Uprise India Initiative Foundation is a year old organisation working towards self-employment of women. Akash Shukla, Founder, 29, briefs on the crucial points to look at while establishing any small scale unit.
Q. What drove you to set up a Women Entrepreneur Initiative?
After gaining extensive knowledge, about IT, Marketing & Communication, Product Development, Management, Digital Marketing and International business, I was invited to collaborate in Mumbai. Now I am associated with an Ad agency Circle Creation since then. I have done lot of research, since I started working towards my interest and made a research report, which ultimately, matched with World Bank report.
Research says that only 30 percent of women-owned SME’s are sustaining, while rest 70 percent of SME’s were not able to access the financing they need. Mostly are shut down due to lack of resources or a weak support system by the financial institutions. My interests was always to help women from different verticals of business and guide them through various self-planned and customised business marketing campaigns, hence I thought of establishing this firm.
Q. How would you evaluate business prospects for women in any sector?
Evaluation of business prospects is very subjective; it may vary person to person. It not always about profitability and trending business ideas but it’s also about the interest long term goals of the business owner.
Q. What does strategic financial planning mean to you?
Strategic financial planning almost covers the all aspects of the business right from developing an idea to how that idea may reach to its maturity. It also includes:-
- Handle situation with patience
- Don’t keep multi options
- Crisis management
- Don’t have insecurity and focus to make it best among competitors
- Don’t have fear think out best ways of your business sustainability
Q. What kind of challenges do you think women face while entering into business?
Women-led enterprises tend to be concentrated in retail and service sectors where profits and growth opportunities are lower, and rarely in more financially profitable industrial sectors such as construction, electronics or software. Consequently, the major challenges for women are:
- Lack of networking and knowledge/awareness
- Lack of proper research
- Financial crises
- Crises of other resources
- Limited access to capital and technology
- Links to high value markets further constrain female entrepreneurship
- Legal and policy obstacles to business ownership and development
Q. What is the unique feature of Uprise India Foundation?
In depth consultation in their business which will have very precise process such as, majorly supervision, monitoring, bug finding and reporting analysis will be maintained in very best possible accurate manner. Business training will cover 360 degree of their aspects to name a few, is strategy & planning, HR Management, Operation Analysis, Advertising etc. This program starts for one year with a campaign that is Re. 1 for one year business consultation plan.
Post one year, we will evaluate efforts of both the parties which are: Uprise India Initiative Foundation and women who will be enrolled for the program. Analysis will be done about what could be the best sustainable plan to be implemented. Any women can enrol irrespective of any business/profile, any women who own start-up, SME’S or two individual professionals.
