Over this weekend I was lucky to meet two gentlemen by chance who provided good business gyan. As a budding entrepreneur,I keep on looking for such experiences and knowledges which are not easily available. Let me document the two incidents and may be you will also appreciate my perspective.
Incident 1:
in Pune I travel a large distance for my daily work a distance of around 30 Km and always i avail Uber or Ola to avoid self driving and attend meetings on the Go. Yesterday was also a similar day and I booked a Uber on the way home while continuing to talk on a MS Teams meetings on same phone. Engrossed in the meeting content ,I came down after due wait and boarded the Taxi. the meeting was continuing and I had no chance to speak to the gentleman a 50 + person on Steering Wheel gave a courteous smile and started the car. my eyes were on phone screen and ear phones were ON. Because of traffic in evening time it takes a good 60 min to reach. So when the meeting got over I switched to a HareKrishna TV and started enjoying an episode. after some 45 min because of one phone call I had to switch off youtube.
I started a conversation with the person.
Me: Sir You drive very well
Driver: thank you ..but why suddenly
Me: Despite of so much traffic jam you never blew Horn
Driver: Oh ! Thats Good observation Sir..in past 10 years I have never Blew Horn
Me: OH that's impressive
Driver: actually I drive ambulance also and I have seen that Ambulance Siren also is ignored by people so what impact my Horn will bring on. So I am very careful in drive, drive slow and need not blow Horn or unnecessarily Brake.. I am at least not causing Sound Pollution
Me: That's awesome Sir. and also you do not look like a regular driver..does this car belong to you. and also your appearance is not a regular cab driver
Driver: Yes Sir. This and 27 other taxis and 5 Ambulances are for my company. and Oh Yes I am habituated in taxi driving
Me: Oh my God.. do you have a company
Driver : Yes Sir I have a travel company since 2009 and a restaurant in KalyaniNagar which is Run by me and wife. I was a COPE Pune Engineering Graduate and used to work for Siemens for 16 years in Power Electronics
Me: Oh God.. you are so close to my profession. I was a Power Electronics Engineer with L&T as well..but how come you are in this profession
Driver: Sir,during recession in 2008 many of us lost jobs and I was searching good opportunity but could not manage. I was not interested to leave Pune also.. so me and my wife discussed and both started the travel business. We started with one car in 2009.God in merciful ,we never had to look back. in 2020 we ventured out to Food business to help COVID patients.. the restaurants also doing well. We focus only on healthy Marathi wholesome home cooked meal
Me: Thats a fairy tale story Sir. But how come you are driving.
Driver: Sir this car driver reported sick and I did not want the asset to rest so I started Uber Meter.
Me: Do you not mind now?
Driver: No Sir.. Asset should be sweated as much as it can and I do not mind any work ..the day I started my business I decided to do whatever I get the work..nothing matters if our conscience is clear.
It was a very memorable taxi journey for me. I took his name and photo.
Incident 2:
for a small family party we were to buy some paper plates. The paper plates are available on many sizes/shapes and different costs and we were looking for a decent tough one with 4 separate curving to serve Sabji.. our first choice was Amazon, the delivery was very long so it was dropped and then we searched three delivery app.. the prices were around 300 Rs for 25 pieces,which appeared to us high. and since we have to serve for 100 odd people we were looking for a cost effective solution. To cut the long story short we visited three local Kirana Store. and they were stuck at the sticker price between 332-350 Rs. and were very adamant.
This morning we visited well known Supermarket and there was a price of 282/- after discount.
While driving out my eyes fell on a small shop who sale some Puja items etc.. We tried the shop with a little hesitancy.. this was a very small shop and by then we have visited all big shops and also well known ecommerce site.
I asked for the type and the elderly person without a single word took out 5 variety. I picked up the type where the sticker price was 332/- and asked him the price. He looked at me and said 230/- for 25 if you buy only plate and if you invest in Wooden spoon for 100 qty i will sell at 220/- for 25 pc.
I paid him and started conversation,
May I ask you something Sir
The elderly person stopped me. Sir you need not
I saw your car stopped at Super market and also the two big Kirana stores .. even after then when you stopped in front of my shop, I realised that you are quite price sensitive and I have given the best possible rate,
Me: Sir: so great, Do you check all customers like this ..
one 10 -12 year old boy spoke in marathi : Sir I see.. that is my job and sometime I visit these shops to check price also.
Me: but are you making any profit in this sale
shop owner: definitely Sir.. we are small shop our over heads are less we manage with decent profit
Me: but your shop is small ..no advertisement ,not every body will be price sensitive and will buy from those stores ,how you stand a chance
Shop Owner: Sir we are niche seller ..we keep many varieties and also know the best price for all items we sale and we depend on words of mouth . Sir will you not tell your societies about my shop.. Sir when you are a small business you need to know the "differentiator" very well .
two entrepreneurs gave good lesson to another small time entrepreneur..Thought of sharing.
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