3 Risks That We Took To Become One Of The Fastest Growing Startups In The UK

“In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.” — Peter Thiel

When a young immigrant entrepreneur ventures into a market with cut-throat competition to start a business with a revolutionary vision, starting the business itself is a risk. Yes, we are talking about our founder — Sid Sethi. When Sid looks back at this life-changing decision, he knows that it was a risk worth taking.

Today, Specscart has established itself in the UK eyewear markets, and this has been made possible by inculcating a risk-taking culture into our way of functioning.

For small businesses, the importance of a high risk appetite to fuel growth cannot be stressed enough.

How Do We See Risks

In a business, decisions that have elements of uncertainty attached are considered risks. Well, blindly following through with your instincts while making a business decision is not at all a healthy practice. Good business risk involves comprehensive planning and weighing the potential benefits before executing the decision.

There will be times when you will need to overlook the short-term failures for long-term gains, but then if you have done your groundwork right, you will realise that there is no progress without risk. As rightly said by Michael Stelzner, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

3 Best Risks That We Took

While many decisions that have shaped Specscart — as it stands today — involved a risk element, three defining ones show why taking risks is so crucial for small businesses. We would love to discuss them here. Let’s get started!

Venturing further

There is a very interesting story behind the free eye test service that we provide at Specscart.

In 2018, we won our second business award — Venture Further — and were provided with a cash injection. While deciding on how to spend the prize money, we had two options. We could either play safe by opting for short-term gains or keep our eyes on something structural that would show benefits in the long term.

We went with the latter option.

Well, we were still in the initial startup stage and working on scaling up. There were lots of avenues where we had the option of putting in the prize money for immediate results, but we decided to launch our eye test service with that money. Here we were, spending money on something that we would provide free of cost to everyone. It was indeed a risk! But we wanted to play our part in eyecare and hence, came up with something like this.

Buying state-of-the-art equipment for eye tests, paying for skilled optometrists to perform these tests, and setting up an eye test studio — this is how we mostly spent what we got after winning Venture Further.

By opting for this decision, we not only made eye tests more accessible but also ensured that we place customer satisfaction over transactions. Today, our free eye test service functions in full swing because Specscart is a lot more than just selling glasses.

The Risky Move

We knew there was more that we could do to offer the best retail experience ever. Also, we had recently launched our Actics sports glasses collection and didn’t want to compromise on our store experience by showcasing it in a limited space. With in-depth strategic planning on a roadmap for our new store, we went ahead with the move.

The store footfall shot up, the brand awareness grew exponentially, outstanding reviews started pouring in, and Specscart had further solidified its place as one of the fastest-growing startups in the UK and was now well-poised to expand further. Indeed, a risk worth taking!

The inaugural Walkden store was doing great. Was it worth it to spend a large sum of money by shifting it to a completely revamped four times larger retail space? Will it increase store footfall? Will it improve brand awareness? Will it propel us to the next stage in our business growth? So many risks involved! Undoubtedly, it was a big risk but also a calculated one.

We knew there was more that we could do to offer the best retail experience ever. Also, we had recently launched our Actics sports glasses collection and didn’t want to compromise on our store experience by showcasing it in a limited space. With in-depth strategic planning on a roadmap for our new store, we went ahead with the move.

The store fallout shot up, the brand awareness grew exponentially, outstanding reviews started pouring in, and Specscart had further solidified its place as one of the fastest-growing startups in the UK and was now well-poised to expand further. Indeed, a risk worth taking!

Our Blue Ocean Strategy

In the book Blue Ocean Strategy, the author explains in detail how a business can stand out in the marketplace by creating a blue ocean for itself.

Contrary to the red ocean — the known market space — where demand is already present and there is fierce competition to cater to that demand, the blue ocean is where demand is created rather than fought over. Taking a cue from the book, we realised that there was a need for us to create a blue ocean. And hence, came the idea of free 24 hour dispatch.

To introduce something new in the market is itself a risk. When it came to our one-of-a-kind free 24 hour dispatch, it involved getting a lot of things right. All non-prescription and most of the single vision orders (excluding the ones with a complex prescription or advanced lenses) had to be dispatched within 24 hours of the order being placed and we had to stay truly committed to this. But then to stand apart from the rest, we had to take a risk.

By setting up a state-of-the-art in-house laboratory in our headquarters at Bury with advanced manufacturing standards, maintaining the largest bank of stock lenses in the UK, and with experienced lab technicians, we were able to cut down the turnaround time of glasses significantly. The glazing time of lenses for most of our orders is 30 minutes — the cornerstone of our free 24 hour dispatch service. And this has been possible because we decided to take a risk.

For small businesses, the importance of a high risk appetite to fuel growth cannot be stressed enough. It is high time you stop playing it safe and take risks that will power your business to new heights.