Dear Rodinhoods,
I am an avid reader of Rodinhood post and today realised why not give it a shot to get a new perspective and possibly some help in boosting my business.
The IDEA
I and my friend started with a novel concept of introducing advertisement on stationary items (specially Notebooks). Just like Newspapers, Magazines and other print items notebooks are one of the finest medium to reach target customers (specially students – all of them) with extremely high shelf life and zero spill overs.
Why its better?
a) Notebooks are necessity, a student may not read newspaper or magazine or pamphlet but they will surely buy notebooks and if anything is inside they will see it everyday till its last page.
b) Compare to magazines and newspaper its extremely cheap.
The Journey
To start with we decided to test the waters in NCR region and got in touch with lot of manufactures to get the best possible quotation for manufacturing our own Notebooks with our branding (Oureducation) which happens to be our education portal as well. We started meeting people, many people and then more people and managed to get hold of 4 advertiser accounts. We thought we have cracked a gold mine but only to realise the hazards to retail market where people flee with your money. Shutting shops, changing places and what not. we started rectifying our external problems and started streamlining our processes.
We reached a place where we were selling 80k notebooks in a month and generating huge revenue but very less profits (its because we wanted to provide high quality but cheapest notebooks). To sustain we increased team size and put our energy into getting more ads, we tried hard and got the results but again there has to be optimum balance between everything and the realization of Earning<<Spending forced us to change strategy.
Then we started looking for funds to meet ends and we came across a fellow rodinhood who suggested a fantastic idea of trading advertisements on other manufacturers. At first we were adamant with our approach but then accepted the idea with open mind. And it certainly gave results.
At present we have a presence in 181 stationary stores across NCR region and tie up with three manufacturers who can customise their notebooks with certain premium.
Now What?
We sometime wonder why we are so ambitious and the thoughts take us to the age Old problem “why we are doing this?” what is next? how to multiply? and everything an entrepreneur goes everyday.
We are now looking for support, to spread the Idea, to help us take this idea into creating a new vertical in Print Advertising.
We will not ask for funds but more ideas and your suggestions on making this idea RAZOR SHARP.
If you like the idea please let us know of anyone who might want to reach to Youth with this radical idea.