The Future of Small and Medium Businesses Lies In Digital. These #3 SMBs Tell How Three small businesses– Walnut, Go Coop and Maganlal Dresswalla in conversation with Sundar Pichai shared their journey to go digital using Google's products.
By Nidhi Singh
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Google India today reaffirmed its commitment to digitally empower India's 51 million small and medium business communities. Sundar Pichai, global CEO, Google announced Digital unlocked skills program which will provide "going digital training' to every single SMB in India. He also announced My Business Websites which will allow any business in India to create and easily manage a free, mobile-optimized website, even from a smartphone.
Three small businesses– Walnut, Go Coop and Maganlal Dresswalla in conversation with Sundar Pichai shared their journey to go digital using Google products.
Going Digital Is Not an Option but a Necessity
" We have 1 million artisans from a rural part of India with little technology. They have no access to the market. When we discussed with them about going online, it was difficult to make them understand. I am happy that Google is looking at the same approach. In 2012, we did the same thing that is giving online training to artisans," said Shiva Devireddy, Founder, Gocoop .
GoCoop is India's first online Global social marketplace to buy and source handmade apparels, home furnishings, fabrics, crafts and more directly from co-op weavers and artisans.
Key Advice: Technology in digital is not an enabler but a strong necessity to grow. It's best time for us to go digital.
Technology in Digital Is a Strong Necessity to Grow
"My own presence was really important in each and every assignment to execute the order. All these things kept me so occupied that I could never imagine leaving my store. Thanks to internet which made my task easier. When I had taken my biggest order, the major challenge was that I had to it from home. It was unimaginable to complete it without internet right from discussing with our production team to giving feedback. Today so many people reach us in a click of button," said Sarika, Creative Head, Maganlal Dresswala.
Key Advice: In the world full of opportunity the only is going digital. It is not an option but a necessity.
Go Digital with Indian Perspective
"We went from 1.5 million to 5 million yesterday. We managed to scale up because we had a very robust cloud infra to support us. We were able to launch 'Find an #ATMwithCash' feature after 48 hrs of the PM Modi's announcement on demonetization. What was scary for me was to give accurate information about neighborhood ATMs dispensing cash to people," said Patanjali, Co-founder of Walnut.
Walnut is an intelligent expense and bill manager which automatically scans your text messages to analyse your expenses.
Key Advice: It's important for us to go digital with Indian perspective but after understanding your market.
