Women Lines

If you have a dream and you are passionate about it, nobody can stop you in achieving that .
Shobha Bhalla’s success story justifies this quote.  It sets a live example in front of all women entrepreneurs who share the burning desire.
Shobha has attained iconic status as a CEO of ‘India Se’ in Singapore . In an exclusive interview to Womenlines, Shobha talks of her life and work.
Shobha Tsering Bhalla – CEO & Editor-in-Chief, is an entrepreneur in field of Print media. India Se , magazine produced by Non Resident Indians (NRIs) for NRIs about NRIs, is her brain child and has recently celebrated 4 years of excellence in Singapore. It is a leading lifestyle magazine for NRIs in Singapore.
India Se – a name which was coined by Shobha herself. She dreamt of it when she presented a white paper to highlight the need for such a publication, catering to the ever growing Indian population in Singapore. She says that “Five years back Indians had reached a critical mass and a critical achievement level but, alas, there was no global media platform to talk about our achievements, aspirations, our culture or multitudes of cultures.” It was that time she conceived the launch of a magazine which does just that.

Shoba’s passion to pursue her dream project led her to resign from her cushy job and give to Singapore – ‘India Se’ on May 27, 2007. A naturalized Singaporean, veteran journalist and a former banker Shobha was prepared with all required skills to start a magazine. She was the pioneering Managing Editor of Lycos Asia – in charge of Internet content for 9 countries in Asia. Prior to that she worked as Regional Research Editor in the equities research division of ING Barings and earlier, as a Research Editor at OCBC Investment Research. From 1989 to 1997, she was also a senior correspondent in Singapore ’s oldest national daily ‘The Straits Times’ and more recently Editor of the Impact and Property sections of Singapore ’s 2nd largest circulating newspaper TODAY.
Shobha was Born in Sikkim, India. After graduating she began her working life as a management trainee and correspondent banking officer at the State Bank of India, India ’s largest bank and moved to Singapore with her businessman husband 25 years ago. Shobha’s aggressiveness towards achieving excellence in whatever work she does and hunger for success differentiates her from others. She says “Hard work is only key to success”. At present her main challenges are to get quality output for her magazine and source the require finances to keep it running. Just like herself she demands the same passion from her staff.

“As NRIs we are among the most educated and highest earning ethnic minorities in our countries of domicile – making the term NRI a metaphor for success everywhere”. While sharing about the objective of ‘India Se’ as a magazine Shobha comments “While India Se is a magazine dedicated to issues that are important to NRIs and Person of Indian Origin (PIOs) it is not restricted only to these groups of recent Indian immigrants. As a cultural and lifestyle magazine, it also seeks to connect, inform and entertain all people of Indian origin even those a few generations removed, who identify themselves culturally, ethnically and emotionally as Indians. But in doing so, it does not exclude non-Indians who may want to find out what makes Indians – especially overseas Indians – such a powerful and vibrant economic and cultural force globally.”Focus of India Se “she shares “is on informing and entertaining an international audience of highly educated readers. ”
Recently Shobha was a speaker at a forum in programe ‘Breaking Barriers 2011′, organised by Women’s Indian Network (WIN), which is part of Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry(SICCI)  and Narpani Ladies committee, where she addressed a large crowd of women entrepreneurs.There she shared how proud is she to be a woman and does believes in woman power. She says ”If women can raise lovely families they can perform better in work force undoubtedly. ”Shobha considers Anita Roddick, owner of ‘Body Shop’ as her idol and is inspired from the way Anita has set up the whole concept of ‘Body Shop’ chain.
India Se’s vision is to become Asia’s and eventually the world’s most well-read and influential magazine among overseas Indians. Believer of quote “This above all: to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man. – William Shakespeare.” Shobha is really Inspiration personified to all those budding entrepreneurs who have burning desire in their heart to prove something in life.

Womenlines wishes her best of luck and success in life!

It was interesting to read about Dame Anita Roddick in a book named Exceptional Entrepreneurship, which reports real life lessons from top business leaders!

