1.1 Entrepreneur & Entrepreneurship:

Entrepreneur -> Someone who exercises initiative by organizing a venture to take benefit

of an opportunity and, as the decision maker, decides what, how, and how much of a good or

service will be produced. An entrepreneur supplies risk capital as a risk taker, and monitors

and controls the business activities. The entrepreneur is usually a sole proprietor, a partner, or

the one who owns the majority of shares in an incorporated venture. 

According to economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950), entrepreneurs are not

necessarily motivated by profit but regard it as a standard for measuring achievement or

success. Schumpeter discovered that they

1. Greatly value self-reliance,

2. Strive for distinction through excellence,

3. Are highly optimistic (otherwise nothing would be undertaken), and

4. Always favour challenges of medium risk (neither too easy, nor ruinous).

Entrepreneurship -> The capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a

business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. The most obvious

example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses.

In economics, entrepreneurship combined with land, labour, natural resources and

capital can produce profit. Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-

taking, and is an essential part of a nation's ability to succeed in an ever changing and

increasingly competitive global marketplace.

1.2 Competencies of Entrepreneurs:

The competencies may be general and some peculiar to the chosen career. You may

understand competencies to mean abilities and skills. However, we would desist from calling

these as personality traits as such a conceptualization only reinforces the mistaken belief that

entrepreneurs are born rather than made. We believe that recognition of these competencies

as abilities and skills makes entrepreneurship as a teachable and learnable behaviour.

In this section we orient you towards a set of entrepreneurial competencies developed

by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) Ahmedabad. These

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competencies were identified by a thorough research procedure based on critical analysis

of the case studies of the successful entrepreneurs.

(i) Initiative- acting out of choice rather than compulsion, taking the lead rather than

waiting for others to start.

(ii) Sees and Acts on Opportunities- A mind-set where one is trained to look for

business opportunities from everyday experiences.

(iii) Persistence- A ‘never say die’ attitude, not giving up easily, striving Information

seeking continuously until success is achieved.

(iv) Knowing- Knowing who knows, consulting experts, reading relevant material and

an overall openness to ideas and information.

(v) Concern for High Quality of Work- Attention to details and observance of

established standards and norms.

(vi) Commitment to Work Contract- Taking personal pains to complete a task as

scheduled.

(vii) Efficiency Orientation- Concern for conservation of time, money and effort.

(viii) Systematic Planning- Breaking up the complex whole into parts, close

examination of the parts and inferring about the whole; e.g. simultaneously

attending to production, marketing and financial aspects (parts) of the overall

business strategy (the whole).

(ix) Problem solving- Observing the symptoms, diagnosing and curing.

(x) Self-confidence- Not being afraid of the risks associated with business and

relying on one’s capabilities to successfully manage these.

(xi) Assertiveness- Conveying emphatically one’s vision and convincing others of its

value.

(xii) Persuasion- Eliciting support of others in the venture.

(xiii) Use of Influence Strategies- Providing leadership.

(xiv) Monitoring- Ensuring the progress of the venture as planned

(xv) Concern for Employee Welfare- Believing in employee well being as the key to

competitiveness and success and initiating programmes of employee welfare.

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1.3 Entrepreneurial Process:

Fig 1: entrepreneurial process

Successful entrepreneurship occurs when creative individuals bring together a new

way of meeting needs and a market opportunity. This is accomplished through a patterned

process, one that mobilizes and directs resources to deliver a specific product or service to

customers using a market entry strategy that shows investors financial promise of building

enduring revenue and profitability streams. Sustainability adds to the design of a product and

operations by applying the criteria of reaching toward benign (or at least considerably safer)

energy and material use, a reduced resource footprint, and elimination of inequitable social

impacts due to the venture’s operations, including its supply-chain impacts.

Entrepreneurial process can be broken down into four pieces

Intention

Opportunity search and exploration

Decision to exploit opportunity

Exploration of opportunity

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1.4 Entrepreneurship in India:

A concept of social entrepreneurship has been existing in India from ancient days.

India had witnessed a white revolution led by a cooperative movement of dairy farmers under

the brand name AMUL. This movement led to similar replications throughout the country

making India self-sufficient in milk. This serves as a compelling reminder of what can be

achieved by society participation, innovation and pro-activeness - the three cornerstones of

Social Entrepreneurship. Today domestic investors are joining the bandwagon of billionaires

and philanthropists like Bill Gates and Azim Premji in supporting those ventures who have

made it their "business" to make the world a better place. In a recent survey, it has been found

that in spite of the global recession; the funding options for new ventures have not dipped,

showcasing the conviction in social good.  Social Entrepreneurship firms are growing as

investors are slowly realizing that an altogether new niche movement can be created out of

this concept.

