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Messages - Farhan Ejaj

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Mentoring / The Benefits of Mentoring in Business
« on: March 18, 2018, 08:43:27 PM »
 

What do Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have in common? Aside from being 21st-century tech titans, all three had excellent business mentors. And they’re not alone: There is a long tradition of mentoring that spans history and even dates back to mythology. In fact, the term originated with an important character from Homer’s Odyssey. In this text that takes place during the Trojan War, Odysseus relies on Mentor to serve as both an overseer of his household and a teacher to his son, Telemachus.

Historical examples of relationships between mentors and mentees include Socrates and Plato, Hayden and Beethoven, and Freud and Jung. Today, the term “mentor” has evolved to mean a trusted advisor, friend, teacher and wise person, according to a book on mentoring by author and businessman Gordon Shea. Mentoring is a fundamental form of human development where a person invests time, energy and personal know-how in assisting the growth and ability of another person, Shea wrote.

So how does mentoring work in the business world? Sir Richard Branson, billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, discussed his take on how important the relationship between mentor and mentee can be for success: “I have always been a huge believer in the inestimable value good mentoring can contribute to any nascent business. Ask any successful businessperson and, if they are honest about it, they will almost certainly admit to having benefited from the advice of a mentor at some point along the way.” Branson credits his own mentor, Sir Freddie Laker, with helping to shape his entire approach to business.


How It Works
Modern mentorship has flexibility that was not possible in the past. Previously, communication had to be carried out in person or over the phone. Now, mentees can get in touch with their mentors through both face-to-face meetings and online interaction. In addition, mentors can come from many places: Family, friends and business contacts can all play a role. And mentoring can be either casual or structured, depending on what works best for both parties. The most important aspect of the relationship is regular professional contact — no matter how it is carried out.

There are two main factors to consider when forming a mentoring relationship. First, decide on the degree of involvement. The arrangement should meet the needs of both the mentor and mentee, whether they choose to work closely with each other or to carry out conversations by email as needed. Second, determine the level of structure. If the mentoring is formal, there could be regular meetings with specific agendas and goals. In more casual arrangements, mentees might call on the mentor as problems arise or when guidance is needed.

Online mentoring, or e-mentoring, is ideal for those who are looking for an informal connection or who are geographically distant from one another. E-mentoring is an interactive, long-distance relationship between mentor and mentee. In today’s globally connected world, meaningful mentorship is more achievable than ever before.

Benefits
To get the most out of a mentoring experience, it is important to choose a mentor who has a deep understanding of how business works. Although it may seem that the information learned in manuals and classes is enough, the information gained from these sources is better absorbed and applied through the context a mentor can give. Especially for those new to business, building a one-on-one relationship with an experienced advisor is a smart way to help ensure success. According to Miranda Morley of Demand Media, the following are just some of the real-world benefits of mentorship

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Instagram / How Instagram Marketing Can Help Your Business Grow
« on: March 18, 2018, 08:36:36 PM »
Building your own business requires extensive planning. You need the right resources, the right business strategy, and effective marketing techniques. There are different ways to boost the popularity of your brand. You can try traditional ways such as sending out flyers or posting on bulletin boards. But these days most businesses use technology to display ads by posting on social media sites and sending out emails.

Social media sites in particular have become a popular platform when marketing your own business. One of the most used social media sites is Instagram. With its photo and video sharing features, you can easily entice customers with attractive posts. Here are several ways to effectively use Instagram as a marketing tool for your business’ growth:

Proper use of hashtag
Hashtags are powerful tools that you can use to gather an even greater pool of customers. Make sure to include a catchy hashtag on every post. Also, encourage customers to use the hashtag on their posts, so their followers will be aware of your brand as well.

Get linked to others
Instagram is a widely used marketing platform, but your branding efforts shouldn’t stop there. Connect your Instagram account to other social media accounts of your brand. This way, your posts from Instagram can be seen by users from other sites. You can also gather followers who are active on other social sites.

Use the right image
In Instagram, a good content description and a quality photo can get the attention of viewers. Thus, post the right image that can vividly reflect your brand and, at the same time, make viewers look twice and like your post.

Engage with followers
Posting photos and video on Instagram may not be enough. Start engaging with your customers and followers by leaving comments or a simple thank-you. It gives an impression that you care about your customers and this, in return, would create loyal customers.

Make use of marketing tools
There are advanced marketing tools offered by Instagram and other third party platforms. You can have your brand advertised on every user’s home page, or you can make use of tools provided by marketing websites such as Vibbi. This gives you a helping hand in getting sufficient likes and exposure.

