Enterprise: Germ Busters Private Limited

Founder: Jeby Jacob

Industry: Professional Services

Year it was founded: 2013

Based out of: Mumbai, Maharashtra

You must have seen numerous TV commercials showing a huge magnifying glass revealing nearly hundreds of invisible microbes on a child’s hand or termites and allergens thriving deep inside a mattress or sofa. These notorious microorganisms are the root cause of recurring stomach infections and fevers in India. While we see such ads every day, we do very little to tackle the community of unwanted guests that are lurking in the deep dark crevices and corners of our house!

Meet Jeby Jacob, CEO of Germ Busters Private Limited, who came up with an ingenious solution to put an end to all bugs, termites and bacterial troubles. But what prompted a young music enthusiast to tackle this problem? Jeby shares his interesting business journey in his own words.

How it all began

I was 17 when I started working for an IT company via correspondence. By 21 my passion for music led me to open my own music school, Psalms School of Music in Powai. It wasn’t until I got married and we were expecting our first child that my life took a different course. My wife and I wanted a completely sanitized house to welcome our baby. Hours of research later we realised that no one in India at that time was providing these services. I was determined to get our house sanitized and knew that such services existed in the US. I ended up purchasing all the required equipment from there. Though it served our purpose well but the sheer size of the equipment and the space it consumed compared to the small house we were staying in at that time became a problem. Until my wife decided that either me or the equipment could stay!

I quickly looked for a solution and came up with one. I convinced one of my friends to let me keep the equipment at his place and in return I would sanitize his mattresses and other upholsteries. Word spread like wildfire and within a month I had already sanitized around 4-5 houses! That’s when I realised that there is a genuine need for such a service in our country and started my company, Germ Busters in the year 2013.

Business USP
Unlike the regular cleaning services that are prevalent in the market our services are specialised for sanitization alone. Talk of sanitization and many people confuse it with cleaning. The two are different terms. Cleaning is removing visible dirt on any surface, but sanitization goes beyond that. It is the process of removing the unseen disease-causing microorganisms from a surface. We don’t apply shampooing or any other method of treatment as they do in pest control.

Our services are unique and aims to provide a germ-free environment to our customers. That I believe is our USP. Our pricing is also highly competitive. We also give good discounts to the first-time users of our services. Special discounts are also made in certain cases. For patients returning home after a long stay at the hospital, we provide a sanitized room with a quick turn around time of 24 hours.

Challenges

I strongly believe in the fact that challenges only make you stronger! I too had my share of ups and downs while starting this business. Making people aware of our services and educating them about various health issues and how sanitization can help them was my biggest challenge. But my team and I soon overcame this and now we have become a trusted household name.

GlobalLinker advantage

GlobalLinker is an amazing platform for SMEs. With such huge network of SMEs, I’m really looking forward to building good collaborations.

Big business dream

I started working when I was 17. My aim is to give my best to my business and retire at the age of 35.

Message to aspiring entrepreneurs

The greatest learning, I received in my life is to never give up. It took me a while to get the business going steady, but I made it happen. My only message to all the budding entrepreneurs would be: focus on being happy and content more than aiming to earn money.

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