These 3 Service Engineers Quit Their Jobs To Build Their Own Business
- Bala has been working at shop floor and rose from serviceman who would do odd jobs in workshop to becoming a service engineer at L&T Construction
- He dreamt of building his own workshop as he started gaining expertise in repairing hydraulic pumps of heavy equipment
- He would discuss his dream along with his two friends who were also working in different workshops
- He worked in L&T as service engineer for 10 years and convinced his two friends to call it quits in Q3 2019
- As service engineers they knew they need to work with best of the part suppliers and choosing the right supplier is most critical to success of their workshop
- They visited Banglore, Chennai to meet many traders who were supplying parts
- Even though they visited trader’s shops they could not have detailed conversation with traders. Bala quips “As a new business none of the traders knew us personally or heard of our workshop. Hence most of the suppliers would not explain their product offerings nor give their price list”
- Frustrated with this experience Bala started searching for excavator parts on Google
- One of the search result was YantraLive.com and they explored the website and submitted form on chatbot that popped up on website saying “Talk to our Expert”
- Next day Bala got a call from Yantralive Sales Engineer who knows Tamil ( his mother tongue) to understand their business and what parts requirement they had
- Bala was pleasantly surprised that YantraLive could supply very wide range of parts and had their own workshop for hydraulics.
- At first Bala placed order of small items to try out the newly found supplier. Within 3-4 deliveries in the first 3 months they gained confidence with YantraLive
- Bala said “YantraLive has been very responsive in giving quotes which other suppliers did not even bother to respond or answer their calls”
First Set Back
- Within first six month they could get business from their relationship with dealership. After 6 months the service manager at dealership changed and suddenly they lost their 90% of the service business.
- They frantically started approaching the local fleet owners and crusher operators in Jan 2020 to market their services
- Within 2 months they started getting service enquiries from the crusher plants
- Deadly COVID19 wave struck in Mar20 before they could come back on their feet
- Bala was filled with deep sorrow and started regretting his decision about quitting his job
- After the lockdown started easing out, he started getting enquiries from the crusher plants they had visited just before lockdown
- Bala was elated to get customer calls and wanted to give best of the service to his customers
Agile Supplier in Times of Need
- Bala wanted to use good quality parts for his service jobs and was happy to get multiple options of parts from YantraLive
- Given the lockdown situation entire supply chain had been disrupted in the country and he needed parts on time to service his first time clients
- He would clearly discuss his delivery requirements with YantraLive and YantraLive could work with multiple delivery modes to meet his urgent requirement
- As Service business Bala gets paid only after completing his job and has to invest his own working capital to procure parts
- As He has been working with YantraLive for 1 year, he expressed this predicament to buy parts and YantraLive offered credit so that he could continue doing his service jobs
Business Growth
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- Now Bala has set up 3 workshops and has employed 10 service engineers to cater to his client needs
- He identified regular need for hose fittings and bought Hose Crimping machine to cater to this requirement
- He started stocking items like toothpoints and undercarriage that his customers need regularly
- Now Bala is exploring more opportunities to partner with YantraLive to become a service partner and fulfilment centre
- Now Bala has set up 3 workshops and has employed 10 service engineers to cater to his client needs