Entrepreneurship has been on the rise as a global phenomenon much before India

began becoming sensitive to the development of entrepreneurship. However the awareness

towards the path of entrepreneurship is now picking up a quick pace in our own country, and

as a matter of fact is seen as one of the countries that are par excellence with the rest of the

Asian countries as far as growing entrepreneurship is concerned. There are ample

opportunities in small businesses in India and such opportunities will transform India in the

coming future. For such transformation to happen there needs to be support both at the

governmental and societal level. For the government it is important to realize that the goal of

small business owners will be to remain self-employed. Such people may not need financial

assistance but they will need marketing and legal assistance in order to sustain themselves.

Practical and cost effective programs need to be developed to address their needs because

self-employed people will represent an important segment in economic revitalization.

Unemployment is the main problem that our country faces now. In this situation it is

necessary to become familiar with the multidimensional aspects of Entrepreneurship. The

entrepreneurs in most of the cases are having business family background. In certain cases

the new generation has started after facing a lot of difficulties from their first generation. In

these cases the new generation is very careful in selecting their business career.

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The first half of the present century witnessed a gradual change in the scenario.

During this period, there was a visible tendency among the natives to take to business. The

spread of secular education, rising nationalist feelings and social reform movements must

have given a fillip to this initial phase of the emergence of entrepreneurship. The independent

India thus could claim to have created a conductive climate for spread of entrepreneurship.

The glorifying corporate has portrayed that they have progressed in last fifteen years

after the new industrial policy of 1991 because of the Entrepreneurship and the encouraging

Entrepreneurship environment in India. We can be an entrepreneurial nation because we have

many reasons for it

1. Freedom of speech and willingness to disagree foster creative solutions.

2. Very high calibre human capital.

3. Diversity in the true sense of the term, the key to stimulate intellectual

discourse.

4. Functioning capital market and venture capital sector to find new ideas.

5. Young population is more rebellious and wants to challenge the rules of the

game.

6. Entry of global competitors into India threatens the status quo.

7. Lack of legacy technologies which offer leapfrogging possibilities.

8. Unique market structure, customer needs and affordability.

9. Excellent institutional infrastructure like BanasthaliVidyapith.

10. Stress on Entrepreneurship, Science and technology education.

1.5 Objectives of the Project:

The purpose of the entrepreneurship intern program is to provide student interns with

an opportunity to: develop profession- ally, acquire real-world entrepreneurial experiences,

and apply classroom learning to the workplace.

Employing Entrepreneurship venture Criteria:

The criteria for choosing the company is as given below

Must be a business that is entrepreneurial in nature

Provide significant work that will enhance the intern’s professional and educational

Development

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Complete an internship application

Work a minimum of 45 hours in the duration allotted for project

Perform in a professional manner and comply with employing company’s regulations

and policies

Maintain employing company’s confidentialities

Submit an Internship Portfolio by designated due date

COIMBATORE: Coimbatore is synonymous with Entrepreneurship and is widely known as

a self-made city.

The city was created by entrepreneurs, points out Jairam Varadaraj, Managing

Director of Elgi. “Entrepreneurship is about having new ideas that are novel and innovative

and taking the risk to make it successful,” he says. It is more than making a product. There

are several companies now and industrial activity has grown. “It is time now to focus on

taking Coimbatore to the next level and its people should do it.”

Reason

One of the historical reasons for the city to be rich in entrepreneurship is that

agriculture was not lucrative and people were looking out for options for livelihood. The

Stanes Mill and Pykara project are two important factors that gave a boost to industrial

growth.

Technical Education facilities led to the growth of small and medium-scale units.

Availability of power, technical education and community leaders who showed the way is

some of the important factors that encouraged entrepreneurship.

People here are hardworking and innovative, and risk-taking is high, according to

Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman of the Southern India Mills' Association.

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Ramraj Cotton

Ramraj Cotton was founded at Avinashi, by entrepreneur and visionary, Mr. K. R.

Nagaraj. The company was started with single, unwavering vision – to deliver quality ethnic

men's wear to people in the southern states.

In the year 1983, Mr. Nagaraj sold a few surplus dhotis from a failed joint-business venture to

chart off his very own textile business, Ramraj Cotton. With very limited resources and very

little financial leverage, Ramraj Cotton started out with big dreams.

