JMD Furniture's Dev Joshi on Connections Between Family and Business

There are a plethora of Hindu-based sayings that people apply to guide their moral principles. Jai Mata Di is one of the most common quotes. When summarized in English, it encompasses timeless values like positivity, gratitude, and respect for nature. It is also a saying that Dev Joshi made an acronym for and utilized to name his business. Now, after many years of serving the public, his JMD Furniture has lived up to the vision of remaining a family-based enterprise that characterizes itself by longevity achieved through excellent customer service. Before starting JMD Furniture, Mr. Joshi worked on increasing his knowledge about the business world. Once he reached a point where he felt comfortable taking certain risks, he decided to venture out and let his entrepreneurial side shine.

What inspired you to launch your business?

I wanted to create a company where my family can work and enjoy the fruits of our labor. After having many jobs that I was not passionate about, I realized that my dream is to own a business. The ultimate goal will perfectly align with my inner desires to help my community, family, and nature. Hence why our name is a spin-off from a popular saying in Hindu that portrays respect for our surroundings.

What issue does your core product help solve and how so?

We give buyers an extensive and versatile offering of furniture that can equip anything from a simple family home to an enormous business office. Our website’s design simplifies shopping for our customers. Visitors can browse by categories and avoid scrolling through dozens of items one by one. The core issue that we try to address pertains to furnishing needs of people who might have just moved into a new home or businesses and have decided to renovate, purchase, or lease new office space.

What has been your biggest challenge as a business owner and how have you met that challenge?

Getting past the barriers to success was very tough. For those unfamiliar, a company that operates in this field will usually see obstacles imposed by competitors who have been selling furniture for many years. Additionally, there are things like start-up costs needed to acquire the equipment and marketing issues. Our family had to come up with some very creative strategies to distinguish JMD Furniture amongst all the rivals, and that process took a lot of time. Although we still face some of these issues, I learned that teamwork and brainstorming could help achieve market penetration.

Where do you envision your company in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?

It is hard to say. I think that we will probably revamp our entire website in the following two decades no less than three to four times. Additionally, I can anticipate us moving to larger headquarters if the business keeps growing. Given the nature of commercial leasing, however, us moving would probably only happen once within the 20-year time frame since we sign long-term office contracts to hold the space for ten years at least. Lastly, I am hoping to see our company acquire more corporate customers who might need our help with furnishing their distribution or management centers.

How do your competitors view you?

I am not sure that I can answer that question accurately. What I can do, however, is tell you that I hope my competitors view our company as a threat to their demand. We have been doing everything in our power to grow and increase the market share that we can prove is under our authority. It is undeniable that there is a lot of room for expansion and I believe that other furniture stores are now recognizing that we may hinder their sales eventually.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs and business owners? What do you wish someone told you?

Involving my family has been one of the best decisions that I have ever made. Working with those related to you tends to be rewarding as you can be much more honest about feedback and not worry about retaliation of any kind. Additionally, it is virtually impossible to find a group of people who will care about your company as much as your own family does. These are the people whose success is directly related to your growth, and they will do their best to see you overcome adversity. As far as the advice that I wish someone shared with me, I believe that I could have benefited enormously from being pushed to take some management classes. This would have taught me the basics of business, and I would avoid the whole trial and error stage.