1. How did you come up with the idea for this company?

In the year 2009, while I was studying in the 3rd year of B-tech, I decided to be into gym business as my younger brother was used to go to a local gym where the number of customer was noticeably good. Before starting this business I was into computer servicing & selling business. But that was not that much big. I was doing this because of the family financial issue. During this computer business I had come across many business house. So I approached one of them for the investment for that Gym Venture. I got the investment & on 2nd November 2009, I started the Gym Venture. But this business didn't last for a long as I was asked to focus in the study to get a good corporate gym like my brother. But I was least interested into job. in 2012, I was forced to close the venture though during that time I was able to one more branch. Then I joined a BPO as HR Manager. I didn't have that much work pressure. So i utilized the free time in the office to sell the gym equipments of those two existing gym of mine. After posting the ad in the selling sites, I got a sound responds which I didnt even expect before posting the ad. within few days I was able to sell the machines in a good price.But I didnt stop posting the ad. After a month or two, I got a fresh customer from Kolkata South, who was interested to purchase a gym Bench. So i contact the manufacturer for the bench from where I used to procure the machines before I was into that gym business.After that, I got another contact from guwahati, who was interested to open his gym venture. So he needed the machines. He has invested 4 lakhs for that purpose. After completion of this Guwahati Project, I took a shade on rent and invested the Old Gym Selling Price & The Profit of the Guwahati project to purchase the welding, grinding, cutting & drilling machines along with other measuring tools & Raw materials. In 2014, April, I was started my journey of the Gym Manufacturing with 2 Technician & 4 Labours.

2. What was the hardest part in the early stages of the company’s growth?

Hardest path was to compete with the existing manufacturer. I did have 3-4 customer contact in the early stage. But it was tough to compete in the market in compare with the price of the other manufacturer. But I needed to comeover the situation. So i decided to lower the Production costing by manupulating the raw materials & labor cost. I was successful in it. Besides there was serious problems to convince the customer as they have a pre mind set of those existing manufacturer. I needed to crack that too. So I decided to focus on the North East India Market as that was not exposed for the Westbengal Manufacturer because of the documentation & paper works needed to send the products. That heled me a lot to over come this issue as well.

3. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom?

Before we focused into the Strength Gym Equipments/ Machines. But Now we deal in Strength Gym Equipment as well as cardio equipments along with the fitness accessories. Now we started to import gym machines which are not possible to manufacture over here because the weather & infrastructure.

4. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics?

My strong marketing skill helps me to step into corporate as well as government sectors which are rarely touched by other manufacturer. Only the showroom gets the advantage to sell the equipments to them to survive in this industry. My education, Knowledge & strong marketing skill helps me to crack those sectors because of the price a manufacturer like me can quote, is not possible for those retailer. Besides, one can get one stop solution for gym setup i.e, Customer gets the assistance in administration of the gym (as I was the gym owner before, I do have the understanding of the problems one could face), Off line & Digital marketing, app designing (because of my technical background, I personally design Android App and offer them to the customer in Free), Website designing in free (Same technical background helps me), Interior (as I have done a 6 month course of interior designing while studying engineering) & many more. It helps me to be the unique among all others.

5. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

I have been nominated for the quality & services by several business award organizers. Currently defense sector from eastern part of India, mainly procure equipments from us. Currently my business listing is not in any kind of paid service still we r getting so many responds each day, that some time it becomes tough to entertain all of them. Recently we r opening our new wing of B2C to reach as many customers as possible though till September 2019 we were in B2B Only.

6. Where do you think your growth will be next year?

I am the only one who has invested to start this journey & till now I am the one to look after the financial needs of my company though many investors want to invest now. I manage the revenue flows so that raw material needs can be fulfilled. All the vendors are giving us credit because of the ontime payment of our company.

7. What’s your biggest threat?

Right now we are focusing into B2c as well as exporting our equipments to the south Asian countries as only one manufacturer from India is exporting till day.

Awards

I was invited to share my success story along with my company's products through the print media in the highest selling magazine of West Bengal "Sananda" Published by ABP Group.