Post promotions and trivia
Posting about freebies and discounts is an effective strategy to keep existing customers consistently tuned into your brand as well as to attract new followers. Aside from this, you can post interesting trivia and facts about your brand or any topic relating to it.

Conclusion
It is important to ensure the growth of your business. With growth, you can maximize revenue, boost product quality, and increase customer satisfaction. And for a business to grow, it needs the right exposure and a great number of loyal customers.This makes effective marketing an essential factor for a business’ growth. With the utilization of popular social media sites like Instagram, you are sure to reach out to different viewers around the globe and consistently increase your number of customers.

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Partnership / How to make best partnership agreement?
« on: March 18, 2018, 08:27:15 PM »

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Deed/Agreement / Difference between deed and agreement
« on: March 18, 2018, 08:24:19 PM »

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Renewable Energy / Bangladesh towards 100% renewable energy
« on: March 16, 2018, 11:55:22 PM »
Bangladesh towards 100% renewable energy
Community-based solar approach such as solar irrigation pumps, solar mini-grid, arsenic water treatment plants, and solar street lights have the potential of benefitting the community people by ensuring food security, arsenic free pure water, improved socio-economic conditions in off-grid areas of Bangladesh etc
Rapid urbanisation, fuelled by stable economic growth, has created a huge energy demand in Bangladesh. It is well known that energy plays a vital role in poverty eradication, economic growth, sustainable infrastructure development, and ensuring security of a country.

In Bangladesh, electricity is the most widely used form of energy. Future economic growth significantly depends on the availability of electricity. At present, about 72% of the total population has access to electricity, and electricity supply is not adequately reliable.

Bangladesh is starving for energy for last few decades since its power generation is mainly depended on imported fossil fuel and natural gas. The present government has successfully increased electricity generation, yet grid electricity is not reachable in the remote areas of the country due to lack of infrastructure and longstanding distribution facilities.

In recent years, the world is moving towards green electricity generation to reduce carbon-dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional electricity production is the primary source (29%) of greenhouse gas emission.

At present, greenhouse gas emission affects the climate directly by raising the global temperature. Bangladesh is one of the top climate vulnerable country among 48 nations. It is facing the impact of climate change such as rising sea levels, increase of salinity, heavy rainfall, floods, and landslides.

As a vulnerable country, both private and public sectors of Bangladesh have taken multiple initiatives to move towards renewable electricity production to protect the environment and for better living conditions. The government has established SREDA to provide policy support and guidelines for sustainable growth of renewable energy.

The government of Bangladesh has set an ambitious goal of providing electricity connection to every rural household. Solar and other renewable energy can be the key component of this ambitious goal.

In some rural areas of Bangladesh, people live distant from the main grid connection to have reliable, affordable, and efficient electricity connections for their development.

To ensure energy access, energy security and pollution free clean electricity for all there is not much alternative available for Bangladesh except Renewable Energy especially solar energy.

Solar energy has very small share in the present energy mix in Bangladesh. We host the fastest growing Solar Home System program in the world with over 50,000 SHS unit installations per month in the recent past.

As of 2017, Bangladesh has the world’s largest SHS program with about 5 million SHS. Over 30 million people are benefitting directly from solar energy and over 100,000 new employments have already been created.

Bangladesh is blessed with year round sunshine (over 300 days per year) and has an enormous potential for solar energy. We have been utilising solar power wisely and using its experience towards diversifying renewable energy (RE) for maximum use.

The country has made significant progress in the rural renewable energy development by installing SHS in the off-grid areas. Back in 1996, SHS became popular among the rural people of Bangladesh for its affordable monthly installment-based financial model at the price of kerosene.

Green Technology Centers (GTC) were established in rural areas to train rural women, for capacity-building, and after-sales services at clients’ door steps. A strong network of supply chain and branches also help SHS become popular and acceptable.

At present, people can easily charge their mobile phones, watch television, use fans, children can study better, and people can do their important household chores at night with the Solar Home System (SHS).

Bangladesh government has taken a systematic approach towards renewable energy development. The initiative includes development of awareness, legal and regulatory framework, institutional development, and financing mechanism to drive the RE sector.

Some Systems (SHS) in Bangladesh has ignited the future prospects for solar energy, and will expedite to make the country the first solar nation in the world. Along with the SHS, 617 Solar Irrigation Pumps (SIP) have already been installed, along with solar street lights in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, and remote rural areas of the country, 7 solar mini-grids in remote islands, urban rooftop solar program, and solar-powered arsenic water treatment plants are complementing the effort to generate clean power.

