Women too are now jumping on the bandwagon of doing business in new ways!
By Our Special Correspondent
THE world has changed and is changing rapidly as a younger generation reviews old priorities and seek new, faster ways of working and doing business with lower overheads, fewer headaches — and reaping a qualitatively less stressful quality of working life. It means working out of rented spaces by the hour or days or month or all year around with all the mod con facilities and requirements of doing business laid, with a take-a- break relaxing comfort zone to relax or chat it over piece de resistance coffee, gourmet sandwich or pizza and much else on a changing refreshment menu.
This is the new way of doing business! It means a young entrepreneur need not worry about office rents and power bills to pay month after month on business ventures are dragged down by meaningless expenditure. Working out of exquisitely comfy spaces one may rent by the hour or even half-day or day, months or annually, offers the temptation of fewer headaches and a better quality of life where one is taking decisions quicker, moving faster. And leaving no tracks behind except what’s recorded on one’s personal laptop and smart phone in hand! It’s the only way to do business in these stressful post-Covid-19 days or so to speak.
This is to say these were the thoughts running through my mind at the brightly lit, cheerfully designed celebration of the first anniversary of the dynamic Abrar Shaikh’s MeWo & BIZ Nest ideally located on the ground floor of the Dempo Tade Centre in the business district of Patto in Panaji. It was also an opportunity for the GCCI Women’s Wing led by businesswoman Pallavi Salgaocar (chairperson) and co-chairperson Poonam Shirsat to sign an MOU with MeWo for an “impact initiative to grow women entrepreneurship.”
Believe it or not but such meeting and co-working facilities are very welcome by a younger generation of women too who want to cut their overheads while doing their business in a business environment where helpful consultation and facilities are at their disposal. The Impact Initiative to Grow Entrepreneurship is backed by Shrinivas Dempo (chairperson of the Dempo Group) who in his brief exchange praised the GCCI Women’s Wing women, “In every sector and field women have done a tremendous job.” He would like to see them step out of the usual conservative businesses into more complex things. Sure, he sometimes worries about the amount of young generation spends on smart phones and if their eyes and health takes a toll, well, he is of the view that soon more technology will take care of that too!
He is worried that a lot of smart Goan kids are moving out of Goa in search of greener pastures abroad and they never think of coming back. All for want of up-to-date facilities and opportunities in Goa and a happy working atmosphere! Places like Abrar Shaikh’s MeWo fill the missing links and more Goans will not be tempted to leave their home state. Others who spoke on the need to be promote and facilitate new start-ups in Goa were Manoj Caculo (GCCI president and CMD Caculo Group), Pallavi Salgaocar, Poonam Shirsat and Abrar Shaikh.
Shaikh stressed that places like MeWo Meetings & Co-working were also places where the young and women can learn a lot about how to go about starting a business. In fact all in all anyone may drop in and shop for ideas or use the lavishly done up premises of pleasantly done up cabins and meeting arrangements. In fact, MeWo is already being used by some noted companies like Naukri.Com and 99 Acres and their employees. Poonam Shirsat too is happy to work out MeWo for she says it’s got the perfect ecosystem for out of box ideas and she herself is training young skilled professionals about the importance of soft skills while presenting themselves and seeking and seeking employment or business contracts.