Nearly three years ago, I started Samsara Lifestyle with a fairly simple idea.
I wanted to share my love of India, create meaningful travel experiences and support small organisations doing good work along the way. I wanted to connect people with places, stories, artisans and women whose voices deserved to be heard.
What I didn’t realise was just how much this little business would teach me about myself.
However somewhere along the way, I think I lost a little bit of direction. Samsara slowly became more of a homewares shop than the experience-led, purpose-driven business I had originally imagined. I love the beautiful block-printed fabrics and the women who make them, but I found myself spending more time thinking about products, websites, postage and sales than I was thinking about the reason I started Samsara in the first place.
And perhaps I needed to get a little lost to find my way back.
The reality of a little business
Running a small business while working full time, raising a family, maintaining friendships and trying to have some sort of life is not always easy.
There have been many moments when I have felt completely overwhelmed.
There is always something else to do. Another email. Another social media post. Another bill. Another idea that needs attention.
And then there is the slightly uncomfortable reality that, after nearly three years, I am not making any money from Samsara.
I never started the business to become wealthy. My hope was simply that it would eventually become self-sufficient — that it could pay for itself and allow me to keep doing the things I love.
Perhaps I was a little naĂŻve about how much hard work that would take.
Having a full-time job has meant that I have never relied on Samsara for an income. And while that has been a privilege, I sometimes wonder whether it has also meant I haven’t hustled quite hard enough.
But I am learning not to measure the success of Samsara purely in dollars.
Because what this little business has given me is worth so much more than I expected.
Things I never knew I could do
When I started, I knew very little about running a business.
I have since built a website, learnt how to change it when things don’t work, taught myself the basics of bookkeeping, graphic designing, worked out overseas shipping, written endless emails, created social media content, built up a small but decent following, applied for grants, organised travel, negotiated with suppliers and generally figured things out as I went.
There have been plenty of moments when I have thought, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.
And then somehow, I work it out.
I have also discovered something unexpected along the way — I love writing.
I have written stories about India, women, travel and the people I have met. A few have even been published, which still feels like a bit of a surprise.
I have applied for funding for the Chahat Foundation in Jaipur and, despite plenty of rejection, I haven’t stopped trying. If one door closes, I find myself looking for another.
Perhaps that is what Samsara has taught me most: keep looking.
India has been the greatest teacher
Samsara has taken me back to India again and again.
I have walked through streets in 45-degree heat, discovered tiny workshops and hidden treasures, sat on rooftops, wandered through markets and shared meals and conversations with people I would never otherwise have met.
But it is the people who stay with me.
I have met incredible women trying to create change in a society that can still be deeply patriarchal. Women setting up businesses, learning new skills, teaching others, driving rickshaws and creating opportunities for themselves and their families.
I have heard stories that have been difficult to hear. Stories about women whose choices have been limited simply because they were born female.
I have met people from marginalised LGBTQI+ communities who have not always felt welcome in their own country yet have created businesses and built lives for themselves against the odds.
And yet, alongside the hardship, I have seen extraordinary strength.
These encounters have changed the way I see the world.
They remind me that creating something small still matters.
Finding my way back
I think Samsara is ready for a little reset.
Less about selling things.
More about creating experiences.
More about India, storytelling, connection and the incredible people who make this country so special.
More about finding ways to support small not-for-profits like the Chahat Foundation and championing women who are creating their own paths.
And perhaps more about sharing the things I have learnt along the way — the beautiful, the confronting, the unexpected and the funny.
Because Samsara has never really been about homewares.
It has always been about people.
It has allowed me to share a place I love with friends and strangers, to travel to India each year, to create meaningful memories and to build connections that I know will stay with me for a very long time.
And while I might not have built the business I imagined three years ago, I have created something that has given me courage, friendships, purpose and a whole new set of skills I never knew I had.
So this isn’t the end of the Samsara story.
It is simply the beginning of the next chapter.