by Paul Joseph
November 15, 2011
Featured
Aaj Ka Catch was started with the intent to create a simplistic online platform that would help give Indian consumers access to products at lowest prices possible that are not readily available in the country. Here you will find interesting pieces like a flying alarm clock, an air guitar, a phone charger stand, LED coasters and even a chocolate notepad. It is a one-deal-a-day website that was founded by Nikhil Kumar along with his partner Nitish Modi in 2010 inHyderabad. After completing his degree in operations management from the University of Melbourne, Nikhil worked as business consultant in a Melbourne-based consulting firm and then later at GE as a business development manager. “While studying inMelbourne, I also got involved in teaching and started teaching undergraduate students at the university. I was always passionate about creating something from scratch that would let people share a story. A flying alarm clock (one of our popular product) can be a decent piece of conversation between two friends,” says Nikhil. “Working as a business development manager inAustraliagot me thinking about the possibilities of starting up an e-commerce venture inIndia. To do so, I knew that we had to be in control of our supply chain and this would ensure that we could sell products to customers at the cheapest price possible. Therefore, I started importing the products myself. This gave us control on pricing and selection of products. From day one, we knew that we wanted it to be different and did not want our customers to be lost among hundreds of products. Thus, we decided that the site would have just one deal a day website focused on exclusive products,” explains Nikhil. Nikhil always yearned to be an entrepreneur and while working on Aaj Ka Catch, he wanted the business to be seamless and less capital intensive. Hence, he was focused on eliminating fixed costs. “I had some savings and this got me started. Initially, when I started operations for Aaj Ka Catch, we managed the entire operations from a small room. We adopted an approach of hiring specialists only when they were required and paid them on a per unit basis. This helped us immensely as we did not invest much in the cost of operations,” he adds. Nikhil feels that it is imperative that small e-commerce companies stay under cost and still continue to grow. “There were many challenges that I encountered as an entrepreneur in the e-commerce space. First was expertise. It is difficult to gain access to experts who would provide you the right direction. So it very important to learn from your actions and ensure mistakes are not repeated again. Sourcing funds is another challenge. Where to invest and where not to invest will always be a critical decision and being smart while making choices and having a stern cost effective insight is always beneficial in this case. Also, when you are competing with giants in a space which is getting crowded every day, surviving and getting through is a huge challenge,” he points out. And to survive, the product you sell has to unique. Nikhil adds, “Our biggest USP is that our products are different, innovative, exclusive and more importantly affordable. They make our customers look cool and serve as a great conversation piece. We are not competing with anyone in a traditional sense; not in terms of price or service, as our products are so different.” Nikhil wants to reach out to consumers like college students and the only way he can attract them is by having an effective pricing model. “They should be able to buy products from the site with the limited resources they have at their disposal. Thus, affordability is a crucial element while deciding the positioning of our products. Our average price per product is less than Rs 500,” he says. As for sourcing these innovative products, Aaj Ka Catch controls the major share of its supply chain thereby eliminating any supplier and need for dependency. For delivering the same to their end users, Aaj Ka Catch has tied-up with multiple logistic partners to ensure order fulfillment. Aramex, first flight, DTDC, Bluedart among others are used to ensure prompt delivery. “We offer unprecedented services like same day dispatch if the product is ordered before 4 pm. We use Direcpay as our payment gateway,” says Nikhil. It has been more than a year since Aaj Ka Catch was born and it is growing ever since. Nikhil feels that since it is a daily deal website and only sells one product a day, the scope for expansion both lateral and parallel exists in this field. “Aaj ka Catch has been recently acquired by eMudhra Consumer Service Limited and this will give us the access to resources and markets that we haven’t catered to before. We will soon becomeIndia’s first website to be certified with ISO 27001:2005,” shares Nikhil. And there are many more ventures that entrepreneur Nikhil is planning to start. He will soon launch a jewellery portal on a similar format, which will feature exclusive brands and products from other categories. Also, Aaj Ka Catch will strive to feature more innovative products and sell them to its customers. Anisha Mehta Go to www.aajkacatch.com for further details! You may also like to read: Noopur Bharwada and Meeta Bharwada, Founders, Truffles Chocolate Studio : Designer Tastes- Designer Chocolate Ankur Singla, Founder, Akosha: Enabling legal solutions online for consumers Life Online gives you a pleasurable read and takes your business online
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by Paul Joseph
