Futurpreneur Talks : turning job seekers into job creators

The Futurpreneur talk organised an entrepreneur forum for the students of Middlesex University at Flic en Flac this Wednesday. There were 50 students in attendance. Theme: “How to convert job seekers to job creators.”

Faaizah Marden, the founder of Futurpreneur Talk, pointed out that many students experience difficulties in obtaining a job even after graduation. They sometimes wait for months or even years to get a job.  “For this reason, we want to create more entrepreneurs in our country, which is undoubtedly a good thing for our economy. Youngsters can build their own company if they are rightly empowered. This way, they can easily turn into job creators instead of job seekers,” she said.

Freelance economy

Remote working is the way of the future, and with the rise of the performance economy, driven by an ever-growing freelance workforce, comes the challenge of project managing team working from different locations. It can really only work if you have the systems in place to manage it. “Imagine how much more productive and profitable your business could be, if your team had more time in the day?

If they could spend less time organizing existing projects and more time planning for future income?” asked Faaizah Marden. Global trends show that hiring talent in the workforce is moving from a fixed cost to a variable cost, with companies staffing up and down as needed. Freelancers can be contracted on a per-project basis, for specific initiatives for which their skills and expertise are suited.

The freelance model allows companies to harness the abilities of multiple consultants, often for the price of a single full-time hire with a more limited skills set. “Freelancers are often hired at scale, which adds a great degree of complexity to management – which is where the need for a freelancer management solution comes in,” she advised.

Start-up advices

Pamela Bussier, Chief Financial Officer of Metropolitan Life and Health Mauritius Insurance has, for her part, talked about the start-ups. For her, there is no specific age to start a business. She deems entrepreneurs as an important pillar of our economy for they create employment, add to the national income by paying taxes and innovate, while reducing dependence on obsolete systems and technologies.

She explained that the only way to really find out whether you have what it takes to manage a business is to start by investing small then watch the return on the investment to know  what should be the next steps.  “In that, make sure that your pockets are deep enough to get you through the start-up costs and several months after it,” she added. Moreover, she advised not to take out the profits from the business in the early stages, but rather reinvest until the business becomes sustainable.

“If you are seeking finance, make sure you create a complete business plan to present to the banks or other financial institutions and demonstrate that you are able to make a strategic plan for later years to generate profits,” recommended Pamela.

Digital transformation: A culture of change

Another speaker, Vashinee Bheemul, holds 18 years of experience in the IT sector and is the managing director of Vector Technology. According to her, many companies are still operating in the traditional way.  They are book-keeping records of their transactions, which has become obsolete. “Even small companies can make use of software to keep track of their business.

This will lessen human intervention, quick to use and with this, there will be no mixture of information. With digitalised reports, there can be systematic access to information and easy retrieval,” she said. For her, a business does not stand up in a day. It takes lots of research, smart work and self-motivation. “You must acquire the basic knowledge of entrepreneurship before embarking on the journey.

She advised that even SMEs should think about adopting a digital transformation strategy, that is, to make use of a customer relationship management which records everything about finance, resources, stock, and sales. This way, you keep track of your sales, which is the most important process to make the business profitable.

For a smooth start-up, Vashinee Bheemul advised that a person should gather all the suggestions he has been thinking of and choose the one that may contain the most resources. Then, carry extensive research and look for what will be needed to set up the business.

“Remember that in every business, there are lots of problems and obstacles, but if you will be thinking about all of them, you will never start. It is good if you have a plan to minimize the risks but you must start somewhere,” she added. Vashinee went on to explain how it is more difficult to seek a job in a company even if you are qualified.

 Rakesh Rai Jugoo : “Why many small businesses fail?”

Rakesh Rai Jugoo, the director of Toukan Corporate services, pointed out the reasons why many small businesses fail, among which were lack of experience, insufficient commitment, bad or no strategy, ethical failure, lack of expertise and poor financial control. Rakesh said that Mauritians have o lot of potential but it’s high time that they banish myths like “Money is the key to entrepreneurial success,” “Entrepreneurs are gamblers,” and worst of all, “You must have a degree in business to be an entrepreneur.” According to the young professional, these beliefs are fallacies and consideration should be given more to planning and research before starting any business. “There are many great examples of college dropouts like Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have all revolutionized the world with their ideas,” he said. However, he advanced that if we have a good concept and we want to capitalize on it, we need to invest ourselves deeply in the business and in the initial days, work even on weekends to consolidate the business. “If the foundation of the business will be strong, the roof of the business will be strong,” he advised. He added that the gap of experience can also be filled if we observe how successful entrepreneurs operate, seek advice from them and build business strategies from all the deep research you have made.
Referring to the shortage of entrepreneurs, he warned: “You must scale up a business as per the rate you are able to produce and deliver. Otherwise, if you take orders and are not able to deliver, you will earn a bad reputation in the market place.”

Ravish Ragavadoo : “The market is there but the product is absent”

Ravish Ragavadoo, a first year Business Management student, stated that these talks form part of their module: interacting with real entrepreneurs. After completing his degree, he plans to conduct a market research to determine what business will be more appropriate for him. Being optimistic about the market potential in Mauritius, he thinks that there are plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs in the country, as “the market is there but the product is absent.” “For instance, at Tamarin where I live, there are no cinema halls. Building one in that area would attract people from the surrounding areas,” he explained. Similar to this perception, there are many other fields which, according to him, young entrepreneurs can explore as business opportunities. He counseled young people like him to continue their family business in a novel way instead of the traditional way. For example, he believes that using solar energy in a restaurant for cooking will leave a cleaner environment for the future generations.

 Dalilah Kalla : “We want the students to get direct contact with the world of entrepreneurs”

Dalilah Kalla, the Employability Support Lead at Middlesex University, affirmed that at the university, they don’t want to focus only on academic achievements. “We want students to obtain wide exposure with the world of entrepreneurs,” she said. With these workshops, according to her, students will come into close contact with an array of concepts in the field of work, like employability, laws concerning businesses, or entrepreneur’s mindset. When they graduate from here, they already know what it takes to build a business.”

 Melissa Simeon : “The expertise I’m gaining in Mauritius will help me in my country”

Being a native of Seychelles, Melissa Simeon is currently studying for a degree in Business Management at Middlesex University. She said that she has been fascinated by the entrepreneurial environment in Mauritius. “In my country, it’s not as developed as here in Mauritius. I want to gain the maximum of knowledge and experience from here to help my country,” she stated. She dreams of becoming an event planner.

By Ahmad Fakuddeen Jilani