Story From A Caterpillar To Butterfly- Mr Bharat Ranka
Most SME’s (Small and Medium Enterprises) are individually driven by founders who follow their passion, goals and values. Mr Bharat Ranka, Founder & CEO at Baniya Works is one among in the list of entrepreneurs based in Mumbai. Baniya Works is India’s only Branded Venture Capital Company. Wondering what that means? – Well simply put it, Baniya Works invests Brand Capital in carefully selected SME’s & aid their growth plans by means of Marketing, Advertising & Branding. Sounds unique right? Read on to find out the how, what & why of Baniya Works.
While pursuing an Advanced Diploma in Marketing in 2008, the advertising bug bit Bharat during a summer internship with FoxyMoron. Post-graduation Bharat started his full-time career in advertising as a Copywriter & then Social Media Manager at FoxyMoron. Bharat considers his time at FoxyMoron as the catalyst to turn him a Branding addict. Mentored by the best creative brains in the country he grasped the deep knowledge of digital advertising and branding by working with MNC’s like Pepsi, L’Oreal, Cadbury & AXN.
While at work everything was going fine, it was back home that a new problem was arising. Bharat’s family had made a few investments in SME businesses over the years. These businesses were sustainable but unable to deliver exponential growth YoY. Bharat was tasked with this responsibility to deliver the next growth milestones for these investments. The plan was simple – Invest in the Marketing, Branding & Advertising of these businesses & they will grow to deliver great returns over the years. With this unwavering faith in the power of MBA (Bharat’s acronym for Marketing, Branding & Advertising) Baniya Works was born.
Today, BaniyaWorks has two verticals. One vertical is completely focussed on branding, advertising or simply act as an advertising agency. The other vertical is the venture capital investments in SME’s. Unlike most VC’s who invest money in the firms without being actively involved in the running of businesses, Baniya Works created a niche for itself by providing complete in-house Marketing support along with investment resources. Today, Baniya Works has more than 10 investee businesses on their roster from varied industries like Diamonds, Metals, Real Estate, Medicine & Technology. Apart from raising funds for these companies, Bharat along with his team of marketing & finance experts, assists these business founders to achieve exponential growth levels.
When you choose to become an entrepreneur, you’re choosing to tread on thin ice. You have to step out of your comfort zone and build your niche. In India, most of the SME’s never grow out of their comfort zones. He cited the example of a butterfly’s life cycle. That SME’s are caterpillar and only 1% of SME’s outgrow themselves to become a butterfly i.e, Brands. So, this is the inspiration and motto of BaniyaWorks to support the SME’s in their journey “From business to Brand.”
In today’s times, the super-competitive business world would bring many challenges, especially to entrepreneurs. Every business has its own struggles and failures. Therefore, starting a new business and leading towards entrepreneurship journey is fraught with risk. Ranka also faced his own challenges in his journey. Armed on venture capital, he focused on building the right team of experts to guide SME’s in marketing, financial & legal matters. Baniya Works has been fortunate to have on their board experts & consultants from different demographics with 30 to 40 years of experience in the industry. Today, Baniya Works’ investee businesses are growing in numbers, geographies & financials at a good rate.
Bharat’s Message for Readers – Remember, every brand was once an SME. Every SME’s has its own power to become a brand. They should shift their mind-sets and make branding as an integral part of their business plan. If you have a superior product or service, then it is your responsibility that it reaches maximum consumers around the world by Advertising it.
Listen to your failures. They are giving you so many insights, learnings & motivation to outperform. If you want to succeed then you should learn to fail.
To know more about him and his business,
Visit:- http://baniyaworks.com/
Or call/whatsapp- +91-97699 21220
