Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Colored and Perfumed Urine

Why not have colored urine!

If you don't like your urine color, then change it. We have tablets that can color your urine in Green, Blue and Orange. The effect will last for 6 hours after the tablet is taken. These tables also add a slight pleasant fragrance to the urine so, you don't need to use any room fresher in your bath room.

Isn't this a great idea!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Self Storage

Introduction
We are planning to offer on rent storage or warehouse space as small as 10 to 20 sq ft. Examples can be someone who wants to store his household goods or old furniture. Store food grains. Keep his car for a few days when he is on a holiday with his family. Small retailers who can’t afford large warehouse space can rent small enclosure for a nominal fee.
We are also planning to offer lockers in which people can store their valuables like jewellery and valuable documents when they are away from home.
Self storage is a booming industry in USA and is used by people to store household goods, boats, motorcycles etc. Enlisted military men use them to store their belongings when they are on overseas deployment.

Current Situation
Currently there is no storage service offered in India where a person can store his household belongings when he is away. Till now people used to request their neighbors to keep an eye on the house and car.
We can offer a service in which we can store his household goods and car for a specified period of time and charge a nominal fee. We can also offer a pick up and drop facility to transport the goods to the warehouse location. People keep their cars with friends or in the office when they are away from city.

Facility Layout
A large warehouse of more than 10,000 sq ft situated at the outskirts of the city or within city limits would be ideal for this venture. An advantage of having the warehouse within city limits is to avoid any conflict with local Octroi authorities on the goods being transported.
Small enclosures made with fencing nets with gates would be put up. These gates can be locked by the person who takes the space on rent. These would be multistoried, so that vertical empty space can be utilized. Fork lifts or suitable pallets would be made available to make it easy to transport goods within the warehouse.
A security agency can be hired to oversee the facility and provide security. We can even outsource the running of the warehouse to the security agency.
The customer would be allowed access to his storage space only during office hours and week days. There can be an option of having no electrical connection at all. A mobile flood light can be arranged and plugged into nearest plug point.
Access to storage space can be done during office hours. Security guards can be placed depending on the size of the units. Even the entire management can be outsourced to security guard agency.

Example Situations
1. Store cars or motorcycles when the family is on holiday outside the city or travelling for a duration of more than a few days.
2. Overseas job posting: IT employees can store they belongings when they are posted abroad for months. They do have an option of transporting their belongings to their home but this may not always be feasible as cost of transport and want of space at home may be an issue.
3. Temporary Storage for Inventory: Small companies can hire space for a few days to a few months to store their inventory. They need not hire a warehouse and pay for space they are not using when they don’t need it.

Services Offered
1. A tempo can be arranged to pick up and drop goods from the doorstep of customers.
2. Storage can be offered for a few days to months.
3. Small and large lockers would be available to store small valuable items.
4. Delayed delivery option can be exercised by customers who wants the goods to be stored for some time and then to be delivered at a certain location.
5. Can act as a temporary storage or collection point for a few hours. This service needs to have special loading docks built.

Marketing Challenges
This service has to marketed and advertized to reach the targeted audience. Initially the retail market can be targeted. Significant amount of money has to be spent on making a brand image and making the service known.

Competition
Many established courier and less than truck load (LTL) transport companies can start offering such services.
Established warehouse owners may not want to rent out space at a retail level as staff costs will be high and service quality may be an issue.
New entrants can come into business as operating and maintenance costs are low.

Comments
“Tata Motor’s Nano will have a rippling effect on other industries as well. As the number of car owners in India increase, the demand for parking and car storage will also increase significantly. The Indian self storage industry and marketplace should take notice of this new storage trend and look at the possibilities ahead. Parking garages, automobile self storage and streetside parking will be prime real estate for self storage owners.” (Source: www.selfstorageblog.com)

Google Keyword: self storage
Links: http://www.selfstorageblog.com/tag/industry-news/

Low Cost Travel Market in India

Concept

We are planning to target the low cost travel market in India. We are planning to build and / or operate dormitories in small towns and cities across India. Initially such facilities would cater to Male traveler only. Facilities to accommodate families would be added later in large cites depending on the customer response and success of the business model.

