RSA Auto i-Care – Your complete guide to Car breakdown Assistance and Complete Car Care solution
Car breakdown assistance has always been a highly demanded but hard to find troublesome task when it comes to flat tyres, car battery run-out, and other vehicle break downs we generally face almost every day. All one can think of at that time is to have a mechanic there and then, to get rid of the issues immediately. Looking for and Waiting is another mountainous task…trust me!! RSA Auto i-Care recognized this huge havoc of problems and came to the rescue with their fantastic concept of road side assistance, aka RSA. RSA Auto i-Care provides complete road side assistance to your vehicle. Their head office is based at Mumbai, but they have a huge network of tyre shops, battery shops, car accessories shops, garages, and assistant help across all Indian cities.
In the times of a vehicle break down and any other car related issues, they ensure a help reaches out to you as fast as possible by leveraging the thankful support of their well developed network, and that you would be able to resume your journey without having to worry further. Not only this, they also came up with a concept of “Garage on Wheels” which is mobile garage.
Mr. Sagar Joshi, an automobile engineer by profession founded RSA Auto i-Care in 2015 after having a wrecked car experience himself while on one of his road trips and realized the value of much needed road side assistance. Since then he has been doing everything he can to fill the gap and make things better at the user end. RSA Auto i-Care are the proud pioneers of giving India its first and only complete car assistance company all across the country 24×7, along with other allied services for your car. For the kind of service they are offering, you’ll be surprised to hear their membership charges.
Read on further to the interview of an automobile engineer turned entrepreneur who is aiming to build his venture with patience and perseverance in order to provide the best of experience to the customers.
1.What is the Name of Your Venture? Any specific reason for this name?
RSA Autocare Pvt Ltd, RSA is a short form of Road Side Assistance, if a vehicle breaks down then it requires Road Side Assistance. Our Brand name is RSA Auto i-Care
2.Who is your target Audience/clients?
All car users across India are our clients
3.Where is your venture based (city, state, country) &What are your geographical target areas?
We are based out of Mumbai. Our presence is across India. We have tie-ups with 18000 garages and other automobile service providers like Tyre Shops, Battery shops, Car Accessories shop across India. We also have our service vans in the name of RSA Auto i-Care Garage on wheels.
4.What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?
When a car breaks down especially in an unknown city or town and during night it is very difficult to find a mechanic. RSA Auto i-Care provides solution to this problem by ensuring that a mechanic reaches to the spot to help start the car again. So the car users can drive peacefully without having to worry.
We provide 24 x 7 road side assistance and complete car care solution all across India via our free mobile app – RSA Auto i-Care and 24 x 7 Toll Free – 1800 120 120 3
We have a RSA Auto i-Care club Membership for just Rs.365 valid for 10 years. A club card member gets access to assured RSA service at discounted rate and also loads of other offers and discounts to various services related to automobile.
Through the RSA Auto i-Care mobile app customers can view list of service providers like local workshops, Tyre shops, battery shop, motor driving schools in surrounding areas located via GPS tracking.
5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?
RSA was born on 20th May 2015 in my mind. I was on my way to Shirdi along with friends and in middle of the night at around 12-12.30 pm our car had a breakdown. No garage was in the vicinity and no other help available. Inspite of being a Automobile Engineer I could not do anything without the necessary tools. We just waited helplessly for 8 hrs.
It is said that adversity gives birth to new ideas. That’s what exactly happened in this case too. RSA Autocare Pvt. Ltd. was born.
This experience made me realize the gap in the market for a reliable and genuine Road Side Assistance that will provide help to those who need it on urgent basis. I decided that the problem that I faced I wouldn’t let that happen to anyone else.
On this noble thought began the journey of RSA Autocare Pvt. Ltd. Very proudly we can say today that we have got the opportunity to help innumerable customers.
6.Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
We can proudly say that we are the only company, which is providing a complete car solution experience to our customers right from RSA to other allied services, across India 24 x 7 and that too at just a nominal fee of Rs. 365 for ten years.
7.How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us some thing about your co-founder/s.
Coming from an engineering background my technical knowledge regards to automobiles and the working of automobile sector in over all sense is strong. I have also being into sales for a good period of time. So I had acquired quite on ground practical sales training as well. I looked for a partner who was from a management and marketing background.
Ms. Vrishali Satam brought that marketing outlook on the table. Her 14 years of experience in marketing, work experience with different product categories and various markets/ cities across India, understanding of consumers and overall market has helped to boost the growth of the company.
Together we make a great team in terms of Sales & Marketing as we complement each other strengths. This has helped us in formulating both short term and long-term strategies and march towards our goals and objectives.