Community-based solar approach such as solar irrigation pumps, solar mini-grid, arsenic water treatment plants, and solar street lights have the potential of benefitting the community people by ensuring food security, arsenic free pure water, improved socio-economic conditions in off-grid areas of Bangladesh etc.

It’s possible to produce additional electricity of 30,000MW from the utilisation of solar PV at schools, colleges, universities, mosques, temples madrasahs, government buildings, factories, bus stations, train stations, unused lands, community-based PV plants, and grid tie mega projects.

At present, more than 1.6 million irrigation pumps are there and among them 1.3 million pumps are run by diesel. To replace traditional diesel-run irrigation pumps, 617 solar irrigation pumps have already been installed. By replacing all these diesel-run pumps, about 10,000MW electricity can be produced by solar energy.

As we know, Bangladesh is committed to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, which includes combating climate change and increasing energy access from renewable energy sources.

As a climate vulnerable country, and for sustainable energy development and energy security, a Bangladesh solar mission needs to be designed to achieve SDGs by 2030 and to build the foundation to reach 100% renewable energy (RE) in the future.

Bangladesh has huge potential, but it must overcome many challenges, especially the challenges of global warming and energy crisis along with poverty reduction to realise its full potential. We can dream of a future where RE technology is the major contributor to our energy mix.

We can dream of providing all the modern facilities to thousands of rural villages through the next decade. Moving towards renewable energy can bring a true green revolution for the rural people by developing agricultural output, offering food security, providing modern facilities, creating new businesses and jobs for both men & women.

From the experiences of the last two decades, we can say that solar energy has become very familiar and accepted by the people of Bangladesh.

Proper planning and implementation of a sustainable technological, financial, and socially accepted business model articulated through Bangladesh’s solar mission, strong government policy, proper investment policy for investors, ensuring affordable technologies and quality products, and strong research and development will gradually transform the nation towards 100% RE, and we can dream of Bangladesh to become the first solar nation by 2041.

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Bangladesh is a hugely populated country in South Asia. The country produces its electricity mainly from natural gas followed by liquid fuels. Although the installed electricity generation capacity of the country has been increased to 12,261 MW, there is scarcity of electricity in the hot summer season which is a barrier to industrial development as well as socio-economic development. Combustion of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere which causes global warming. Bangladesh can be badly affected by greenhouse effect and global warming. These problems can be mitigated by incorporating renewable energy sources (e.g., solar, wind, hydro, biomass, etc.) to the country's electricity generation. Renewable energy resources are considered as clean and can serve the electricity demand in the remote areas where grid connection is not possible. The potential of solar energy and biomass is enormous in Bangladesh and people have already started to harness energy from these sources. The government and the policy makers should come forward to encourage the people of rural areas as well as urban areas to use renewable based electricity. The government of Bangladesh has set up a plan to generate 5% of the country's total electricity from renewable sources within 2015 and 10% within 2020. However, within 2015 the country has been able to generate only 3.5% of the total electricity from renewable sources. This paper presents a thorough review of the current status and future potentials of renewable energy sector in Bangladesh. In this paper the updated information is provided for the overall renewable energy sector of the country.

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General Discussion / 10. Business quotes
« on: March 16, 2018, 11:40:51 PM »
. "Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

-- Winston S. Churchill

2. "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

-- Herman.
3. "The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same."

-- Colin R. Davis

4. "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
- Henry David Thoreau

5. "Opportunities don't happen. You create them."

-- Chris Grosser

6. "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

--John D. Rockefeller

7. "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

-- Thomas Jefferson

8. "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed."

-- Ray Goforth

9. "Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better."

-- Jim Rohn

10. "Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value."

-- Albert Einstein

source:- https://www.inc.com/jayson-demers/51-quotes-to-inspire-success-in-your-life-and-business.html

