“DIAMOND to DUST”

 It all began out of our passion and drive in exploring entrepreneurship.

Most of the time, if done right, it brings you to the right path. We firmly believe that putting up a business because it’s your passion, like what we have done, can be the simplest recipe for success.

It’s not really a “eureka!” moment, after all, it’s quite hard to find a connection between profession – partner and business – selling peanuts. The concept was already embedded in our mind but further developed back when visited HK at my husband’s cousin who’s into Nuts business and is one of the leading importer for CHINA in HK, which now happens to be not only cousin but also our business partner. And he’s our BUSINESS GURU cum Friend cum Inspiration.

We knew that’s its hard. It's a lot of work. But we said to each other, that’s life. Besides, look on the bright side: You get to do what you want and you get to do it your way. There’s just one catch. You’ve got to start somewhere. Ideas and opportunities don’t just materialize out of thin air.

When KRUNALs (KRUNAL .R.TAGADIYA born and brought up in SURAT belongs to KATHIYAWADI family & PREETIs ( born & brought up in Madhya Pradess,Indore belongs to Bengali family & married to CHRISTIAN ), our Company (ZILLION INTERNATIONAL PVT LTD), AGRO COMMODITY TRADING COMPANY, opened in 2015, it was a dream comes true for both of us. A dream that involved massive amounts of sweat equity – but luckily, WE longtime friends were used to it .We  both  have much in common: both had demanding careers in DIAMOND COMPANY. And both wanted to become entrepreneurs. KRUNAL had worked in the Diamond Industry for more than 13 years. For me :PREETI, a BUSINESS MANAGEMENT POST GRADUTE who worked with many Private and Corporate Companies  and also with leading Publication Houses as CONTENT WRITER with husband serving CENTRAL GOVT as POLICE OFFICER. Who moves frequently for the sake of JOB from one place to another .But I was never afraid of any such challenges. I’ve always wanted my own business, I wasn’t afraid of that kind of challenge. I mean, it’s serious, it’s your life savings you’re putting in, if it doesn’t work you could lose the whole thing. But if you don’t try you’ll always think “could should would.”

The decision to open a business together came naturally to us. What inspires both of us that we want to inspire our kids .And as Krunal who belongs to KATHIYAWADI COMMUNITY known for their business tactics and who’s diehard fan of NARENDRA MODI . Your mentors & Inspirations share a big part of your success. They teach you the right things through their generosity in sharing their experiences and lessons learned from it. They will make sure that you are on the right track as they are. All of their life experience combined: the rigors of working in the male dominated environment of INDIA, with one partner as a woman and that too Non-Gujarati, with no familiarity with language, culture & people, prepared us for the stresses of opening a standalone business for the first time. Each trusted the other to do the work and see it through. There were, of course, hiccups (putting it mildly) along the way. We had sleepless nights. But we use to roll up our sleeves and address the issues.” But it was just beginning.

For both of us “ Success Does Not Followed a Time Clock”

Agro commodity which is ruled by the people with vast experiences in the same field, we were new but firm enough to look forward .We started as exporter of PEANUTS (INDIAN ORIGIN) and continued with other agro products and slowly became one of the leading suppliers of FRUITS & VEGETABLES in HK.The happiest moment in life was when we exported to one of the leading PEANUT COMPANY IN THE WORLD and they appreciated our hard work and services .We use to travel like crazy and our vehicle use to be our home. We us to be present at all the shipments at the port .We use to be at the supplying factory for days when our cargo was processed. At the initial level we remember when our cargos of PEANUTS as we were merchant Exporter so our cargo use to get stuffed on PORT in Mundra, Gujarat. We use to be at CFS for stuffing and where maximum staff was male .I use to be like ODD man out but never lost my courage and never feared anything .And Krunal use to drive whole night and day for this. I remember we travelled almost 7 days continuously in car and that was his strength and patience.