Dame Anita Roddick was owner of Body Shop,which, has 2,400 stores in 61 countries, and is the second largest cosmetic franchise in the world, following O Boticario, a Brazilian company.Body shop is now part ofof the L’Oreal corporate group.

During her lifetime, Body Shop founder Anita Roddick had built a reputation for innovation, integrity and social responsibility. She died at age of 64, in 2007 as she suffered from major brain hemorrhage.

Dame Anita set up the first Body Shop in Brighton in 1976. She pioneered cruelty-free beauty products and turned them into a highly profitable business. She is a real inspiration to all businesswomen. To quote her from this book-

“ I am aware that success is more than a good idea. It is timing too. The Body Shop arrived just as Europe was going ‘green’. The Body Shop has always been recognizable by its green color, the only color that we could find to cover the damp, moldy walls of my first shop. The company went public in 1984. Since then, I have been given a whole host of awards, some I understand, some I don’t and a couple I think I deserve. Businesses have the power to do good. That’s why The Body Shop’s Mission Statement opens with the overriding commitment, ‘To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change.’ We use our stores and our products to help communicate human rights and environmental issues.”

It is so inspiring to know about the passion of Anita Roddicks to work for climate and environment safety through her work. Her campaigns are the reflection for her motives in life to make this world a safe place to live.

Some of her campaigns-

· 1985 – Stop the dumping of toxic waste in North Sea, Greenpeace

· 1986 – Campaign against whaling of sperm whales, Greenpeace

· 1987 – Acid Rain pollution, Friends of the Earth

· 1987 – Published first ‘Green’ Diary, Friends of the Earth

· 980s – Against Animal Testing for cosmetics, collected 4 million signatures through shops

· 1990 – The Body Shop Foundation set-up. Over first 6 years of operation donated more than 3.5 million pounds to 180 charitable groups

· 1990 – Set-up project to refurbish 3 Romanian orphanages. Work extended into Albania and Bosnia

· 1991 – Funded Unrepresented Nations and Peoples organization

· 1993-98 – Ogoni Campaign against Shell and Nigeria

Anita Roddick was having a basket full of various awards from various governments like in 1984 – Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year, 1988 – OBE – Order of the British Empire , 1996 – Women’s Center’s Leadership Award, USA and many more.

Some of her inspiring quotes which I came across this book-

“When enthusiasm comes from heart its unstoppable because its driving your life and its part of the template of who you are.”

“Women are good at combining their interests with their skills and transforming them into a livelihood.”

“Entrepreneurs are anti hierarchical creative people who are obsessed with their businesses. They are also a fountain of ideas but often need others to help make them happen.”

Anita Roddick  is an inspiration to all those businesswomen who want to do something in life with a difference!

It takes a lot of persistence to get you from a great idea to a profit-making venture!

Entrepreneurs are following  some special elements  of success which makes them what they are.There are skills to do business. Going across some books I came across these elements of success which are followed by successful entrepreneurs-

1.A GOOD BUSINESS PLAN-

This is crucial for planning, implementing, and conducting a new business. It helps organize and direct the important steps for your venture and can mean the difference between success and failure.There are different workshops  by various women groups, which can provide free help in writing a business plan.

2. CLEAR GOALS-

Select the goals you want to concentrate on and the direction you will take to achieve those goals. Determine daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals, for your business. and then make a to do list of steps that you will take to accomplish each goal.

3. MONEY-

If you want to start your business, expert say that you must have 6 months to 2 years savings with you as a back up.This is just to cover living expenses. Money for business is to be arranged after estimating how much will be your start up cost. Loans from banks, friends, savings etc can be good options while making financial arrangement for business. Then to keep your business going you have to have a cash reserve for all your purchases, bills and other expenses. Keeping good records and consulting with financial ad visors will all help you to stay in business.

4. KNOW YOUR BREAK-EVEN POINT-

Using your records and advice of your accountant or financial advisor watch for the point when your business begins to make profit. Depending upon how much money you have borrowed it may take  about 2 years. It depends upon the type of business, like  a service business such as public relation and counselling, will generally require less start up money than opening a small shop with inventory or another product related business.

(contd)