Here’s a look at some of the inspiring stories SMBStory covered this week
Here are the top three inspiring stories SMBStory covered this week that portray one can succeed and make big with a good idea and innovative approach.
In recent years, Indian business ecosystem has seen a colossal growth when it comes to ideas and innovations. And there are a few business entrepreneurs whose innovative approach and plans for running their business have made them really big.
Here is a list of top three stories SMBStory covered this week that shows how novel ideas can make you succeed tremendously.
Incuspaze
Coworking spaces today have become popular among startups, and are seeing exponential growth in India. The country has become the second-largest market for flexible workspaces in APAC, second only to China. It was the vision to provide a sustainable ecosystem for these young innovators that inspired entrepreneur Sanjay Choudhary to start Incuspaze, a premium coworking space, in 2017.
Sanjay tells SMBStory:
"We launched our first centre in Gurugram and then went on to further expand our horizons. In a short span of three years, we can proudly say that we are one of the fastest-growing coworking spaces in the country with a substantial presence in both Tier I and II cities."
Incuspaze says some of its biggest tenants includes brands such as Fusion, Bira, Byju’s, National House Building Council (NHBC), The Tech Tree, and more.
It also collaborated with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for its property in Connaught Place, New Delhi.
The company has kept the pricing competitive and in accordance with industry standards. The per-seat prices vary depending on the geography, the centre is located, in and the audience that they are targeting. To ensure that each member gets the best out of their association with, the company has multiple plans to offer that allows prospective clients to choose from a wide selection of services that they would like to avail.
The USP lies in the fact that the company also build custom spaces for members that require a large seating and then convert the remaining space into a common co-working area, allowing larger teams to work together without the hassle of managing a big space.
The company now has 12 centres, with current revenue run rate of Rs 20 crore per annum.
Read the full story here
Transasia
Suresh Vazirani was just 21 when he sacrificed a corporate career to work for social causes inspired by the Sarvodaya Movement. The movement comprised the collective efforts of Mahatma Gandhi's followers who worked to create the democratic society the freedom activist envisioned.
A young Suresh was also actively associated with Navnirman Andolan, a 1974 socio-political movement started in Gujarat which fought against economic crisis and corruption. One day, an incident at a hospital set Suresh on an unexpected path to becoming a healthcare entrepreneur when Navnirman Andolan's Bihar leader Jayaprakash Narayan suffered kidney failure, and he was admitted to a hospital.
Suresh tells SMBStory:
"At the hospital, the imported dialysis machine broke down and the service engineer was unavailable. Since I was a graduate in electrical engineering, I worked on the machine and made it functional at the right moment."
This incident made him think of the lives lost each day due to a lack of technical service for medical devices. He felt the creation of an affordable and easily-accessible medical technology provider was the need of the hour.
"The creation of such an organisation was more of a clarion call for service to society rather than the object of a business enterprise," he explains, adding, "I was already 29, and looking at something to devote my life to, I developed a conviction of improving the healthcare in India thus started Transasia BioMedicals in Mumbai in 1979."
Suresh says he started In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) company Transasia with Rs 250 from his own pocket and Rs 1 lakh borrowed from a friend. The funds went into starting operations as the distributor for a Japanese automated cell counter machines. By the early 1990s, Suresh recognised the need for indigenous manufacturing and set up his own R&D and production facilities to manufacture medical equipment such as blood analysers.
Over the years, Transasia has grown into a Rs 1,000 crore company which offers products and solutions in biochemistry, haematology, coagulation, ESR, immunology, urinalysis, critical care, diabetes management, microbiology and molecular diagnostics.
Read the full story here
Big Fish Ventures
While pursuing his MBA from London in 2000, Umang Tewari was working part-time in a café, for experience and exposure in the hospitality segment. Hailing from a family with a background in construction, he had always planned to join the family business. However, his path took a sudden turn with a dream of opening his own café in his hometown, Delhi.
After completing his studies and on coming back to Delhi in 2002, the now 43-year-old observed that there was a huge gap in the hospitality industry.
“In Delhi, I couldn't find a neighbourhood bar or a café culture. It was the prominent places like Moti Mahal and other fine-dining restaurants that people preferred going to. Hence, I decided to draw on my experience and provide an altogether different ambience for people,” Umang says, speaking to SMBStory.
Though his father wanted him to join the family business, he gave his full support for Umang to take the bold step of starting up something of his own. Umang recollects that he wanted to go through training to start a café, but his father assured him that the real experience would come on the job. Thus, in 2002, he opened Oxygen Café and Bar in Vasant Vihar, with a capital of approximately Rs 35 lakh that he had borrowed from his father.
Oxygen soon became popular and a known hangout and party spot for Delhi’s young denizens. However, things suddenly hit a bad patch when Umang started receiving complaints from the nearby residential area on the noise and crowds.
"My café was located in a commercial building. But, people from the neighbourhood started complaining for various reasons. My business was running fine, but I was forced to shut down,” Umang says.
For the next four to five years Umang worked in his family’s business, but with little satisfaction. He says, “There was no creativity in the construction business. It was a 9-to-5 monotonous job that I never wanted to do. I needed excitement in my work and I started working for it again.”
In 2009, he regained his long-lost energy and decided to target the hospitality segment again, with a big bang. He opened the Out of the Box Café in Delhi’s party haven, Hauz Khas Village.
After the inaugural of Out of the Box, in a span of two years, Umang opened five more outlets of the café, including Raas, Junkyard Café, OMG, Scooter, Key, and The Vault, across Delhi-NCR.
Today, Big Fish Ventures records a turnover of 15 to 20 percent of their investment with the steady growth of Local at CP, which has also been franchised at Gurgaon, Sector- 29, and with Garam Dharam, which is already franchised at Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mohali, Noida, and Faridabad. Plans for The Junkyard Cafe at Chandigarh, Ludhiana, and Faridabad have also been finalised.
Read the full story here.
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)