Small cities buzzing with business creativity
By Dhaval Valia
While recently on a trip to my hometown—Bhavnagar in Gujarat—I got an opportunity to interact with a couple of channel players—one, my school buddy who is an exclusive authorized service provider of Tata Sky and LG; and the other, an owner of a mobile store, where I had gone to purchase a scratch guard for my handset.
What astounded me was the business creativity of both these entrepreneurs. The mobile store owner doesn’t sell a single mobile phone brand and only specializes in accessories. “There is too much of a hassle in selling mobile handsets—availability, stocking, margins and support—instead accessory business is low-value, yet fast moving and high margin,” he told me.
It may be hard to believe but the store has more options—brands and price points—than a similar store in Mumbai. What is creative about his business model is that he has also tied up with a popular movie multiplex in the city to sell its tickets. As the multiplex is located on the city outskirts, many movie-goers find it more  convenient purchasing tickets from his centrally located store. “Having a movie ticket counter helps generate a minimum of 100 footfalls every day. And instead of earning commission on tickets sold, we have bartered a display space at the multiplex,” he informed.
Another very creative idea was shared by my friend. Being a warranty service provider, he continually faces the challenge of finding, training and retaining technical people. In fact, two years back he lost his entire technical team to another ASP. But today he has not only expanded his operations to 25 locations across three districts but also signed up more brands.
“Last year, three of us (ASPs) decided to collaborate on the manpower front. So today apart from a dedicated team we are required to have, all three of us have created a common pool of 15 technical people that work for all three brands. Using this collaborative approach, all of us have expanded to more cities and thus grown our business. And so far we haven’t had any conflict of interest,” he opined.
Both are simple but innovative and effective ideas, and are probably an inspiration for channels in bigger cities.
Let me know of such simple but creative ideas@work! |