The Bhajiwala

Niikhil Ballal

I have never been an employee but always positioned myself an employer. I worked more as an entrepreneur in my previous jobs. This approach helped me when I started my own business, says Agyendra Jha the man behind the successful start up:Bhajiwala.com.  Agyendra, who is in his early thirties started as a real estate salesman and today runs his own real estate company: Wings life spaces which is worth over 200 crores. Agyendra, a national high jump player has indeed taken a big leap in nick of time.

Agyendra spent most of his childhood in slums in Mulund. Sports kept him focussed and imbibed discipline in him.  His short-temperedness compelled them to shift to Kalyan. His father ran a small paper tubes business which unfortunately had to be shut down. Despite of this business failure, he wanted to do become a businessman one day. “I always dreamt to become a big man, I knew only business can help me fulfil my dream”, says Agyendra.

After doing couple of jobs out of which one was in a bank in Dubai, Agyendra eventually settled in a real estate firm. He had no knowledge about this field. Only thing I knew about real estate was that it yields huge bonanza, smiles Jha.

“I use to give my 300 percent everyday which obviously started reflecting in my performances. I love to take challenges.  One day I noticed that my boss is having a hard time in selling one of his projects. I assured him that I would accomplish that job for him and to his surprise I did it within a month. Soon, I became his trusted aid and started drawing one of the best salaries of real estate industry”, adds Jha.

But Agyendra never liked to be complacent. He decided to venture out on his own. Initially, they started as a real estate marketing firm today they are one of famous second home developers.  For Jha, ethics is everything! His first assignment as a businessman fetched him a sales of 50 lakhs. But when he realised that the project was based on fallacy he withdrew.

If you ask me how we could create our name in such a short span? the only reason for it is ethics! We don’t advertise in newspapers until the infrastructure of projects is ready. We do limited projects but follow deadline meticulously. While I was doing marketing of other developer’s projects I would check its credentials.  This has helped me to maintain relations with thousands of clients and become their family member. Perhaps that was the reason why I got my first seed capital also from one of my client, tells Jha. Also one more reason of our speedy growth is that we take projects that are stuck due to some reasons. This helps us to save time and focus on marketing, adds Jha.

I never sell but tell. I don’t sell until I am fully convinced and once I am convinced I just tell and the transaction is through, adds Agyendra.  He loves his job to the core as it gives him the leisure of travelling. People get a chance to travel to holiday destinations like Lonavla-Alibag occasionally whereas in my chance I get it every day. I get a chance to be in touch with divine nature and enjoy the serenity. I consider myself lucky, smiles Jha.

Being a good businessman is one side of Agyendra, other side is he is a very emotional person. When it comes to farmers his heart goes out all the way for them. To understand the root cause of farmer’s plight he travelled places and decided to develop a concept which would help them to grow.  And this gave birth to Bhajiwala.com. This north Indian boy broke ice with Maharashtrian farmers bought produce from them and starting selling it through android app-Bhajiwala.com.  Farmers started getting immediate money and people started getting their value for money.

Have you ever seen how the roadside vendors wash these vegetables? It is a pathetic scene.  We at Bhajiwala.com maintain strict hygiene standards. Our 150 employees are working day and night to deliver farm fresh veggies that too at reasonable costs.

Earlier such concepts have failed. The major reason was the cost of the veggies, it was way higher than the road side vendors. If you compare our cost with other vendors you will be surprised to find that ours are cheaper. The prime reason for this is that we have eliminated the middle men completely.  We have appointed agents who have 100 odd farmers under them but they are not given the right to trade. They just have to facilitate our transaction with farmers. Since, we buy in tonnes and store in our massive warehouse we get it cheaper. Last year, we sold 20 million kgs in a year, tells Agyendra. The response from our patrons is inspiring!

We want all citizens of Thane and Mumbai to eat these fresh veggies. To reach to more people we are also starting outlets. Our first outlet is started in Mulund at Cyprus.  It is doing really good. We wish to have such 30 outlets by the end of 2018, concludes Agyendra. Sky is the limit , is perhaps the national level high jumpers goal!