In our day to day life, we are challenged by a lot of small things. To overcome all the tiny issues human brain has always been working forward. Every little creation in today’s world matters. People have come with various ideas to end the problems. Likewise, Washmandu’s Founder, Mrigendra Karn Came up with an idea of online laundry Service.
It may not be the problem for many people, some may say laundry is not a big deal. Yes, it is not a serious problem but there are a lot of people especially in the urban area where they face day to day problem regarding drinking water and water for other household purposes. Mrigendra Karn himself came up with a very unique idea of Online Laundry service that it happened to become Nepal’s first online Laundry Service.
The story behind initiating: Mrigendra Karn, Founder of Washmandu belonging to Janakpur had no business background in his family. He somehow had to left his studies in the middle due to some reasons but that never stopped him from creating new ideas in his mind. He always believed in creating his own venture. While having a conversation with him I asked him how did u come up with an idea of Washmandu? Then he replied, “ Everything just happened. Me myself being a victim of a laundry problem I didn’t think about it for long and just moved my steps. I know starting a business was not an easy task I anyhow managed to tackle all the problems that come by”
About Washmandu: Being a self-investor, he started Washmandu with 10 Lakhs investment, two small washing machine, and single motorcycle, Mrigendra started a business from 2074. At first, there were very few customers but fighting with their ups and downs they were able to capture the attention of many people. Today, they receive the request of many hospitals, hotels, and individual clients and more of foreign clients use the service of Washmandu. Being an online service, it is totally different from other kinds of services. They evaluate the price according to the Kgs. Their machine possesses the capacity of 160 Kgs per day where manpower according to the number of clothes is inspected.
Challenges faced by Washmandu: After investing all his money to his business he thought everything will run smoothly, within a few months his business will go in the right track but it didn’t happen the way he imagined. This was the phase where his business struggle started. In the beginning, due to lack of proper management, there were lots of clothes misplaced. There were times where he had to face problems regarding operation and marketing.
Customer Response: As mentioned above, Washmandu faced many troubles regarding their services all the costumer’s response were not positive but coming all the way they are currently receiving very much of productive results. Lots of customers are satisfied with their work. “ At the beginning, everyone faces problems as it is their learning point there were lots of complaints there was not proper management but now we are receiving positive outcomes and people admire our work.”
Future Plans: Washmandu is very popular inside the valley but what they have thought for the future is that they are going to extend their service outside the valley as well. Regarding their packing system, they are thinking of not using the plastics instead are further planning of using carton boxes for packing which they said will be in practice very soon. As Washmandu isn’t able to fulfill the current demand with its capacity, they are planning to increase the washing machine bases as soon as possible to meet the demands of the market.
Message to the youths: “The very first step after startup is either you survive or you quit. for surviving, you need to be hardworking and have the ability of risk-taking”. A person needs to have or develop that entrepreneurial trait and good personal qualities to become a successful entrepreneur. Specifically, the entrepreneur traits are networked, open risk taker, observant, visionary, failure is a lesson, open culture, outcome-oriented, team-oriented and proactive that must have in an excellent entrepreneur. Moreover,” follow your dreams and be focused.”
-Januka Dhodari
