So, here I am with my first article in the series of 'Engaging Conversations'. Today, I have Mr. Aman Chauhan, the CEO and Founder of the Print Station with us. In this article, I have made an attempt to create a write-up based on the conversation we had. We have tried covering multiple themes. As and when, narration has been adjusted from the author and the speaker for better comprehension. Why waiting?

Let's read an exciting journey about a new start-up in the the world of printing. Happy reading!

1) What is this start-up 'Print Station' all about? - Printing.

The Print Station is a start-up in the field of business world. A platform that is essentially targeted for printing. Their working is quite out of the box. They are not printing hubs themselves instead they have got opened Printing Factory Outlets (PFOs) in different parts of India to cater to the demands of printing services. Unlike a corporate structure, it's a 'work from home' initiative. Their working is like where they have got the printing machines got stationed at the house of respective employees. Whenever an order comes, the employees in their comfortable spot can start the work and sometimes family comes to support them when there is overburdening of work. Immediate response and solution for the customers is what has been the edge mark for them so much so that the employees don't merely consider the work as a job rather they consider it as their own responsibility. An office of the Print Station is seated in the land of Haridwar. The office is again headquartered with subsidiary machines. To an extent, marketing and technical teams also do their work from home itself. Based on running incentives and commissions for those who work for extra hours. Time efficiency over time slavery has been the work culture here. Charting out every micro detail and nuances in the Application is what makes the company a name in the market. Recently, as a subsequent development, The Print Station has got it's own trademark also.

2) Why the name 'Print Station'?

At the time of inception, the company used to call for free printing and hence the name, 'Free Print'. Initially, the CEO wanted to help students to get their materials printed without making their pockets heavy. As a business strategy, they wanted to garner an audience before the company grew. Later, changed the word to 'Station' to correspond to multivariate consumer preferences. Article 'The' was added to give the name a sense of completion and greatness. Considering the long name, it was difficult to immediately come on search engine easily but the company still thrived with that theme.

3) A Throwback to the journey of Print Station.

With the saying, 'It's first time for everybody', a B.Tech graduate opened up a start-up as a matter of passion and inflection point in career. Starting over all this came with a lot of drafts being created and dumped into dustbin and finally took birth - 'The Print Station' in August 2019. Started to provide free-of-cost printed material for academics. Stationed in Haridwar with as any young entrepreneur, the hopes were not too high. Principled the administration and management respectively. Started with a rented office and defining some categories in the application with little investment, it all started. The Eternal Sky was on their favour and the business expanded to Dehradun with two more outlets opening there. While giving out free prints, they also got covered their sponsors advertisements alongside maintaining quality of product. The pick up for orders was perfect for them. Everyone got so involved and engaged that even the CEO did deliveries at the pick up time of startup. The advertisements used to have 'Targeted Ads' as a part of business strategy. Like, people who used to prepare for UPSC, advertisements of respective coaching centers would be there. When the application is used, it also asks about your career definition to make your search more synchronized. Areas for setting up of outlets corresponded to requirements of customers. Queues of orders and customers stood by. And then hit the pandemic in 2020 where on government orders of lockdown, the print stations had to be closed down. Sponsors withdrew and major lay-offs happened as the company was facing downward cutting and major losses surfaced.

A young entrepreneur who had just got successful started getting calls for 'Guest Lectures' at colleges in workshops to help students about career opportunities. The pandemic took it all for a lapse to an undefined time in future. But the plans of revamping print station was underway. The thought back and bounced again in CEO. In a world where there is nothing free absolutely, The Print Station managed to earn it's novelty. 2021 started to heal things and then came the pricing issues owing to inflation levels in economy post-pandemic era. Eventually, outlined it to 75 paise per print when it's above 50 pages and below that everything was free. In the world, where we know 'Nothing comes free', The Print Station owing to vulnerability or as a business skill resorted to free printing. Them came the issue of delivery services where both government and private agencies were contracted by the founder. In emergency, CEO himself was seen printing orders. Avoided funding as there was time in gaining legitimacy in market and early investment would have later led to contention over equity matters. After all, the START-up was still on its booster stage.

