THE ENTREPRENEUR'S REQUISITE

 “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to” said the cat

“I do not much care where” said Alice

“Then it does not matter which way you go”, said the cat

“so long as I get somewhere” Alice added in explanation.

“Oh you are sure to do that”, said the cat “if you only walk long enough.”

 

The aforesaid portion evince that if one will not have a certain plan of action or movement on where he needs to emerge in business, he will have to take a prolonged foot slag on the unknown path and will still reach nowhere eloquent. Keeping goals is a very cardinal facet of any entrepreneur’s life in order to reach to new heights. Until and unless there will not be genuine plans for the improvisation and growth, the organization will be directionless. Therefore, having definitiveness of goal and plans is an entrepreneur’s requisite because if you hit at something, you will definitely achieve it in time.

-SHELVI
Vice President
Vyapaar- E Cell, DCAC

The Entrepreneurship Summit'15- A Milestone achieved

SUIT UP!

March 4, 2015 turned out to be a legendary day, not only for the members of Vyapaar, but also for a lot of other people. Vyapaar, the Entrepreneurship Cell of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce held its annual fest, The Entrepreneurship Summit'15. Vyapaar managed to pull off a total of 52 collaborations along with being the host of the very first Internship Fair in the South Campus of Delhi University with 28 companies coming under one roof. Also, they organised 'A Pitch For Incubation' with the Gurgaon Entrepreneurship School as the Incubators for the first time in Delhi University. 


The Summit commenced with an exhilarating Speaker Session with a bunch of enthusiastic Speakers. Mr. Ahmed Naqvi, the co-founder of Gozoop, Mr. Siddharth Pandey, co-founder of Leh Leh sports and Mr. Vikas Kapoor, the Vice President of Delhivery gave some inspiring sessions sharing their work culture and various tips for the budding entrepreneurs leaving many students mesmerised. This was chiefly followed by an interactive panel discussion on various noteworthy topics related to Start-ups, Entrepreneurship and Investment Options. Zealous response was witnessed among the candidates, numerous questions were directed towards the Entrepreneurs but they tackled them persistently. 


 

Our speakers enjoying a candid session

The Internship Fair that had a turn up of 500 students and hosted companies like Vodafone, Airtel, Indiabulls, and Social cops among others. Placements and internships were offered to a whole number of students. A lot of happy faces there!

Simultaneously, Aditya Birla Group conducted a 'Pre-Internship Talk' with the students. The establishment handed down important pointers regarding Work Culture, Internships and Entrepreneurships.

The Incubation Event served as a Start-up Launchpad for teams with breathtaking ideas. Teams could pitch their ideas and receive finance upto Rs.10 lakhs for their set-up. In collaboration with The Entrepreneurship School, Gurgaon, teams from Jamshedpur, NSIT, IIT Bombay and DTU made entries.

A hard-working team, a steadfast leader, reliable ethics and an efficient management is what took Vyapaar to host such an extravagant event. 

We will be back soon.

~stay tuned for another exciting year

Vyapaar :)

APPY NEW YEAR !!

Hey all !! It’s that time of the year to step out and share the worst and best. So we here at vyapaar- ecell of DCAC- bring you the worst resolutions that entrepreneurs made and some inspiring ones. You make the choice.

So let’s begin with the promises that budding entrepreneurs should never make:

Making ‘this much’ amount of money.

You are entrepreneurs so your only goal should be to grow. ‘X’ amount of money should not determine your growth. Some of the richest people are not happy. Happiness is yours if you’re mindful in the moment so stop, look and go.

Be on a certain ‘best of’ list.

You already know why.

Wooing an angel investor.

Such angel investors will find you if it’s a good match. Work hard and improve your networks by wooing everyone with your work.

Making a profit.

Targeting this goal will result in disappointments at the end of the day. Many start ups lose money for some time before they begin earning. But keep an eye on analytics to make sure you are on the right track.

Being an entrepreneur means entering into a thankless job. Hopefully you got into the small business sector out of passion and you have ambition to spare. The upcoming year might not be "your year"　(or it might), but it can easily be the year you move in a more positive direction. Be reasonable and don't give yourself goals that are really just unrealistic wishes.
We therefore help you find some more realistic resolutions that entrepreneurs are making this year:

Believe in improving yourself.

Perhaps you didn’t solve some of the problems in the past because you didn’t really believe you could. Now you know better. Believe in yourself and the results will come.

Improve your workspace.

Abby Ross of ThinkCerca feels this to be a very important objective for any employer.

"It sounds small, but I need to buy a double monitor! Working on a laptop means that I'm constantly bent over a tiny screen, which hurts my productivity (and my eyes). With a double monitor, I can view more information, organise and focus my workday, and not lose track of　all　of my documents and windows."

Set up systems that increase efficiency.

My number one productivity resolution is to set up systems and processes that will increase efficiency. As a small business with big clients and a lot of responsibilities, time is usually of the essence. To streamline everything and expand, everything needs to run efficiently, says Stanley Meytin of True Film Production.

