“No worries for Car buyers”
Buying a used car is not an experience for the fainthearted. Not only can you be swindled on the condition of the vehicle but getting any assistance or maintenance can cost a bundle, or so we thought… Rohit Singh put the story straight on what we can expect from his new and used car business. His venture CarSingh.com promises to drive your vehicular worries away.What kind of innovation is your company bringing in the used car industry?
We are in the automobile sector, providing an easy and efficient channel for new and used car users/buyers that will help them save time, money and energy. We also deal incar servicing and repair that help the customer to reduce waiting time to zero and maintenance cost upto 50%. We also provide 24x7 on road assistance service that help the customers feel safe and secure in case of unfortunate breakdowns.
What is the scope of the services that you offer?
We are in two different industries automobile and e-commerce. Our organization is based on Automobile Industry. This is one of the fastest growing industries in India. Also, currently there are so many unexplored opportunities left in this area. We plan to focus on them, and further explore them via online as well as offline methods. This will cover our target customers completely. Used Cars sector is one main area which contains tremendous potential. We plan to generate a sense of trust when customers plan to buy a used car by assuring them about car history, features, technicality and further providing certification. Next, we plan to bring down the maintenance cost of the existing car buyers and do support multi-brand car servicing. We are also standing tall in the field of new car buying process.
How does your business score over others in the same segment?
Currently we are operating in used cars, new cars and car servicing & repair industry. For used car business the major problem is trust and to bring the trust in used car market we started dealing only on certified used cars. Although some major players are doing the same but their cost is at the higher end. Along with certification, we also give our customers a 3 year service package, which no one in the market is doing so far. For new car we are already giving information online and provide offline consultancy to non-internet users as well. Every month, new cars are coming in the market and we are giving our customers unbiased consultancy to help them in new car buying processes.For Car Servicing and repair, we are giving our membership cards and it helps the customers to bring down its maintenance cost up to 50% and waiting time to zero.
What experiences led you to become an entrepreneur?
I wasn’t interested in working to fulfill other’s dreams so I quit my job on 31st Dec 2008 as an IT consultant in Chicago and, started working to fulfill my own dream and started CarSingh.com.
While in USA, I was looking to purchase a used car for myself. This gave me the opportunity to go thru the smooth process of used car buying. There was lot of trust involved in the process via warranties, mechanical check, history check etc. I started thinking how satisfied I was after process completion and was assured of a great car in my hand. That clicked in my mind – I started further thinking how this is currently managed in Indian market. I noticed that real problem exists here – People are not really satisfied with used car buying, no formal process exists, no visibility that which car exists where, no background/history check available for satisfaction etc…. Rather even for maintaining a car, high cost is involved. For an average person in India, it gets really difficult to maintain car given the way inflation is happening. Then I started analyzing that if I bring this idea in great details in India, what impacts will it have? This will not only help people to make the right decision and have value for money, but will also control the cost and will result in overall market improvement. I started exploring what currently exists in India, and did not found any established company at the same level at that level as I expect.
I slept on my thoughts – and further started building ideas over this idea – about new cars, servicing, accessories etc. That was the time I realized that my idea has the potential. I believed in my idea and stopped working on someone else’s idea!
What has been a major obstacle for your business?
The major obstacle we faced here was to actually source the good condition used car, and tie up with the reputed multi-brand service centers. Since this idea was new to their ears, it was difficult to gain their confidence and buy-in. We still achieved it via various negotiations and turned it into a revenue generation process for them also. Other bigger challenge is create a right team who understand our requirements and have same craving for work. Initially we outsourced the work and trusted third party to deliver our objectives but unfortunately we ended up paying their fee only without having any result in hand. As in initial stage, you always have limited funds in hand and utilizing those funds in productive way is extremely challenging.
Still every day we are facing new challenges and it’s really fun to overcome those challenges.
What are the obstacles an (Indian) entrepreneur faces while starting out?
- Getting the right people on board
- Startup money
- Marketing the product (even though your product/service is excellent but if you don’t have proper marketing channel – it’s difficult to survive)
What has been the biggest milestone in your organization?
Our services have been used by more than 1600 customers and still growing. The biggest achievement is the customer appreciation of our gold member plan which is very popular among corporate employees, this membership cards saves time for car repair and servicing and brings down the maintenance cost upto 50%. Now we are the first in the market who are giving 150 point check used car certification that gives brings more confidence and trust in used car buyers. Our customers are happy and enjoying our services, that’s our biggest achievement!
Has anything ever made you feel like giving up on your dreams?
Never, but in this journey so far I have seen the day when I can’t pay salaries, mobile bills and scared to go bar to have a beer. No doubt in this phase we studied our business model again and again tried to find out the loop holes and worked desperately towards innovation. Those sleepless nights never gave me the thought to join a regular job but it pushed me to solve the problems that customers are having in automobile industry.
What is your vision for the coming 2 years?
Our vision is to successfully implement our core business concept of “All car related services under one roof.” We have started few services but still more in the pipeline, we are pushing hard to execute all those within 2 year time frame.
What mindset should budding entrepreneurs adopt for success?
Never give up! Keep fighting even if your idea is not showing results, do more realistic analysis and try to innovate more and come back again, fight again. And remember to believe in yourself - there is nothing called bad idea!
Yourstory wishes Rohit and Carsingh.com many happy miles on the long road of entrepreneurship. We wish him success and joy in everything he does.
