Tuesday, July 23, 2013

ENTREPRENEUR YOUTH SPECIAL............... Three young successful entrepreneurs share trade secrets


Three young successful entrepreneurs share trade secrets 
 
    American management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship.” So you’ve got an idea. It may be the most innovative one yet, but to create a business that is successful and self-sustaining, there’s a lot you must do. If you’re an independent businessperson, with little or no family backing, you must learn to adapt, get aggressive when required and, remain invested in the product. Mumbai Mirror spoke to the founders of three firms that started small, to learn the strategies of running successful ventures.


VIJAYA PASTALA, 47 UNDER THE MANGO TREE, SELLS ORGANIC HONEY BUSINESS LESSON: MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE
    Agraduate in regional planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 47-year-old Vijaya Pastala ventured into the business of selling started Under the Mango Tree (UTMT), which packages and sells natural honey collected directly from beekeepers from across the country, in 2007. Earlier, she worked with farmers from across the the world for the World Bank, European Commission and the Aga Khan Foundation, on viable livelihood options helped her establish a procuring network for UTMT.
    Establishing a customer base was essential. “Not too many people in India are consumers of honey, so we had to reach out to the customers personally,” she says. They started by setting up a stall at a crafts exhibition in the market and did a lot of other events. This helped customers understand how UTMT products were different from other mainstream honey.
    As orders started increasing UTMT established a personal distribution network even home delivering orders as small as one bottle, all for an extra charge of Rs 50. Today, UTMT products are stocked at over 100 shops in Mumbai and Bengaluru, and are supplied to five star hotels. The company turned into a private limited in 2010. The annual purchase of honey has risen from 500 kg in the first year to about 15,000 kg in this fiscal year.


PHANINDRA SAMA, 32 CHARAN PADMARAJU, 32 REDBUS.IN, SELLS BUS SEATS ONLINE BUSINESS LESSON: APPROACH THE PROBLEM DIFFERENTLY
    In 2005, Phanindra Sama (left) and Charan Padmaraju (right) along with their friend Sudhakar Pasupunuri, made a software to enable people to book bus tickets online after Sama was forced to spend Diwali alone in Bengaluru, because he couldn’t book a ticket for Hyderabad, where his family stayed. Initially, the group — all alumni of BITS Pilani — aimed at creating software that would help commuters book bus seats. They tried selling the idea to tour operators, but found no takers. Padmaraju says, “Trying to change everyone else’s mind was a waste of time. We changed our approach.”
    The engineering graduates became travel agents, acquiring a quota of seats which they sold their online. “We started with two seats at the back of the bus, which increased to four and then later became four seats in the middle. Soon, all seats were made available online,” says Padmaraju. Today, redBus operates across the country with access to over 1,000 operators, and sells an estimated million tickets a month.
    Last month Sama and Padmaraju — Pasupunuri left a few years ago — sold redBus to the Ibibo Group for an estimated
    Rs 600-700
    crore.


SUDEEPTA SANYAL, 29 BLUEBERRY TRAILS, TRAVEL START-UP BUSINESS LESSON: DON’T BE AFRAID TO SCALE UP
    While there are several travel start-ups in Mumbai, what sets Blueberry Trails — started in September 2010 by Sudeepta Sanyal — apart is the experience that it provides. A trip to a homestay would pack in a pottery lesson from the village potters, and once, famously, a trip to Kashmir involved meeting Kashmiri woodcarvers. Stays are often at small, cosy homes of the locals. “We warn our clients that the food will, at times, be as simple as dal and rice,” says Sanyal.
    Initially, Sanyal would organise these trips for groups of five or six, but realised within two years this wasn’t sustainable for her business. A small, indie company with little backing, Sanyal worried how the company would sustain itself. “We started organising trips with 30 people at a go, which helps us rake in more revenue.” However, if customers approach her with a request for small group trails, Blueberry Trails is happy to oblige. Since 2010 they have conducted over 150 trips, including weekend getaways, corporate tours and longer journeys to Ladakh and Hampi, Konkan and even the Andaman Islands.
    Sanyal’s next aim is to set up an automated system for booking getaways online, which will be handled by an administrative staff, so that even those who plan at the last minute can get their vacation fix.
Gitanjali.MM130711
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