Contact Base has been working to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in the economy across India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In the project Women Wielding Workplace (WWW) supported by the U.S. Consulate Kolkata in 2022-2023, 300+ stakeholders including women entrepreneurs, academicians, well-being experts, investors etc. participated in several in-person and online meetings and capacity building workshops to understand and address the factors that inhibit women’s participation and their leadership at workplaces through solution based support networks. Access to mentorship was highlighted as an issue among the women entrepreneurs, hence the #MentoringMonday sessions were designed to leverage their understanding of different business acumen.

Watch the sessions here.

Date: 12th February

Time: 5 PM IST

The COO of IISER Rise Foundation, Kalyani shared the role of IISER Rise Incubation Centre in promoting Science and Tech business among women in the session.

Dr. Sonali Roy started with some success story sharing of women entrepreneurs who are venturing into science and technology-driven enterprises. She shared how science and technology along with innovative ideas can bring about positive change in people’s lives and Mother Earth. The IISER Rise Foundation under their IISER Rise Incubation program, supports women entrepreneurs who have innovative ideas that can challenge persistent issues.To know more about their initiatives visit here.

Her session will be available soon.

We have around 40 women-led businesses who are working in the handicraft domain. Some of them are sourcing various handicraft products directly from traditional rural artists and selling them through their physical boutique stores or social media. Some of them are designing handcrafted jewelleries, accessories and apparels. To provide them new ideas and help them to scale up their businesses the session named  Creativity and Innovation in Handicraft Business with Vineeta Gupta was conducted on Monday, 2nd October. More than 20 participants joined in the meet and shared about the challenges that they face. The facilitator addressed these challenges and shared tips to sustain their Handicraft businesses. She also mentioned that including new technologies, having a proper business plan and constantly innovating with designs and resources are some of the key factors to scale up along with market understanding.

#MentoringMondays: Ep-5: FutureofTourism4Her

An online session was organised on 25th September with Mr. Amitava Bhattacharya, the Founder-Director of banglanatak dot com, to discuss about the upcoming innovations in the tourism sector. Women entrepreneurs from our network joined the session and asked questions about the challenges they face. With utmost sincerity, Mr. Bhattacharya answered them while mentioning the socio-economic landscape regarding tourism in India and as well as the world. The participants got to know about his experience of more than 23 years in the Sustainable Development sector which has brought him several accolades.

#MentoringMondays: Ep-4: FoodBusiness4Her

Aninda Palit, a renowned name in the field of food business, shared his experience in establishing his restaurant brand “6 Ballygunge Place” and the challenges & opportunities related to the food sector as part of our #MentoringMondays series. In the introduction, he pointed out some genuine challenges faced by a new entrepreneur while starting her business in a partnership format. Mr. Palit underscored two important points – a perfect partnership deed with an exit clause and prioritizing statutory compliance.  These were the two valuable lesson learned by him in the beginning period of his business journey.

• Partnership deed with an exit clause – before starting one’s own business in partnership format, the entrepreneur must have a perfect partnership deed with an exit clause for her partner. To have a perfect deed done, one needs to get a lawyer and have all the required documentation ready.
• prioritizing statutory compliance – an entrepreneur must have all government permissions and must meet all the safety and security laws required to start and run a food business

During the session, Mr. Palit talked about his unapologetic journey of building the stand alone restaurant brand from scratch and also mentioned about come pitfalls an entrepreneur may face and ways to tackle them. He shared that food business involves great risk in terms of achieving success so; one must be prepared for failing as well. Not only setting up the business but also sustaining the food and service quality is very important to check and one must not compromise with quality. If quality deteriorates, the customers will also opt for something else.  He also pointed out a commonly made mistake, i.e. spending a lot in interior decoration and other things but, not investing in manpower. He also mentioned that there are two ways of making business thrive – first, to teach others how to make the product. Second, if one is incompetent in executing a particular thing then, one must find the right person to do it; this assures quality and saves the entrepreneur from spending on unnecessary liabilities.

Mr. Palit also pointed out the importance of having insights about his own business and innovative ways to sustain the venture during troubled times. During the COVID pandemic, the cafes and restaurants faced massive downfall even a successful brand like his, was on the verge of getting shut down, but he shifted to takeaway services all over the city and that gave them huge success. With the help of the Indian Institute of Packaging, his brand came up with moderate atmospheric packaging or MAP, which allowed them to open 17 stores under the same brand. Covid taught them that crisis is the mother of innovations, this MAP technology, can preserve Bengali food in a cold chain for up to 25 days.

