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This Entrepreneurial Story is about Abhisheek Patra Founder of Zoronto located in Kolkata.
What motivated you to start your Business?
I was an outsider to kolkata, came from a small town to study in kolkata. I had to face real hard problems in finding a place to stay within my budget and near to my college. So, this suffering motivated to start the site and help others without charging them any brokerage fee or money and also making some money.
Tell us about your Business…
We help people find a place to stay in Kolkata according to their budget and area. We don’t charge any brokerage money or fees from them. On the other hand we are helping the PG(Paying Guest) owners get people to stay in their houses. We charge these people a listing fee to get response from our site. We are also helping some companies and institutes get a place to stay for their employees and students.
What is a Day in a life of you like?
As the team is very small. One has to do many things. It starts from calling up the Paying Guest owners to tell them about our offerings and services to them, make an appointment and meet them personally, network, provide customer support to both the PG owners and PG seekers. It’s a very busy schedule and it becomes real hard to handle all these things simultaneously. Becomes around 14 – 16 hours of work everyday.
One particular skill you got right and gave you best results….
A belief that nothing lasts forever. If sales and services are not going good then we keep trying and sometime later we do reach a better sales number. Keep pushing and challenging no matter what issues crop up.
What have been your biggest challenges in running your Business so far?
To convince the PG owners about the usefulness of our service and pay for it. As there is no external funding it has become really challenging to keep going.
How did you overcome these challenges?
This challenge remains till date but have been trying to overcome with a freemium model. And as time goes on we will be getting reference. We are presently getting some presently.
What have you found the most effective way to get new clients?
Meet them in person, listen to their problems and suggest them real solutions. Sometimes giving them a free service for sometime helps gaining their faith.
What advice to you give to other business owners?
Keep innovating, listen to your customers and model your products/services according to it.
How did you keep motivated through difficult times?
Having faith in the idea and realizing the fact that nothing great comes easy. Difficult times are the best times of our lives. Either they break you or they make you.
Whats your Your Marketing, Funding and Team Building Strategy.
As we are Self-funded so there was not much spent on marketing. Used our network and some small marketing and promotion got us get some sustainable results.
Your Achievements
All achievements are personal development as we haven’t yet reached a stage of high traction. Many industry people have liked our idea and work, appreciated us and helped us in small but useful ways .
Whats your favorite quote?
When the going gets tough the tough gets going.
Who inspires you?
Steve Jobs and Eminem
Contact links
website – www.zoronto.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/AbhisheekPatra/
Linkedin – http://in.linkedin.com/in/abhisheekpatra
Know more about Zoronto
https://www.startupfreak.com/zoronto/
Best Wishes from startup Freak to Abhisheek Patra!