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SME / Small and medium enterprise in Bangladesh
« on: March 04, 2018, 12:33:31 AM »
It is not easy to define SME but for the Economic growth and industrialization, SME could play a vital role to enhance and development both the developed and developing countries. Today is for investment, savings, profit, employment creation, export, industrialization and development and economic stability and living standard of people SME play a vital role.
Definition of SME in around the world
According to the European Union (2003), SMEs are defined as enterprises, which have at most 250 employees and an annual turnover not exceeding 50 million Euros. Further, there is the distinction of small enterprises — they have fewer than 50 staff members and less than 10 million Euros turnover — and micro-enterprises (less than 10 persons and 2 million Euros turnover).
According to the World Bank (2006), medium enterprises are defined as enterprises, which have at most 300 employees and an annual turnover not exceeding 15 million US dollars. Further, there is the distinction of small enterprises — they have fewer than 50 staff members and up to 3 million US dollars turnover — and micro-enterprises have up to 10 persons and $100,000 turnover.
In the UK, sections 382 and 465 of the Companies Act 2006 define a SME for the purpose of accounting requirements. According to this a small company is one that has a turnover of not more than £5.6 million, a balance sheet total of not more than £2.8 million and not more than 50 employees. A medium-sized company has a turnover of not more than £22.8 million, a balance sheet total of not more than £11.4 million and not more than 250 employees. It is worth noting that even within the UK this definition is not universally applied.
In the USA, the definition of small business is set by a government department called the Small Business Administration (SBA) Size Standards Office. The SBA uses the term “size standards” to indicate the largest a concern can be in order to still be considered a small business, and therefore able to benefit from small business targeted funding. The concern cannot be dominant in its field, on a national basis. It must also be independently owned and operated. Unlike the UK and the European Union, which have simple definitions applied to all industries, the US has chosen to set size standards for each individual NAICS coded industry. This variation is intended to reflect industry differences in a better way. The most common size standards are
500 employees for most manufacturing and mining industries
100 employees for wholesale trade industries
$6 million of annual receipts for most retail and service industries
$28.5 million of annual receipts for most general & heavy construction industries
$12 million of receipts for all special trade contractors
$0.75 million of receipts for most agricultural industries
Source 2: www.about.com
In India the Small Scale Industries (SSIs) are industrial undertaking in which the investment in fixed assets in plant and machinery, whether held on ownership terms or on lease or by hire purchase does not exceed Rs. 10 million. The Small Scale Service and Business (Industry related) Enterprises (SSSBEs) are industry related service and business enterprises with investment in fixed assets, excluding land and building up to Ps. 1 million. (Ministry of trade and Industry, Government of India)
According to the SME bank of Pakistan, SME means an entity, ideally not a public limited company, which does not employ more than 205 persons (if it is manufacturing concern) and 50 persons (if it is trading/service concern) and also fulfils the following criteria of either ‘a’ and ‘c’ and ‘c’ or ‘b’ and ‘c’ as relevant; (a) A trading/service concern with total assets at cost excluding land and buildings up to Rs 50 million. (b) A manufacturing concern with total assets at excluding land and buildings up to Rs 100 million. (c) Any concern (trading, service or manufacturing) with net sales not exceeding Rs 300 million as per latest financial statements.
Source 1: Performance Evaluation of SMEs of Bangladesh, International Journal of Business and Management Vol.4, No 7, July 2009
Definition of SME in Bangladesh
Existing definition of SME is recommended by Better Business Forum and accepted as a uniform one by Ministry of Industry and Bangladesh Bank. Criteria of the definition of SME are given below:
Definition of Small Enterprise:
Small Enterprise refers to the firm/business, which is not a public limited company and complies the following criteria:
Serial No. Sector Fixed Asset other thanLand and Building (Tk.) Employed Manpower (not above)
01. Service 50,000-50,00,000 25
02. Business 50,000-50,00,000 25
03. Industrial 50,000-1,50,00,000 50
Definition of Medium Enterprise:
Medium Enterprise refers to the establishment/firm, which is not a public limited company and complies the following criteria:
Serial No.
Sector Fixed Asset other thanLand and Building (Tk.) Emplo Manpo (not above)
01. Service 50,00,000-10,00,00,000 50
02. Business 50,00,000-10,00,00,000 50
03. Industrial 1,50,00,000-20,00,00,000 150
Source 3: Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Credit Policies & Programmes, SME & Special Programmes Department Bangladesh Bank Head Office, Dhaka (Browsing date 08-08-10)
Different countries and organizations define SME differently. The Government of Bangladesh has categorized SME into two broad classes
1. Manufacturing enterprise
2. Non Manufacturing activities
a. Manufacturing enterprise:
Manufacturing enterprises can be divided into two categories;
Small enterprise: an enterprise would be treated as small if, in current market prices, the replacement cost of plant, machinery and other parts/components, fixtures, support utility, and associated technical services by way of capitalized costs (of turn-key consultancy services, for example), etc, excluding land and building, were to up to Tk. 15 million;