By 2022, The Print Station crossed the break-even point generating income and savings and found it's way even into the remotest parts of the country.

2023 came and themes modified to include planners, posters, frames, notebooks in the world of printing and as in the current year, it is on continuous rise.

4) Competition facing with other printing hubs and how it is different?

Other companies are merely copying instead of posing a tough competition and other printing hubs have either established after its inception and later got shut down due to lesser profit margin. Some employees of the company itself tried to start their own business by replicating the model but eventually failed.

In terms of printing world, at such an affordable price with quick delivery services across country and the first to start with A4 printing, it has continued to maintain the novelty of the start-up. Original toners; high quality printing machines digital printers.

5) Testimony to top ranking and best quality of product:

The Customer Support is not handled by any other staff but by CEO itself to record the maximum events of discrepancy immediately under his eye. Customer feud over delivery services became a challenge for Print Station until they finally collaborated with some delivery agencies. Rival companies continually try tarnishing the image of the company by sponsoring fake negative reviews. Nonetheless, the Print Station stands sturdy and strong and is on the way to scale greater heights.

The Print Station based on Asset-light model. Expanded pan-India coverage to avoid regional dilution. Once established roots in India, regional losses would nominally affect it's growth.

6) Company's base location choice and pan-India coverage.

Mails were personally sent to the original customers while revamping the start-up and established networks for a long lasting enterprise. Later, spent revenue on advertisement on big pages.

Authenticity of the application was questioned as it is pre-paid owing to various scams happening in and out there. The CEO wanted that the customers who have once entered into contact with Print Station should remain in contact once and for all thereby developing a repetitive customer chain. What they say is, they aren't selling products but are rather purchasing emotions from the customer to create a long-lasting impact.

7) What do the Customers have to say (Reviews and Feedbacks)

The Customers want the upgradation of the application from an Android set-up to an iOS model. The customers are extremely satisfied with the services of the Print Station. The documents are well-stapled and printed. The printed document gives the feel of a book. Their creativity can be seen on the first page where they add a quote along with the customer's name to add a special feeling. A start-up for printouts has startled the customers itself. They give colored or non-colored printouts as per customer's demand. The packaging and paper quality of the product is top-notch. Customers say that such a quality product at such affordable rates and they couldn't have asked for better.

8) Which section of population is the most affected and dependent on the Application?

Students who have to get a lot of their stuff get printed for studies and for orher academic activities find 'Print Station' as a saviour. Coaching centres which have to provide materials to their students as class notes or self study documents have to also get it printed. Hence, for them printing at such an affordable rate has helped to balance their revenues. In short, the Edtech industry and offline academia points have the largest source of demand and customer bank for the Print Station.

9) Take on CSR

The start-up is at present not on thar level where it can go out for corporate social responsibility for it is still working on it's growth to generate income. However, CEO has plans to establish NGOs for underprivileged and as printing makes use of too much paper for printing which leads to a lot of cutting of trees. Thus, with plans of afforestation, The Print Station hopes to give back what was taken from Nature as a sustainable and posterity argument. Its a part of the plan but hasn't been that structured for implementation right now.

10) Customer Grievance Cell

Customer grievances are supremely respected and the CEO himself is seated on CUSTOMER SUPPORT CELL. To avoid dependency on the employees horizontally and to build a better network, this was needed as per CEO. Also, it is essential to not be an absentee manager rather somebody who should supervise and coordinate the whole matter. The CEO and his team strive endlessly to be available to customer's support and to seek the maximum benefit for its customers avoiding any feuds as well as keeping lesser weight on their pockets. The customer's satisfaction in the review satisfaction is indicative of the fact that the customer's grievances are well sorted and resolved at the earliest possible.

11) Challenges faced by the Start-up and way forward.

Challenges are almost there in every field. They maybe contextual or found at every step of the journey. Initially, finding the best employee for the company is in itself a cumbersome task. Not everyone can adhere to a non-traditional model of working. Delivery services are still a big challenge as they are mediated by a third party. Sometimes it becomes really hard to solve a dispute between the customer and delivery man in cases of failed or wrong delivery. At last, challenges are pervasive and penetrative in the system but it is the trust and support of customers that wins all. Establishing your place in the heart of any customer is the biggest challenge in my opinion in today's capitalist world.

