Better Skills To Become Entrepreneur

I always look forward to share my professional experiences with Youth. I was delighted to receive a well structured and impressive  eMail  invitation from the renowned Maris Stella College [ Autonomous ], Vijayawada, my home town [now city] where I had four earlier occasions to speak on Career as Company Secretary. This time the invitation was to speak on anything that enriches Youth as the College was  organizing a National Youth Forum on 'Know Thyself'  on 20th & 21st January, 2012 as part Golden Jubilee celebrations. Having seen my profile, I was suggested to talk on  "Entrepreneur Skills & Ways To Become A Potential Employer" which I readily accepted to present the subject on 21st January [Saturday] for about one hour. This invitation was accorded to me as President of Rotary E-Club of District 3150 the First web-based Rotary Club in India.
 

To make it more effective, I have bifurcated the topic into three parts viz., Entrepreneur Characters, Entrepreneur Skills and the methodology to become Employer. A printout distributed to the participants containing summary of the following points brought forward to them during my presentation:

• The young minds were informed that a skill is the ability to do something specific or to translate knowledge into action.It is easier to learn a skill than to develop a characteristic. Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and run their own business as a potential entrepreneur requires specific characteristics and skills that are often achieved through education, hard work, and planning.

• Entrepreneurial Traits or characteristics:

          1.Internal Control  - You control your own destiny, nothing else has an impact
          2.Risk-Taking - You are prepared to take on risks that others might avoid
          3.Autonomy - You value individuality, freedom and responsibility
          4.Need for Achievement - You are driven by socially-recognized achievement, not just financial rewards
          5.Self-Confidence - You are personally motivated and sure of your own abilities
          6.Innovation - You identify and exploit opportunities
         7.Vision & Flair - You can visualize or know your personal goals & feel you have ability to realise them.
         8.Pro-activity - You seek out opportunities & make change happen, you don’t rely on luck or other people.

• Entrepreneur Skills include Research Skills, Gathering Information Skills, Using Information Skills, Management Skills, Planning Skills,     Organizing Skills, Directing Skills, Controlling Skills, Relationship Skills, People Management Skills, Communication & Presentation Skills, Service Skills

• A Quote: True entrepreneurs face bureaucracy, make mistakes, receive criticism, and deal with money, family, or stress problems. But they still stick to their dreams of seeing the venture succeed.

Resource web-sites:

           Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Government of India) http://msme.gov.in

           Business & Youth Starting Together http://www.bystonline.org
 

What impressed me more is the perfect co-ordination by the respected Faculty members of the College Dr.Little Flower [Dean], Dr. Asha Kumari [Director-Career Guidance], Mr Roopesh Bezawada [Director-Placement Cell] and Rev.Sr.P.Japamalai, [College Principal] and other staff both before and during the session, be it email communication or hospitality and taking care of the resource persons like me. I was informed that due to excess time consumed by earlier day speakers, the organizers could not keep-up the schedules on the following day. I was to wait for more than an hour for my turn and consequently forced to conclude my presentation for lunch break in time. 

In all the participants received the inputs very well as I see them listening with rapt attention and trying to capture and look for finer points to hone their skills to become a budding entrepreneur or employer.
 

Lookup photos in my picasa album: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/surya342/21Jan2012PresentationMaristellaCollegeVijayawada?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIK1xZirmoirwwE&feat=directlink
Slideshow link: http://tinyurl.com/7kx6mtx