Medium enterprise: an enterprise would be treated as medium if, in current market prices, the replacement cost of plant, machinery and other parts/components, fixtures, support utility, and associated technical services by way of capitalized costs (of turn-key consultancy services, for example), etc, excluding land and building, were to up to Tk. 100 million;
b. Non-manufacturing activities (such as trading or other services) Non-manufacturing activities can be divided into two categories;
Small enterprise: an enterprise should be treated as small if it has less than 25 workers, in full-time equivalents;
Medium enterprise: an enterprise should be treated as small if it has between 25 and 100 employees. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics different enterprises are defined as;
No. of employees
Micro 0-9
Small 10-49
Medium 50-99
Large Above 99
The Ministry of Industries, Government of Bangladesh has been identified following 11 booster sectors;
Electronics and electrical
Software-development
Light engineering and metal-working
Agro-processing/agro-business/plantation agriculture/ specialist farming/tissue-culture
Leather-making and leather goods
Knitwear and ready-made garments
Plastics and other synthetics
Healthcare & diagnostics
Educational services
Pharmaceuticals/cosmetics/toiletries
Fashion-rich personal effects, wear and consumption goods
Small and medium-sized enterprises: There are nearly 1.5 million SMEs5 in Bangladesh, 60%–65% of which are located outside the metropolitan areas of Dhaka and Chittagong. There is a very high density of SMEs in the industrial economy of Bangladesh. SMEs constitute over 99% of private industrial establishments and provide job opportunities to about 70%–80% of the nonagricultural labor force. The SME share in manufacturing value added to GDP varies at 28%–30%. The services sector is primarily composed of SMEs, which is responsible for the bulk of employment growth.6 SME contribution to national exports is significant through different industries such as ready-made garments, jute, and leather. SMEs are broadly segregated as follows:
(i) Small informal enterprises typically employ 5-9 persons and are largely family based.
Having grown from microenterprises,7 they use significant portions of their business revenues to invest in expansion. Typically, these enterprises lack access to formal credit and support services.
(ii) Small formal sector enterprises typically employ 10–50 persons and have well-established relationships with larger manufacturing and trading concerns. While significant growth potential exists, they face leadership and management challenges. Sources of finance are usually retained earnings and supplier credits.
(iii) Medium-sized enterprises typically employ 51–150 persons and serve as a link between the formal and informal economies through well-established supplier and buyer relationships with small formal and informal SMEs, as well as with large domestic and international corporate entities. Although professionally managed, there is a need to maintain competitiveness. Access to finance remains constrained even for this category of SMEs.
Source 1: Performance Evaluation of SMEs of Bangladesh, International Journal of Business and Management Vol.4, No 7, July 2009.
1.2 Sources of Funds of money for SME:
In general, the sources of funds for SME are that
1. I. Personal funds-saved or inherited of their own capital,
2. II. Loans from relatives and friends- It may be able to obtain some money at low or no interest from relative(s) or friend(s),
3. III. Trade credit,
4. IV. Loans of credit from equipment sellers,
5. V. Mortgage loans,
6. VI. Commercial Bank loans,
7. VII. Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporations (BSCIC) loans,
8. VIII. Enterprises Growth and Bank Modernization program (EGBMP),
9. IX. Small and Medium Enterprises Development Project (SMEDP),
10. X. Taking partners,
11. XI. Selling capital stock,
12. XII. Miscellaneous sources (Life Insurance policies, Amortized loans etc)
13. XIII.
1.3 Importance of SME in Bangladesh
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the dominant form of business organization in all countries, typically accounting for over 95% of the business population. OECD recognized that SMEs constitute an important dynamic element in all economies as they drive innovation, especially in knowledge-based industries; and play a key role in driving sustainable economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction, especially in developing countries. It also contributes to the social, cultural and environmental capital of nations.
In view of the rapid structural change in the world economy, especially in favor of increasingly weightless, paperless, knowledge-rich industries and services, to see structural change and remaining relevant as major imperatives for intervention by government and the civil society.
Acknowledging the importance of SMEs and entrepreneurship, the Government of Bangladesh reaffirming their commitment takes initiative to design a SME policies and strategies for its coherent growth. The Government of Bangladesh has constituted a National Taskforce on SME Development as Dr. Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister as its chairman on 2003.

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Business Incubator / business incubator
« on: February 28, 2018, 02:09:25 PM »
A business incubator is a company that helps new and startup companies to develop by providing services such as management training or office space.[1] The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes their members’ incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and combination of the above.[2]

Business incubators differ from research and technology parks in their dedication to startup and early-stage companies. Research and technology parks, on the other hand, tend to be large-scale projects that house everything from corporate, government or university labs to very small companies. Most research and technology parks do not offer business assistance services, which are the hallmark of a business in

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