Listen to the session: https://youtu.be/X26WzFgInnM?feature=shared

#MentoringMondays: Ep-3: DigiTech4Women@Business

With the advancement of technology, Digital advertising has become an essential component of modern marketing strategies. Digital advertising is more than just a post on Social media, hence it requires a proper planning to successfully run Ads and get benefited. As shared by the women entrepreneurs within our network, planning of Ad Campaigns, ensuring that the campaign is reaching out to targeted audiences, analysing reach, clicks, share and producing quality content regularly are some of common challenges that they face. To cater their needs we had a session on ‘Basics of Digital Advertising’. On 4^th of September, 6PM IST, Prof. Atanu Ghosh joined us for the session.

Listen to his session: https://youtu.be/OPGB3u0RTOE?feature=shared

#MentoringMondays: Ep-2: SupplyChain4Women@Business

Amitava Bakshi, a prominent figure in the supply chain field, delivered a thought-provoking
talk tailored specifically for women entrepreneurs on World Entrepreneurs Day as part of the
#MentoringMondays series. In his presentation, he began by providing a comprehensive
definition of supply chain management, emphasizing its vital role in orchestrating the smooth
movement of products and information across various stages. Mr. Bakshi illuminated the dual
nature of supply chains, comprising the product flow from suppliers to consumers and the
information flow from consumers back to suppliers.
He then delved into the "Five Elements of Supply Chain," which served as a roadmap for
understanding this complex field:
 Planning: Mr. Bakshi underscored the pivotal role of planning in addressing customer
demands and production requirements, covering critical aspects such as customer
demand forecasting, production capacity allocation, resource management, and order
preferences, whether made-to-order or made-to-stock.
 Procurement / Sourcing: He tackled the challenges associated with sourcing raw
materials that meet specific manufacturing standards and market price expectations.
Flexibility, quality, and on-time delivery were highlighted, with a particular emphasis
on the importance of shelf life for perishable goods.
 Manufacturing: In this segment, he meticulously outlined the transformation of raw
materials into finished products, involving various factors such as labor, machinery,
and external forces. Waste reduction, controlling manufacturing costs, and
maintaining product specifications to minimize rejection were emphasized.
 Distribution: Mr. Bakshi stressed the significance of a robust, safe, timely, and cost-
effective distribution process. He aptly noted that distribution represents a customer’s
initial interaction with a product, thereby emphasizing the importance of branding,
packaging, and diversified distribution methods.
 Return and Reverse Logistics: Addressing scenarios like product recalls or customer
dissatisfaction, he highlighted the critical role of reverse logistics. He placed a strong
emphasis on efficiently managing defective, expired, or non-confirming products and
ensuring appropriate refunds.

 

#MentoringMonday: Ep 1: Build Your Brand

More than 45 women entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, Nepal and India joined this online session. The experts Mr. Mahabub Rahim Udoy, CEO of Brand Cart Ltd. and Co-Founder BC Mart Ltd. and Ms. Nanddini Sharma, Creative Strategist and Entrepreneur shared their knowledge on how to build a brand, importance of a Brand Name, what is Brand Value, What is re-branding, what are the pros and cons and how building a brand can accelerate you business.

Watch Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoqQ6qdMyXs

Nandini Sharma shared that brands want to last forever, unlike people. Hence, brands need to be unique in order to make people know them well.

She focused on the points:

• Trust and being believable is the key to make people continue liking and buying the product
• Brands can grow and get good employees if they’re known for being special
• Understanding who likes the brand, telling them why it’s great, and using the right ways to talk about it (like ads) are the factors to make the brand stronger
• It is also important to pick the best ways to talk about the brand, like using social media or TV, based on what people like and the brand’s goals

Please find Naddini’s Presentation here: Branding by Naddini

Mahbub Rahim Uday shared that a brand is like an identity for a company or product that people recognize. It’s built on trust, how people see it, and the ways it’s advertised.

Steps of Building a Brand:

• Figuring out who your customers are
• Defining what your brand stands for and who it’s meant for
• Understanding your customers’ characteristics
• Knowing your brand’s strengths and weaknesses
• Designing a logo
• Choosing a suitable brand name and a catchy slogan

Then, one needs to decide what the brand’s purpose and position are. Crafting a brand story helps people connect with the brand. He added, integrating your brand into your business is crucial. Sometimes, brands change or refresh themselves – that’s rebranding. Different activities, like advertising and social media, help build and strengthen a brand.

Here is Mr. Mahbub’s Presentation on Branding: Branding by Mahbub