Maroon leather, golden print, arbitrage and rice pearl hoops

I did not know it was called entrepreneurship then. Nor had I heard of the term arbitrage. I'd seen the opportunity and grabbed it and made my first profit in life.

I was 16 when my second niece was born to my eldest sister. She lived at one end of the city, and my college was in the opposite direction, relative to my home. Like it or not, my sister and my mom had to live with my recalcitrance of my showing up at my sister's home straight after college, unannounced and a lot more often than was necessary. I was skipping my household chores, paying more for the bus fares for the extra trips and perhaps not so welcome by my sister's in-laws with whom she and her husband lived. I'm hoping my niece was a little more thrilled. Ah well, it didn't matter. I played with my little angel to my heart's content and only then went back home, well beyond typical curfew hours for an Indian girl.

On the way to my sister's house was a book-binding workshop. Every time I passed by the store, I admired the handiwork of the leather bound books in gorgeous shades of deep maroon and navy blue and beautiful golden calligraphy.  On one occasion, I gathered the courage to strike up a conversation with the book-binder and I told him I admired his work. The older gentleman smiled and thanked me.

After that day, I waved to him and he waved back to me every time I passed by his store.

Time flew before I realized it and I was into my final year of college. It was time to produce my own piece of art in the form of a project workbook.  Our professors provided us with a list of recommended book-binders.   The cost of binding each project book was a princely Rs. 60 from the regular binders. Or the equivalent of about 5 movies we could watch in a theater back then. Quite a steep amount for someone in college.  And then it occurred to me to compare prices with my favorite book-binder.

The next time I went past the store, I stepped, in this time and inquired about his cost for the same service. He looked down, seemingly focused on his work and avoiding his gaze told me "I charge Rs. 50, per book".  I was doing some quick math in my head as to how much money the class of about 60 could save, and therefore how many more movies we could watch that summer. I was silent for a few minutes. The vendor apparently perceived my silence to be hesitance on my part.

"Since I know you however, I can do this for Rs. 48 for you" he said. Hmm I thought.
"I'll get you an order for 60 books - how much for that?"
"45"
"40"
"42"
"40"

We settled at Rs. 40.

"I need a sample", I said.  He gifted me a beautifully bound diary, smiling, playing in to my ruse, for he knew of my love for the diaries he made. I'd earned the very first sales incentive in my life, and that too in advance. I felt highly motivated, excited! I likely created more of a racket that evening than usual playing with my niece. I never checked in with my sister, if I was ever a source of marital discord in that family. It's perhaps moot now.

I informed my class that I found a binder whose services cost only Rs. 50 per book, which included my services. They were skeptical and questioned the quality. I flashed the beautiful diary. They were impressed and convinced.  The entire class signed up.

My treks to my sister's place continued and along with me the stacks of paper delivered for binding. Between my labor, and my negotiation, I made a neat sum of Rs. 600.  I felt like prosperous.

With that Rs. 600, I bought a beautiful pair of  hoop earrings made with the tiniest rice-pearls for my third sister.  That's the only gift we talk about to this day, hard earned as it was and given the story behind it.  Or perhaps, I got away with giving her that only gift my entire life.

I learned many marketing lessons through this exercise; the value of being nice for no specific reason, of building  relationships,  identifying opportunity, estimating the arbitrage value, silence as a tactic in negotiations, customer trial with the sample book, and my motivation spurred on by the initial incentive and finally my courage to jump on the idea and slog it out to earn that money carrying stacks of paper and bound books back and forth in a public bus, not necessarily the easiest. Also the win-win I was creating for myself, my friends and my favorite book-binder who knew how to motivate me.

My entrepreneurial journey had begun that day.