believe and support his cause. The company has hired a National Educator who flies city-to-city, holding sampling parties with organic cheese and wine. Literally, reminds me of the time door-to-door salesmanship was powerful enough to drive sales. Now, there’s also the internet and a consciousness about doing good, being good. Really, there’s no excuse pleading ignorance anymore. And thanks to the media and social entrepreneurs like Joshua, there is a growing awareness about companies that support pure practices. As Joshua said, "The future lies in the fringe and we are as fringe as it gets."

Did you know:

You can go to Starbucks and ask them to french-press you a fair-trade coffee?

Only 8% of Americans have passports?

Women grow 70% of world’s food and the own only 3% of world’s land?

Does it read the same to you as it does to me? Eh, so tasteless. I understand a private firms concern about maintaining a certain image, but does one have to be so obvious about it, really?

Even though the food, service and decor was fantastic, I don’t particularly feel like giving them a decent recommendation.

(btw, I forgot to take a picture but I knew I could count on Flickr users for this image!)