My Franchise Business Experience - Distribution of Mineral Water in My Local Area
by Sarang Choudhary
(Delhi, India)
My name is Sarang Choudhary and I stay in India. I had started with the franchise of distribution of mineral water in the locality where I stay.
The idea of distribution of mineral water struck me when I and my family shifted to this locality. The locality is very big and newly developed. It was obvious that there would be water problems, transportation problems etc in the area.
The area has high-rise buildings everywhere. One thing I noticed here was that in lots of apartment the ground water was salty which was not fit for drinking. So we started getting 20ltr cans of mineral water from the nearby market for drinking and we had to order one bottle every day.
Then I thought it is a good idea to supply mineral water in the area.
I had a friend who used to manufacture and supply mineral water in another area which was quite far from my place. I spoke to him that if he is willing to supply the mineral water stock to me then I can start up a franchise in my area. At first he was little reluctant because of the distance. Then later he agreed as he also wanted to expand his business.
For starting a franchise I contacted my lawyer friend (he is into arbitration but he can help me with everything). He got our agreements made for franchise deal. Then came the funds...Since it did not involve too much of funds since I used to keep stock in my extra room in my flat (which was basically a dump room). All I needed was a small truck or tempo or a three wheel carrier to distribute the water cans.
For this I contacted a local tempo service operator who used to provide vehicles along with driver on per day charge. I gave an advertisement in one of local area magazine and distributed pamphlets of the mineral water cans in the entire locality. But the best strategy was to keep the price of the water cans low as compared to the market price.
My cans were INR 10 less priced then the market and I still used to earn good margin (it covered all my cost of transportation of getting bottles from the factory).
After two days I started getting calls from 3 to 4 people for water cans. Later by the end of the month my distribution increased to 50 people.
If someone wants to start a franchise business then one must have a proper background of the product, the supplier and also the target audience. Funds and place to keep stock are secondary.
I have really benefited from this business as I am more confident of dealing with varied people. In fact I have already started with another business.