November 14, 2011
Featured
By Divya Dubey Lately, we have been talking a lot about the transforming scenario in Indian publishing. One of the major changes has been the literary agency renaissance. It would be wrong to assume that Indianever had any literary agencies earlier. Mita Kapur’s Siyahi, Jayapriya’s Jacaranda, etc are a few that have been around for sometime. However, with the growing number of writers as well as publishers every day now, the requirements of the industry also seem to be changing rapidly. Hence, more literary agencies have come up in the recent past, catering for all kinds of writers – from young, college-going authors doing young adult fiction, to serious literary writers, to writers of non-fiction. Most of the new literary agencies are run by young professionals, some of whom have already been a part of the publishing industry earlier and are familiar with the prerequisites. One query I come across most often is: I am a writer with a ready script. Should I Approach a Publishing House or a Literary Agency? What’s the difference? How does it matter? One could approach either but, following the recent trends, a literary agency may be a safer bet. There is a very realistic possibility that some publishers may stop accepting unsolicited manuscripts altogether in the next few years. Small independents do welcome unsolicited scripts. And many of them produce excellent work that can compete with any other in quality. Let’s look at some more questions regarding literary agencies. Q. What exactly is a literary agency? A. A literary agency is an agency that acts as a mediator between an author and a publishing house. A literary agent represents the author. He/she reads the author’s script, evaluates it, decides whether it is publishable (or can be made publishable by working on it), decides whether it has the potential to sell, and then takes it on. Once the agent accepts a script, he/she acts on the author’s behalf and interacts with various publishers till the script is sold and published, and also keeps a track of its performance right up to the time when the author receives his/her royalty. Q. How is a literary agency different from a publishing house? A. An agent is an agent – a catalyst in the process. A literary agency charges for its services. Some agents charge a reading fee for reading submissions; others don’t charge for reading, but charge for editing once they’ve accepted a script. Editing includes both substantive and copy editing services. The agent receives a percentage as commission on the author’s royalty once the script has been sold to a publisher. Usually, it’s fifteen per cent. Some agents do have an independent publishing business, but the submissions for that are separate. The submissions to an agency are particularly for the services they offer, including selling the script to another mainstream publisher. Q. What are the advantages of going through a literary agent? A. Quality control. One of the main advantages is that if the author’s script is not print-worthy, the agent makes sure it will be before it reaches the publisher’s evaluation desk. The chances of acceptance hence become much higher. Many times, if a script has been rejected once, the publisher is reluctant to look at it again. That can be prevented right away. Another advantage is that the script moves faster since it has already been through one round of editing at the agent’s desk. Yet another advantage is that if the script is really strong, the agent may be able to get some amount from the publisher as an advance for the author. Very recently, I received a query from a first-time author on my linkedin forum: I’m a first time author and I’ve got a literary agent who is offering me 5% on cover price but I’ve to pay Rs 15,000 to the publisher he sets me up with apart from his agenting charges. Please beware of such offers. Make sure you tie up with a genuine agent who will not charge for his/her services and then set you up with a vanity publisher. If at all you wish to go in for self or vanity publishing, there are publishers you could approach directly. If you have doubts, please ask a proper publishing professional/established author. Join online author groups where you can have your queries answered. In my next column, I’ll provide more details about literary agencies old and new, so watch this space. About Divya Dubey Divya Dubey, is a Publishing Entrepreneur & founder of Gyaana Books . Turtle Dove: Six Simple Tales is her first collection of short stories. Her other short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Out–of-Print, Muse India, Kindle Magazine, Urban Voice 4, and New Fiction Journal (forthcoming). She has also written for The Hindu Literary Review, Hindustan Times, Indo-Asian News Service, Pravasi Bharatiya, All About Book Publishing, Book Link, The Publisher’s Post, Chicken Soup for the Indian Couple’s Soul, etc. She occasionally conducts lectures on publishing and creative writing. She was shortlisted for the British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur Award, Publishing, 2010. Find out more about her journey as a publishing entrepreneur . You can also read her blog on publishing . You may also like to read: Participate in Sangam House Residency The Higgledy-piggledy Publishing Biz: To Begin or Not to Begin “In India, digital publishing is growing at a rapid pace,” says Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, a publishing consultant
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