The dormitories will offer facilities like clean toilets, bathrooms, luggage lockers, luggage / storage racks and beds at a nominal cost. Example of rates we are planning to charge is Rs 5 for use of toilets and bathrooms, Rs 10 for use of lockers to keep luggage for a day and Rs 20 for a bed to sleep overnight or rest during the day (and use the toilets and bathrooms next morning).

Target customer a male who is classified as poor and earning less than the minimum wage per month.


Current Situation
Indian cities are generally serve as a center of trading for villages and small towns situated around the city. Generally travelers come to the city in the morning and return to their villages in the evening. If they have to stay overnight, they arrange for accommodation with their relatives who stay in the city. Often a place to sleep during the night forms a deterrent for anyone travelling to cities when they don’t have any relatives. In major cities, people can be seen sleeping in railway platforms, waiting rooms in train stations and bus stations alongside their belongings.

There are hotels which offer rooms with attached bathrooms and toilets at rates as low as Rs 80 in cities. These hotels may charge more if only a few rooms are left, change their rates during peak seasons or in short they don’t have a fixed rate card. Availability of such hotels is not uniform across cities.

Clock rooms are present in railway stations which are in cities. These clock rooms mostly serve railway passengers and remain inaccessible to passengers not using railways as a mode of transport.


Location
These dormitories would be located near to main transit points in cities and small towns. These dormitories would be advertised in local vernacular language newspapers, pamphlets distributed at / near bus stops and railway stations, direction signs etc. As far as possible a common design format would be followed for the front desk (reception area), direction signs and advertizing. Carefully designed signs would be strategically placed to attract target customers. Once the business picks up, new dormitories would be opened in locations where rent is cheap. Such new dormitories would rely on repeat customers who have used our dormitories in the same city or other cities. Near the reception area, there would be a board displaying locations of other dormitories in other cities.


Ideal Location
It would make business sense to take over public toilets and poorly run dormitories or empty space in bus stops and railway stations, modify with minimal investment and operate the service. We can bargain with the government agency to give us space at a lower rate (as we are doing public service by providing accommodation at lower rates). Problem of dealing with government bureaucracy.


Facilities in Dormitories
1. Structural changes have to be made to the site to accommodate Indian style toilets, bathrooms, washbasins and plumbing for water.
2. Toilets: Indian style toilets with place to keep luggage, hooks, bucket and mug.
3. Urinals
4. Bathrooms: Buckets, mugs
5. Beds: cheap metal beds with cotton mattress, cotton pillow. A washed set of bed sheet and pillow cover would be given along with each bed. A blanket may be given at additional cost of Rs 10. (Blanket cover would be washed, blankets may be washed once a month.) The size of the beds can be customized to increase the number of beds in a location. This can be done at a later stage when we can invest in design of the facility.
6. Washed towels can be hired on rent. Soap and tooth power would be on sale at the counter. Chains and locks can be hired to tie luggage to beds.
7. Storage racks for ranks.
8. Clean drinking water.


Design of Site
A workable design of the location has to done. Some properties of the design should be low maintenance, least plumbing modifications, appeal to target customers.
Low cost wall painting. The cheapest shade that’s available.
Fans. Energy saving lamps. Cheap curtains on windows.
Bathroom and toilet stalls can be erected by using plywood or plastic (syntax) type doors and partitions.


Entry Barrier for the Competition
The cost of the services proved by us would form an entry barrier. If a dormitory succeeds or is running, a few more may crop up nearby. These ones can be run by individual businessmen. We don’t foresee any big financially strong company coming in this business.


Economic Viability
Currently this model is not economically viable due to high cost of capital. A stand alone dormitory can be made but the cost of capital makes this unviable. (See attached excel sheet for cost calculations.)
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