12th-Pass Student Started The Business With Rs 5 Lakh And Achieved A Turnover Of Rs 2 Crore In Just 3 years

Taking on the financial burden of his family at an early age, Shamim Akhtar dropped out after school to set up a Rs 2 crore turnover company that manufactures Global Positioning System (GPS) devices.

Akhtar could not pursue his higher education despite getting good marks in his class 12 exams, but he continued to stay positive taking every opportunity that came his way.

He first started the electronics business and then started running Traking Pro, a GPS manufacturing unit that now employs 28 people and has an office in China.

Traking Pro products range from GPS vehicles for vehicles to clothing devices or items carried by forgetful elderly people who are at risk of losing their trip if they leave home.

Akhtar started Traking Pro and in 2017 invested Rs 5 million from a small office of about 500 square meters on the ground floor of his house importing hardware for appliances from China.

"We are developing our software for the device," says Akhtar. Initially, he sold barely a hundred pieces a month. But the product has slowly gained market recognition and today sells about 5,000 GPS units every month in 11 states across the country.

"We sell GPS devices for all types of vehicles." "Our products are also installed on buses run by the Calcutta State Transport Corporation," says Akhtar, who attributes the popularity of his products to their favorable prices ranging from 500 to 2,000 rubles.

The 32-year-old businessman says their equipment meets the government car industry-standard (AIS) 140, adding that the government will soon introduce a GPS device for every vehicle on the road.

"Our turnover will increase many times once GPS installation becomes mandatory," says Akhtar, who studied at Urdu High School but was unable to study after 12th grade.

"I was a smart student and got a good percentage of entrance exams, but my father could not afford to send me to higher education," says Akhtar, who sits at his company headquarters in Kolkata.

"He worked in a very low-paid newspaper office, which wasn't even normal because of the company's poor financial health. It was quite difficult for him to lead the family, even though he somehow managed to keep the kitchen fire burning".

However, Akhtar's life changed when a childhood friend took him on a trip to China in 2005. “He promised to fund my travel expenses. Because I didn't have a job, I accepted his offer, because I thought it might be an adventure ", he said.

The truth was that his friend, a businessman, visited China frequently to import mobile phone accessories. He bought electronic accessories in China and sold them in India for profit.

For the next three years, Akhtar went with his friend to the dragon country several times and in 2008 decided to settle in China from where he bought and exported goods to his friend in Kolkata for a commission.

After four years he returned to India and engaged in the textile industry. For two years he exported women's clothing from Surat to Gujarat in the UK. "We exported about 14 containers between 2012 and 2013 and made good money, but competition slowly increased and margins began to decline."

In 2014, she decided to return to her old electronics business, which was her passion: "Although the clothing store brought in money, it didn't please me because I was an electronics enthusiast."

He founded Shireen Electronics Private Limited and began importing Chinese mobile phones and selling them in stores in India. "Chinese mobile phones were bad at the time. Everyone wanted these phones because of the large speaker and their sheer size. It turned out to be a currency converter, but the success was short-lived," he says.

The entry of Android phones removed the desire for Chinese phones in 2016. Customers moved away from applications that had Android phones and fewer users of Chinese models, which put Akhtar in financial trouble.

So he began to follow his friends' advice on starting something from scratch when one of his colleagues suggested a GPS business. Akhtar took the step and did not look back.