Entrepreneurship: How Challenging is Indian Market Private sectors are also not exempted from it and have to bear the brunt of the corrupt.It hampers the growth of business and poses a challenge for new businesses.
By Puneet Gupta
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Claiming stakes in the entrepreneurial ecosystem was not easy at all, especially when corruption is rampant in many departments that contribute to forming a venture, before the end service or product is presented to the end consumers.
Private sectors are also not exempted from it and have to bear the brunt of the corrupt.It hampers the growth of business and poses a challenge for new businesses. Under such circumstances, entrepreneurs mostly resort to bribery to reduce red tape it faces.
Furthermore, the challenge that was daunting me right at the beginning of Buzzmeeh was forming a team that would believe in my idea as much as I do. This was the most difficult yet the most crucial aspect, as behind every successful business is a dream team. However, apart from these generic issues, which are mostly faced by every entrepreneur in India today, I was countering other industry specific challenges as well. Knowing these challenges, for an entrepreneur planning to venture into the burgeoning mobile market in India is of utmost importance.
The mobile phone industry has witnessed immense transformation over the past few years. Earlier a couple of big brands dominated the market share but now things are quite different.
The market witnessed an influx of newer brands with more technological prowess and today the consumer is spoilt for choice. Consumer's consumption behavior has also changed drastically. Today, consumers are more experimental in trying out new things and new technologies, rather than betting their allegiance on brands that have existed for years.
The other factors being rapid growth in demand for smartphones with increasing internet penetration, technology innovation and the disorganized and highly fragmented nature of the retailing and repairing business itself, monopolized to some extent by small mom and pop stores.
In view of these influencing factors, IBIS World, a leading publisher specializing in Industry and Procurement research reported that – smartphones, which are often fragile, are becoming a huge source of revenue generation for the mobile phone repairing industry.
The mobile repairing business in India is poised for growth and it is a highly profitable business – just consider the volume – it translates into scale! As per the IBIS report, the cell phone repairing business is projected to grow with good margins because of the growing penetration of smartphones. The repairing industry revenue is expected to burgeon at an average annual rate of 4.9 per cent and will reach as valuation of $1.4 Billion by XX.
Moreover, Smartphone are generally priced higher than basic- feature phones, and since most of us store some kind of personal and professional data on our phones, it holds us back from replacing the device and instead, just opt for getting it repaired.
Also, smartphones have fragile screens and various other sensitive parts, such parts need more attention and protection from breaking or water damages. Countering the situation, almost 60.76 per cent of mobile repair shops today offer accessories and smart phone protective products.
Authorized mobile repair shops and after sales services stores are either absent or far off which makes the business of the unorganized repair shops much more lucrative and often the prices they offer are unfair.
From another perspective, with mobile phone prices hitting new rock bottoms every day, people buy a new phone without a second thought, instead of going for a repairing job which is not only delayed but costly.
In view of the above discussed issues, Buzzmeeh is faced with such challenges and amidst such adversaries it is working towards bringing in regulations and standardizing the mobile repair market in India. It is constantly completing with the scattered repair market in Delhi, sprawling in the Gaffar market and Nehru Place areas. It is inspiring people to reuse their own devices, in an era where people don't believe in fixing anything.
