Little Big Dreams

After registering their firm — Team ADit — in November last year,they are already working with over 300 SME owners in three states. Baswante says these are initial days,but the company was born out of a lot of ideas that they had discussed during their college years. “We tried a flea market concept almost eight months before we launched. Under this,we would help vendors get mall space for very little rent per month and they would pay us if they made money. More often than not,they weren’t able to pay us much because the products were not

selling a lot. From that came the idea to start a firm,which would help them on a bigger and more professional scale,” he says.

As of now,the duo work with SMEs in tier I and II cities of Maharashtra and major cities in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Explaining the concept,Baswante says,“In major fairs and expos,organisers usually charge between Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 for three to five days. We charge them a maximum rent for Rs 15,000 a month.” Explaining the process,he says,“If the seller maximises his profits that is his gain and we don’t charge more. If the seller is unable to make a headway,we let him pay whatever he can. We feel that it is important to encourage them initially because markets do pick up eventually.”

They usually organise a trial run for a week to see how the product is performing. “We have spoken to malls in the city where we give them retail space. In fact we had a vendor at Ishanya who was not doing well,so we let him sell without giving any rent. Slowly his business improved and he is now able to pay us. We negotiate with malls to give us floor space to help these vendors,” he adds. Profit margins might be lower,as he points out,but the fact that they are working with a lot of SMEs helps them to even out and get a bigger gross profit percentage.

Recently,they did a trial run for a weekend flea market in Wakad. “There are not many malls there,so we decided to do it at a restaurant. The response wasn’t phenomenal but it was good for a start. We are also working at small malls in Satara,Surat and so on. There is tremendous potential. The smaller vendors are excited about retailing products in malls. They retain all profits they make,while we help eliminate a lot of middle men who would otherwise eat into their profits,” says Baswante. On a philosophical note,he adds,their endeavour is to help smaller people become big and eventually get a better way of life.