The interview I conducted was of Raisa Mahazabin.

She is one of the owner of an online

based jewelry shop named Hidden Box. I choose an online business as I just started my own pre-
order based online retailer store. I want to make it popular and well-known towards people by
advertising it on different social media sites. By conducting this interview I hoped to find out the
ins and outs of an online based business.

From her own weakness for jewelry and saree and love for art, the idea of creating her
own business came to her mind. As she did her own research on other online jewelry shops, she
got to know that there is an unlimited amount of profitability opportunity, if the business is
properly managed. The profit she gains from this business isn’t necessarily more than the other
businesses. But she was more focused on turning her weakness into her passion and making a
decent amount of money from it. She also had thought about opening a bakery shop. But that
idea didn’t work out as she didn’t have enough knowledge money for the huge investment.

Her SWOT analysis about her business is given below-

Strengths- The main strength is that she has the best partners to do business with.

Weakness- Her main weakness was she couldn’t do proper advertising of her page yet.

Threats- The main threat she has is there are so many online base stores right now. She has to
upgrade her product quality based on the customer need and to top her competitors.

Opportunity- The products she sells are all authentic Indian and traditional bridal and semi-
bridal deshi jewelries. She always do her deep research on it then bring some unique handmade
antique jewelries.

The main differencing factor she has over her competitors is her hospitality towards her
customers. As there are many online stores in Dhaka, but none of them provide such facilities as
they do. There were so many cases that they have to consider even their minimum profit while
providing some after sale service. Also she provides a nice talk environment for all of her
customers to get to know their feedbacks about the goods. Also the prices of her products are
relatively low. By doing these she provides value to his customers.

She has failed in doing this business in a major way. Once one of her product reached a
little defected in customer’s hand. She had to refund the product price and the delivery charge as
well. Also she wished to start her business earlier but due to lack of financial support and
research she couldn’t. As she already completed her graduation and has a great job based on her
academic background, she was never got any motivations to do the business from her close ones.
By this she understood that being ambitious and optimistic is the best way to go.

The best thing about being an entrepreneur is that she doesn’t have to take order from
others. Though she is an Executive, Supply Chain Management at United Group she never really
liked to work under any authority. Also a challenge about being own boss is controlling power.

She has plans to expand her business by bringing product variations. Also has plan to
open a store at Dhanmondi within 2-3 years.

I asked her about my business as a newbie. She said the best advice she can give me right
now is “Be true to yourself before being with your customers”. She also said to be honest and
open about the goods towards the customers.

By conducting this interview I was able to learn a lot about the online business. An
entrepreneur is one who is always running, pushing the envelope and taking risks. The problem
and challenges faced by a business owner, which I never knew. Thanks to this interview by Raisa
Mahazabin I got to learn a lot about this particular business.