He always wanted to be an entrepreneur. But Amit Basu did not know he would earn his bread by providing people help to tackle their phobia and counselling on pre- and post-marital issues, lifestyle matters, careers, relationships — all on the web.
Basu, after completing his MBA in international marketing, started a company that exported wooden furniture. The company was soon raking in an annual revenue of $3.5 million (nearly Rs 16 crore). “I spent around three years in the UK. That’s where I learnt about the internet counselling business and realised its potential,” he says.
A lot of research and planning resulted in www.Circle2corner.com, which was launched in 2008. This year, the service is expected to quadruple its clientele. “I have invested around Rs 2 crore in Circle2Corner.com so far, drawing money from my export business,” says the 32-year-old entrepreneur. The website has earned Rs 25 lakh so far since its launch in 2008, claims Basu, who says corporate alliances and customised counselling could earn him Rs 5 crore annually by next year.
“Already, a number of venture capitalists have shown interest in the project and we might take up external funding soon,” says Basu.
Already, cyber space is choc-a-block with online counselling services, both free and paid. But Circle2corner.com hopes to stay ahead of the competition by offering more than 44 categories of e-counselling services. The company has signed a revenue-sharing arrangement with telecom operators such as BSNL, Reliance Communications, Aircel and MTS that enables subscribers to send SMSes to a short code and access Circle2corner.com’s mobile counselling service.
“We are looking at similar tie-ups with all leading telecom service providers. This should further boost our base,” says Basu. Circle2corner.com shares 25-60 per cent of its revenue with telecom service providers for counselling through SMSes.
Now, the website is looking at alliances with companies to host branded microsites on Circle2corner.com pages. “We already have corporate alliances with Sify, Microsoft, MSN, Shine, Indiatimes, BigAdda and Zapak, among others. We are making two alliances per month,” says Basu. Unlike telecom operators, Basu gets half the share of revenues generated from associations with companies.
Quick to realise the potential of urban youth, Circle2corner has already signed an alliance with MTV for its popular youth shows Roadies and Splitsvilla. The site invites popular characters from these shows to be guest counsellors, which in turn draws a lot of traffic to the website.