Gopal Prajapati was born in a very poor joint family. His father was a Saw mill worker. Due to the fact he was always fond of the wood. He use to go to his father’s working place every day after school as his father worked only across his house. His house was very small and could barely support so many people. So he used to sleep in the saw mill on the wood plots. When he was in 6st standard he remembers his father’s boss expanding his business now the saw mill also started producing wooden boxes and wooden forklift support for industries.
The boss of his father was a very happy and kind man he treated his workers as their Partners. So he made his father as a head worker at the new box business. Gopal started helping his father in all the work after school hours. One day the boss saw him working and scolded him for working at such a early age but as he explained about his passion of wood work so he agreed and he officially started working part time there . This continued for 4 years everything was going well but one his father died when he just completed his 10th the death of his father was due to heart attack and could be due to inhalation of the saw dust.
His hopes collapsed, he was only 18 years old when the burden of whole family was on his young shoulders. He Dropped out of the school and stated working at the same shop for full time and even over time due to his ambitions and his love about the work and family responsibilities. He some time used to work for double shifts that is straight 16 hours of work and this was very well till one day the boss of him become very ill and he retired due to incompetence in doing physical work. Case Study Mr. Gopal Prajajpati The son of this man took over his business but due to non expense of work. And relaxing life style he never made good decisions and resulted bad patch in the business and one day he found that the work was completely at rest and he had no since of team building so he shouted at Gopal and fired Gopal at the age of 21.
After this behind him about 50% of the workforce quitted. In couple of weeks the new business owner that the business was about to close due to total shutdown and the house of the boss was about to be sold due to the buildup of credit. The boss relies his mistake and came to Gopal for asking for help and offer of rejoining. Gopal had huge plans he accepted to join but on a much wired conduction not as an employee but as a 50% partner. In a week the boss accepted his proposal but due to the fact the business had no working capital to work he used his contact to bring back all the old workers and that to on a conduction that he will not pay them for 3 months which never happed and he paid then in 1.5 months only, but for this he needed suppliers to supply manufacturing goods and that to on credit. He managed that to very easily and the most challenging part was that to tell the purchasing companies to pay cash on delivery which some did and some did not but it was all that was needed to start up the business on track. The turn of his first year was 30 lakh rupees which was in 2003. This grew till 1 Cr in 2006. But due to the dispute again with the same man he decided to opt out of the partnership.
After the distribution in 2006 in 2007 he had a astonishing turnover of 1Cr which was unexpected but this was due the contacts and the customers and suppliers support he not even lost one business in the distribution process in 2008 due to the global market meltdown the consumer companies reduced the production but at that time he had a major losses that losses carried forward till 2009. But he was still was in the business in 2010 where he regained the movement and had a turnover of 1.75 Cr. on the other side his old partner closed this business and in 2011 he bought this business and had 3 Cr Rs turnover that year. Since then till now he never saw loss again. In 2016 he had a turnover of 25 Cr due to incise in quality and quantity of sales. And this was due to the automation from 2012 till now. Now he acquired a machine from Germany that dries out the wet wooden blocks even in rain that will give him a boost of 10-12 times in coming years he says. But still he is a very kind man with a very simple life style he walks from his home to work about half a km daily back and forward. He reinvest’s most of the profits he says. He is very calm personality being in his presence he makes the other person feel very relax and easy in just minutes it’s his magic. He has a power to convert some one’s mind in just few minutes. He explains everything in very easy words.
He is very knowledgeable in his field. He says the success in his life was only due to the path of risks and self beliefs. He says if you love to do anything make it your work so that work is never work it’s always fun and success fallows you. He talks with even with children in a very respectable tone like its some adult in front. He says time is more important than money as money once lost can be regained but time once lost can never be reused. He says about business “ offer the market the best of what you can and then market will pay you what you really Deserve”.
Contact Details
Sandip Foundation
Sandip Institute of Technology & Research Centre
Department of Management Studies