Making a dent in a niche business takes incredible fortitude. Here’s an enterprising entrepreneur who not only excels in running a business but also has a unique hobby – that of collecting airline baggage tags – for which he holds the world record. MYB caught up with Raghav Somani, CEO of Headphonezone, a company dedicated to the exclusive sale of headphones, for a one-on-one interaction. At the young age of 27, Somani’s passion for music and business acumen has led him to cater to the personalized needs of headphone users.  

I was born in 1988 in Chennai and it was there that I was brought up. I come from a business family. While my family business has deep roots in several sectors, my grandfather was engaged in the steel industry for a long time. In the 1970s and 80s, we began manufacturing VHS videotapes. Later, we took to only the distribution of VHS and other such products to companies like Sony. I am a ninth generation entrepreneur.

I did my schooling in Sishya School in Chennai. Thereafter, I took up a Bachelor’s degree in business management (BBM) from Singapore Management University. I always knew what I wanted to study finance and marketing, which is why I decided to specialize in it. After four years in Singapore, I returned to India and joined my family business in 2009.

I must say the influence my family has had on me has been immense, particularly my father, who is someone I always looked up to. I have always wanted to be a part of my family’s business and keep its legacy alive. And so, the only job I have held has been the one my family runs.

We transitioned from distributing VHS tapes, now obsolete, to distributing headphones to big retailers. I discovered that most big retailers, despite their reputation did not have even a rudimentary understanding about headphones. This prompted me to bring about a change insofar as the know-how on headphones was concerned. My keenness in doing so was coupled by the fact that I am an ardent lover of music. So, in 2012 I started headphonezone - an exclusive retail store for headphones. Within a year, it expanded to 7 stores in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. Last year in May-June, we started an exclusive web store for the same, taking advantage of India’s booming e-commerce sector.

This was not my first foray into the online e-commerce space. Prior to headphonezone, I had started an online portal for selling khadi goods called khadishop.com. But it was with headphonezone, that I felt, I was making a change. We now provide about 500 different varieties of headphones to our customers and some of the foreign brands that we sell were until now not even available in India.

I am really happy with the direction the company is taking. In order to keep pace with the times, our company too needs to evolve constantly and the ability to adapt to new situations is what makes a company successful. In January this year, we decided to focus solely on selling high-end expensive headphones for a premium clientele. This has, in retrospect, been a very bold move that my team and I took, but it has also proven to be a major milestone in my career.

It is completely pointless if you’re buying an expensive headphone and know nothing about its USP. This is where we come into play!

My initial learning about running a successful company has been to have a strong and dedicated team. Many people had been working for years with my family, but not all had the skillset to run a headphone company. It took time to build a great team that had the right mix of passion and motivation. And now that I have them, I am overjoyed!

I feel the most important principles in business are trust and commitment, values I have learnt with the passage of time. According to me, every businessman must at any given point in time realize the importance of these two values.

Headphonezone does not take bulk orders or projects, so whatever the company is today, it owes to the small purchases made by individual customers. Also, talking about money and success, there is no single strategy. My greatest achievement has been the inception of my company that I hold really close to my heart. Other than headphonezone, I have been a world record holder in collecting airline baggage tags since I was sixteen, however unrelated that is, to what I do.

There have also been instances when our customers have complained about the delivery time or other issues. We have  always been very forthcoming about the feedback we get, and take great care to ensure that inadvertent lapses do not occur repeatedly.  

Innovation and hard work have always been two things I have relied on. Every success that I have achieved has been a direct reward of the hard work and innovation that has gone into it. If in one line I were to answer the question as to why I set up this company, I would say that it was the belief that I could do a better job than the next person!