From an Infant Startup to a Toddler | The Clueless Company's Journey

10 September 2021. On this date, we started our journey by launching our website at 10:09 AM.

It’s not a big deal for Google to crawl through another website, but it’s a big deal for us to have our own website.

The Clueless Company is now one year old, and I can’t express the gratitude we have in mere words.

Last week, on 10th September, we celebrated TCC’s first birthday.

Mehul and Manasi did a live stream and celebrated by cutting a delicious chocolate ganache cake. It looked so delicious, but how could I know, I did not get to taste it.

You see, you can’t taste images and videos……………sorry, I got lost in my ‘cake thoughts’.

Yeah, so they had this cake…..urghh shut up!

In case you missed the cake cutting ceremony then you can watch it here.

I read this question on Quora - why does a month feel like a long time but a year feels like a short time?

Interesting, right?

For us, this one year felt like a decade, thanks to the number of experiences we had.

<em>As they say, zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi.</em>

Let me take you through the journey of all these experiences, learnings, achievements, and cakes.

So far, the journey has been full of ups and downs, and needless to say, we are way out of our comfort zone and don’t want to go back any time soon.

How does it feel to complete one year?

One year, can you believe it? One year of working on something you believe in.

One year of living the way you always wanted to.

One year of owning your decisions, mistakes, and achievements.

One year of meeting new people and building a team.

One year of helping businesses grow.

One. Year. 

While it’s impossible to quantify our learnings and experiences from day 0 to day 365, we can measure it to some extent by looking at the numbers we hit this year.

So far we have successfully onboarded and helped 19 clients.

We achieved impressive growth in all directions: the social media presence, engagement with the audience, and website clicks and impressions.

From zero to a community of 2000+ beautiful beautiful people across social media platforms, we have come a long way.

Our website crossed the 175K mark in impressions (it’s 200K+ as this blog gets published) and 4K daily impressions (it’s 5K+ as this blog gets published).

Thanks to the amazing community, we crossed the 200 YouTube subscribers mark within 24 hours.

I am personally surprised by the fact that the community is supporting us at each step.

I am so grateful to be a part of a team of passionate people devoted to TCC. You see, having a team this resilient is no less than an achievement.

Other than hiring interns, TCC onboarded their first full-time co-worker (yours truly) and started a mentorship program for those who wanted to learn and explore new domains.

We are not just focusing on the numbers, but on the impact we are leaving on our community and clients.

We are building long-term relationships rather than just doing client acquisitions.

Our top Learnings and Experiences

All the time I spent working with TCC taught me an enormous amount of things, but we are not here to talk about my learnings.

(Why does it have to be always about you, Uday?)

When starting, every entrepreneur wants to make it big. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, was it?

But, like foolhardy that we are, we go ahead and make mistakes that cost us a hand, a leg, and some more.

Here are our top learnings:

1. Serving anyone and everyone.
   
   Yes, we want to earn money, fast and more. So, often, entrepreneurs do not set qualifications for their customers
   They will cater to everyone willing to work with them, not thinking that in the long run, it might affect their outputs.
   
   

1. Taking too many opinions.
   
   While it is necessary to have mentors, it is also necessary to be mindful of taking so many opinions that the entire purpose is scratched off. Keep your end goal in mind, always.
   
   

1. Not listening to the customers.
   
   When you are just starting, you must listen to your customers as often as you can and take necessary actions on their feedback to improve. Remember, you are building for your customers.
   
   

1. Over-pricing & under-pricing.
   
   Believe us when we say it, but both of these are a curse. When you under-price, you are somewhat limited to what and how you serve them, and when you over-price, you are constantly under the pressure of not doing enough.
   
   

1. Trying to do everything at once.
   
   One of the most common mistakes made by entrepreneurs is trying to do everything at once. They want to implement all strategies and reach out to as many people - all at once, without thinking about the performance and the consequences.
   
   

1. Ignoring your mental health.
   
   While this is a mistake we can make in any occupation or profession, entrepreneurs are infamous for overworking and pushing themselves constantly. While it is good to push yourself outside your comfort zone, it is not okay to do it at the cost of your mental health.
   
   

1. Poor hiring
   
   Yes, this is possible, very much so. Especially when you are starting, you need a team that complements your capabilities and not that adds to your piling workload.
   Hire less, but hire smart.
   
   

1. Not marketing early enough.
   
   Be it a product or a service business, you can never promote yourself enough. But, so many entrepreneurs keep it a second priority and focus on it only when all’s said and done.
   
   

1. Not doing ruthless prioritization.
   
   In the early stages as an entrepreneur, you will be pretty much responsible to do everything and anything to keep things running. To ensure that the show goes on, you need to get your hands on it with ruthless prioritization, every day, every hour.

Where are we and where are we headed to?

We are at a stage where we know what went right and what went wrong.

We are learning from our mistakes and preparing to make new mistakes as we grow horizontally and vertically.

The first year has been a challenge, and we know that the coming years won't be easy either.

But when we have people like you, then I am sure the journey will be a cakewalk. Oohh cake!!

Endnote

When we started, we didn't know what to do, but we did know what not to do. And that is often, what decides the fate of a business and an entrepreneur.

We believe in the journey we have embarked on, and we know that together we can break all the stereotypes we see in the business industry today.

We are learning right now and will always be, and we look forward to sharing what we know with our team members, customers, and community.

Thank you, for the constant support and feedback.

Humans at The Clueless Company