With several years of marketing experience to back him, Mr. Nagaraj understood one

simple success mantra - the power of branding. He understood that if his product has to stand

out, people need to identify it by a brand name. That's how the brand Ramraj was born.

(Ramraj incidentally, is a combination of two names - Founder Mr. Nagaraj and his father

Mr. Ramaswamy) The company's mantra of 'quality without compromise' was the driving

force behind its astounding success, even during those early years. Slowly but surely, the

company made definite in roads into the South Indian market.

Fig 2: Mr.Nagaraj with Abdul kalam

2.1 Description of the enterprise:

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Company Name : Sahayam departmental store.

Founder Name : Mr.G.P. Maharajan.

Year of commencement : 1972.

Location : maruthamalai main road, vadavalli,

Coimbatore-641 041.

Entrpreneur Name : Mr.M.Asir (2nd generation entrepreneur)

Sahayam Stores is one of the well- established Departmental Stores in coimbatore

city which was started in the year 1972 by Mr.G.P.Maharajan at vadavalli in a private rented

place which is near to the present area. His native is Tirunelveli and he studied up to 5 th std

and he opted to learn the business in his early stages itself. Then 10 years later in 1982 he

started the store in his own area with the investment of his own 20lakhs without any loans.

In 1989, his son Mr.M.Asir started assisting him and took the business to a new level

by expanding the store and thereby creating a big store at vadavalli in the 90’s. He completed

his school education and joined the father’s business. They expanded the business and

additional business such as rice mill & Dhaal mill which also came out successful.

Products & Services:

They sell all type of food products such as turmeric powder, salt, all types of dal and

flour items, rajma, peas, wheat, sugar, jaggary, rava, oil, tea powders, soap, etc.,

They get the products from many agencies in Coimbatore such as sampoorna

enterprises, cholamala agency, rajamani agency, S.V agency, stockers & movers and S.R.

associates.

They have their own godown for rice and they variety of rice like ponni, IR20, kerala

mattai, BT raw rice and boiled rice.

They purchase the dal items and other items in wholesale and they do self-packing at

a different weights of 1/4kg, ½ kg, 1kg, 2kg.This give them very low cost of production and

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gives more profit by avoiding company products and they providing these items with more

quality.

Long term aim of the business:

The business started with the vision of making big business in that particular

locality and they succeeded in it and the store become a landmark place at vadavalli. They

sustained in the area with more powerful for 42 years and making tough competition to the

competitors.

Their sole aim is to provide good products and satisfy the customers to a large

extent.

Fig 3: sahayam stores

2.2 Market Analysis and Competitor’s analysis

Target market

The market segmentation is done based upon the demographics and psychological

segmentation and the target market in this business is mainly the households who form the

major part of their business. The segmentation includes people of various classes which

include predominantly the business class people and the salaried. As this is the departmental

store business the consumers will have a continuous flow towards their products and hence

mainly the household people are targeted for the maximum sales yield for this kind of

business.

Total market size for the product/ service

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The market size comprises of the residents in the areas of vadavalli, mullai nagar, Eb

colony and kalveerampalayam and to an extent of the residents in idayarpaalayam and other

retailers in and around the surrounding areas. The total market size of this business

constitutes around more than 7000 households approximately as these places comprises of

around ten wards of the corporation (Arbitrary data from the entrepreneur).

Market trends

The products dealt in this departmental store mainly involves the monthly

provisions for the purpose of cooking and all the products are branded like for instance if it is

a product like health drinks they are going with the prevailing trend in the market like Boost,

Horlicks, Pedia Sure and a new protein drink called Ensure which is rich in Vitamins and

essential fats are up to the current trend are also sold at a large level in this store. Apart from

that the present market trend lies in concept of quality [products and for this the people are

ready to pay more as it involves their health and hygiene. They are selling only the premium

branded rice varieties like India Gate, Double Deer and Ponni Rice keeping in mind the

health of the people and they are adapting to the present market trend in each and every

product.

Profile of competitors:

The competitors for the Sahayam stores are mainly the Super market stores like

Nilgris, karthikeyan stores and other mediocre range of super markets and they do possess

competitive characteristics like huge market coverage and the ambience of their retail stores

seems to be large enough as their investments are huge and their employees’ workforce also

was high. Though Sahayam stores faces a cut throat competition in their business they do

maintain a stable flow of customers at their end by imparting a quality service with due

diligence in their work. The competitors strategies seems to be tough for them in the areas

like the promotional offers and the advertisements they make in which this departmental

stores lags a bit to combat their competitors. Altogether it is a battle between the competitors

and my entrepreneur in this field of business where the taste and preference of people plays a

vital role in their business.

