Pradeep of Maharashtra makes furniture and home decoration items from old tires and industrial waste, annual turnover is one crore
Pradeep Jadhav, who hails from Pune, Maharashtra, belongs to a very ordinary family. His childhood was spent in poverty. Father used to run the family expenses by farming. After 10th, he studied ITI and then did a three-year diploma. After this he worked for a few years in a wire manufacturing company. When some money was collected, he obtained an engineering degree in 2016.
After this he got a job in a multinational company. He worked here for a few years. Then in 2018 started the business of making furniture by upcycling industrial waste (making creative and better products with the help of old or useless things). Today the turnover of his company is one crore rupees.
29-year-old Pradeep says that while working in the company, I had realized that I would not be able to do 5 to 9 work for a long time. My skills were not being used in the right places. Then I opened a book shop. For a few days, he also worked to sell pipes and machines with drip irrigation to the farmers, but nothing much was done. On the contrary, losses started happening due to which I had to stop this business.
Pradeep says that in 2016 he left his own job and started working as a maintenance engineer. Learned a lot during this time. I also went to China. Understand the technology there and the way people work. Salary was fine, everything was going well. They say – I had definitely made a loss in the initial business, but I did not give up. I was always thinking of new ideas.
Pradeep tells that in 2018 he saw a video on YouTube. In this, a man was making a chair with the help of old and useless tyres. This was a new thing for Pradeep. His interest grew and he started watching more such videos. After watching many videos and gathering information from internet, Pradeep felt that he can do this work on his own too. Such vests are many around them. So there will be no problem of raw material.
Pradeep says that I talked to my friends about this idea, but they refused. He said that there is no scope in this. These things may be beautiful to look at, but doing business with it will not be easy. After that I talked to my family members. They did support, but they did not want me to take a risk by leaving a good job.
I also felt that it would not be right to leave the job and start work, because the financial condition of the family was not very good. That's why Pradeep started his work in the year 2018 along with the job. After returning from office, he used to get busy with his work. Till late at night, he used to work in preparing the furniture.
According to Pradeep, about Rs 2 lakh was spent in making the necessary machines, office space and banner-poster for the upcycle. This money was from my savings. For the first three months, he did not feel anything special. After this he created a page on social media and started posting photos of his product on it. He used to write about it in detail with every picture. They used to tell people which product this furniture was made by upcycling. What is it used for and what is its cost? After this many people called him and showed interest in buying the product.
He says that he was first contacted by a cafe in Pune. Pradeep had made tables and chairs for that cafe. Also helped in designing the cafe and giving it a better look. All the customers who came there praised the design of the cafe. Many people also became Pradeep's customers through that cafe. After this his caravan continued to grow. One after the other, orders started coming to him for designing and furniture for offices and cafes.
Pradeep says that when orders started coming in a large number of people, earning good money, he left the job in 2019 and started giving all his time to his business. He says that along with social media, I also prepare office decorations and furniture for many companies and business men across the country. I have worked on more than 500 such projects. Right now 15 people are working with us. They say that our business has definitely been affected due to Kovid and lockdown, yet last year we achieved a turnover of one crore rupees.
Pradeep started his business with waste and used tyres. Today they are making things like tables, chairs, sofas, wash basins, food carts, barrel wine storage, hanging lights, by upcycling industrial barrels, old and waste cars, auto rickshaws, bikes, cycles, old wood etc. Along with this, they also prepare things used in home decoration and cafe decoration. They have upcycled more than one lakh barrels, more than 50 thousand tires and more than five thousand vehicles so far.
They say that we have not taken any training to make this product, nor are there any big technical things in it. If anyone tries it, it can work. We too have been learning while working. If anyone wants to start this kind of work then he can take help of internet. After this, he can try to make a product from the small things around him. As the business grows, he will have to buy shops and machines.
