2 – They see things in ways that others don’t and understand the power of thought and faith to offer an entirely fresh and inspiring view of a challenging situation.

3 – They know the true meaning of commitment and persistence to an idea – a love – far bigger than themselves.

4 – They attract and draw into their world new people, experiences and opportunities that make every day of being with them a continual adventure.

5 – Their vision for the world extends to a vision of long-term relationships and family life no less important than their cause, but as equal to and intrinsic to working together to contribute to the betterment of humanity.

6 – They have seen failure and know that it is never what defines a man or a woman.  It is their ability to get back up, with integrity, humility and service to a higher cause that builds the character and loyalty necessary for life-long commitment.

7 – They are passionate souls with tonnes of energy and a great love and lust for life…..and we know how important that is for the more, erm, intimate areas of a relationship…..!

8 – They know the value of partnership in getting things done, the power of teamwork necessary to build something of mutual value.

9 – They know how sometimes you just have to hang in there, work really hard and keep trusting the original love for the vision/person and what drew you to it/them in the first place……and it will turn out with way more blessings than you can imagine.

10 – They are visionaries who understand the power of love over fear.

• Make my first Abroad Travel this year.
• Start my Book on “Hardships of First Generation Actors” and publish it this year itself.
• Workout & Have a good physique.
• Getting a Pretty wife or a Girl Friend .
• Start Collecting Expensive Gadgets & Buying expensive merchandise.
• Become a Golfer.
• Become a Good Photographer.
• Mentoring Budding Entrepreneurs.
• Starting 2 more entities under Cogzidel Group.
• Creating a residual income other than my mainstream income.
• Learn swimming.
• Start Open Terrace Networking to help startups & SME to network with professional and fellow entrepreneurs.
• Join Chennai Tracking Club & go for more tracking.
• Long drives to Pondy, Madurai, Bangalore, Mysore & GOA.

Will post the result by the end of this year.

Wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Entrepreneurs are unique human beings, as creators and shapers of ideas, they have changed the world. Every Entrepreneur who has ventured forth has done so knowingly that their future is a gamble. Braving the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” they emerged victorious each time. This has been the trait of their race. From endless planning to business models and team building, a modern Entrepreneur chooses to do it all. Statistics, research, facts, and market knowledge are the new tools of an old trade.

 

However, we seem to have forgotten that the entrepreneur is more than just the sum of his or her parts. As the legacy of our past stirs us post Independence Day, we have looked deep and hard at what makes an entrepreneur. YourStory seeks to rediscover the charisma, leadership, and foresight of the Great Indian Entrepreneur.

 

For the first time in India, YourStory is conducting a Challenge for Entrepreneurs which will be 100 percent community driven. With all the contests in India primarily being ‘judged’ by experts and panelists, who form ‘their’ opinions on ‘your’ business model, we think that’s its time to change the rule of the game as celebrate entrepreneurship for its spirit purely. No conjecture, posturing and punditry can hope to judge the worth of an Entrepreneur.

 

If you believe that if it is about you then the people closest to you would be your best judge. After all an Entrepreneur is what an Entrepreneur Does. We believe a great entrepreneur is one who can inspire and lead people around him/her. We think it’s time to test your entrepreneurial zeal and popularity among your peers, clients, vendors, friends and relatives – a litmus test that tests your ‘Appeal Quotient’ and brings to fore a biz mastermind, a consummate entrepreneur and a deserving winner. 

 

Besides building a strong profile and testimonial page of every participant, the winner of the contest will walk away with a bouquet of prizes that include a cash prize of Rs.50,000/- mentoring by Mumbai Angel Network, Times Private Treaties (part of the Bennett Coleman Group), Planet Aikon and Morpheus Venture Partners, nation-wide coverage and publicity by Yuva magazine, a two month search engine optimization programme by Clearpath Technology worth Rs.25,000/- free web development by LS Solutions and a 6 month long software and application support by Startup Garage.

Registrations open @ www.yourstory.in

By ASHRAF
Director, Life Academy

Money is one of the most important resource we have. To be successful in life, we need to understand the dynamics of money (more so in challenging times like what we are witnessing right now).

The workshop on ” MONEY & LAW OF ATTRACTION” will offer you insights on how to attract the money you want by utilising the powerful law of attraction which is the basis of all creation.

PROFILE OF Mr.ASHRAF

Mr.ASHRAF is a corporate trainer and the director of Life Academy- a lifeskills training organisation based at chennai.

Mr.Ashraf is a certified Master Practitioner of NLP( Neuro Linguistic Programming – the Psychology of Excellence) from National Federation of Neuro Linguistic Psychology, U.S.A.