Competitor Analysis

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The entrepreneur wanted to know about the strategies of their rivalries pertaining to the

size of the firm, products they deal with and especially their marketing strategies and brand

positioning and other related things.

If we take Nilgris which is located near to the vadavalli bus stop and it is visible to all

those crossing the junction. It is a successful brand in Coimbatore since 1960, it gives tough

competition to the sahayam in terms of appearance, ambience, marketing strategies, and more

accessible to the people by affording cart for selecting their products which is lack in

sahayam. They slowly increase their presence in the market by providing different products

like dog products, dairy products, fruits & vegetables, books and cakes.

They have around 15 educated employees for sales, billing, inventory, maintenance

purposes and they even have security who welcomes the customer and he takes care of their

products safely. A dress code (Men have uniform and coat for a lady) is followed which

gives more charm to them and customers have good opinion on them for their cleanliness and

their attire. A manger is in charge for the store and he takes care of the entire management

functions and they have web cameras and other security systems which ensure the safety of

the customers and also to the store. These things cannot be seen in the sahaym stores.

In nilgiris, we can see many brands for single product and it gives the clear idea to the

customer to pick up the product which satisfies their needs in terms of quality and price but in

sahayam, we can see only limited brands which are most preferred by the people over the

years.

In Sahayam stores, products like dal, flour items and all bought in wholesale and they

clean it and pack it with different weights and they are not providing the brands like udhayam

dal and other brands in these products. But people still prefers these products from sahayam

because of the quality they offered at low price but in this competitive world branded

products are most preferred and in near future it will affect them. The same scenario is

happening in nilgiris, they also offer self-branded dal products but they too offer udhayam

and other brands. This helps to attract different categories of people.

Another tough competitor right from the inception is karthikeyan stores which is

located near to the vadavalli junction and behind the bus stop. This is an added advantage to

them because more people notices and easy accessibility. Other than this, they follow same

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ambience, strategies and methods used in the sahayam and they too have set of customers for

the past 30 years.

And apart from this the entrepreneur shared that he developed certain unique

strategies based upon the competitor analysis and he wisely integrated the gaps in the

previous strategies of the competitors with the expectation of the people and based upon this

he planned a strategy for home delivery even for the purchase for Rs.500 to position the

customers and to sustain this cut throat competition.

The Entrepreneur felt that this kind of thorough analysis of his competitor really

helped them to expand their business and to have a proper structure in their Business plan.

Competitive advantage

The Sahayam Departmental stores possess a competitive advantage over their rivals in

terms of the location of their departmental stores which is located just near to the vadavalli

Bus stop. The main advantage of the stores is that it is easily accessible by the customers

residing in these places because of the location of the stores which is quite difficult to reach

its competitors like other departmental store. Moreover they have rice godown which gives

them more advantageous over their competitors. Apart from this they are more experienced in

this field of market for about 4 decades and hence they are well aware of the changing trends

of the people in that particular segment of market in which they have set their target. This

makes them to reach the customers very easily and the positioning strategy is quite good in

the case of Sahayam departmental stores. The Entrepreneur that is the chairperson of the

departmental stores also works along with their staff members and thus creates an emotional

bonding between the employees and the boss. This kind of strategy is not much prevalent in

the super markets and eventually this is one of the strong competitive advantages they

possess.

Benefits to clients/ Customers

The service recipients of the Sahayam stores are beneficial in terms of the home

delivery services offered by them and price discounts for savvy consumers so that they might

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feel that they are benefited in terms of buying the product at a reduced price. The clients like

the small retail do get the benefits like credit sales but only on weekly basis and other

benefits like complementary gifts to the regular customers and it is even expanding its

customer volume by extending their home delivery services to the areas which is quite far

from the dispatch centre of the departmental stores.

2.3 Business plan of the entrepreneur

The entrepreneur involve into a thorough analysis of the prevailing competitors,

marketing strategies, promotional strategies and with the clear inputs from the competitor

analysis , he came out with a structured business plan by integrating all the functional areas

of the business in such a way to combat the stiff competition in the market. He planned all the

relevant strategies to execute his business with his field experience when he works under the

guidance of his father and after he takes his charge, he curtail the unwanted expenses and

losses in his business and he was very much oriented towards the quality products to the

people aiming at the profitability of the firm as it is mainly involved with the food products

where the sustainability is mainly based upon the quality of the products they deal with.

