SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
INTERVIEW OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

MBA FINANCE

Submitted to:

Mr. Arjun Panchal

Submitted By:
Parul Rana C33
Sandeep Kumar C39

Sajin Sunny C66

Description of firm
Firm: Mediplus Pharma Company (registered)

Owned by: Rohan singh and Rohit singh

Number of staffs: warehouse: 2

Shop floor: 6

Delivery: 2

Mode of operation:
Firm initially acquired licence for distribution of drugs, it then tied up with various medical
distributors for supply of drugs on credit for a credit period of 45 to 60 days. Also it keeps
certain cosmetic products on shelf for display to get revenue based on sale of batch of those
products and in case if that does not get sold then it get rent for keeping that product in store.

It has its own logistics network which provides medicines from various wholesale medical
distributors as well as it picks medicines from manufacturing units who takes the to the
warehouse and from which it distribute medicine to the shop floor.

Also it has dedicated person to deliver the medicine as door delivery based on demand by
customers from various regions within Pune. They get their orders by means of WhatsApp,
telephonic and online demand.
Interview questions

Q1. What is your Vision/ Idea/ Concept? What drives you to pursue the same? How did you
come up with this idea?

1. The vision is to provide quality health care solutions to masses at affordable rate.
The state of medical treatment witnessed in past is the main driving force for
starting this venture and also at it is out of living.

Q2. Who is your target audience? Why?

2. The target audience are mainly patients of doctors who have their clinics nearby
then the residents of nearby housing societies who are the main customers and
finally the people who come in search of medicines which is out of availability
elsewhere that can be found at our venture.

Q3. Who are the competitors that worry you the most and why?

3. The main competitors are the chemists who have their outlet present in nearby
locations and the future threat seems to be the phenomena of online medicine
website.

Q4. That one feature/innovation that differentiates you from your competitors?

4. The main differentiating thing which makes us different form others are customer
satisfaction by way of properly managing customer relations, properly addressing
their grievances and offering them point based on their purchases as well as
providing original medicines on demand by a customer.

Q5. Did you change your vision from what you had at first place?

5. No, the firm stick to its vision which it had in its beginning and will continue to move
ahead with it.

Q6. What would you choose? Brand image with less profits/revenues or more
profits/revenues with low/no branding?

6. It will definitely be the brand image with less profits/ revenue as we consider
customer to be king and it is not the profit which drives us more but the image that
the customers have for us in their eyes of trust.

Q7. What are your major challenges? How do you overcome them?
 7. The main challenges faced now is that of competition from competitors and the
attrition of staffs who initially get trained from us then there after they leave the
firm in search of better package or to start similar firms.

Q8. What are the major costs involved? How do you try to minimize?

8. There are various cost factors involved in this which includes certain fixed cost and
certain variable cost. The fixed cost are the rent to be paid, salary of staffs, electricity
bill, logistics cost comes as variable cost. Also the bonus schemes and discounts on
various products eats up the profits.

Q9. What is your revenue model?

9. The revenue generation model is simple which is most of the products comes with
certain profit margins which is realised on sale of that product. But there are certain
products like some cosmetic items and some recently launched products which have
their revenue based on sale of number of units if that doesn’t get sold then it will be
taken back and we get the rent for keeping that product in display.

Q10. Any innovative marketing/sales strategy that helped increase the revenues?

10. The marketing/sales strategy is through various banners and posters at nearby
places also by conveying discounts of products through WhatsApp group and by
offering discounts based on bonus from purchase of products.

Q11. Is your start-up in profits from first day? If not, how much time did it take to reach
operational (monthly, not capital) break-even?

11. No, since our business is pure sales business so we have to stock up all kind of
medicine and health care products in our store. When we had started this business
we did the same and stock up in our store. To reach to break even it took us almost 2
years.

Q12. From where and how you arranged the initial funds? Have you got the funding?

12. Own capital

 Bank loan
 Bank overdraft

Q13. Do you plan to raise funding in near future? How much?

13. No, as of now we are not planning for fund raising.

Q14. For expansion, you would like to prefer bank loans (debt) or investments from VC
(equity)? Why?

14. We would prefer Bank loans because if we go for venture capital then the investor
become silent partner in your business and you have to share your profit with the investor
that leads to lower profits. Specifically interest on bank loans are lesser than profit share of
the investor.

Q15. What is the average profit margin in your company/ industry?

15. In medicine and health care sale industry there is profit margin around 20%.

Q16. Your best leisure time/ hobbies/ etc. apart from business.

16. Cricket playing and following, I am a big fan of Indian cricket team and MS Dhoni.

Q17. Where do you see yourself/your start up 10 years down the line?

17. We are planning to get dealership of a healthcare company for entire city. So, 10 years
down to line we see our self as a dealer of a company.

Q18. Any advice to up-coming entrepreneurs?

18. Before you go for any business first check the compatibility, look for the competition in
that location, finances you need, and customer satisfaction should be your first preference.
We have 90% customer loyalty just because of customer satisfaction.

Q19. The funniest incidence happened in your life you want to share?

19. Demonetization scenario: as when government announces currency ban, the

customers got so fragile that they just want use all of old currency, so they bought 6 month
stock of medicine from our store and we were so busy at that point of time, we were
working till 2 am in the night.
Suggestions:
 Increase the concentration on digital marketing strategies to expand the target
audience.
 Profit margins can be used to carry out CSR activities in the healthcare sector. This
will help in establishing the start up as a reliable brand.
 An android/ios based application can be created to make it easier for the customers
to purchase medicine.
 Collaborations with pathology labs and providing discount coupons to the customers
for tests to attract customers.
 There lies an opportunity to open new stores within the city on different locations.
 Collaborations with colleges/universities to provide medicine to their healthcare
centres.

Learnings
 Requirements for setting up pharmaceutical venture.
 How difficult is to get funding for the project even though how much smart is the
idea.
 Learned how their strategy get changed when there was competition in any field get
increased.
 How they manage their customer relation to have customer retention.
 How they attract new customers through promotions.
 How they use online billing software for knowing the stock left, ordering new stock
and billing for that matter.
 How to manage staffs in such a competitive environment.