Four Dimensions, Dhaka-based designer fashion brand for bag and t-shirt, was founded in 2007. As you can easily understand, starting a bag business is nothing innovation until you do something really innovative. There was (and is) no lack of bag shops in the town. The competition was fierce. Apparently, making a space for you in a competitive market is a tall order. If you are small, the reality is more so.
Regardless, Mostafizur Rahman along with his two other co-founders launched the Four Dimensions, because “I have been deeply passionate about fashion. Bag has always been an object of fascination to me. But at times, I could not find products that could provide both a great design sense coupled with superb quality.” But they were well aware of the condition of the market. As Mr. Rahman puts it: “the market was flooded with Chinese bags. There were local products as well. The competition was quite high.” Money was not one of the strengths of Four Dimensions team. So they had to find alternative ideas.
In a recent interview with Future Startup, Mostafizur Rahman (Mridul), CEO and designer of Four Dimensions, offers 3 simple yet effective strategies to build a sustainable business and grow a community of loyal customers.
We have handpicked the lessons for your here. If you want to read the full interview, please go here.
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1. Passionate business
The owner, Mr. Mostafizur Rahman, is a fine arts graduate and so gives the aesthetic sense of his product the highest priority. He feels an intrinsic attachment and moral obligation to his designs. Passion offers an upside that no other competitive advantage offer.
When you are passionate, you go an extra mile to make things a little better, you will work a little harder to make your product better, and this makes all the difference. The sleepless nights and endless drawings can only be done out of love and passion for work. As a result, the customers can find the design unique and compatible with their lifestyle. That is why customers keep coming back even for 7 years of business. Our every interaction is an exchange of experience and there is another human being on the other end of that transaction. When you invest yourself into something and put love in your work, the person who buys the product can feel it. That’s the connection. Put some love in it.
Passion has been a key driving force for us. I’m a designer first and then a businessman. I’m doing this because I love the design and I find satisfaction when I see my design is helping people in living a better life in whatever small way possible. Even today, I could sell Chinese products and earn much more profits. But I had never felt the temptation to do that. I enjoy my design and my work and that has been one of the driving force for me.
2. Your Quality Will Do the Marketing
From the day one, Four Dimensions wanted to make a statement with its quality. At the end of the day, it is about the experience of your customers. And good experience comes from the quality product. Four Dimensions spend an unusually long time with every design they put forward before launching it for the customers in order to perfect it.
We saw an opportunity in the market for quality products and decided to take it. From the day one, we worked really hard to make best quality bags at the best price possible. Our effort has paid off slowly.
3. Customer Service Makes Your Personality
The only way to have a loyal customer base is by ensuring the best humane customer service. Customer service is not largely an alien idea to our context in most businesses. There are exceptions, but on an average, we suck at it. While it is a hygiene factor in many instances, but in a market where very few people care about customer service, it becomes a competitive advantage when you do it well. In a bag business, customer service is not a common thing, Four Dimensions decided to make a difference.
We normally give one year warranty during which we offer free servicing. But if people come to us after two years of usage, we still help our customers for free to fix their problems. There are people who have been with us since the very beginning of our journey and still buy from us.
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1. Be a passionate businessman
2. Offer the best possible quality at the best price
3. Surprise your customers with superb customer service
(Ruhul Kader contributed to this story)