Based upon the structure processes he interlinked the different functioning areas of

the business of the Sahayam stores and the competitor analysis fuelled valid inputs for the

appropriate planning of the Business. He just had a proper analysis on both the inside view

and the outside view of the competitors and the competency of the business. He formulated

the mission and vision of the business such that it has to sustain for decades in a changing

market environments to adapt this kind of situation, he followed certain strategies that are

contemporary in nature. These strategies prove to be phenomenal in the growth of the

business.

The Entrepreneur believed that the development of this business mainly depends upon

the retention of the customers and for this he took lot of pain taking efforts to position the

people and slowly he executed his plan in all the functioning areas of the Sahayam stores and

especially in the operations, he developed a rigorous plan with less investment as the strategy

he followed is employing the young uneducated people to work faster especially in the home

delivery operations despatch and also he managed the inventory in a planned way to have a

structured process flow in his operations of his business. Thus the debriefing of the entire

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business plan and the strategies of the Sahayam Stores and the executions are reported in

forthcoming chapters.

2.4 Marketing and Sales Strategy

Income sources

The Sahayam stores revenue is obtained through the sales of their products which are

done periodically for every month and this constitutes their major source of income. Apart

from this they also get revenues from the nearby small retail stores by supplying some

provisional goods to them periodically. They also have a fixed source of income through the

bakery shop retailers. This is about the income sources and their income will have a marginal

increase during the festival seasons and for special events like marriage birthday parties

where they will get more amount of demand for their products.

Apart from this they own a complex opposite to the departmental stores and getting

monthly income from that. A portion of the income is also obtained via the rental houses (100

houses known sahayam colony) under their proprietorship. So they have diversified income

sources and this is one of their major strength in their business.

Fig 4: commercial complex (opposite to the store and behind this complex they have

sahayam colony)

Marketing Strategy

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The marketing strategy is based upon the consumer analysis, competitor analysis and

also the expected sales of their products. The strategy of the Sahayam stores takes into

consideration of all these perspectives .The ethical pricing and their excellent supply chain

management is one of the key strategies of their sales and marketing. They are not much

exposed with the concept of promotional offers for their products because of the popularity of

their stores lasting for more than four decades.

Pricing

The departmental stores follow a standard pricing of their products and to combat the

competitors they follow the method of discriminatory pricing strategy. The rice brands like

Basmati rice varieties are more influenced by the prices and in this departmental store they

have a direct tie-up with the producers and since they directly procure the items from the

producers and based upon this the prices are fixed and thereby eliminating the intermediaries

cost. So the prices they fix seem to have a competitive advantage over their rivals. Apart from

this they maintain a standard fixed price for the branded products and the pricing of this

departmental store seems to be predominantly good when compared with the other

departmental stores located over there.

Fig 5: rice variety

Advertising and Promotion:

The advertising and promotion of Sahayam stores does not have an impact on their

sales growth. The entrepreneur personally feels that for this kind of business and that too in

this residential area the advertising and promotion of the departmental stores will not have an

impact on the increase in the footfall of the customers and hence they don’t concentrate much

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on these areas and for the period of forty years they are tepid towards the advertising and

promotion of their departmental store.

2.5 Staffing and Operations

Staffing and Roles:

The Sahayam stores employees consists of 15 Employees working in different

functional areas and the employees perform their roles very effectively in terms of the proper

distribution of the goods to the customers at right place at the right time. The roles includes

warehouse manager, Rice dispatch centre care taker, supply chain manager and other

employees take part in the overall operational features of the business. They also have trained

drivers for the proper transfer of goods at the consumer end and these employees are always

expected to do a multi-tasking kind of work by the entrepreneur.

Purchase of Goods:

The FMCG products are purchased through the intermediaries like agencies which

forms the vital part of their source. For instance they are purchasing products like toothpaste,

toilet soaps, etc., from the authorized dealers called sampoorna enterprises, cholamala

agency, rajamani agency, S.V agency, stockers & movers and S.R. associates and like this

they purchase their goods from different agencies for different goods. The goods are properly

segregated and the warehouse manager tracks the operational flow of the goods. The process

of purchase of all the goods is through the direct cash transfer mode except the Rice varieties

in which they are sourcing it from the producers for credit and they are repaying that in a

periodic basis.

Inventory and Storing:

The inventory and storing mechanism is one of the key aspects of this business. The

inventory of the goods is properly maintained to satisfy the recurring demand of the products

and the received goods are stored in the warehouse which is behind the departmental store.