Spend less time responding to email.

This is a bit bizarre but this too has been promised. Phil Dumontet of Dashed –"In 2015, I'm going to check email　less often and spend less time responding to it.

As we are done with the bad and good, here is a spoiler alert, as we are going to tell what your favourite Flipkart this year resolution is to convert as many shoppers to its app as possible. Since Myntra has been acquired by Flipkart, it looks like their mobile operations are in sync. Therefore we wish you a very APPY-NEW YEAR!!
　

　



INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR DISABLED PEOPLE

The international day for disabled people is a day which aims to understand the better understanding of people with a disability, together with helping to make people more aware of the rights, dignity and welfare of disabled people. The 2014 theme of this day is sustainable development: the promise of technology. Running a business has its own unique challenges to those who suffer disability. Budding entrepreneur Sharon Gardner never allowed her not working feet to hinder her path of success.

Sharon Gardner was 13 years old when she became paralyzed. Now 52, she is not letting her disability slow her down. She is the owner of Healthy Life and Times, an online store for health supplements. She says “By the time I get ready for work, I have already put in several hours of work.” But despite of the challenges of wheelchair this lady never gives up. Gardner offers a piece of advice for entrepreneurs in similar situation.

“Be brutally honest with yourself as to what you can and can’t do and then focus on what you can do. Remember that everyone can do something.”

CHILDREN'S DAY

14^th of November as we all know is celebrated as children’s day in memory of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. Although the United Nations’ Universal Children’s Day, is celebrated on November 20^th every year to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide.

Today, on this day I will tell you about few teen millionaires whom you will admire for achieving the success through the old fashioned way that is the hard work. Most of them were not born into money or privilege and did not have deals lined up around them. What they are today and what they become was just an idea someday along with the determination in their head and heart to make it reality.

1.        FRASER DOHERTY: GRAMMY’S JAM

Fraser Doherty at the age of 14 used his grandmother’s recipes to make homemade jam which he then sold to his neighbors in Scotland. By 16 he created the huge demand for the stuff by tweaking the recipes of his own and calling it SuperJam. Business picked up so well that he dropped out of school to work full time. In 2009, with the help of his supermarket chain connection and the addition of Asda Wal-Mart as a stocking client, Fraser hit $1.2 million in sales.

“I can’t be preoccupied with the money,” he says. “I make jam because it’s what I love to do. Success is pretty sweet too.”

2.        JOHN KOON

John Koon is an American entrepreneur. Opening the first ever auto parts businesses in New York City, he began making millions of profit at the age of 16 with Extreme Performance Motosports, a company that became one of the main supplier for MTV’s hit reality show Pimp My Ride. Not wanting to limit himself to the auto circuit, he decided to give fashion a try and soon launched a clothing company alongside Rapper Young Jeezy. Koon earned $40 million in the process and is reportedly on the fast track on becoming a millionaire.

3.        ADAM HORWITZ

Having a goal to create a million dollar company by the age of 21, Adam Horwitz began launching various starts-up websites at 15. He created several that flopped before finally hitting on his first successful venture with Mobile Monopoly, an app that teaches users how to turn a buck with mobile market leads. Sales of the app earned him a six figure profit, which he used to fund his next idea, YepText, a text advertising service for businesses.

4.        NICK D’ALOISIO

Seventeen year old Nick D’Aloisio set the internet wires abuzz when it was announced that a smartphone app he created in his spare time had been bought by Yahoo at the purchase price of a whooping $30 million. The Wimbledon school student taught himself how to code at the age of 12- a skill that paid off when he finally created the news app that grabbed Yahoo’s attention.

These were just four success stories out of hundreds about kids who turned their mere ideas into substituent reality. All of us have that budding entrepreneur in us, especially at young age because we as kids are filled with more positive thoughts and optimistic ideas. All it takes is hard work and determination and perseverance. All we need to remind ourselves daily is that success is not a destination or a destined place; rather it’s a lifetime journey that will lead you to the path of success with continuous efforts.

HAPPY CHILDREN’S DAY!

UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

“Social entrepreneurship is the art of simultaneously pursuing both a financial and a social return on investment(the double bottom line.”

The first question that will now strike to an average person’s head will be “What is social entrepreneurship?” and “Who are social entrepreneurs?” Social entrepreneurship is basically a term which is in search of a good definition. The current use of the term is quite vague and  limitless, it needs boundaries to demarcate its function. It needs a theotrical framework that will link it to the theory of entrepreneurship. As per UNCTAD 2004 “Entrepreneurship offers new competition, and as such promotes improved productivity and healthy economic competitiveness.” Social Entrepreneurship is therefore basically a field in which entrepreneurs tailor their activities to be directly tied up with the ultimate goal of creating social value. While doing so, they carry the little or probably no intention to gain personal profit.

