“A pessimist says the glass is half empty, an optimist says it is half full. An entrepreneur looks at the empty section and adds some scotch either to enjoy the journey or be too drunk to bother.”
Ashish Hemrajani
The Brief:
In a country full of youngsters, where only a few people appreciate their efforts and struggle, very few perseverant youngsters build up renowned businesses. Book My Show in the online service industry is a well-established and trusted brand. The writer and the actor of this tremendously successful story of the online venture is Mr. Ashish Hemrajani, who belonged to a middle-class family, studied in colleges of Mumbai University.
Initial stage:
The success story of Book My Show’s founder Mr. Ashish Hemrajani is worth reading. It is so because he has gone from the days of not having food to eat to the days of now where he has money beyond one’s imagination. Ashish is very popular among youth and young entrepreneurs. He has millions of followers on Twitter even though he rarely tweets!
This was the turning point:
The story started when he was working in an advertising company J. Walter Thompson (JwT). The company allowed its employees to smoke cigarettes in its premises. Everyone was busy drinking chai and smoking cigarettes. Ashish didn’t have any problem with smoking but he had a question, “why everyone’s was allowed to do so in the premises?” Little did he that ITC was their biggest client. He later decided to leave that job and get out for a long holiday!
Where did inception happen?
The major event that incepted the idea of this business in Ashish’s mind was the events that happened during his visit to Africa. In Africa, there was going to be a rugby match and its promotion was being done on the radio and also match tickets were being sold through radio media. This event incepted ‘The Idea’ of something that could be done in India. This event can be called the seed of thought, which encouraged Ashish to build a great startup- Book My Show in India.
The ground problem in India:
In India, he noticed that no matter what kind of event it was, people have to wait in long queues to get tickets. Also sometimes people got beaten by cops for misbehaving in queues. The situation was misery. Popular movies, matches, concerts further intensified this situation.
The team of three?
When Ashish left his job and returned to India, he encouraged two of his friends to resign from their jobs and follow him in his business plan. Within some time he convinced two great investors to invest in his startup “Book My Show” It all started with an initial funding of INR. 2 Crore. In the journey, the company had suffered from many difficult phases. Initially, it had 25+ competitors that finally got out of the race because of two great recessions in the business cycle.
Innovation and survival:
Book My Show was the first company in the world to offer cash on delivery (COD) services to its customers. The company soon developed into a well mature brand in the market, now the company has call centers, ticketing software, more secure payment gateways, and a lot of new investors. The company also launched Book My Show app, keeping in view shift of population from computers/laptops to mobile phones.
Utmost objective:
Ashish Hemrajani’s main aim is to create 100% customer satisfaction, no matter a customer is using an expensive laptop to book a ticket or he’s using java based mobile phone to get a movie ticket reservation. He believes that every customer is important to him irrespective of financial status.
Present status:
Presently, Book My Show is one of the fastest growing Indian based start-up companies. Book My Show joined 1000 cr. valuation club. Ashish Hemrajani is one of the most progressive, unconventional and successful entrepreneur of India.
Inspirational words:
Ashish’s story tells us one thing: – Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. No matter how hard the time is, being persistent and determined helps a person to successfully survive that situation out. Persistence and determination are all alone powerful!