Mumbaikars Do Need a Peon!

By Bharat Ahirwar on July 19, 2012 23 Comments / 2035 views

In today’s fast paced world, everyone seems to be busy and in a crunch for time. Errands are one of the most niggling things on the list and people cringe at getting it done. One is often required to be in two places at one time and would wish to ask their shadows to go and pick up that important document, stand in the que to get a new sim, pick up a guest from the airport or any such task.

Recently launched MyPeon- a service to find a peon at your beckoning.This start-up is helping Mumbaikars run their errands at an affordable cost of Rs 100 and is currently doing 8 requests a day.

My Peon is a kind of service where you can get an office boy on per task basis. “We provide some simple basic service that is the need of everyone in Mumbai. We intend this to be a telephone service and have no plans of getting a website as of now because we don’t want hassles of logging on and other intricacies” informs Bharat. They have a Facebook & Twitter page.

https://www.facebook.com/MyPeon
https://twitter.com/mypeon

Services:

Pick up and drop (Cheque, laundry)
Stand in queues (bank, govt offices, service centre’s etc)

Stroll in the local market

Deliveries: (door –to-door)

Repairs: (watches, Spectacles, Phone etc)

Personal Errand – (movie tickets, play tickets, railway tickets)

Paying bills (phone, electricity, Maintenance, Insurance premium )

Charges:

Task 1 days in advance – Rs 100/- + (Travelling)
Task on the same day – Rs 200/- + (Travelling)

Registration: The registration is free and open to all Mumbaikars they just have to call on 9833183385.

Comments

Bharat Ahirwar

23 Comments

asha chaudhry July 19, 2012, 5:20 am

bharat,

i really love the idea behind your StartUp. i would suggest you take time out and write a full-fledged story on MyPeon. Also, pls add pix of your Office Boys in action!!!

do check this link – there are quite a few rockstar stories here which could inspire you to write Your Story!

https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/guidelines-for-blogs-and-discussions-to-be-posted-on-therodinhood

cheers!

🙂
Bharat Ahirwar July 19, 2012, 5:27 am

Thanks Asha,

Will do that soon.

Regards

Bharat
Gurpreet Singh Tikku July 19, 2012, 6:53 am

WOW!!! Everyone says, provide a SOLUTION, SOLUTION, SOLUTION. and this is it. And the best part is that it will increase Employment for Unemployed, Unskilled Youth, which are many.

Loved the Concept. Best Wishes!!
Manav Shankar July 19, 2012, 6:56 am

Nice idea, big market.

Watch out for http://www.meranaukar.com
Launching 15 August 2012. For past 7 months I am working on it setting up logistics and operations. I am there on 27th July to see you all. 🙂
Bharat Ahirwar July 19, 2012, 7:06 am

Thanks 🙂
Bharat Ahirwar July 19, 2012, 7:07 am

Thanks 🙂
Amar Shah July 19, 2012, 7:19 am

Well a lot of similar services are operating, just wanted to have an idea, say if the peon does not do the work properly or else damages the repair job beyond repair… whose fault is it ? Is there any third party clause to safe guard you.

For example i have given my phone for repair for some reason it got lost/further damaged by the peon. Do i get compensation if so from whom ? You or the peon ? What if i claim damages etc from you/ your company as the peon represents the company. Any safe guards on this front ?

This is purely asked for my knowledge purpose.

Thanks and all the luck for your new venture. 🙂

Regards

Amar
Bharat Ahirwar July 19, 2012, 7:23 am

Yes Amar we take complete guarantee of the work that we take in hand.

Hope this is useful 🙂

Regards

Bharat
Amar Shah July 19, 2012, 7:26 am

Thanks Bharat

So say a phone worth 30k is lost by the peon, the company will replace it with a new one or its value in cash ?

Is it so ?
Bharat Ahirwar July 19, 2012, 7:29 am

Hi Amar,

These are my employees & yes if anything like this happens we will pay back the client in Kind / cash what ever is lost/ damaged by the peon.

Regards
Bharat
Gurpreet Singh Tikku July 19, 2012, 7:32 am

A very valid Point raised by Amar Shah…..And my view is that Mypeon should not take responsibility of highly priced products….and even the customer would be apprehensive at the same time.

