The Pune Chapter of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC), which set up the Women’s Entrepreneur (WE) Wing in 2013 to help make a difference in the professional and business lives of Zoroastrian women, aims to continue to educate, empower and aid women develop better professional and business sense.
The problem does not stem so much from a lack of quality education or technical skills, but from inadequate marketing of those skills, especially in the online media, and a general bewilderment about how to approach banks and private funders.
To bridge this divide, the WE wing of WZCC Pune Chapter will conduct a workshop in Poona spread over four weekends, from September 5 to September 27, 2015, titled "The Professional Edge (2015).” The program aims to target women professionals or entrepreneurs who are struggling to run or are thinking of starting their own businesses. The workshop is open to all Zoroastrian women or non-Zoroastrian women married to Zoroastrian men, from anywhere in the country, irrespective of age and educational qualifications.
Through the program, participants will gain practical skills necessary for setting up and managing their own business. They will also receive the tools and professional support to develop a strategic and customized growth plan that will take their professional careers or small business to the next level. Selected applicants will receive a chance to gain access to a world-class professional and business education and connections to a professional support network at no cost.
The program, which is free of cost, will see participants receive inputs and knowledge from experts in the field. All the learning will be based on hardcore experience and practical, useable inputs that can be customized to fit each woman entrepreneur’s own individual and professional needs.
Mahrukh Bharucha, chairperson of WZCC Pune, says that the initiative is built on the premise that partnerships "will help participants unleash their full potential, think big, start or grow their businesses.”
The program will include fundamentals of accounting, sales, business management, computer skills, marketing, etc. It will also teach women how to maintain a work-life balance, and impart skills like confidence-building, public speaking and stress management. The final day will see individual presentations and a panel of judges who will decide which is the best business plan.
NATASHA DEBOO
Poona