The Startup Phase

By Alan Jambulatov

Over the course of the last summer, my business continued to work and to thrive. After long deliberation, we decided on the name ToiJoy, meaning event—toi in Kazakh—and have started to garner a reputation ever since. Starting off with smaller orders, we completed them for prices greatly lower than the competition while doing everything to the highest quality. After just a few weeks, people noticed us, driving our clientele up exponentially. Soon we could not handle the demand, causing us to expand and hire more employees. Before we knew it, we had gained orders almost daily and signed contracts with numerous large restaurants and hotel chains. We continued and continue to strive for quality, while providing good pricing—though it has increased over time. 

However, though things have gone well, there were times that stressed our abilities. For instance, while filling out our first large order with one of the most prominent hotels in the city, we barely made it. The order was huge, with sizes and material which we had never used. Weeks before the event, we knew we needed to figure everything out, spending days ordering all of the material and making detailed plans of how we were going to execute this event, while still making sure we would have enough time to spare. However, we could not control everything. . . one of my partners former business associates was to aid us in this order before finally fully-parting ways. Yet, she decided not to show, leaving us in a devastating situation, with insufficient material and hands. Already not sleeping through the night, the next day we raced frantically through the city, getting everything we needed to in order to complete the requirements. In the end, worn out physically and mentally, we finished minutes before our promised time, unlike usual where we try to give ourselves several hours to spare. Nonetheless, we received great feedback from the guests and everything during the event went smoothly.

Overall, this has been a trying summer and start of a school year. Little to no sleep has become the norm, but in the end it is all worth it. Our visions and dreams are steadily becoming a reality. Our team is growing and so is our clientele. Soon we will leave the startup phase and move on to perfecting the inner workings of our company, but for now we continue to build our empire, step by step, brick by brick, order by order.