Mr.Ashraf has conducted training programs for leading organisations like Reserve Bank of India, LIC of India, CB- CID Police dept., Nokia, Airtel, Sify, Areva, Metlife India, JP Morgan, Bajaj Capital, Sundaram Direct, Eicher Motors, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and educational institutions like Anna University, Madras School of Social Work,

Over the years, Mr.Ashraf has actively trained and inspired thousands of people fron diverse backgrounds to” Use more of their potential”.

Mr.Ashraf is an excellent communicator and an accomplished trainer. His friendly dynamic style always gets results. He shares his incredible knowledge in a “hands on learning environment”in all his programs.

Mr.Ashraf has been interviewed and featured in leading newspapers and television channels.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
DATE : 3rd May 2009 (Sunday)
TIME : 10.30 am to 1.30 pm
VENUE : L.A.TRAINING CENTER (A/c),
36, Aziz mulk first street,
Thousand Lights
(near Greams road)
Chennai – 600006

FEE : Rs.300/- per participant

As the seats are limited, you are requested to confirm your participation in case you would like to attend this program.

FOR REGISTRATION

CONTACT Padmanabhan +91.98414 38486 / Ashraf +91.98412 92715

 

Q. Hello Bala. Can you tell us about yourself?

 

Friends, it’s too early to talk about me or Contus Support.  We have a very long way to go, for now we just identified the path to walk and we have miles to complete.

 

I am a Mathematics graduate and had dreams about starting a company since my college days, along with my friend Sriram.  Even Anand invited us (myself & Sriram) to join his team in 2000, but we couldn’t join him for some reason. 

 

I am environmentally friendly person having great respect and love for nature. I spend most of my free time with likeminded people.

 

Q. When & how did your entrepreneur desire started & blossomed?

 

It started when I were in school, when I really didn’t know the meaning of entrepreneurship J…  After college I  had been to various ventures which includes Internet, Finance / Banking, etc., where I experienced a mix of Success & Failures. I always believed  the magical word “Dream” by A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

 

It took us one long year to gather information, raising funds, building team. Finally Contus Support was born on Feb 2008…

 

Q. Tell us about your past ventures and let us know your experience?

 

My first entrepreneur dream came true in the year 2001 when I and Sriram took lease of Sify Iway  in Saidapet, Chennai.  Though it is not a big venture we learnt a lot there and it really helped us to keep the thirst of entrepreneur and that was the reason for the birth of Contus Support.

                                                                                    

Q. Tell us how Contus took shape?

 

As the name (Contus Support BPO Pvt. Ltd) says Contus was started as a BPO company last year and slowly transformed as Software / Applications provider after Mr.Amalraj and Mr.Balamurugan joined the team Contus.  Now Contus is in to Web Applications & Product development.

 

 

Q. Tell the challenges you faced (Pre formation & post formation)?

 

As I mentioned before we started Contus as a BPO and it required huge capital investment. We tried to raise capital for Contus before one year of its inception through friends, relatives and acquaintance.  We were also in discussion with Pentamedia for joint ventures through one of our Director Mr.Dinesh.S. 

 

All these attempts failed and that is when we decided to raise capital ourselves. We were able to raise capital money ourselves because of Mr.Thiaghu.R and Mr.Prakash (Directors) who gave the idea and motivated us on raising money.

 

After formation of the Company, things were not smooth like we expected.  We quickly realized weakness and we changed our business model from BPO to IT / S-A-S provider.

 

Q. Tell us about “Service” offerings of Contus ?

 

Contus Support offers three main services

 

è    Web Applications & Product development    (www.platoon.in)

è    Internet Marketing S.E.O.                              (www.webstreetsmart.com)

è    Technical Support Services                             (www.support1000.com)

 

Q. Have you accomplished everything you dreamt about Contus?

 

No.

 

Q. How did u raise capital for starting Contus?

 

Contus was founded by a team of five (Directors) and we all invested the money equally.    We raised money by applying personal loans from Bank.

 

Q. Will this recession have any impact in your plans? If yes how do you plan to overcome this recession?

 

We won’t have any impact for us because of this recession. Infact recession is a blessing in disguise. We are getting talented resource for an affordable package.

 

Q. What are your future plans?

 

It’s too early for now to say that.  But I can say we have fixed a very big milestone.  Our next step would be developing niche products which you can get the updates from our website (http://www.platoon.in) in the coming days.

