Is Village a Business GoldMine?
Sundar's family is involved in agriculture for long time. His village is like any other ordinary indian village with water/electricity scarcity duing summer and excessive water logging during monsoon/winter season.
Sundar wants to think and grow big. He wanted to start a shop in the city. His business idea is simple. He wants to sell household utensils throuth tie-ups with small scale manufacturers of those utensils. Small scale manufaturers always need some kind of marketing in order to reach people with their products. Sundar's idea is to become interface between small scale manufacturers and customers.
He talked to a manufacturer near his village who is making small to mid size stainless steel cups for storing spices, oil etc... He striked a deal with the manufacturer that he will take the products door-to-door for sales in the city. In return, they agreed for a commission percentage.
Sundar doesn't strike the deal immediately. He talked to many small scale manufacturers near his village and arrived at the manufacturer's choice by considering product quality, cost and commission percentage. His target customers are simple average households who need low cost
products.
Sundar's day starts with waking up early at 4.00 A.M. He did very good home work before starting this business by collecting statistics on locations of his target households in the city. He used to select a location from the target pool every morning. Then, he used to calculate on how effectively he can reach the location with respect to less travel cost. Since all his target locations are in the city, he used to prefer taking Government Bus transport service which starts from 5.15 A.M in the morning.
Sundar started door-to-door selling of the products in his target locations and slowly he received good response from the people. Now it is the time to start a shop in the city and more tie-ups with diversified small scale manufacturers. Sundar rented a space in an industrial area consisting of mid size industries in the city near to the railway statioin. His idea is to attract middle class workers working in the industries and also the rail commuters.
Sundar started displaying various kind of steel products in his shop which attracted more people due to its quality and low price. Sundar's business started giving profit!
Now, Sundar wants to move up in a big way. He needs more space now as more and more small scale manufacturers showed interest in selling their products through Sundar. Sundar can't afford to more space within a city as it will cost him more. He identified an emerging part of the city (through research and statistics ofcourse!) which will gain market value in 5-8 years and purchased 10000 sq.ft of land there.
Sundar wanted to construct the building for his shop. He knows that hiring construction workers from the city will be too costly. He talked to an agent in his village who used to arrange construction workers from the village. The agent agreed to complete the construction in short span of time without compromise in quality in less time.
Sundar's shop got ready within 8 months. Sundar started operations from his new built shop.
Many consumer durables firm started showing interest in selling their products through 'Sundar's Shop'. His shop earned enough brand identity to attract people. Now, Sundar is in need of helpers who can look after the customers, do billing and other set of activities.
Again, he contacted an agent in his village. Through him he hired 50 persons from his village. Sundar provided accomodation with food for those 50 persons adjacent to his shop premises. He had this thought before constructing his shop and so built enough accomodation provisions in his land. Since the helpers are from village, their needs are very minimal and so they are highly satisfied with the facilities provided by Sundar.
Now, Sundar's Shop is one of the famous shop in the city providing all kinds of consumer durables having high quality and atleast 30% cost less than the similar products available through his competitors!
Can you identify the value addtion by the Village in Sundar's business? Else, identify the word Village in this article. Each time you find one, you see the Opportunity it provided to Sundar!
Sundar wants to think and grow big. He wanted to start a shop in the city. His business idea is simple. He wants to sell household utensils throuth tie-ups with small scale manufacturers of those utensils. Small scale manufaturers always need some kind of marketing in order to reach people with their products. Sundar's idea is to become interface between small scale manufacturers and customers.
He talked to a manufacturer near his village who is making small to mid size stainless steel cups for storing spices, oil etc... He striked a deal with the manufacturer that he will take the products door-to-door for sales in the city. In return, they agreed for a commission percentage.
Sundar doesn't strike the deal immediately. He talked to many small scale manufacturers near his village and arrived at the manufacturer's choice by considering product quality, cost and commission percentage. His target customers are simple average households who need low cost
products.
Sundar's day starts with waking up early at 4.00 A.M. He did very good home work before starting this business by collecting statistics on locations of his target households in the city. He used to select a location from the target pool every morning. Then, he used to calculate on how effectively he can reach the location with respect to less travel cost. Since all his target locations are in the city, he used to prefer taking Government Bus transport service which starts from 5.15 A.M in the morning.
Sundar started door-to-door selling of the products in his target locations and slowly he received good response from the people. Now it is the time to start a shop in the city and more tie-ups with diversified small scale manufacturers. Sundar rented a space in an industrial area consisting of mid size industries in the city near to the railway statioin. His idea is to attract middle class workers working in the industries and also the rail commuters.
Sundar started displaying various kind of steel products in his shop which attracted more people due to its quality and low price. Sundar's business started giving profit!
Now, Sundar wants to move up in a big way. He needs more space now as more and more small scale manufacturers showed interest in selling their products through Sundar. Sundar can't afford to more space within a city as it will cost him more. He identified an emerging part of the city (through research and statistics ofcourse!) which will gain market value in 5-8 years and purchased 10000 sq.ft of land there.
Sundar wanted to construct the building for his shop. He knows that hiring construction workers from the city will be too costly. He talked to an agent in his village who used to arrange construction workers from the village. The agent agreed to complete the construction in short span of time without compromise in quality in less time.
Sundar's shop got ready within 8 months. Sundar started operations from his new built shop.
Many consumer durables firm started showing interest in selling their products through 'Sundar's Shop'. His shop earned enough brand identity to attract people. Now, Sundar is in need of helpers who can look after the customers, do billing and other set of activities.
Again, he contacted an agent in his village. Through him he hired 50 persons from his village. Sundar provided accomodation with food for those 50 persons adjacent to his shop premises. He had this thought before constructing his shop and so built enough accomodation provisions in his land. Since the helpers are from village, their needs are very minimal and so they are highly satisfied with the facilities provided by Sundar.
Now, Sundar's Shop is one of the famous shop in the city providing all kinds of consumer durables having high quality and atleast 30% cost less than the similar products available through his competitors!
Can you identify the value addtion by the Village in Sundar's business? Else, identify the word Village in this article. Each time you find one, you see the Opportunity it provided to Sundar!
posted by Balaji R at 7:39 AM
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