Bookish Concern….Kavya Balaji
A low-key library venture is now an exciting multi-city business
A low-key library venture is now an exciting multi-city business
Inside the unassuming office of Just Books in J.P. Nagar, Bangalore, everyone’s hard at work. Employees are either huddled in meetings, talking on the phone, or busy on their computers. Sunder Rajan, founder of Just Books, too, is occupied with his tablet PC. “Just one of those days,” he says dismissively, when questioned.
Rather, just one of those days for Just Books, which raked in revenues of Rs. 4 crore last year and expanded its chain of libraries to 40 in two years. Obviously, it is not just another library. So what does Just Books do differently?
It does not impose a time limit, thereby, allowing borrowers to keep books for however long they want without fear of late fees.
It allows borrowers to search for books, issue themselves the ones they like and return books on their own, using a touch screen kiosk
It permits them to borrow and return books from any Just Books outlet across India using their member ID card.
It also offers delivery and pick-up services for select members.
Liberating the library from stuffy rules, taking it closer to the reader and applying user-friendly technology has paid great dividends for Rajan. As a reader himself, he knew exactly what the 21st century library-user could be looking for.
In fact, that is how Just Books began: unable to find a library close to his home in Whitefield, Bangalore, Rajan—a software engineer in a top IT company—decided to set up one in 2008. He went about it like a hobby, stocking it with books of his choice. Within three months though, the library had 1,000 members. Over the next three months, as Rajan was toying with the idea of running the library as a part-time business, membership swelled to 2,000.
As Just Books had already begun generating revenue, Rajan decided it was time to quit being an employee and start being an entrepreneur.
The growth path
Even as Just Books was growing numerically, Rajan began getting feelers for branches in other locations. “Since the library concept is scalable, I wanted to find out whether others could participate through the franchise model,” he says. Consequently, he attended several conferences and discussions on the franchise system. At one such conference, he met members of the N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence, an arm of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, which helps aspiring entrepreneurs with access to business experts, investors and data resources, besides having its own incubation programme. (See ‘Draw Up Go-No-Go Criteria To Know When To Pull The Plug’, 6 April 2011).
“This was the turning point for the business,” says Rajan, who applied for the incubation programme just as he had decided to sink his own funds into the second Just Books outlet in J.P. Nagar. “I think the scalability of my idea appealed to them, and I was chosen for the programme. The NSR cell allows you to have intellectual conversations about strategies and other business processes with experts. You can’t find this anywhere else.”
Besides great business insights through the 18-month programme, the NSR association made Rajan an attractive prospect for interested investors. “During the incubation, the cell helped me to decide to validate the franchise business model first in Bangalore and then move out to other cities,” he says.
It was Rajan’s own idea of making the fullest use of his own technology training in the business, by developing customised software that would manage his inventory as well as integrate the library network. To this end, he roped in his former colleagues, who were excited enough by his start-up to quit their jobs and work for half their old pay.
It was Rajan’s own idea of making the fullest use of his own technology training in the business, by developing customised software that would manage his inventory as well as integrate the library network. To this end, he roped in his former colleagues, who were excited enough by his start-up to quit their jobs and work for half their old pay.
The team used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)—an intelligent numbering method similar to barcoding, which is used by major retailers like Wal-Mart—to give each book a unique number tag that could be tracked even from a distance. As soon as newly purchased books reach the warehouse, they are barcoded and RFID-tagged, assigned to a library and transported in trucks.
In congruence with the software the team created in-house, Rajan can stay on top of every book movement—from warehouse to library, shelf to borrower, Bangalore to Hyderabad—from his personal computer.
By the time Rajan completed the incubation programme, Just Books had secured angel funding and had set up eight outlets in Bangalore and one in Mumbai. He had also succeeded in coaxing several members of the NSR cell to join his advisory board.
Though Just Books gobbled up around Rs. 50 lakh of Rajan’s own savings, he considers it money well spent. He considers that an early application of technology actually helped him to cut down operating costs.
Secret(s) of success
The main reason why the franchise model has been successful is because Rajan offers a 50:50 partnership to franchisees. While the franchisees take care of the space and the interiors, the books are sourced and paid for by Rajan.
Rajan’s advice to wannabe entrepreneurs are:
The period between leaving your job to generating revenue in your business should be as brief as possible. I left my job after my business started generating some revenue.
Don’t make it a one-man show. Seek help from others (close friends and colleagues). Talk to as many people as possible. Things will become easier.
Never spend too much time on getting investors. Getting people to invest takes a lot of time and effort, and, above all, the money comes at least six months later. Moreover, it’s always better to prefer doing something for the business today rather than depending on what would be coming later.