 

Q. What is your advice for new startups and wannabe entrepreneurs?

 

è    Believe yourselves

è    Proper planning

è    New thoughts

è    Execute without delay

 

===========>End of Interview<=========== 

Thank you very much or sparing your valuable time with us Mr.Bala… you have a inspiring story and it was really inspiring to be with you. We wish you and Contus all the very best…

Q. Hello Kavi. Can you tell us about yourself?

My native is Thanjavur . My father is a government servant . My brother is a farmer . I finished my B.E( I.T ) in Annamalai University . M.E ( Computers ) in Sathyabama University .

Q. When & how did your entrepreneur desire started & blossomed?

A.  Am basically a WEB 2.0 enthusiast and was an addicted user of Various sites like Orkut , Facebook etc. Always thought these networks were not for India.  India is very different and our people always want a face to face interaction.

So wondered how it would be to build a network that helped people to find the same frequency persons in their neighborhood itself. That is when we started building this network.

Q. What are you hobbies other than your business?

A. Watching movies, reading books and roaming around with my friends.

Q. Tell us how areapal.com took shape?

A. As mentioned, when I got this idea of root level INSTA NETWORKING, I went to Anna University and started telling my friends about this idea. They were excited and so instantly we formed a team of interested students and started building this project. So we got contributions from lots of students from various colleges. That is how we have built the product which you are seeing now.

Q. Tell the challenges you faced (Pre formation & post formation)?

A. Our initial problem was lack of funds. We somehow managed to get some small loans and also put our own money for renting servers etc. Distributed different modules to various people / freelancers and got it done. We all took different roles in developing the project from designing, strategy to coding, DB designing etc.

Q. Tell us about areapal.com’s business model?

A.   “ The most interesting person you have been searching for all over the ( web )world may be just a street away – areapal.com helps you find him “  - as per our slogan , areapal is a platform that helps people to connect in a very drilled down manner based on their locality ( area ) . We are trying to remove the 6 degrees of separation and connect people in the first degree itself.

Q. Have you accomplished everything you dreamt about areapal.com?

A. Nope, still there is a lot to accomplish J

Q. What is your experience in approaching VC & angels?

A. In India we feel that approaching VC’s is a bit difficult at the idea or seed stage. But approaching angels is a bit easier.

Q. Will this recession have any impact in your plans? If yes how do you plan to overcome this recession?

A. ‘ areapal ‘ is a community driven project with contributions in various verticals from a wide pool of enthusiastic youngsters / students .  In fact we are also in plans to convert this project as a FOUNDATION and help all the youngsters own a particular city in areapal and earn via. it. So we are fully equipped to face the recession J

Q. What are your future plans?

A. Connect full India “area by area wise” and help user contributed local data flow in a more consumable manner to all the people .

Q. What is your advice for new startups and wannabe entrepreneurs?

A.  I always liked the line “… You should first START to become GREAT “   . Guess it was told by Abraham Lincoln.

Thank you very much Kavi for sparing your valuable time with us and it was really inspiring to be with you. We wish you all the very best…

Sometimes we wonder what is that which guides me.

Sometimes we need to change the “inner thoughts” to produce “outer results“.

We need to take the ‘The Journey Within’

CHENNAI ENTREPRENEURS CLUB & LIFE ACADEMY

Presents a workshop

” INNER UNIVERSE ” – Exploring the Inner World of Thought

YOU are invied for a different journey. The journey in to your own self – your inner world of thoughts.

We weave the fabric of our life in the factory of our mind using the threads called thoughts. We fashion our destiny everyday by our mental designs.

We welcome you to explore the inner structure of your thoughts and unearth the mysteries of living.

FACULTY

Mr.ASHRAF is a corporate trainer and the director of Life Academy- a lifeskills training organisation based at Chennai. He is a certified Master Practitioner of NLP( Neuro Linguistic Programming – the Psychology of Excellence) from National Federation of Neuro Linguistic Psychology, U.S.A.

Mr.Ashraf has conducted training programs for organisations like Reserve Bank of India, LIC of India, Airtel, Sify, Nokia, Areva, Metlife India, JP Morgan, Elsevier, Bajaj Capital, Sundaram Finance, Eicher Motors, NASSCOM, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and educational institutions like Anna University – Madras School of Social Work.

Over the years, Mr.Ashraf has actively trained and inspired thousands of people fron diverse backgrounds to “Use more of their potential“. He shares his incredible knowledge in a “hands on learning environment” in all his programs.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

Date : 5th April 2009 (sunday)
Time : 10.30 am to 1.30 pm
Venue : L.A.Training Center (A/c),
36, Aziz mulk first street,
Thousand lights
(near Greams road)
Chennai – 600006.

Guest Fee : Rs.300/- per participant.

As seats are limited, please confirm your registration if you like to participate in this workshop.

To Register Contact Mr Padmanabhan  98414  38486 /  Mr Ashraf   98412 92715.