Entrepreneurs get a ‘Start Up’ boost

Photo Credits: The Goan Pic

A step towards helping young entrepreneurs, build a strongfoundation and learn from the knowledge of others like them, was taken when‘Start Up Now’, a one day exhibition cum seminar was held earlier this month.This initiative by SlipDiscGoa, a local event management company, resulted in40 organisations presenting their products in an attempt to interest customersas well as exchange ideas with other individuals who have establishedbusinesses. 

Companies dealing in products and services as diverse asimitation jewelry, security firms, software designers, publishers were present.Bina Nayak, creative head of the organising company said it was an initiativewhose time had come especially for a place like Goa. With so much happening andwith so many opportunities, it was imperative that young people seize themoment and events like this she felt would help them gain an insight into whatit meant to start a business and to sustain it. This exercise she saidcommenced six months earlier with emails being sent to small businesses aroundthe state followed by telephone calls. The response, Bina said was encouragingbut the absence in understanding the logistics behind such an event meant thatcompanies were contacting her just a evening before the opening to confirmtheir participation. Initially, the company decided to charge Rs. 30,000 frominterested organisations but following a poor response, a decision to reducethe fee to Rs. 5-10,000 boosted the response of the companies. 

Priya Noronha, a young entrepreneur, selling accessories andwomen’s clothing participating at the event said her decision to participate inthe event was justified as she got an opportunity to interact with otherentrepreneurs. She said, it was important to learn from the experiences ofother start-ups. She said the session on managing finance by Schubert Mendeswas interesting and had opened her eyes to the pitfalls of poor financemanagement.

Anita Karambalkar, a clinical psychologist representing AIMSsaid this event was helping women entrepreneurs especially those from the ruralmilieu to gain confidence and to increase the appeal of their products.  This, she said would help create a brand.Developing skills she said was very important and these initiatives certainlywere helpful to new entrepreneurs to gain knowledge.  

That hope may however been dampened by the poor response ofthe public. During the course of the daylong event, people trickled in leadingto some of the participants to feel that perhaps things would improve in thefuture.   

The importance of a brand and the effort to build one wasemphasised by Bina who said that the initiative was an attempt to graduallymake the SlipdiscGoa brand evolve from a purely youthful brand to a moreserious one that would also appeal to a more serious audience. This initiativeshe said would be held during the same period every year though the venue couldchange ever year.