8.How did you hire your first team members? What skills do you want in your employees/team?
I am very passionate about work and that what I have being looking for in my team members as well. Couple of names that I would like to mention especially from my team, one is Mr. Salman Ansari who has being with me right from the inception of the company and is a very important pillar. Salman handles the operations and has being an asset for RSA Auto i-Care. The other team member whom I would like to mention about is Ms. Sanika Dalvi. She is the Team Leader and has being leading the team very well and helping in the growth of the company. Their passion and willingness to drive the business is what has being the fuel for the growth. I would hereby take the opportunity to thank my entire team and also the extended family as in our channel partners.
9.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We are looking forward to increase the presence of our own service vans across the nation in order to provide better services to our customers. Through these van we are providing door-step servicing of cars as well.
10.Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
10 years down the line I have envisaged RSA Auto i-Care to be No. 1 Automobile after-sales service Provider in India.
11.What are your goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
My goal is next 12 months is to increase the Topline Sales of the company through various activities at both consumer and channel partners level. We are preparing the base for a new segment in our service that will help us to take one big leap towards our goals.
12.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
As of now we haven’t raised any funding. In future if the new segment that we are working on currently, accelerates at very high speed we might look for funding option.
13.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
My biggest challenge was doing business with the service providers as I was dealing with unorganized sector and they have never being into systems and process or into online banking. It all began with educating them and also gathering all of them under one roof under an organized platform. Majority of them are not even aware of their potential and the growth that their business can experience.
It’s a continuous effort from our side of educating them about the tactics of the new business world.
14.What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?
The most challenging part of my journey was and is still being faced is convincing the channel partners for the growth of their own company. Dealing with unorganized sector the biggest hurdle is working on their mindset, which begins with the thought that we are working towards their betterment and lifestyle upliftment.
Persistently talking to them and educating them is the only resort that we have.
15.Are you married, single or in a relationship?
I am married and have a 5 year old son
16.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I love music, it helps me to transcend to a different level.
There is nothing like non-work time. When you work is your passion it can never be separated out of your mind.
17.What is your favorite food & holiday destination?
I love good and tasty vegetarian food and if you talk about favorites then PaniPuri is my all time favorite.
Favorite holiday destinations are winter destinations alas cold weather places, that’s my favorite season too.
18.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
My biggest idol is Sir Ratan Tata for the work he has done and his contribution towards the society. He is a social entrepreneur. And yes off course for the work he is involved in terms of Automobile sector in India.
Dr. Vivek Bindra has being a motivator for me and his videos have always inspired me and helped me in business as well.
19.What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
An entrepreneur works for his passion, 24 x 7 not just for himself/ herself but for everyone involved in his company. Entrepreneur works for betterment of society at large.
20.If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I am very happy where I am today and love my work.
21.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
Like I Said earlier an Entrepreneur works 24 x 7 so it does affect a bit in terms of family and social life but then it’s about prioritizing which helps to resolve the same.
22.Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
Few things that I learned in my journey so far. Whenever you want to start your own business ensure that you have your working capital in place for a year at least. So that you don’t have to worry about day-to-day finances. Go phase wise in your business expansion. Invest in doing right paper work in all your legal matters. Don’t be over friendly with your customer.
Your team is your asset and always have open forum policy, you never know who might give you the most life changing idea.
In today’s business world I belive that “BechegatohBachega”
23.Tell us something about your education & family background.
I have always being very passionate about cars and so Automobile Engineering was choice I made in terms of education. I hail from a middle class family background but entrepreneurship has being running in the family right from beginning cos of my mother. My mother used to run a food mess from home and I have being helping her in this business very early on, we later got into small-scale business of ready to eat snacks and which is still running in the foreground and is being handled by my father. My entrepreneurial journey had begun way ahead cos of my mother and I will always be indebted to her for the same. She will always be my inspiration and teacher.
24.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
As I have mentioned earlier as well, we are the only company, which is providing a complete car solution experience to our customers right from RSA to other allied services, across India 24 x 7 and that too at just a nominal fee of Rs. 365 for ten years.
Also we have being technically and digitally advanced right from the beginning, which has helped us to be different then others.
25. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
The biggest threat is impatience. Rome was not built in a day and so is a business. So be patient and work towards improving your product and service.
26. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
Looking at my overall journey yes I have being successful so far but yet to achieve a lot, I have kept my standard of success very high and tough and striving towards the same. I believe success is an on going activity which never ceases
27.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person.
Business Name – RSA Autocare Pvt. Ltd.
Brand Name – RSA Auto i-Care
Address – Mumbai
Toll Free – 1800 120 120 3
www.roadsideassistance.help
Contact Person – Ms. VrishaliSatam
