Magdalena
Frackowiak

I’ve known I wanted my own business since I was a child.

My parents kept boxes of books in our attic. After school I’d bring friends home, lead them up into the cold and let them choose. Afterwards I served pancakes or pierogi, so they’d come back next week and buy again.

For friends who couldn’t visit, I wrote a catalogue with every title, a line on why it was worth reading and a price. Then I delivered to school.

Here’s the best part. Every one of those books was written for adults.

I sold them anyway, as gifts, as keepsakes and as good reads. Mostly I sold them as a good deal. I was never short of money for snacks, the cinema or the toys I really wanted.

And I never sold a book to someone who didn’t need it.

I listened for the signal first. A word, a wish, a clue to what a friend was really looking for. Then I brought them exactly that book.

Now I know the grown-up words for it: search and positioning.

My kids get it at breakfast, my partner at lunch and my friends at dinner. I could talk about growth all day, and most days I do.

I’ve started a few businesses along the way. In 2020 I launched Ginger Planet with my daughters Nela and Julia, then 12 and 8. We pressed ginger shots, bottled them and sold them at the local market.

I taught myself SEO, GEO and web design. I taught myself Chinese too.

The best moment in any business is still the first sale. A close second is watching revenue jump.