The inventory management techniques are effectively applied in the management of the rice

varieties where this is the only product they are purchasing for credit and the reorder level for

the stock of rice is one week and the departmental store is maintaining a safety stock of 2000

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kgs in their godown which is behind the stores and this makes them to afford the demand and

the expected lead time for the product is one day. They are having a processed flow of goods

from the supplier end to the consumer and all the sales transactions and transfer of goods at

the required time seems to be a hassle free operation due to the proper maintenance of the

inventory and storing mechanism.

Fig 6: rice godown

Operational Process:

The operational process involves the purchase of goods from the supplier end and

delivery of the goods at the consumer end with a proper monitor on the inventory process.

The consignment operations are properly monitored and executed as they are receiving goods

from northern parts of the country like Delhi, Mumbai and certain products like dal, gram,

flour are purchased as bulk order from the wholesale market and the overall operational

process is accustomed in this way like proper tracking of the goods for delivery which is

taken care by the distribution part of the business. Apart from this other functional areas

operations are also closely monitored and the employees are complied with the core values of

the business in their operations thereby exhibiting a due diligence in their work for the

effective operations of the business. For financial operations like the cost accounting is

carried out by one employee means the cash inflow of the business and other things like the

working capital requirement are monitored by another employee. These two process forms

the core operational process of the business to ascertain the profitability of the Sahayam

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stores and hence these two areas of operation comes under the direct supervision of the

entrepreneur to leverage the assets and liabilities of the Departmental store.

2.6 Finance

Sources of funding:

As a part of initial investment, fund of about 20lakhs was sourced from sale of family

asset only. After the establishment of the business there was no other funds that is been

sourced as the profit turnover was pretty much on the higher side.

Accounts maintenance:

They are not up to the contemporary approach towards the maintenance of the

business transaction rather they follow an informal style of book keeping for each and every

transaction like maintaining the debit and credit details of the business operations which is

under the direct purview of the entrepreneur.

Profitability/ loss:

Sahayam stores involve in various business such as crackers business, getting

revenues from the residential and commercial complex under their ownership. Apart from

this major proportion of the firm’s profit is obtained through the core business of

departmental store. The entrepreneur said that the overall business operations of sahayam

store seem to be profitable with an approximate turnover of 25 lakhs per month and the

profitability percentage is around 8 %.

They are highly safe from the risk of loss as they possess well established reputation

from the common public and this makes them to attain such a hefty amount as their profit.

And also other sources of income give them an added advantage to eliminate the risk of loss

in their business to maintain the sustainability.

INTERVIEW SESSION:

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Dialogue with Entrepreneur – Interviewer: Mr.Srinivasan. Interviewee: Mr.Asir.

1. Interviewer: What inspired you to start the business?

Interviewee: My father is the only person who inspired me and taught me about the business

and I observed his work and dedication towards the job and I can able to continue his

business successfully.

2. Interviewer: Who were/ are your role models?

Interviewee: my father is my role model and I like to make my dad’s business big in

vadavalli like kannan departmental store. So in near future I will make my business big as

much as Kannan departmental store.

3. Interviewer: What are the important competencies for an Entrepreneur?

Interviewee: Now formal education is necessary to run any business and more courage,

networks to more people will help the business to run more effectively. Then you must

observe the business carefully so that you can able to know more about the business in detail

and it is required to know about the business from base to top, then only you can able to run

the business smoothly.

4. Interviewer: Do you think formal education is necessary to succeed as an

Entrepreneur?

Interviewee: Yes it is necessary to do any kind of business and at present in this competitive

world it is mandatory to have formal education to make the business in a larger manner. But

in our age it is not required to have proper education to do business and right now it is

necessary to sustain in it.

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Name: Mr.M.Asir

Name of the Enterprise: Sahayam stores

Type of Business: departmental stores

Educational Background: +2

Year of Inception: 1972

5. Interviewer: Tell me about the initial periods of your business – successes and

challenges

Interviewee: In the early stage, our store was very small (petty shop), and we always dreamt

of making it big and now we successfully done with it by making our products at higher

standards and maintaining it firmly from the time of inception. We don’t believe in marketing

and we service our customers and providing them what they needs and customer satisfaction

is very much important to us.

6. Interviewer: How has your business grown since inception?

Interviewee: Like I said, we started in private place which is rented and then moved to the

own building and started like a small shop and in the year 1989 we expanded our building to

around 3 cent area and our store became a landmark place at vadavalli and also our profit has

been increasing gradually.