12) How much Social Media has helped in pushing the growth of the company?

Instagram has garnered audience. Social media has helped many customers to place their orders directly from there itself. The feedbacks and reviews of the customers on these platforms has given legitimacy to the app and even attract to other customers to perform their business over here. The company itself is connected with it's customers over mail services and has helped the Application to find it's way and yet expanding in every nook and corner of the country.

13) Legacy that Print Station wants to leave as a lasting impression:

The theme or the idea of emotional bulding should never be compromised anytime. The connect with the customers shall never die. Sentiment of community building would be the outlasting theme. The sweetness in the air shall never die. That's all the CEO alluded to.

14) Anything that you want to share as an entrepreneur with the audience?

The CEO wants to say these three lines for all it's customers, 'Dream Big, Work Hard & Make it Happen.' To be ambitious, taking the right steps and manifesting it all.

15) What do I have to say as a Customer?

The Print Station is an easy-to-access app for its customers. Its been a year since I have been connected with them. Initially, I too was hesitant in placing orders but I ended up doing it for good. The order quality was pitch perfect with some unexpected surprises especially for the first time customers. Its absolutely true that they build repetitive customer chain and I cannot restrict myself in placing my orders from them again. To sum it up, The Print Station is a reliable app for printing stuffs and the experience with the app is worth a memory.

Founder and CEO of Print Station

Aman Chauhan, 27, the Founder and the CEO of the Print Station hails from the cultural city of Haridwar. An academically brilliant boy yet friends with backbenchers with a different vision of the world. Someone who changed multiple school's as a matter of circumstance and rotated within the city only to develop a different take on lifestyle, communication and prestige etc. A non-prejudiced person with high aims in life always kept the family name high. Bagged victories in competition to also bag, his first Mobile Phone of his life. Believing in the ideology that you will shine wherever you go if you have that talent. With a passion for designing, aerodynamics and automobile engineering, decided to do B.Tech. Struggled with family to shift outside the city for studies and landed in Dehradun to taste a different life experience. Graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and also mastering in skills of designing required in mechanical engineering simulation tasks such as Autocad for 2-D drawing, architecture Creole, Solidworks for 3-D models Ansys for simulation. Also landed successfully in projects for some well-known MNCs. Suggested innovative solutions to mind-storming projects as if it was a child's play for him leading him to get some pre-placement offers in designing. Entry into private sector led his family grew concerned for a government job just like a typical Indian family. Meanwhile, qualified GATE exam with a good percentile. Everything was running in place and then life happened.

The mother of the founder of the Print Station passed away causing things to go downhill here. Time passed and then our CEO shifted to Delhi for preparation of Indian Engineering Services (IEs) as per family inclinations. Hopes of start-up had been pushed to the backstage but they didn't die. Later, the family understood where the heart of their child was. With familial investment and green light of the project, Aman Chauhan plunged to begin his entrepreneurial journey in 2019 and is still expected and both wished to scale greater heights in future.

Some Fun Questions with the CEO of Print Station:

a) If not business, what else you would be seen doing?

As a passion and love for editing, I would try and make career in VFX editing.

b) What advice you will like to your 10-year-old self?

Don't be too nerdy. Explore the real situations of life. Try developing more skills in life. And if possible, try purchasing a share.

c) What's the thing that you are absolutely horrible at?

To flex and flaunt about yourself. Doing show-off is an absolute No for me!

e) Your favorite pastime?

Binging on movies based on genres like thriller or suspense. Also, like movies based on business models etc.

f) Mountain vs beach person?

Preferably as been a native to Uttarakhand, I have loved mountains more.

Note of Thanks and an Outro:

As a note of gratitude to the CEO and the Print Station Team for cooperating in such a wonderful conversation. I hope the audience who reads the article gets an extensive idea about this start-up, 'The Print Station'. Special thanks to our readers for taking out their time to read such an article.

Stay tuned for many more such exciting conversations that will just open the tapestry of this beautiful world!

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