CII-IWN MP organised a session on 'Entrepreneurship and Building a business' here on Friday. The speakers were Anuradha Saboo, Business Developer for Stone Factory TM, Global Impex Pvt Ltd and Shubhra Saxena, Founder-Urban Ethic.
Anuradha shared about challenges which she faced during her entrepreneurial journey. She started her carrier as an employee of a company where women were not treated as equal to men and she was given a profile in dispatch department. But because of her zeal to excel in life, she did wonders in that department and was first one to get promoted out of 25 odd students placed with her in the company. But soon she realised that she is a marketing person and she should start her own business. Then without any staff, she started her company and now she has 25 employees in her company. She learnt from her own mistakes in business. She said that reaching the destination is fun...also the preparation to go on that path and the path is filled with memorable experiences. She told students that you should know where you are and where u want to go...
And if you don’t know where you want to go any road would do ! She told students to make realistic goals with a timeline. Know your limitations and plan accordingly.
She said you can feed only someone who is hungry. In the path of entrepreneurial journey 3 challenges are competition / mistakes/learn-unlearn .
She said that make your competition your mentors. Make each time new mistake and be ready to learn and unlearn for a growth. She insisted girls to groom themselves not with jewellery and gadgets...But by making themselves responsible, loyal, adaptive, responsive and disciplined .
The second speaker was Shubhra Saxena, Founder- Urban Ethic Shubhra started her career as designer and successfully ran her boutique for 10 years. She was appointed as designer with a cluster development cell, MP Handloom department and got opportunity to work with the weavers of Maheshwar and Chanderi for two years. At the age of 7, she witnessed the murder of her auto driver and she is nyctophobic and claustrophobic because of that particular event. Her real struggles started when her partner ran away with all the money and she was left with no money. She was sitting idle for 4 months because of depression. She took counselling and started painting and found peace in colours and that's how she became an artist. She started afresh with her new studio. And unfortunately, she met with an accident and fractured her back. She was bedridden for more than 2 months and resumed to normal routine after 7-8 months. Everything was going smoothly and 6 months back, she lost her paintings, lamps etc in a fire just a night before an exhibition. But this time, she passed god's test and stood smiling in exhibition with her portfolio. That time her friend reminded her of Phoneix bird who rises above the ashes to fly higher and stronger than ever before.