Fig 7: interview with Mr.Asir

7. Interviewer: Are challenges different now? How?

Interviewee: Yes, challengers are different now. In the early stages there was only one

competition from Karthikeyan store but now more number of shops came up and the arrival

of super markets also gives more pressure to us. But our customer base is very large and most

of the supermarkets like more, yuva, day to day life and even kannan departmental stores are

shut down due to loss and other reasons.

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8. Interviewer: Explain your average workday?

Interviewee: Daily 8am-10pm is the routine working hours and in between spend half an

hour each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Store will be opened for all the days and monthly

one day (last Sunday) store will be closed.

9. Interviewer: which season gives you more sales and fewer sales?

Interviewee: Festival season gives more sales and our business will be active all the months

except 3 months (March, April, and May) due to the vacation time. And we don’t depend

upon this business alone and we have diversified business through which we get constant

income periodically.

10. Interviewer: What is the uniqueness in your business?

Interviewee: Quality + reasonable price are our uniqueness.

11. Interviewer: Till this month how many customers?

Interviewee: We have around 1000 customers who buy their products monthly basis and we

have reasonable amount of customers on daily basis also. But majority of our business

depends on the monthly basis groups only.

12. Interviewer: Is door delivery available? What is the lead time?

Interviewee: yes door delivery is available for those customers who buy products for Rs.1000

or above. We will deliver the products to their home within 2 hours.

13. Interviewer: how many employees are there?

Interviewee: Totally 15 members are working in various business operations and 2 of them

employed for door delivery.

14. Interviewer: What are the things that you like best in your business and what are

the most worrisome aspects?

Interviewee: our best is quality and satisfying the customers and I don’t think about the

worrisome because in business anything may happen and we should accept everything as

good and move forward from it.

15. Interviewer: Is it possible to be ethical and honest in business?

Interviewee: Yes, 100% we can be true to our business and if not business will flop.

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16. Interviewer: What are your future plans?

Interviewee: Till now I don’t have any future plans because at present it is difficult to do this

kind of business in a profitable way. So right now my motive is to carry out this business

without any loss and sustain in the field very firmly.

17. Interviewer: Would your children continue your business?

Interviewee: Don’t know, I won’t insist anything to my children and I will allow them to

pursue their dreams and would not compel them to carry out this business. It is up to their

choice to make the decisions in their life.

18. Interviewer: What three pieces of advice would you give to a young entrepreneur

starting out today?

Interviewee: If you are going to do this kind of business then,

1. You should have own building because it is very important in terms of

financially you can escape from giving huge rent.

2. Everything should be managed by you and you should be personally

attached with your customers so that the strong bond can create a much

profit.

3. You should be able to control the business and you should prefer to

purchase the products from the wholesale market and not for company

items, so that you can earn good profit through low cost.

Strengths:

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Four decades in the industry

Own building

Owners involving directly in the business

Retention of customers for more than 2 decades

Having more loyal customers.

More number of Monthly orders

Location i.e., Landmark place at vadavalli

No loans & debts

Financially more strong and no need to depend on the profits/loss.

Brand name

High quality & more concentration on customer satisfaction

Home delivery

Weakness:

Not upgraded to the modern world

Everything is handled manually

Lack of labour maintenance

No parking facility

Less attraction.

No proper maintenance.

Products are not arranged properly.

No inventory management information system.

No proper accounts maintenance.

Traditional way of book keeping.

Lack of offers and advertisements.

Opportunities:

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Can improve the standards of the store.

Can implement 5S concepts.

Can make use of the profits in a useful manner.

Can renovate the stores ambience with the surplus profits.

Computerisation of the business operations can be followed.

Advertisements for their own products can be done to position their brands.

Provide offers to the new customers.

Can Provide uniform to the employees

Expand the store and warehouse.

Can opt for new branded products to satisfy the varying needs of the customers.

Threats:

More competition from the small stores in and around the area.

Tough competition from nilgiris & karthikeyan stores.

Labours turnover

Lack of infrastructure.

Lack of maintenance in the warehouse

Market fluctuations of the products may affect the price in the wholesale market.

Suggestions:

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From the analysis of SWOT it is clearly inferred that the major issue faced is of that

Labour/employee retention. The best suggestion would be to increase the wages/salary paid

and provide them with additional bonus and add-ons. Increase the interpersonal skills with

the employees/labours so that they would feel good to work.

