Getting down to business

I fail to pursue my ambition in my domain even after a lot of hard work. For instance, today I went for my demo lecture "Akash Educational Services" but couldn't make it through. Currently, I have a job with ACCENTURE, an IT based company I would like to know what the prospects of growth in the IT Sector are and what are the areas in which I can establish a business of my own while being an employee in the IT Sector? – Tanuj

As you have not mentioned your specific skills and expertise, I can give you generalized suggestions regarding your queries. To start with, taking actions and pursuing your goals with motivation and enthusiasm, you need to have a burning desire and interest towards it. However, if you are interested and also have a strong desire, but lack motivation, then it could be that you do not have faith in your ability and are not confident enough.

There is a possibility of you suffering from a fear of failure (because of some past failures) and fear is the chief inhibition on the path to success. It could be also be that you were too stressed or nervous and hence could not make it through even after putting in lots of hard work.

The above mentioned reasons generally stifle motivation and enthusiasm and hence one’s performance. Therefore you need to become aware of them, understand these issues and learn to overcome and disregard them. Once you start acknowledging your weaknesses, you can successfully reprogram your mind and become a master of your mind rather than becoming its slave.

You say that you work for Accenture, which according to a survey stands second (after Google) in the list of best 20 companies to work for. The features being: tremendous career growth, excellent work life balance, stability and good performance evaluation. It is a leading company offering a workplace with roles that stretch and aid in employee development. Therefore candidates (especially with strong technical skills) have opportunities for a positive career growth.

Regarding business avenues while working:

Building a business while working is a delicate act of juggling that comes with stress, complications and difficulties. But of course it is not impossible as some of the world’s top companies were started as side projects, wherein founders utilized their evenings and weekends for its promotion.

There is a world of possibilities for anyone who desires to start a business, however winnowing them down appropriately to choose the right type from these possibilities is what is required.

The first step towards bringing in some additional streams of revenue would be to find out what you are truly passionate about and then put in your time, effort and energy into it. The basic skills required would be determination, strategic thinking, perfect time management and business acumen.

As there is a broad range of choices, to narrow them down and prevent wandering across an array of possibilities, here are a few tips:

• Decide whether you want to get into retail business or the wholesale type
• Franchise or the Independent type
• Decide the industry topic: one which interests you and in which you have expertise or experience
• Product or service type or a mix of both

A few business ideas for 2015:

• A store or a non store front type: If you want to sell products, services, then you need a store front (real) such as a shop of bricks and mortar, or a virtual one, such as an e commerce site.
• Connectivity with kids has been cited as a big trend in 2015. More than half of the kids have access to mobile device and therefore creating products or designing application for kids foresees a successful venture. Moreover, the parents can be won over too if it is promoting education or health related issues.
• If you have proficiency in any of the specialized software then you can opt to hold workshops for small groups and charge either on hourly basis or for the full tutorial of the program. This generally turns out cheap as compared to the technical avenues available that are expensive and difficult for an average user to understand.
• If you own an economics or marketing degree then you can think of becoming an independent health care consultant and offer data analysis and management for organizations such as hospitals, labs, therapists’ offices and help them in implementing solutions for improving efficiency and saving money.
• If you are a foodie, you can go in for a food truck. All you need is the right equipment and recipes of popular food items. This comparatively requires less investment and its failure rate is less too as compared to starting a restaurant.
• Start a company that provides freelance services of one sort or another, it could data entry, data processing, academic writing, soft skills trainers, etc. There is a huge demand for freelancers by companies today who prefer contract workers to fill in gaps for their skill sets.

The other options could be:

Mobile consulting

Bring in foreign language speakers together and start a company that supplies translators

Beauty salon (you can choose a good and popular franchisee)

A chain of smart phones repair stores

Start a company that offers testing services to applications, websites, e commerce, etc Niche testing today in these spheres are hot in demand

E Commerce ware house/shipping

Security consulting business

Event management/Party Planner

Travel agency

In order you have a smooth transition from your full time job to entrepreneurship, you need to plan in such a way that initially you manage the start up under the radar until you can jump into the ship. Nail your business properly and only then take a leap. Most companies do not permit its employees to pursue a business whilst they are in service with them. You may have to check your employment contract to get a confirmation on this. All the best!!

By:Shehre Banu