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A young man and his Goan startup
Ansley Dias, sickness a 24-year-old from Carmona, tadalafil holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. After a short stint as a software engineer at a private firm from September 2010 to March 2013, sale he started up a portal selling books online www.itsallhere.in/ in August 2012. He tells Streets of his journey so far in the first of what we hope will be a regular Streets feature providing space to the citizens of Goa to write about their lives, projects and whatever else inspires them…
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I felt I needed to do something more than just working in an office. I wanted to start something on my own. Most of the other projects I thought of doing needed huge amounts of capital. I considered starting a restaurant. I even thought of opening a KFC franchise in Goa (long before the one that’s set up in Panjim) and actually wrote to the KFC guys about it! I didn’t have any shop area or anything when I tried all that.
Finally I decided to set up an online portal to market the goods of small businesses in Goa. I asked my friends and family to think up a name. Some of the names that popped up were quite funny. My cousin Deonelle Fernandes suggested the name ‘It’s All Here’ and I said “Bingo! That’s it!”
Initially the idea was to push the small time businessmen, but they were small operations and didn’t have time to list their products. It’s difficult to make people in Goa understand that there is a virtual world where you can make sales. A friend then suggested that I continue with books. Then I rethought the whole thing focusing primarily on books.
There are over 4000 items listed on my website store now. They include books, magazines, academic books, technical books, comics and of course, many books from Goa.
The pricing model is very simple. I sell books at the MRP, maximum retail price and provide free shipping within India. That’s for online payment or advance payment. If the customer wants to pay Cash On Delivery, then I charge a small fee of 35 rupees. I use third-party secure gateway called CC Avenue for all my online transactions. For shipping outside India, I create a special order where the shipping charge is borne by the buyer. I have shipped two consignments of Goa books so far, of 6 copies each.
I have tied up with First Flight couriers for delivery. We can deliver a book anywhere in India within 3 days, and abroad within 4 days. We deliver in Goa on the very next day.
My venture is just 8 months old. My turnover so far is just around 40,000 rupees. I invite books on consignment basis, which means I pay the supplier after the books are sold. I buy books at 35 percent discount. The stock is all stored in my storeroom and my flat in Fatorda.
I’ve received no complaints so far, all dispatched books have reached on time. There was just this one time when I sent a box of books to the northeast of India and for some reason it came back. I resent it and then it reached its destination.
Right now I have just one staff member to take orders, pack books and send them. My mother, Elsa Dias, helps me with the accounts. She pointed out that the courier charges were on the higher side, and we fixed that to improve my profit margins. She is a teacher at a school in Raia. I have applied for registration of my firm for Sales Tax purposes.
My target for the future is to have 10 million books on my website. I’m in touch with many publishing houses?CNBC, Network 18 and others, the publishers of Forbes, Chip, Overdrive and other magazines. I use Facebook and other networking ways to promote my portal. A lot of it is by word of mouth. The number of unique visitors per month is not very high, around 135 per month, but it will increase. Many of my friends have placed the link to my website on their blogs. A lot of Goan authors, especially the members of Goa Writers group, have been very helpful. I have books published by Frederick Noronha’s Goa 1556 on my site.
Nope, no girlfriend yet, I would need more unique visitors per month on my website and a higher turnover to get a girlfriend!
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You can give Ansley a hand by posting his link http://www.itsallhere.in/ on your blog/website/Facebook page. Ansley Dias can be contacted at 9823952785.