We exported many other products such as dry chilies to Malaysia, Onions, peanuts and this is how our business started gearing up. We risked it all and it was all worth it. Other factors that brought us success and which I am very proud aside from the wide assortment of our products are our commitment to offer not just good quality products but the best services and our availability to our buyer’s .We went door to door, travelled abroad to build our market and to sell our commodities. There were still some people that doubted us as AGRO COMMODITY TRADERS, perhaps thinking that we were not from the same background and we needed clearer focus. By our approach many Indian Peanut Companies offered us good Sales job but we were firm.

Today if we talk about exports it’s not easy to survive or to stand alone in this industry .And we are like “ACE against ODDS.”We are working with and exporting to Worlds leading PEANUT COMPANIES in SOUTH AFRICA, CHINA, EUROPE, and MALAYSIA, expanding other destinations as well.

We as exporters and processors are first in INDIA to supply to one of the biggest company in world for the very first time in INDIA .It was our hard work and ZEAL that we turned that company to work with us .And we are proud to say that. IT WAS DREAM COME TRUE .The first invoice to that company for the shipment was made by our COMPANY, ZILLION INTERNATIONAL PVT LTD. Its pride for INDIA. That time we thought that this is the moment we have been waiting for, that this is it; we are on our way up. We both live away from our families, miles away but their sacrifice and love keeps us growing .The journey we started from Surat, GUJARAT as TRADER and now as PROCESSOR in JUNAGDH, GUJARAT is just because our families believed in us.

As it’s said that the world is full of infinite possibilities and countless opportunities, but your life and career are finite, meaning you have limited time to find what you’re searching for and make your mark on the world. This is your time. It’s limited so don’t waste it. Find something you like to do and just do it. That’s how we real started our never ending adventurous business with passion. As we were new to business but our zeal and approach towards business and market kept us going and with our hard work and non-stop working capacity we made place for ourselves in the market dominated by people with experience of more than 30 years.

Most people aren’t comfortable trying new things; comfort is a result of familiarity. But trying new things is vital if you want to be a seasoned, informed entrepreneur. You have to understand how the world works and how people’s minds work; and you need to be aware of competitors, potential partnerships, and variables that could impact your work.

 Every “new” foray gave us some kind of experience -- whether it was 24 X 7 travelling, going new places, meeting new people, interacting with strangers who exist outside our current social bubble.

We learnt that the more diverse your experiences are, the more we were able to master our product’s and business’ designs.

For starters, meeting new people was a way to learn new perspectives, and improves our ability to relate to others, which was enormously helpful when we were pitching our business. Plus, every new person we met was another potential follower or connection in our network.

We have always believed that it’s hard to accomplish anything on your own, so go out of your way to surround yourself with people who are going to challenge you. Find partners, mentors, employees or even friends who want to see you succeed and aren’t afraid to tell you to move out of your comfort zone. We took baby steps and started confronting our discomforts to scale up our efforts.

We spent the maximum time learning peanuts to perfection and the peanut business in general. Yes, it’s quite interesting and given that there are a lot of people going in and out of it, it was never that easy. We literally have to start from scratch. Good thing came and now everyone started trusting us and many that one of the established companies decided to help us supply the raw peanut for business and from there on, we went full gear on it.

That time we asked ourselves, what’s next? The first thing that crossed our mind. Where will we put this kind of business? Or should we should enter into PROCESSING as the demand and supply for quality products needed our own integrated facility? After a couple of brainstorming sessions with each other and our mentor cum GURU and we decided to enter into processing of peanuts.

At first as it was really new for us but we survived through hardships. Yes, we know that it is part & parcel of business, growth and expansion, but we still felt the need to think about it thoroughly before really plunging on to it.

Your business partners or your would-be partners, suppliers, mentors, and most especially your clients and customers. They each play a vital role on your business. Your business can either make you or break you and that’s a risk you don’t want to take.

There are definitely a lot bumps in the road, and sometimes you may feel that it’s just hard to continue on and the only option left was to stop. But because we did not lose our grip, these certainly made us stronger and made us who we are today.

No matter how fast-paced the business world is, we are certain to follow a strict standard of business practices in order to maintain good quality products and services.

We followed our passion, we took the risk, and we just did what we have to do; that is to open a new world, a world where you just follow your heart and yes, go nuts.

We did it!”