And some more parameters like “Time Involved” should be considered so that Mypeon employee should not be Exploited.
Bharat Ahirwar July 19, 2012, 7:46 am

Hi Friends,

I completely understand your concerns as a customer, All I would say as a service provider is that we have thought of all these things much in advance, There are a lot of If’s & But’s in every thing and we completely understand that, As i said before these are my employees if anything goes wrong I take the responsibility and as a customer you need to decide which kind of jobs would you like to give a peon.

I hope this answers all your question.

Regards

Bharat
Priyank July 19, 2012, 8:57 am

Excellent! The rates are very reasonable.

However if you are going to compensate for possible damages, one such case could wipe out your margins for several visits. Maybe you should do what logistics companies do – limit your liability to zero or some nominal amount for your basic services. For high value items, charge a (insurance) premium.

As a part of what we do, we have to install devices in vehicles. There was once a case where our technician was responsible for a short circuit in a brand new SUV. The bill of things that were not working could easily cross 1 lakh if we were to replace them. I had prepared for the worst. Luckily, we came to know after a couple of days that only some small part had to be changed. But this did teach us a lesson.

Taking full responsibility is easier said than done. What I would say is this – Be willing to compensate in spirit (which I think you are) but proper Terms of Services / Insurance arrangements etc should be made to protect yourself form unexpectedly huge claims.
asha chaudhry July 19, 2012, 9:00 am

rockstar comment priyank!

i thrive on “share the learnings” :)))))))))
Bharat Ahirwar July 19, 2012, 9:06 am

Thanks Priyank This is an useful advise 🙂
Nishant Agrawal July 19, 2012, 10:46 am

I feel a little lost here. Why would a person, who books peons online, like to pay electricity bills, phone bills, premiums, or buy tickets offline?
Perzen Darukhanawalla July 19, 2012, 11:59 am

I think this is a great idea and especially valid in Mumbai. Just to clarify is it Rs 100 per task or is it his service for an x period of time? For example Rs 100 to pick up just the laundry would be a bit much but if the peionw as available for 2- 3 hours then that takes into account either 2-3 low cost tasks that don’t take as long or 1 high cost task that does take that amount of time.
Sai Rodinhood Pothuri July 19, 2012, 4:49 pm

What i personally feel few issues that i want to share

1) if he is residing too much distance and the travel cost is more. will you accommodate a peon in time rather than struck up in traffic?

2) if he is something a lazy guy or a person who took bath 1 day before with bad smell like that how are you planning to manage peons? like dress courtesy, manners etc etc

3) people wont be up to end except founders. so if a peon went to a home and found that those people are having good amounts or good costly gadgets. he can plan out for a big night. he can leave the job and work out on his night plan to steal things. in this how come you plan to take care of customers and customers belongings?

the reason for asking these questions its just simple. i also got few more weird questions in mind, the main reason is i got 2 examples

1) i reside outside hyderabad. in my colony a microsoft employee resigned his job and started to do a unique concept. its take caring of car, regular car cleaning, car maintenance time to time, licence renewals etc etc

He told me the concept and the percentage he is giving to a boy for cleaning a car is around 50/- how many cars he can clean those many 50/- . this guy started the business and i regularly see this guy train people how to clean car using car cleaning gadgets. etc etc

after few months i think might be less than a year they closed. the reason is those people who clean cars start stealing items in cars like music system, cheque books or what ever because those people who got big money wont care of putting things in different places.

2) regular servants in our area, start stealing cash and gold in some houses. the reason is in cash party houses they put things in different places other than locker. so servants can watch 1 week or 3 weeks or months and once time comes they steal the items

I didn’t want to negative your idea but this is my strong experience and i want to suggest you on this

Thanks

sai
Bharat Ahirwar July 20, 2012, 6:44 am

Hi Perzen,

The charges are Rs 100 per task + local travelling if given a day in advance, rs 200 + local travelling if the task is for the same day & rs 500 + local travelling for the peon to be hired for 3 hours 🙂
Bharat Ahirwar July 20, 2012, 6:50 am

Hi Sai I completely understand your concerns and yes i do agree with you. I have made sure that employees that we have hired have come through a thorough background check, Including a police verification check. We do only errands so I am sure that you would not allow an errand man to roam inside your house, his job ends at the entrance after delivery.

