We asked a few very diverse entrepreneurs about their business goals for 2020. They are game changers and have played with new concepts in the market so perhaps their goals could give us food for thought. Here’s what they had to say:
Ahmed Dulla
Founder and CEO of The Factory Team, Dulla
I really want to do something new every year in terms of branding; bringing something new and to learn and improve the process. Welted shoes are the next level game which require more handiwork. With that we have plans to take our product quality a notch higher.
I would love to face challenges and learn from my experiences. I don’t know what I am supposed to anticipate, but I am ready for whatever comes my way. We have plans to open stores outside Nepal as we already have interest from people who want to open Dulla stores in Australia and Denmark.
My first shoes were completely handmade, even the heel and soles were made of wood. Now we have shifted to better technology, better material, our branding packaging has changed drastically. We focus a lot on packaging and presentation. We offer socks, shoe shiner, shoe bags. It’s a complete package.
Personally speaking, I am looking at baby steps. I am not looking to grow too fast. I have multiple offers from people who want to take my franchise but I am not giving it yet. We do not want to expand that fast; we are happy with our current growth.
Rohit Tiwari
Co-Founder and CEO, Foodmario
Our business goal would be to scale Foodmario out of Kathmandu, if possible to other countries. And at the same time, our plan is to empower thousands of home cooks and serve millions of customers. To achieve this, building the right team is crucial. Plus, getting better technology, improving service, reducing delivery time and focusing on subscription model are a few things we want to acheive. The goals are specific and measurable, and yes we are set to scale.
Akash Nath Pyakuryal
Founder, Nana’s Delight
We have a long term objective for 2024. We set ourselves a five year target. But for 2020, our principle objectives will be again working towards the craft part of the making of our products. Basically, increasing our knowledge and expertise and working with cocoa. The other thing would be, personally expanding our production in a manner that will be accommodated in mega stores like Bhatbhateni and for our products to be present in the refrigerators of every home. That basically means producing more affordable chocolates which means being more price sensitive.
Asheem Man Singh Basnyat
Regional Director, Pathao
There’s something called the critical mass for marketplace. We are a marketplace business where we have created the market where supply as bikes and taxis and demand as in commuters come and meet. Critical mass does not mean that you earn money but it means you can sustain the business. We reached critical mass in April last year and after that, the surplus amount we earned was used on aggressive growth. For example: promo-codes, rider bonuses and marketing. If we do not continue to grow the critical mass that we achieved in April, it will catch up to us. So what that means is we’ll have to keep on growing. We’ll have to keep on expanding the market. And that’s the only way we can survive.
2020 is all about pushing new boundaries, opening new opportunities and retaining all the trust of our customers, our riders and our drivers and take that idea and launch other products or other verticals or make these verticals more efficient.
In 2020 as we grow, so will a lot of other companies. But without proper litigation and legislative guidelines we will always lag behind. So we have reached out to food delivery companies, other ride sharing companies, app-based e-commerce and bookings companies. We are trying to pull them together so that we could in one voice talk to all the stakeholders and set out on making our sector even better. We are aiming to create a loose consortium of like-minded people who will help each other for the sector’s improvement.
Biraj Khadka
Co-founder, I am the Gardener
The main focus in 2020 will be on expansion. At present, we have expanded to three places and recently we added one more outlet at Labim Mall. We are targeting to add six more outlets. Initially, expansion for us was a bit tough as we did not have much experience but as we are growing as a business, expansion seems second nature to us. We are optimistic about the future.
In terms of production, we are also exploring the locally available products. We hope to slowly introduce local plants. We are so rich in our local flora and fauna. We have the potential to domesticate wild plants. Unfortunately, the process of research and development from the government is in laggard state. Horticulture has huge potential to lift the economy.
Mahima and Prathana Uday S. Shrestha
Founders, MP Luxury Bridal
Our business goal for the year 2020 is to introduce Nepali bridal wear to the global audience. Our main strength is bringing imagination to life. The key which we hope will help in achieving our goals is our storytelling and branding strategy. MP as a brand sells stories rather than just products and we are so excited to tell the story of a Nepali bride to the global audience.