Improve the infrastructure to the current trends as more competition increases from

small shop to super markets, so it’s high time to install new racks, expand the store and

attract the new customers by attractive interiors. Even though they have more footfalls, in

future the younger generation need some attractions to get them inside the store.

Till now they dint adopt any new marketing strategies except direct marketing and it

is necessary in the current scenario that any business needs marketing to attract many

customers and sustain in the field for longer term.

They should look into the inventory system very seriously because inventory

management is inevitable in business and they must expand it and maintain it properly using

computers.

They should look into the ideas of attracting new customers to the store and also

considers discounts and offers to the customers and thereby increasing the footfall gradually.

And they must use some strategies to improve the visits of daily basis customers.

They must expand the business and open new outlets in other areas and make strong

impact in the industry and they grow like Shri kannan Departmental Stores.

Personal Learning:

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The important thing that I learnt out of this EIP is that, doing business is not that easy.

So many things have to be planned of before execution of any business. It has all the

managerial skills in almost all the streams.

The most important in this industry to have labours and it is difficult to have them for

long years because they know the job perfectly by assisting in various ways and they went

out and start a new stores like start-ups in the surroundings.so it’s difficult to manage them

perfectly.

We should make our customers fully satisfied and our motto should be customer

based because it’s like service sector and we should give importance to the customers first

and then to the profits and other things.

Business will always have more competition and we should be able to beat the

competitors by reducing the price range and not decreasing the quality. This must be

maintained and look after the competitor’s offers and then build the strategies.

Opportunity-seeking, persistence, commitment to the work, risk-taking, demand for

quality and efficiency of products are mandatory in this field.

Inspirations from the Entrepreneur:

I learnt many things from my entrepreneur like how to do your work sincerely and

make profits effectively.

Some of the things which I inspired/learned from the entrepreneur are:

Time management

Commitment to work

Making the customers satisfied with his product

Interpersonal skills

Attitude

Keep calm and composed even in the worse situations

Analysing and solving the problems in a most suitable way

How to deal with labour issues

Observation skills and

Be aware of what is happening in the market

And also I learnt how to interact with the customers and the skills which is needed to pack the

items very efficiently without delaying much.

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I am now inspired to join my hands with Mr.M.Asir and try and help them in

expanding and develop into a good brand in departmental stores.

Tasks Done For the Enterprise during the Project Period:

In that one week, I learned how to keep the store clean and make the products to be

visible to the customer and it should be kept in the rack in a particular order so that we can

easily figure it out. Some of the works which I did for the enterprise are

Billing

Cleaning

Packaging the products to the customers

Checking the availability of products

Checking the inventory

Helping the labours in packaging.

Fig 8: Billing Fig 9: arranging the products

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Fig 10: checking the availability of goods

Fig 11: listing out the customers ordered products

Fig 12: helping the labours

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Fig 13: cleaninng the rack and arranging the products

Fig 14: checking the bill

Fig 15: checking the availability of egg Stock

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REFERENCES:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/entrepreneur.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/entrepreneurship.html

http://www.du.ac.in/fileadmin/DU/Academics/course_material/EP_03.pdf

WORK DIARY

Name: Srinivasan.L

Reg no: 13MBA051

Class: I MBA-G1

Company name: Sahayam departmental stores.

Founder name: G.P. Maharajan

21st march: My first day with Mr.MAsir (S/o G.P.Maharajan), gives me the overview

about the various business process and how their managing their products, inventory stock,

procurement of products.

22nd march: Today I studied about the various ways they adopting to attract the customers &

how they retaining their customers for more than 2 decades.

And also came to know about his brother Mr.M.David (another entrepreneur) who is

doing shopping and fancy store business for the past 10 years in the name of Maharaja

Shopping Centre which is adjacent to sahayam stores.

23rd march: Today I studied about their finance management and they adopt direct marketing

like word of mouth, directly involved with the customers and satisfying their needs.

Due to the busy schedule, my entrepreneur Mr.Asir was very busy and he cannot

allocate the time for interview and he asked me to come tomorrow afternoon for interview.

By the time I had the chance of taking interview with his brother Mr.David and I

already mailed you today’s photos.

24th & 25th march: Due to elections I got limited time to work in the store then Took video

with the Entrepreneur and some photos, then today studied about how they giving tough

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competition to the biggies like nilgiris and other supermarket. And also I gave suggestions for

the expansion and further improvement of the business.

PHOTOS:

Fig 16: pamphlets

Fig 17: safety stock in godown

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Fig 18: chatting with labour

Fig 19: discussions with inventory managers

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