I have made a point of a few valid things that you have raised thoo 🙂

Regards

bharat
Sridhar V October 21, 2012, 5:09 am

Hi Sai,

I read the incident about car cleaning boys stealing items in the car. This is an understandable.risk. This can be controlled in different ways:-

1. By doing a check on the car before taking it for cleaning (important point is to remove any personal items or things before starting work….check book, valuables, etc and hand over to the customer)

2. To smoothen the process its important to have a checklist (displayed clearly) near the service center. This will ensure all customers and employees comply with point 1. You may lose some time, energy, etc or handle lesser customers but its helpful to avoid several incidents, issues and complaints.

3. The car wash company should also have hired a supervisor to monitor the work of the boys and report to your friend on a regular basis.

4. Some customers my resist the points in Point 1 and 2, but you can communicate the importance. I personally used to do segregate my personal items (and vehicle papers) from the car/2wheeler before giving it for service. These are highly critical, and if people dont take a few minutes to do this…..then they have to face the consequences. Being lazy or careless is not an excuse.

Ofcourse your points are valid but if there are appropriate processes, these issues can be minimized. I believe Bharat would have some checks and balances in place to handle this.

The failure of the business is definitely a lesson and points towards these issues. However, I’m sure if someone were to start it with appropriate processes and checks it can do well.
Sai Rodinhood Pothuri October 21, 2012, 7:13 am

Dear Sridhar

you are right, before giving the thing to to some one, one should make up a note of what are the things inside the car, or vehicle.

i believe every thing goes well if everything manages well. let me share you a real example now

in our colony ( its gated community ) people get drivers from nearby villages on month basis or task basis ( like going to some city and coming back after work ) so few drivers hired on monthly basis. they come daily morning, clean the car and sit outside, if the owner needs to go out side then they will sit in car and do his job, otherwise all the day sit outside and wait for work

so we know those drivers, we usually be very friendly , but suddenly one day police came to meet the owner he resides near to my house, and they conveyed the message that to forget the driver, because they wont get the driver as they arrested him, even the owner tried to get details, they didn’t revealed what actually happened

that driver is quite nice guy, friendly person, good worker and his house is quite near ( own house ) where he lives with his parents. so after few days we came to know the story ( but this might not the real one )

sometimes he used to take car upon owner permission to drop his parents or family members at nearby hospital. some emergency purposes. what actually happened was, police caught him smuggling some danger goods, so after tracing the vehicle number they came and met the vehicle owner and told him to forget the driver and get a new driver

this happened quite 5 months back, up to now no news on him. its like money changes every thing.

but as this is service sector, if every thing goes well, the business do goes well

Thanks

Sai
Anil October 21, 2012, 10:41 am

Hi Bharat,

I want to contribute a few thoughts.

The service you have chosen is a very practical “need of the hour” one.

You will obviously have individuals needing the service and firms needing the service. i think you should have 2 different models. for the individuals the cost per task seems very reasonable. Your challenge will be to go agressive and make it popular thru social media. I also would suggest something like hiring a peon for a day at a flat cost. Maybe 500/- I think it would work well especially when people have a function/event and need a person to manage several errands

In the firms, it would be SME and start-ups. So an Estate Agent ( wanting to get agreements delivered or signed) , Media Agencies ( getting ad material delivered to publisher) , maybe indiviual CAs and Lawyers etc can be your target. Because these are the places where there is a recurring need for errands. With SMEs and startups i think you should price yourself at a monthly package cost that seems lucrative and yet cheaper than a cost of hiring a peon. So something like monthly 2000/- for 15 tasks and no travel re-imbursements …. and they would see a good savings in subscribing for your service vis-a-vis hiring an additional peon. For you the benefit is (a) you get some subscription based monies that will better your margins and you may realize some of them may not utilize their quota of 15 tasks , (b) with multiple 2k subscriptions, you can plan your basic logistics like all route passes for your peons and maybe keeping a couple of 2nd hand bikes …for jobs that dont have a good public transport system etc …

Do connect with me offline and I will help you get integrated with another friend, ( if both of you are keen to leverage, cos they have a service based website and you have a service that can be offered there)

Cheers!

Anil