EX-2 Research on two lives

I researched on lives of the owner of Dosa kade in yelhanka and a vegitable shop owner in Frazer town.

Name: Jaya
The owner of the "Dosa Kade".
He is from Udupi. His brother Srinivas started this business in 2000. He studied till 10th std in Udupi but could not pass in the 10th exams and decided to come to Bangalore and help his brother. Their family still stays in Udupi and these two brothers now live in their own house in Yelahanka.
They have seven workers who are paid Rs.5000-6000. He mentioned that they earn about Rs.20,000 a month. They work from 6.00am to 9.30pm. He pays a monthly rent of Rs.7000 for the shop. They have almost 500-600 customers coming in every day and most of them are regular customers, some of which are student and RTO workers. He has a very good relationships with customers he greets them every time they come and the interesting thing is he knows languages like Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and a bit of English, so he creates a very friendly relation with his customers.
He has some benches and a stall in the footpath hence he is always troubled by the BBMP people. He also mentioned about the police which keep coming in some times and they serve them free food. But could not find out more details about that matter.

Name: Srinivasan
The owner of 'Vegetable shop'.
I first observed  for some hours how he interacts with his customers and convinces them to buy his vegetables. I got to know that most of his customers were frequent buyers. He knew Kannada, tamil and a bit of Hindi and used to converse with her customers in the language they knew and made up a very close relationship with them. I then approached him pretending to buy something and started talking to him about his life. He is from Hassan came to Bangalore 15 years back. His wife takes tuitions for primary students. He pays monthly rent of Rs.5000. He opens his shop at 8.00am and is open till 9.00pm. He has 2 farms in Hassan which his other brother takes care of and keeps visiting Hassan to check on his farm often. During his absence his wife Jayalakshmi takes care of the shop. He also mentions that she doesn't have the knowledge about how to take care of the business but he has no other option but to let her take care of the shop when he is away. He has a son Prakash who studies in 9th std, and Srinivas says that he is very bright in his studies and is really proud of him. He wants his son to do engineering and get a good job. He was so friendly and happy to talk to me and also excited that some was interested to know about him and his life.
I realized that his mother tongue was Kannada but over the years he learnt Tamil and Hindi which actually helped him to create a bonding with his customers and make them his frequent customers. His tactics to increase his business was really interesting to know.

Plan 16-07-2010

1.Interview the vegetable vendor
2.Try to get secondary information of the owner of chai kade.

Report 15-07-2010

Interviewed one of the person, the person who owns " Dosa Kade". Observed the people around, the workers and the area. I also observed the vegetable vendor in Frazer town, the type of customers she serves, the language she talks and how she manages to get the attention more customers.

Plan 15-07-2010

Interview two people, observe their routines and also talk to their customers.

Ex. 1- To Earn Rs100 Using Innovative/Creative Thinking.

In group of four we started of the exercise by brainstorming about ways to earn Rs. 100 . I actually realized how difficult it is to earn and come up with a strong idea which would help us gain a profit of Rs. 100 each. 

We came up with some ideas of making greeting cards, paintings, nail art, paper bags, selling lime juice, also  street performance etc,.

After some discussions we decided to sell juice and we also came up with the idea that we could add tags giving messages. Later another idea came up that the customer could buy a drink for a friend choosing whatever tag he/she would like to gift and finally we agreed to the idea "Gift a Juice".  We had messages and quotes attached to the glass we served like "best friends", "a smile for U", hugs, and many more,.. 

We decided to buy 'tang' after thinking over our investments. We invested Rs. 200 and we sold the juice for Rs.10 and at the end we sold all the glasses earning Rs.560.

I learnt about how innovation is also important in a business either small or big and how to attract customers.