DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Successful business is not about finding the easiest way to the jackpot. It is about sticking to your convictions, no matter what

We learned early in our venture that cracking the right business model for an enterprise is a make-or-break challenge. It is one thing to identify an opportunity and it’s altogether a different thing to find the right model to make it work.

Saumil Majumdar

In 2003, we began with a simple idea in mind: get children back to the habit of playing, chiefly by creating beautiful playgrounds. The first reality check came when we saw that our playground-based model was simply not scaling up to our expectations.

We had reckoned that once we created this dream playground of ours, a whole host of real estate players and goverment agencies, would jump in and ride with the business, ensuring resource flows and growth. But in reality, our assumption proved wrong.

This instantly squeezed our cash flows. Put simply we were rapidly running out of cash. The writing on the wall was: "What next?" There were just two options: 1) Quit and return to our jobs and 2) Stick it out, regardless of what.

We were approached for doing non-sporting events, the moment it went out into the market that we might want to do other things. Must confess that at that time these feelers were like low-hanging fruit. We had corporates asking us to do rock shows, fashion shows, dance competition and what have you. And the pay off wasn’t bad.

This was clearly a difficult predicament, a moment of reckoning. But we decided to stand firmly with our original idea. We hadn’t entered the sports business to do rock shows! We might as well then have gone into software or something else.

It was tough, believe me, to say no to those suitors and to stick to our path. But we realized that the moment we said yes, we would go into a tailspin from which there would be no way out. You cannot do successful business by zeroing in on the easiest way of making money, regardless of the context, your passion and what you really believe in. Or else, what’s wrong with a salaried job?

Our idea was to make money while doing sports. We had seen an opportunity, we picked it up but finding the right model was the key. We talked to potential customers. Found out what is it that they wanted. We held back from over spending and focused on going to the market as fast as possible. Yet one year down the road we realized our model was not right.

We had well-wishers asking us politely about where we were going because they were really concerned. In our minds, however, we were very clear that we didn’t want to give up on this. We just said we will find a way.

So in early 2004, we re-looked at our proposition, which was very simple. We wanted children to play. So, at every point in the next five years from 2003 we started businesses with the idea that in the next business we will make lots of money and then we will come back and do something for children.

Later that year we got into events and sports marketing. This basically involved getting sponsorships for sports events organized by others. We tasted some success here and cash flow situation eased up a bit. We got bolder and moved into sports tourism, selling hospitality tickets, package tours around Formula One events and such like. That model worked to a certain extent.

We then saw an opportunity in building business-to-consumer sports portals and mobile sports portals. But this business too would not scale up.

Then came the turning point. In 2008, we started working with schools and this model has worked for us.
Schools outsource their physical education and sports curriculum to us. We use their playground but bring in all else — the text books, curriculum drafts, equipment, lesson plans, trainers, assessment routines, fitness reports, et. al. The school pays on a per child per month basis. We now have 75 schools and the list is growing.

It is ironical that the model that’s working now is actually no different from what we set out to do so many years back: providing physical space for kids to play. Only now, the schools provide the real estate. So, in hindsight, if I had gone to work with schools in 2004 itself, I would have had a thousand schools today. Interestingly the model was right where we were but we went looking for it everywhere else and came back.

Today we have SportzConsult, the events and marketing business which is growing and EduSportz, the school sports business which is an excellent discovery. We are trying out a number of ideas, what we call modelling, but they are not businesses yet.

We are a small company. We will do around ` 4.5 to `5 crore this year in each of our businesses. Cumulatively, that would add up to Rs10 crore. SportzConsult employs 25 people and EduSportz about 140.

I always say that all of this is good in hindsight. You do feel that, “Hey! if you cracked this then you can crack any stuff.” What I have learnt is that no matter how bad a situation is, it too shall pass. I have been in situations where we needed
20 lakh next morning with no clue on where it would come from. But we survived all of it.

I often tell people that it makes sense to stick with their original idea simply because of the effort that would have gone into thinking up and validating it. It’s very subjective, personal and perhaps context-specific. But, what I would like to say is that don’t ever give up. If you have thoroughly validated and researched your idea before starting off, the question of moving away should not arise. Remember, the cost of not pursuing your dream is much higher. If you really want it, do it.