“A baby Shark is still a Shark” – The Dhinchak Story!

 “Yaar tum bahot chotey ho!”… “Beta, yeh sab tum nai kar paogey!”… “tumhare saath koi bada hai kya?” these were some of the most common statements I heard while starting up my 1^st Venture Moksh WRTS at the age of 16. Young (you can call it kid too 😛 ) blood with high energy and passion to run any sort of events. But considering the duniya ka funda and other paradigm of the society, I was almost kicked out all the office & college where I went to pitch for events. I guess no body like to see a kid (wearing loose formal clothes and a Nokia Engage QD cellphone with a super cool & loud ringtone 😛 ) Tried my hands at various college fests. Just go there, try and talk to the organizers and come back empty handed. So as no option left in organizing events for colleges and corporate, I worked as a freelancer and did some volunteering work in small events. But mostly I got work of selling various stuffs at exhibitions or in some promotions happening in some random mall of Mumbai (Cars,Bikes,Bean Bags,Shampoos, Radio, TV, Videogames etc. etc.)

Sad & disappointed, I decided to choose another stream of events where I heard every one makes good money. Yes! the club circuit (aaj yaha party hai.. call for guestlist 😛 lol) and hookah parlors. I knew few people, who used to organize events at hookah parlors and then sell passes outside colleges and in the friend circuits – combo deal (1 hookah/1 starter/1 beer or 2 non-alcoholic drinks/music/dance floor everything in Rs.500) you get the same deal from the hookah parlor at around Rs.350, PR & Marketing pe you will spend around Rs.50 and Rest Rs.100 is all yours.

So this was a very good motivation for a Baniya like me. I met one of the hookah parlor owners at Bandra and convinced him to lend me one day where I could do my event. After convincing and giving all the gyaan (and yes! the baniya confidence helped a lot) he agreed to give me a weekday where I can do my event. But the conditions were tough, if I don’t achieve certain amount of billed amount I won’t get a single penny and plus the marketing expenditure will be on me. Risk toh lena tha boss! Chalo lets try.

So, I started with preparing the event list. I still wonder how I came up with this idea of doing a “war of DJ” in a Hookah Parlor. So the hunt for searching Amateur DJ’s across various DJ institutes started. But why would a DJ institute entertain me and allow his students to take part in the war? I didn’t have any big sponsors who is sponsoring big prizes to the winners or any high platform where the DJ would fame. How can a person get fame??? Simple answer Media can do anything. Prince (the kid who fell in well) can be an overnight child of the entire country. So if I can media to cover my event, then eventually I’ll have more entries and more crowd and my target will done.

Thek hai now find media, any media who can cover it. Television channels, Newspapers, Radio channels tried everything. No luck. This was one incident which raised a big question in my mind, why Media agencies ignores small events like mine. There must be lot many events like mine happening at various places in Mumbai. How do I or anyone with a very less budget come to know about it? No answer.

This was the 1^st incident which made realize the importance of Media for any happening. You need to have a very strong media support or a good media plan in order to make your event big and publicize it to many people. But what about the media budget (Rokda kya chey boss?)??? Companies spends Lakhs & Crores on Marketing & Publicity (coz they have that much of money 😛 ) . But how can a guy with a low scale event publicize his event with a marketing budget of 2-3k. There was this gap, which had to be filled by someone. So, why not me. Seriously speaking, DhinchakMumbai.com was made with an intention to promote our own events (I had no clue that DM will cover all the happenings in Mumbai as it is doing today).

As an event management company, we always have to bow down to Media Company to get associations for events and beg them to promote it. Media Company will get associated with your event only when you have some celebrity factor or you have your very good friend as a reporter or you have a good marketing budget with you (so that you can spend it on advertising via their network 😛 ) so, tabhi decide kar diya! We need to have our media channel. We will never have to be depended on other media network for Media coverage.

And that’s how DhinchakMumbai.com was born. After that, it took 2 years more to build Dhinchak and another 1 and half year to get it noticed in public.

Things I learned (and it feels really great to share with all of you)

*Never stop trying (if I would have stopped after few initial rejections from corporate and colleges – Game over!)

*Be a baniya ( Baniya are the best breed who can do business anytime,anywhere,anyhow . You don’t need to get trained into this . A small incident will get the baniya out of you. Look for that incident )

*Less or no experience doesn’t mean you are dumb (This is what I think restricts most young entrepreneurs and also the society adds to it – tum abhi chotey ho and other lines . Just go there and try it. Try, fall, rise again and do it again and again. It takes time and lots of patience)

*Have your own style (people will give you work based on how to sell yourself 1^st than the brand you are selling to them. Style doesn’t mean wearing expensive watches and designers clothes. You are there for business not to impress chicks 😛 . Believing in you is the best style mantra ever! Trust me, it beats everything in the world)

*Always Smile (no matter whatever happens. Keep that smile on! Wear it every day. Even if you had the toughest day of your life, keep that smile with you. It will solve most of the problems you have)

Last but not the least , Always remember –

“A baby Shark is still a Shark”              

Thanks a lot Alok, Asha , Akancha & the entire rodinhood family for accepting me and guiding me in my Entrepreneurial journey.

P.S. – Special thanks to Asha for motivating me to write on something really different. I am so used to writing my Dhinchak stuff. I really enjoyed writing about my experience. Looking forward to write more such articles and share it with all of you.