Biju’s first earning was Rs. 1500 a month. Now, he heads a leading solar company with an annual turnover of 4crores.

Success takes time, patience, perseverance and above all, relentless effort.

The story of C.A. Biju confirms this. From being a worker at an MRF plant Kottayam toa successful entrepreneur who heads the profitable renewable energy solution company, B&B Associates, Biju’s story is one of inspiration.

“Before I die, I want to make a change in the life of at least 100 individuals,” he says.

Born and brought up in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, Biju came to Kerala in 1997after his graduation. His father, who was a clerk at the Indian Railways, was against him staying in Kerala. Nevertheless, Biju decided to stay at Puthupally, Kottayam at his ancestral property.

He recollects with pride that he had won third prize in an agricultural contest con-ducted by the Puthupally panchayat for planting and nurturing 200 banana plants and other vegetables.

Let’s see how he built his career from scratch.

Q. How would you describe your story of success?

After I came to Kerala in 1997, I joined MRF as a worker at their Kottayam plant and worked there till 2007. My starting salary there was Rs. 1,500 a month and when I resigned, it was Rs. 9,000 a month. I used to work for 16 hours a day to make both ends meet for my family.

In 2005, I was called by Mr. Siny KurianJacob, who was working with ING Vysya Life Insurance as a sales manager, to complete his agent recruitment target. I started the agency sales on July 16th 2005 and earned Rs. 5, 98,100 sales commission by the end of December 2005 to become the first MDRT qualifier for ING Vysya from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I qualified again in 2006. I continued with the agency for 16 months and earned 14 lakhs as a part time insurance agent. Later I resigned from MRF and ING, joined Kotak Life Insurance as a sales manager with Rs. 25,000 as salary. My job was con-firmed within 90 days. During the first year I recruited 56 agents of which 28 earned above 1.5 lakhs in a year. I got promoted five times in five years. I am really thankful to the team and our branch manager Mr. Radhakrishnan Jayakrishnan who played a vital role in the success. In2010, I was promoted as the branch manager for Kottayam and Trivandrum.

By then, my monthly salary moved up to Rs.80,000 per month. I resigned from Kotak in 2012 and started my own business firm, B&B Associates, in partnership with one of my colleagues from Kotak,. It was the time when the solar scam broke out which paralysed the entire solar industry across Kerala. He decided to quit a sit was tough to get an order. I sold my Volkswagen Vento and RoyalEnfield to spend on daily working expenses and EMI. I used to market by knocking doors everyday including Sundays, public holidays and even harthals. Here, I would not forget my wife. She used to ask me every day how the day went and when I was down, she motivated me to keep my passion intact and kept assuring me that I will succeed. That was the fuel for me to fight against customer rejection every day. In the meantime, I also joined the service team on contract for installation, service and complaints. By 2015, our company had a customer base of 200 across Kottayam and Pathanamthitta. Thomas was the first employee to join B&B Associates service team and he had played a considerable role in maintaining customer satisfaction ever since we took over Bosch customer service across Kerala. He has completed five years with B&B Associates. Vishnu C. Jayan was the second to join and he has played a very important role in sales and administration. We were providing sales and service for companies like Emmvee and Pae Renewableswhen Bosch India Ltd approached us to takeover the maintenance of 140 systems spread across Kerala with 40 open complaints. Along with Thomas, I visited all 140 customers from Kasaragod to Trivandrum and we cleared all the complaints in three months. By November 2015, Bosch decided to install more solar power plants with our support and from November 2015 till December2018, we installed around 500 systems.

Again, we took over another 160 systems of Bosch dealers. Bosch has given us services across Kerala and Tamil Nadu and we own it as a pride that Bosch India Ltd has given usa letter of appreciation for the outstanding service support since 2015. They removed the entire Kerala dealers and gave us the sole responsibility to maintain Kerala customers. We have completed 10+ years and now we maintain above 1000 domestic and customers across Kerala and tamilnadu. With a capacity of around 2 MW under our maintenance. As of today ,we avoid around 7000 kgs of carbon emission on a daily basis .In 2019, we had an annual turnover of 4crores of which 80% business was from existing customer reference. We have 10 on roll employees and more than 1000 satisfied customers. Now after corona outbreak we are receiving more inquiries and that is because of the service and customer satisfaction we have provided for the last eight years. 2019B&B Associates had started a new partner-ship business at Tamilnadu with one of my dearest kinder garden mate Mr EaswaranRaja Magesh .We hope to replicate kerala success in tamilnadu also. Now I own a Vento and a polo for my person-al use, three commercial vehicles and three two-wheelers for business, Customer rejection was part of my life but I had the fire inside me to get back all that I lost and to come back more successful in life. I have transformed many lives to become successful.

Q. What was your driving force to reach this position?

Family was the first reason because my wife and three kids were dependent on me and I had no other option but to make the business successful. Today, I can satisfy all their dreams and most importantly, I have my office at home to spend more time with my family and cultivate vegetables for our own use.

Q. What are the risk factors in a business and how do you tackle them?

An entrepreneur should take risks on a daily basis to grow his business. In our case, we took a risk by taking over Bosch complaint customers but that was a turning point in our growth. We visit these customers once in every six months for maintenance. This keeps us connected with them and gets us more business. We tackle the risk with our service competence and keep adding new customers. We fight together as a team against global warming

Q. What is the future scope of a solar business?

Renewable energy is the future as the world is fighting against global warming. Use of solar energy will reduce carbon footprints and moreover, the automobile industry is also turning towards the electric era.

Q. How do you manage your financial expenses and how do you attain profits?

Initially, we need to focus on team building as well as customer satisfaction. Later get into the expenses and cut the extra expenses. We try to manage service and complaints together to reduce the cost. We take over other dealer customer’s service and they give us more reference and they again reduce our service expense cost since we manage with our direct systems. We also operate from our own premises to avoid rental expenditure.

Q. How do you meet or reach out to your market or potential customers?

We work more on customer referrals and through dealers with the main focus on customer service. We don’t go out searching for customers now, they come in search of us.

Q. What tips and advice do you have for the aspiring entrepreneurs?

Focus on one product and do the basics of sales consistently. Be patient. For a business to be profitable, it will take a minimum of five years. For us, it took seven years. Take care of your employees. They will take care of your customers