Youth Entrepreneurship
Where to start from?
Syed Rabius Shams
Part-1
Tasnim Sabil a 7th semester BBA student of North South University sprints a Facebook based startup name Rupanzeel Collection. Its in essence a cosmetic selling stockpile and Tansim pays out fewer hours per day next to with her study. The f-commerce (Facebook Commerce) shop has 21,620 fans nevertheless doesnt have any website yet. Tasnim said that being a student the initiative is an awe-inspiring in perspective of part time earnings for her. For administrative purposes she has only Business Cards and Money receipts for attending some Fairs nonetheless the shop mostly works through Facebook.
Rupanzeels most of the transaction made by Mobile banking and many of the customers are her friends or by friends and families. She has a plan to put more concentration and time for her venture and after graduation she has a dream to become a successful entrepreneur.
Arif Nezami a young entrepreneur working for his firm PreneurLab as Chief Executive. His area of interest is to organise community events and disseminate the words Tech for Social Good. Arifs basket of experience is full of hosting more that 200 community events in last 3 years, 3 national Hackathons with 4000 participants and seven divisional bootcamps.
Further to highlight that PreneurLab is proud Partner of National App Award, National Mobile App Training Initiative, Innovation Xtreme, DigiBuzz, Behance BeReviews alongside co-organiser of Startup Cup, DevFest and Startup Grind etc. PreneurLabs vision is to arrange International level Community event to promote technology based youth entrepreneurship in the near future.
A prominent young entrepreneur, Riyad Shahir Ahmed Husain is the Founder and CEO of Magnito Digital, a giant digital advertising agency in the country. Riyad achieved so many awards for his works most prestigiously the citation of the award, one of Asias Most Influential Digital Media Professionals at the 24th Edition of the World Brand Congress recently. Riyad had ventured his firm in the year 2007 while working first for designing and printing services. From 2013 he expanded his horizon working in digital marketing and content management with three of his friends. Magnito is now working with more than 80 clients to its being A2i Program, Prime Minister Office, Grameenphone, Digital World of BASIS and so forth.
These are some instances of how the outline of startup or entrepreneurship looks like. Now what to do first if anyone has an idea or thirsty for generating an initiative for a startup. Needless to say that there is no alternative of taking part in workshop or training prior to business engagement.
There are so many entities, regularly they organise schooling, workshops, advice and give supports on youth entrepreneurship in the country. Some of those are revealed here.
Training facilities:
The Small Medium Enterprise Foundation, widely known as SME Foundation, is a limited company licensed by the Ministry of Commerce as a not for profit organization. It works in helping the SME entrepreneurs including the women entrepreneurs by conducting various programs with an aim to develop the SMEs of Bangladesh.
E-Marketing For SMEs is one of the signature training programs targeted to skill development of SME entrepreneurs in using new media and online platforms for the benefits of their business.
It has also some bespoken short courses on entrepreneurship development, Bank loan-able Project Proposal etc. SME Foundation gives advice on Enterprise formation, source of raw materials and marketing strategy. It also arranges Fairs for SME regionally all over Bangladesh. Similarly, Small and Cottage Industries Training Institute, a BSCIC initiative under Ministry of Industries, has also sort of tailored course on entrepreneurship Development to establish industry and business profitable. These are within the reach of youth in regards of course fees ranging from taka 500 to 2000. No doubt, if someone has any idea, this training will sharpen it or if someone is looking for idea, it also assists to generate an idea. Bangladesh Inspired, Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management and Bangladesh Institute of Professional Studies has also arranged short courses on entrepreneur development among others.
Advice and help support:
Lets see what other private initiatives that can also guide youth to get a startup path. Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Advice Help centre (BYeah) supports those who want to become entrepreneurs, transforming job seekers into job creators. Its mission is to build a society which values and celebrates socially responsible entrepreneurs.
With the partnerships of Youth Business International, UK, Loomba Trust and International Labour Organisation (ILO) the center works for empower Bangladeshi youth, especially women through self-sustaining and facilitate growth in SMEs that meets the criteria of sustainable development.
Idea Generation:
BetterStories is an ideas agency with three service units viz Business Incubation, Media Communications and ICT Research. Its Business Incubation service includes workshop for potential incubates, self-evaluation program and pre-incubation consultation. It has a unique and highly flexible combination of business development processes, infrastructure and people designed to nurture new and small businesses by helping them to survive and grow through the difficult and vulnerable early stages of development.
Part-2 will be printed tomorrow
