Ernest Hemingway quoted, “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” In this quote, the ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ writer expresses his emotional attachments with books. Reading a book is a delightful experience, which guides to look at the world through the writer’s eyes. In today’s world of internet, books have turned electronic. They can easily be accessed on mobile phones. Regardless of that, book worms will always enjoy reading a book turning over its pages. They can the smell the pages and can underline the sentences as per their convenience. This gives book-reading an extra edge.
Many brands deal with books. One such business venture is ‘Hamro Kitab’. Since its establishment on December 9, 2018, the brand has provided a convenient way to buy books and focus on the book-loving society of Nepal. The idea for this startup was initiated by Avash Swar, Rojan Joshi and Ishuk Gautam. Hamro Kitab sells and rents brand new books of choice to the customers at their doorstep. The rent duration is normally 7 to 10 days, depending on the book and its price.
‘Kitab Jatra 2078' to begin on September 26
Story behind initiation
Though the venture is only a month old, the story behind the company’s establishment is inspired from a book itself. That book was Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’. Joshi shared an inspiration from the book- “We always wanted to start a business that helped the book loving community. ‘Think and Grow Rich’ made us seriously consider the type of business we wanted to establish. As I, along with Avash and Ishuk are book fanatic, we decided on establishing a business of books itself.”
Challenges & overcoming
Since their inception at the end of 2018, their hurdles have made it quite hard to run the business. According to Swar, they don’t have sufficient staffs. He laments, “We have to deliver books to the customer’s doorsteps. It’s difficult to get through the initial stage of our business.”
As the saying goes, “Every cloud has silver lining”, they are also hopeful their brand will slowly be heard of. All it requires is a feeling of ‘not giving up’. Swar adds, “The key to overcoming the obstacles of every business is to keep trying. Giving up is never a solution. There might be moments of giving up and shutting everything down. But if one tries to find solutions, he shall seek his answers. We try to differentiate ourselves from our competitors by providing a unique service of renting. We look for our customer’s satisfaction and regularly update their feedbacks. We are coming up with exclusive offers.”
Goals
Putting their hurdles aside, the founders are the men with goals. Swar said, “Our goal is to be the largest book selling and renting merchandise in Nepal within the next 5 years. We plan to expand our business to various other cities. In a world where people are mostly addicted to social media, we want to create an environment where people engage themselves in reading, as much as possible.”
Working strategy
“People can order books online, especially from their social media accounts. We deliver books inside or outside the valley, along with some delivery charge. We charge fifty rupees inside the valley and hundred rupees outside the valley. We have a huge stock of books. Mostly, people can get all of the books they want. However, we order the books which aren’t available with us in stock.” Gautam added.
