Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Abhinav Agarwal: Since childhood I want to join Indian Army, but when I didn’t make it, I realize that serving nation does not comes when we have uniform or medals on shoulders but we can serve our nation with different fields and help our economy. Soldiers save our land, Doctors save our life and Entrepreneurs grow our country. There are many options to help Indian economy but the main idea behind Export business was to promote “Make In India”.
Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Shuma Impex Enterprises
Abhinav Agarwal: Exporting goods with the best available cargo rates. We have a tie up with one of the leading cargo company to export our goods in different part of the world. We can export anywhere and everywhere, anything and everything. Our main selling products are Cotton Bedsheets and Bagasse Products.
Great Companies: What makes Shuma Impex Enterprises different from hundreds of other Import Export Firms ?
Abhinav Agarwal:
We have two options in the competition, either comes first or be the best competitor. I never want to be on the top list but whatever I sell it should be best. (Like Arjuna and Karana in Mahabharata). We believe in the uniqueness of the product. There are many exporters who are exporting similar products to different parts of the world. Always believe to be the 1st person whatever we do in our life. Don’t copy others what they have done or what they are doing.
Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?
Abhinav Agarwal: When a middle class family boy starts his own business, people around starts demotivating you. It was very difficult for me to start a company individually without any support. As a middle class mentality my parents still not accepted that I am running a business. They support me but not fully. When I almost spent a year and did not exported a single product, COVID hits the Indian market. That time I was in a dilemma whether to continue the business or no but then I got the motivation from my cousin who is running his own company from past few years is “Hurdles always be there, it is you to decide whether you want to jump in or to stay behind those hurdles”.
As far as challenge is concern, as a Merchant Exporter it is a big challenge to decide your product. I spent a lot of time to decide my products in the business. Few things that we need to keep in mind:
The product should be available in India, Look for the competition of the product in different countries. The biggest competitor I believe is CHINA for many products but as I said that I believe in uniqueness so it was very important for me to have a product which have a limited market around the world.
And then the next thing which is the biggest challenge for every exporter is finding a BUYER. Haha..
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Shuma Impex Enterprises?
Abhinav Agarwal: Every exporter wants to be a star exporter. I too have a target for it but I am not a kind of person who have big targets around. I believe to have small targets for each year. I have a vision for 2025 to contribute as much as I can to the Indian economy.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Abhinav Agarwal: Patience, Dedication, Discipline.
Well said.. I loved the way he expressed his zeal to grow his business and contribute to the economy.. Wishing best for this guy for his future endeavours and let's hope to see this organization growing soon..