Member: Mr. Bhavik Chudasama
Company: Atom Machinery Mfg. Co.
Location: India
Industry: Machinery & Technology
Gold Supplier Since: 2012
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Having established the business in 1944, Atom Machinery Mfg. Co. specialises in the manufacturing, re-selling and the trading of machinery used to manufacture products including laundry soap, toilet soap, detergent soap, detergent powder, coconut peelers, fruit and vegetable cutters, slicers and hair clippers.
The company was started as a family business by an entrepreneur, Shri Chhaganlal Chudasama, who later handed the business to his sons-they were eventually made the company chairmen and holders.
My grandpa had successfully sent his first order for export in 1957, and after that, the company had started exporting many products. Because of this, we were confident enough to export more of our products; however, the number of inquiries we received was not enough for us. So, it became almost difficult for us to generate revenue.
Then, after carrying out a lot of research using surveys, we came across Alibaba.com. Initially, I attended many seminars that were aimed at free members. After attending those seminars, I was completely convinced and satisfied with Alibaba.com. The rest, as they say, is history!
We joined Alibaba.com in 2005 as a free member while I was in the 8th grade at school and my brother was in the 10th grade at school. We used to go to the internet cafe and operate our Alibaba.com account from there to promote our products. It was our passion and dream to grow the business and this drew us to the path of online marketing and Alibaba.com. We got to learn many new things from Alibaba.com, such as, how to make instant submissions of quotations to RFQs, how to implement online advertising and how to make our brand became easy to understand.
It was a joyful and emotional time for both of us because as the global financial crises struck, efforts from my father to bring the business to success were going in vain. My mother used to give us small amounts of money for us to go to the for cyber café. She had a tremendous amount of trust and belief for us to be successful. We used to discuss and convince our father to become a Gold Supplier on Alibaba.com; however, his answer was always: “Let’s see”.
I completed my high school diploma on the 28th Aug 2010 in Fabrication Engineering. Afterwards, I decided to join the Essar Group as a Business Development and Marketing Engineer. My elder brother, Vimalbhai, pursued his bachelors in Production Engineering from Bhavnagar so that he can be active in business and help our father with the family business.
My brother focused on learning the tricks of the trade from my father; both of them worked day and night. I remember that my brother used to work in the factory to help our father from a very early age. This was because he was very passionate and loved machinery.
Meanwhile, I kept on learning and gaining valuable corporate experience and bagged multiple sales orders for my company, Atom.
Before joining Essar, we had taken a paid membership in another B2B e-commerce platform by paying a few thousands rupees that we had borrowed from our aunt. I promised to return the money back to her from my salary. We managed to receive a few orders; however our target was to go for the big sales numbers.
My brother and I used to convince our father to become a Gold Supplier, however, due to few unavoidable circumstances; he always thought it was best not to become a Gold Supplier and always to keep on the safer side to avoid uncertainty in business.
My brother and I had a very special bonding towards our father, as he always made us to push little harder to be better than perfection. It is due to his strong will power and hard work that we have maintained the legacy of our company in different phases of time. We knew that we (my brother and I), were eventually going to be the natural force behind the success of Atom. We are a team with a close bonding and deep understanding.
In 2012, our long awaited patience had been rewarded because our father upgraded to become a Gold Supplier. I took out a personal loan on the basis that I will pay back from my salary. Within 3 months of becoming a Gold Supplier, we bagged a big order from South America for manufacturing machinery for toilet soap. The rest, as they say, is history.
We have a very special relationship with Alibaba.com and I’m confident that it will be maintained forever. I made many close friends from Alibaba.com. They have always been helping and guiding us in every step of the business.
There are few amazing features on Alibaba.com that we liked, including Biz Trends, RFQs for sellers. These features make businesses to run very efficiently.
We have never missed an RFQ. If it is in our scope, then we ensure that it is quoted within the time frame and we follow-up on it. RFQ is one of the best services offered by Alibaba.com.
For a RFQ, it’s easy to send a quote at the flick of a button from your handset. From our experience, there are no special skills required for generating business or for following-up on an inquiry in order to close the order; you just need to stick to the basics and prove that your product is the best and worth it. In my business area, I need to sell only once because it is a project based business. So, it is not possible to get frequent orders from customers.
Our business goals have taken us to the next level. Our efforts, as well as our business focus, have increased. I would like to thank Alibaba.com for making our path to success an easier affair.
I can write a book on this topic; however I sadly have no time for that.