Budding Entrepreneur

At college, we had this huge event on Entrepreneurship which was actually a part of our syllabus. Each class(Finance 1, Finance 2 and HR) were suppose to divide ourselves into groups of 3. As usual, it was Praveen, Arun and me. We took up an existing business and wanted to expand on that. We did get help from Jananie who was a friend of Praveen. She helped us prepare the project report and get our financials right. So we had 14 groups from my class. Out of which, we got selected as the 2nd place. Our class had some of the funniest projects. One was bike taxi. ( what are you saying?? Bike la taxi ah.. how is that possible?) Well, some genius in my class did come out with it and they grabbed the first place. Ours was the Decor services called " OCCASIONS". We had one-of-a-kind report and presentation so we were 2nd. Then came the best one. BIO-BEER. Obviously from drunkards of my class had come up with this and was an instant hit even among the girls.( We loved the idea).

After this happened, the following day, we selected the 9 teams which were going to the finals. The finals had 3 groups each from one class. This was a big event as we had VENTURE CAPITALISTS coming to judge the competition. Mind you, it was a very tight competition. My fear of public speaking creeps inside me from the very second we received the 2nd plan. My business partner, Praveen, is such a pessimistic. He said we weren't going to do it. We should never entered in the first place and kept blah blah blah.. This was pulling my confidence down. In the last minute, the guys who were doing BIO BEER forfeit the competition and this opportunity was readily taken by the fourth team in HR as they were the next in terms of evaluation. I knew they were definitely competition for us. So on the eve of this big "Event", we planned to make the place special for us and we hired professional decor services to do this work which is what we called as Outsourcing.(LOL).

This overwhelmed the judges because as they entered the auditorium, they were definitely dumbstruck, because I was myself speechless. This was a huge plus point for us as we had the best promotional activity. So now the final part was to WOO the judges with the speech. As I am pretty confident and have a great flair for talking in public, I was given the introduction(ASUSUAL). So the order in which the event was happening was taken by the lot system. We got the 2nd turn to do it. First, I could see Arun and Praveen shivering next to me. I just held their hands and said, " We have made it all the way till here, which is definitely a big thing. and I'm definitely sure I'm going to make it in the top three. If not, we are happy that we atleast tried and learnt a lot." They were still shivering. My turn to start.

Here is how my Intro goes:
" Welcome to the world of Occasions,( I have a loud and sweet voice which will grab the attention of the people around me) You name it, we do it. (tag line). I'm sure you must be dumbstruck by the decor services for this event but what you see is just a sample.(silence and then a good round of applause)

Then I started with my slide show presentation. By this time, I'm sure the judges were impressed by the project and at last I concluded by saying," Now the marketing strategies will be given by my business partner, Praveen" My team members also did a good job of explaining all the strategies and financials. After every team finishes, the judges would throw questions on us. Our turn started, yet again, with another applause. This time, it was for me again. This was because one of the judges said that I had the passion for my project as well as called my team member as BUSINESS PARTNER. He also mentioned that this is the type of passion a person should possess to excel in any business. Then the questions were asked and answered. End of the presentation. We were very sure that we had a chance to grab one prize. This was not just the prize that mattered because the judges were also willing to fund for the best three projects. So in the end, we were given the 3rd place( not bad). The Venture capitalist are thrilled to fund us and we are happy for that. The first two places were given to people who had innovation and creativity even though they did not have their financials right.

So it started well and end well. The idea of decorating the auditorium was given by Sriram and Murugesh. I would like to make a special note to thank them for helping us win this. At last, I'm recognized as somebody who can do anything if you have the will power. My college has also recognized me as a good student(At last)... So I was very happy. Celebrated the day with friends and parents. Thanks to my parents who were supportive to send me to college even though we had very important guests at home. Most of all, the most important thing was, we enjoyed what we did and we went for a go. At the end of the day, that mattered a lot to me.