Case Study about a young entrepreneur

One of the youngest child in his family of four, Zaid always took the privileged of being pampered by his parents. Zaid opened his eyes in UAE and lived there till the age of five. Due to some business issue, his father decided to left UAE and came back to Pakistan and start looking for business opportunities. Initially, Zaid’s father was unaware of Karachi’s market and went through different tortures as every time his father start something new, he failed terribly. However, Zaid being a child was never told about this. His father always tried to cater his needs and tried his best that he never gets to this situation. However, things were getting worst day by day and Zaid’s father was becoming hopeless.
One day Zaid’s uncle came over his place where he got to know about this situation. His uncle, a major steel trader in the market, helped Zaid’s father by making him set up wholesale business for steel. Zaid’s uncle invested a great amount and Zaid’s father who was hardworking and honest called for huge success. Zaid’s father started to get huge orders at the very early stage of his business. His business kept on growing and reached new heights in a very short period.
However, as mentioned earlier, Zaid was getting everything he wanted and his father never compromised with his education. He was in class 10, when his father finally established a stable business of steel. He completed his O-levels from Becon House school while he did his A-Levels from Nixor College. As belonging to a family of businessman, he always has the urge to do something of his own. At an early age, he tried different things which helped him to identify that he possessed great skills for running a successful business, however, his father who was very keen about his studies told him to stay away from such activities and pursue it on the right time. Zaid is currently enrolled in his 4th year of college and is doing his bachelors from College of Business Management(CBM).
His passion for becoming an entrepreneur become more visible when he started to participate in business related events. He pitched in great ideas at the very start of his college. Ideas such as business conferences and conducting different business researches was a turning point for the college plus the society. In his second year, he was selected as the manager of the entrepreneur society. New and successful ideas called for great achievements and honor for him. His father, who is currently running the same business of wholesale, found about his achievements and asked him to work with him in his office whenever he is free.
Zaid found this as a great opportunity and as he used to be free on weekends, he devoted his time in his father’s business. His contribution was of great help as his brilliant ideas and marketing techniques bought in new and huge orders for the business. He would easily learn new things and easily apply them in his professional life. Due to this quality, his father used to send him on meetings with suppliers and retailers. His education helped a lot as his father was not educated enough. One day Zaid observed that a person came in to buy tons of steel but as the sales executives were not trained enough to communicate a successful deal with that person so he decided to arrange training programs for the employees. The training program was very helpful to the business. This and many other ideas were part of Zaid’s thinking.
Now Zaid was working as a professional in this business. Huge transactions and order were of daily routine for him. One day, out of nowhere, he decided to travel to the local market of steel and to find out what price does such retailer offer to their customer. The price quoted by the local shops were high and left him in a state of shock. His major concern was that quality of the steel was not of high quality while the prices were so high. The customer was forced to buy such steel at such price as most shop owners were doing the same thing.
Zaid now began to research on it. He went to different shops and found out that there is a huge gap between the retailer and the wholesaler. As possessing the skills of an entrepreneur, he decided to fill this gap by bringing a retail steel business of his own in the present market. He conveyed this idea to his father, who was impressed by him and was ready to support him financially. The investment only called for a shop as the steel was already available with them. However, Zaid accepted the money on the basis that his father won’t tell anyone about his new business as he wanted a fresh start and want to earn reputation on his own.
He mentioned that as per my bookish knowledge, I was told that always start small but what I was doing was huge. Initially I was confused and nervous but my father as being my inspiration took away all tension. He told me that in most cases the bookish knowledge will contradict your ideas as most books does not quote practical life examples. However, I started with my business but soon realized that it was never easy as on one side I had my studies and on other my new business.
Initially, the business didn’t call great customer attention and Zaid started to feel that starting fresh and working on a running business were two different things. However, Zaid didn’t give up and started to plan on how he will go about it. After a great research, he concluded that every household or anything which calls for construction use steel as a part of it. Zaid decided to work on this and started searching for places where construction was taking place. Number of times he was asked to leave as people refused to meet him or they were not available on their seats. After getting such reactions, he reached an apartment where renovation was taking place. Fortunately, he found out that the constructor, Ali, was available there and was ready to meet him. Zaid as possessing great skills of communication, convinced the constructor to buy steel from his shop.
Zaid mentioned the main advantage for him was that he was the one who was providing best quality steel at a very low price. Basically, he mentioned these words as his USP (Unique Selling Point). Although, the level of profit margin is low in such business when we compare it to a wholesale business. After the first contract with the Ali, he received multiple orders from him. This opened new ways for him and he got new orders. Sometimes due to overload Zaid spend nights in the shop only. His father was happy with his work and was supporting him.
After a great success on retail shop, he decided to open an office so things become a bit easy for him to manage. Zaid opened his office in New Chali. He started with the three employees in the office who were looking at different aspects. Zaid, never reached as an angry boss to his employees he worked with him as a team and listen to them on each stage. Although, he was successful but on the other hand he is completing his education and he needs to give equal or sometime more time to his studies.
Initially, Zaid faced many challenges such as order delays or complain in quality of steel or office issues but he mentioned these challenges as a great learning for him because he came across new alternatives. He learned how to deal with them and how to compete in the market. The team of three is now expanded into a team of thirteen employees. The level of commitment is calling for more customers. He is still searching for more loops in the current market so that he can work on them.