My name is Joy, and I’m the founder of Joy Organics, a startup selling a broad line of organic CBD products.

Let me begin by saying that I had no dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Rather, it was a matter of chance and circumstance. Of course, now that I am one, I love it and wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world.

But perhaps I’m jumping ahead of myself. You might be wondering what CBD is. Well, this amazing product is the heart and soul of my entrepreneurial journey. Let me begin at the beginning.

Searching for a Solution to a Personal Problem

Every voyage has a destination. In my case this destination was personal. I was searching for a natural solution to help me with my chronic pain and sleeping troubles. I looked far and wide and eventually learned about the benefits of CBD and CBD oil.

CBD, a powerful cannabidiol, has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Many experts in the medical field, including doctors and scientists, believe that a combination of CBD and a variety of naturally occurring terpenes, flavonoids, and cannabinoids found in a proprietary strain of hemp plant offer a range of tangible health benefits.

Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I tried out a few products and found some that worked, but they were few and far between. The CBD market is largely unregulated, and there are plenty of fly-by-night operators out to make a quick buck.

I quickly realized that this could be a great opportunity for a CBD player who focuses on high-quality products and, more importantly, products that deliver on their promises.

The Product Differentiator Is Quality

The CBD market will be worth around $25 billion in another ten years. A huge number of businesses are trying to grab CBD market share, and their numbers will only increase in the coming years.

If I wanted to survive over the long term in the CBD industry, I would need to differentiate my products from day one. Since I already knew the market wasn’t meeting the highest benchmarks of quality, I decided that I would set my business above the rest by offering top-shelf CBD products.

For starters, I made sure that all the hemp we use in the manufacturing process is grown in the United States, using organic practices only. State-of-the-art farming methods enhance the quality and potency of our natural proprietary strains and products.

We also use a proprietary extraction and solids separation process, and our proprietary nanoemulsion technology ensures our formulas are significantly more bioavailable than oil-based products and water-soluble hemp-based oils. This ensures the highest degree of quality, consistency, and efficacy in our products.

Be Prepared for Challenges

A critical lesson of my ongoing entrepreneurial voyage is to be prepared for challenges from all quarters.

One such challenge is communication—or the lack of it—between the various stakeholders of your business, including your customers. I understood that not meeting this particular challenge could damage my business in more ways than one.

In my business, my family and friends make up the senior management team, and it is imperative that we are all on the same page. There were times when miscommunication or the lack of communication resulted in reduced productivity and delays in making the right decisions.

From the customers’ perspective, lack of communication can mean there’s no feedback mechanism in place, or the business isn’t replying to negative feedback, or there is very little customer engagement. All of these issues taken together can have a negative impact on your business.

The lesson here is that you cannot take communication for granted. You must work to integrate a communication mechanism and make sure it is as seamless as possible.

No Substitute for Digital Marketing

Startups, small businesses, and family-owned businesses often find it difficult to compete against the big players. This is where digital marketing can be a big help, as it was for me.

Consistent digital marketing efforts allowed my business to establish a digital footprint on the web. Later on, I realized that digital marketing doesn’t just end with content creation and promotions, so we added continuous efforts in social media and marketing strategies, as you can see below. This, in turn, helped capture a substantial customer mindshare. (“Mindshare” is the measure of consumer awareness of your business or brand compared to your competitors.)

This is the digital marketing checklist we created for Joy Organics to make sure the company reaches its potential audience:

1. Consistent blogging: We maintain at least three blogs every week to engage and retain our existing customers and accelerate word-of-mouth marketing.
2. Social media: We run targeted ads on Facebook, Google, and Instagram to reach potential customers who are interested in CBD oil and/or are suffering any kind of ailment. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads definitely helped us expand our business.
3. Learning and unlearning: Our team’s learning toolkit includes listening to podcasts related to entrepreneurship. Our favorites are the GaryVee Audio Experience from Gary Vaynerchuk and the Marketing School Podcast with Neil Patel and Eric Siu.
4. Content strategy: Little did I know that social media and blogging don’t just demand content but creative content. Presently, I’m striving to produce content that truly touches lives.

Digital marketing doesn’t demand a huge amount of investment, as compared to out-of-home (OOH) marketing and other traditional promotional mediums. This helps level the playing field and gives us more opportunity to reach our target audience.

Never Forget Why You Took the Voyage

There were questions I had to keep answering so I wouldn’t lose sight of my core goals: Why did I embark on the voyage in the first place? What were my objectives? What did I hope to achieve at a personal level?

My objective is to make high-quality, trustworthy CBD products available to customers against the backdrop of an unregulated industry. I want our customers to have faith in our products, without worrying about side effects or if the price they are paying is worth it.

To Conclude

My entrepreneurial voyage in the CBD industry hasn’t ended yet and is going strong. It’s been a tough yet satisfying journey, and I’m still learning. I know this journey will never end, and I’m discovering new facets of my personality and abilities all the time. It’s fun, exciting, and hugely satisfying.

Image from iStock/scyther5 (main), Joy Organics (family image).