Now, the term social entrepreneur is also ill defined most of the time. A social entrepreneur must have the passion of a social mission with an image of business like discipline, innovation and determination. The lack of consensus on the definition of social entrepreneurship means that other disciplines are often confused with and are associated with social entrepreneurship. According to Skoll Centre For Social Entrepreneurship the definition of social entrepreneurs should not extend to philanthropists, activists, companies with foundations or organizations which are simply just socially responsible. While all these agents are needed and valued, they are not social entreprenuers.

Social entrepreneurship is not different from starting a profit-motivated company-the challenges are perhaps only tougher. They come up with problems of retaining people with motivation, scaling up viable business models and of course, raising resources. But the modern day social enterprise has one advantage compared with a conventional NGO-it is run by a professional who understands target setting, performance and accountability.For instance, Mr. Krishnan opted to set up his venture as a company rather than as a charitable trust. The company has on its board, strategy consultant Rama Bijapurkar, ICICI chairman N Vaghul, Tarun Das of CII and Kishore Chaukar of the Tata group-well-known people who brought credibility to a start-up and also a specific set of skills to the table. "To some extent, being from IIM-A helped to establish my seriousness and get them on board," says Mr. Krishnan. Like any corporate, GiveIndia also periodically works out the cost of raising funds and compares with other ways of raising funds. The goal being to raise funds in the most the cost efficient and effective manner.

Therefore I would say that social entrepreneurship has recently emerged more amongst various people in the market but the term needs to demarcate its boundaries in order to become specific in the theory of entrepreneurship.

- SHELVI CHIKARA

  (English hons 2nd year)

Words with IMS - INTERVIEW

VYAPAAR-THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP CELL OF DCAC – recently held a successful  seminar - in association with IMS – on career opportunities lying ahead for students after their graduation.We bring you the interview of the speakers at the seminar. We hope that you have a good read!

Since both of you have an experience in educational field as well as entrepreneurial world, we would like to know more about you.

Sir, you switched your career at a very prestigious point in your lifetime. How did this change come about?

Alok Bansal - Yes I was the vice president of icici bank when I made my decision to leave and take up this educational initiave IMS. I wanted to render my abilities in this filed too as Iam passionate about education.

Sir, you have always been inclined towards mathematics. How did this interest develop?

Abhshek Pandey - Yes I am a graduate in mathematics. And I love playing with numbers. I was always inclined towards following my passion and this strength of mine made me love mathematics.

Open question - Today the students are not only influenced by  one aspect – peer groups, parental pressure, but they are actually exploring more fields related to their career. So what do you think inspires them to make a career choice?

Alok Bansal - First of all today information is available to everyone and it helps in taking a decision but we still have to dig deeper and analyze our strengths and weaknesses. We should not be chasing short term goals instead should have a long term perspective. Take all factors into account macroeconomic factors strengths, prioritize them and then take a decision. Do not rush into anything.

Abhishek Pandey -Pursue your passion. Yes it is good to talk to many people after all that would help in increasing your knowledge base and one may also get motivated to hear. Try to analyze your core competencies but also do not forgo your passion.

Open question – Considering the present education system, do you think it is important to organize more of such seminars?

Alok Bansal - Internet is interesting but it also has too much of  information. It lacks in interactive understanding where as a seminar is customized and  is made to address your doubts and hence makes it interactive. You need to figure out your own personal goals which a seminar addresses better.

Abhishek Pandey - Interaction is the most important tool to figure out solutions to a problem which is definitely not accomplished by internet as it is through such interactive seminars. A Trainer in a seminar discusses core and hidden areas and therefore makes seminar a success.

Open question- If we are to compare your time in college to the present scenario, do you think the youth today is more fickled or focused?

Alok Bansal - Counseling was not available during our time. However today there are 3000 careers and hence more acceptability of unconventional careers. Eg- Writers are accepted easily in society today. Therefore I feel today there is a huge possibility of following an educated passion which is even fair idea. But I also feel that few are focused. And those who are focused are reaching great heights. There are too many distractions in this age. So Disciplined usage of internet is definitely required.

Abhishek Pandey - I feel that exposure to the world is necessary today as when you are exposed to all things do you choose the best. We all have intelligence but how we choose to use this intelligence depends on us. Only you can decipher what is important to you.

Open question - Do you think good communication skills open up a window to excel in career?

Alok Bansal –It is not only important to do well in assignment but there should also be a lot of interaction with customers, counterparts, juniors. eg – Narendra Modi’s speech in Madison square clearly showed  the very importance of good communication skills. As he explained in words and visually as to what he wants to do .therefore words do make a difference here and everywhere.

Abhishek Pandey- Speakers have made this world. It is only with good communication skills that you can reach out to the world at large and make them understand the meaning of what you wish to say and do.

At the end we would like to have one line career advice from both of you.

Alok Bansal - Set your vision very carefully.

Abhishek Pandey -Pursue your passion.

Thank you sir it was a pleasure talking to you.