Running a thela, MBA style! 15 street vendors are getting management tips on running their business from B-school students ARUNDHATI RANADE.

Nimesh Marfatia in Pune Mirror on 4th Feb 2010.

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Imagine your regular paani puri vendor playing soothing background music as you gulp down his fare. Seems like a dream, right? It's not a dream any more. At least 15 street food vendors in Kalyani Nagar have been getting tips in business management from B-school students as a part of an ongoing project.


Management students of Europe Asia Business School (EABS) are working for the project ‘Microscope’ along with young Indians and World Entrepreneurship Forum. The students have adopted 15 vendors and have already studied their business processes by spending a day with them last week. Now, these students will work along with these vendors for a couple of months to develop their businesses by suggesting ways to cut costs and introduce profitable strategies.

These benefits are a two-way street. Even the students are getting practical knowledge from vendors by understanding the whole process of development. Two of these students — Gargi Kumari and Nimesh Marfatia — share their experiences with Pune Mirror.

Nimesh Marfatia:
For my project, I selected a vada pav vendor near the More store in Viman Nagar. Sunil Vitkar runs this small street-side business named Aditya Snacks.Along with vada pav, he serves idli, poha, upma, tea, dosas, medu wada, dal wada, uttappas etc. Customers start pouring in from 8.30 am. I noticed that the batches of food prepared during peak hours were more. I was surprised to note the way things were taken care of smoothly. It was professionally managed and the service was quick. Goods of over Rs 50 were sold every minute, on an average, during the peak hours. Sunil wants to expand his business and dreams of owning a hotel one day.
 

I liked his passion and vision. Even we are taught in B-school about this. Sunil has studied only till Class X. But despite his limited education, he manages his business well. Business opportunities for him include canteen services in companies, tiffin services to working professionals and so on. He has plenty of competition from other vendors on road and fast food hotels in the area. I asked him to focus on cleanliness, prepare and display a menu card, make dosasin butter and charge the cost to the customer, increase the variety of dosasand play soft music (not songs). From my observations, I have found that there is a huge potential for the micro-entrepreneurs like Sunil to grow in this country.
 

Gargi Kumari:
I chose a florist named Sameer Mahapatro, who operates a small stall selling bouquets. Sameer is a class X pass. He came from Kolkata to Pune two years back in search of livelihood. Sameer starts his day by taking stock of flowers and ferns left over from the previous day.After that, he calls up his supplier for an inventory of Rs 2,000, which usually lasts for around a week or so. His average sale for a normal day comes to around Rs 600, which shoots up to Rs 4,000 on occasions such as Valentine's Day. His average profit per week is Rs 1,230, ie, a margin of 40 per cent.
 

However, this means that his monthly profit comes to about Rs 5,000 approx. His stall's USP is its location in front of a famous bakery in Viman Nagar.To motivate him and help his business, I asked him to focus on cleanliness. Most Viman Nagar residents fall in the upper middle class bracket, so they value a cleaner shop. I have also asked him to change the backdrop of the stall. Sameer starts making his bouquets from 11 am and is done by around 1 pm. However, he keeps the bouquets on display only in the evening because of the perception that customers buy flowers only in the evening and at night. But flowers need to be on display once they are ready. I found that Sameer makes no efforts to retain his customers. Cutting down on expensive flowers can bring his costs down.Though he sells old flowers at a lesser price, he can bring this to the notice of customers by putting the sale tag on old bouquets. I will track his business for a few months and observe the benefits of my suggestions during this course.
 
Thanks,
Nimesh.