Govt should treat SMEs and start-ups differently: Jayant Kumar

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Saurabh Gupta | 18 Oct, 2014
The government should treat small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups differently from established businesses for a certain span of time and give them the flexibility to grow, said Jayant Kumar Jha, Co-Founder, Gadgetwood, in an exclusive email interview to SME Times.

In 2013, Mr Jayant has come up with an innovative idea of Technical Support and Quality Repair Service in consumer electronics, backed by a knowledgeable & certified team, serving customers online and at the doorstep.

He believes that lack of access to funds is still a biggest challenge for start-up SMEs. He said that the government can empower start-ups/ SMEs in many ways. The government shall make simple and easier policies, making it easier for SMEs to grow quickly and become successful businesses.

We (SME Times) tried to figure out the interesting success story of this very young entrepreneur.

Excerpts of the interview...

Tell our readers more about your group - Gadgetwood.
Jayant Kumar Jha: Gadgetwood is India's first professionally managed multi brand repair and Support Services for Mobiles; Smart phones and Tablets. The services are available in Delhi-NCR on demand, Onsite, Online, In-store per incidence basis.

How this idea of on-site convenient smartphone and tablets repair service to end-users and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Delhi/NCR came to your mind?
Jayant Kumar Jha: While working in my previous roles, I was very enthusiastic about doing something new, exploring something unknown etc. One day I broke my recently purchased smartphone and getting it fixed from local repairs turned out to be a horrendous job for me. Then at the moment a thought came in my mind of 'how about organizing this disorganized support and service market for smart phones in India'. I talked about this with my two other partners and then the discussion started. We did thorough market research for months, spent weekends in local markets, talking to end users, asking their experiences and exploring all OEM outlets. No sooner we realized that there is an immediate need to address this gap. All (me and my two other partners) of us left our jobs and started Gadgetwood.

When you started this, what was the size of your company and now what is the present size?
Jayant Kumar Jha: We started in the month of April last year with a team size of 10. We got some decent response in our going and today we are a brilliant 40 people team. So far we have served close to 15000+ end users, 20+ SME's and almost have fixed more than 30,000+ unique devices.

What kinds of challenges you have faced during this journey?
Jayant Kumar Jha: So far the journey has been very interesting and full of challenges; rather I say these challenges make our business even more interesting. Throughout our business we faced different-different kind of challenges; Right from hiring the right talent (especially skilled engineers) till retaining them, sourcing of quality spare parts, preparing for a robust service delivery model as per customers' requirement etc. Having learnt from what we struggled with we took some instant decisions and moved on from there on. If I talk about current scenario, we have managed to build a service platform, wherein we can, just not only meet our current requirements but also, are ready to serve our customers with lesser TAT.

Did you aware of the government policies to support start-ups? Have you availed the benefits of any such policy?
Jayant Kumar Jha: Yes, I was aware about the government policies to support start-ups but never felt the need for.
No, as if now we haven't taken any such benefits.

What kind of support you think that the government should provide to every upcoming SME?
Jayant Kumar Jha: I think the government can empower start ups/SMEs in many ways. The government shall make simple and easier policies, making it easier for SMEs to grow quickly and become successful businesses.
The major challenges are:
Lack of access to funds.
To follow the same company guidelines which are similar to both big enterprises and for SMEs.
These challenges cannot be overlooked and must not be taken for granted given the available stats showing a poor success ratio for startups. The government shall treat SME's and startups differently from established business for a certain time and give them the flexibility to grow.

In compare to your competitors, how cost-effective are your services?
Jayant Kumar Jha: We have priced ourselves in a way which fits an average consumer's budget, enabling them to use and get benefited by our services. Our expertise in repair help users save some good amount, as cost of replacement is much higher. Overall I would say we are an affordable fair priced service for all.

A combination of shorter warranties and design changes means that buyers of even relatively expensive gadgets now have little choice but to throw them in the trash if anything breaks because very few customers know about these sites. What are you doing to make people more aware about your group?
Jayant Kumar Jha: We are advertising ourselves online and offline through different channels. We also encourage our customers to share their experiences in their individual circles (friends and family) and of course also through social media. 20% of our customer, we acquire through positive word of mouths by our customers. We are also in talk with many corporates, OEMs for several engagement and service offerings; this will help us reaching people in masses. We have a well-planned strategy for the same and we are working on it as per the plan.

What kind of strategy are you following to stop people throwing away broken gadgets and other electrical items and, instead, get them fixed?
Jayant Kumar Jha: In the current scenario, users at times have no option but to throw away their faulty devices and buy a new one. Reason being: the cost of getting spares replaced at OEM outlets is higher or equivalent to get a new device. The mantra is to make people aware of our offerings so that they get to know that their expensive Gadgets can be fixed at much lower cost (with an after repair warranty). It boosts their confidence and they can happily accept our offerings. We have a well-planned effective marketing strategy on cards including: advertising, PR etc.