How to Start Your Own Venture

Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah We begin in the name of Allah subhanho wa taala. We praise Him, we glorify Him, and we send peace and salutations upon our last and final messenger

Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, my respected audience, I would like to welcome you all to a brand new session this week in sha Allah. This week, we have a very special guests with us, brother Abdul Rahim from Kolkata in West Bengal in India, and he will be speaking about how we can start a new venture of us, we will come to the topic, but before we come to the topic, we have an important introduction to make. As you all know, we started off with the BBA webinar approximately six weeks back, and we have been covering on different issues on different topics pertaining to the current environment that we are living in. Globally, the COVID pandemic has changed the entire way

the business model works. People are changing the businesses, there are people who are being forced, because of the job losses which are taking place, billions of jobs have been lost. Because of that people are being forced to change the way they maintain their lifestyle, the kind of work that they need to do to sustain themselves. Everyone is now trying to work on being a little more creative to earn more money. And may Allah make things easy for all of us. In today's session, we have with us brother Abdul Rahim, who shall be speaking about a very important topic, a question which has been coming to us in almost every webinar. What is the best business I can do in this period of man

Dimmick? Or how can I start a business of my own and it's a concern, which is a very valid concern, and we hope inshallah brother abdur-rahim will be able to provide us some idea, some guidance, some solution B isn't Allahu taala.

Before I introduced brother Abdul Rahim, I would like to remind you that these programs, these webinars are brought to you by the Department of Business Administration, and each one of you who are listening to the session, I would urge you to visit the IO website, the International Open Universities website, and find out about all the programs that we have. We have different categories of program we have courses on Islamic Studies, courses on education, psychology, Islamic banking, and Economics, Psychology and above all, the business administration course, which is inshallah going to be something go related to business administration is how do you start your business, which

brother Durham will be shedding light on? Before I hand over the session to brother abdur-rahim. Let me give a quick introduction to about brother Rahim, the guest of today. Abdur Rahim is an Indian chartered accountant and an MBA from a prestigious X LRI Jamshedpur. He is an international development consultant, who has worked with international agencies such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Department for International Development.

He has been part of entrepreneurial journey of the IP global for the last two decades, helping it to become one of the largest development consultancy forum in the South Asia and he currently is the Chief Knowledge Officer. Brother Abdul Rahim has also set up his own farming venture. And that's something really exciting and we would hope, rather abdur-rahim will be able to shed some light about what farming venture is all about in Bihar in India, in order to maximize productivity and profit for the farmers in a relatively underdeveloped but highly agrarian state. During the COVID. He is working on his latest venture in online education and training. It's called the Academy for

life and futuristic sciences, lf ala Fs, where he is also the co founder. In addition to all of this, and this is really when I met brother Abdur Rahim is when the youth based volunteer NGO model which he runs, which is called the series SACD foundation T SSF.

which is mashallah quite popular in the state of Bengal. And with that, I would like brother Abdul Rahim to take over the present presentation, make his initial presentation, and I would request all of those who are listening to the session live. If you have any question, please start posting your queries in the chat box. And we will take up the questions as soon as he has made his initial remarks. Rather abdur-rahim. I hand over the stage to you over to your bar Hello, Vic.

Assalamu alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. Zack Allah for them. And sir, thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. And welcome to everyone here for this set presentation on how to start a new venture from visualizzare. We are serially Amory value local data melissani of karma Cali.

I think today's topic is so interesting that I thought I requested Brotherman so Dinesh to allow me to start with a short presentation on the subject. So that we can start appreciating the topic itself a little differently. A lot of us have got some preconceived ideas, about ventures about business, and also about jobs. We think we are cut out for one type of them, not the other, perhaps we've got myths in our mind about how the other type of work actually operates. So I thought I'd give a little bit of background breaking some of the myths that are behind the entrepreneurial or the new venture sike new HSL. So let me quickly go through this short presentation, where we will

just discuss some of the issues of how and why we can be more entrepreneurial in nature, how we can learn, set up, operate, and profit from new ventures, especially in the current pandemic situation.

I just want to take a look back and ask ourselves, how have we as humans been? Have we been historically? Have we been employment oriented people? Or have we been enterprise oriented people? And the answer is very obvious. In fact, as Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and microfinance pioneer from nearby Bangladesh says, All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we were in caves, we were self employed. We found our own food we fed ourselves. And that's been the cradle of history, the cradle of civilization. But then, as we became more and more structured, we suppressed it. And we became labor, because they stamped us, you are labor. And we forgot that we

are entrepreneurs. For those of you who are not aware, Muhammad Yunus started the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, where all he did was provide microfinance small amounts to, especially women entrepreneurs in the rural areas. And they had a fantastic response. Not only were they able to start small ventures, but the repayment rate was as high as 96%. And as a result of it, they actually helped a lot of people move out of poverty. The point is, that we are all inherently entrepreneurial, all of us need and have to and want to take up something new around on our own. But we've been conditioned, we've been stamped, we've been made to behave like employees. Before I move

ahead, I also want to mention that there is some statistic which says that about 97% people in this world are actually working for the 3%, who are entrepreneurs. Now, maybe the percentage is not an accurate reflection. And perhaps there's no data on this, right. But it's a fact that the majority of people in this world are looking for a job under that small group of people who actually claim to be the entrepreneurial class. We are here to break some myths. And we are here to think about how we can really change this psych, change the thinking, and the change happens here. First, let's go ahead and understand a little bit about how and why we can start new ventures. But before we move

ahead, let's understand that we are right now talking in a context where COVID has taken the whole world by storm. Just last week, we had the data for India, and in the last first quarter of this year, compared to last year, we've had a 23% drop in GDP growth.

If you look at the data from the IMF, which is right now on your screen, it shows that across the world, there's going to be negative growth. The global economy is projected and this data is for June. We'll get the latest data in September again, but they say that there's going to be a fight

percent close to 5% negative growth in global economy with advanced economies having a higher drop up to 8% and emerging economies up to minus 3%. So obviously, it's a bad time to start a business, right? No, absolutely wrong. This is the right time to start a business. As I said, there are some myths. And we need to break those myths. But let me give you a few examples from history. Some companies, which were actually set up during testing times, and actually have done tremendously well over the years. The first company I'm going to talk about is General Electric. It was set up in 1892. Before the three year, mini recession, were actually many people, many companies went out of

job, many people were put out of job, and yet, General Electric not only survive, but thrive, and still continues to do even today.

The next company, IBM, set up around 19 111 economic shocks in the oil sector in the stock market sector in the US. But nevertheless, IBM, being a new technology field, continued and grew and has still continued to survive and BLU

Disney, which came in around the 30s. And at that time, it was a depression, the Great Depression that we know about. And even at that time, this new something that even in this depression in this position that people don't know what to do, anyone who can put a smile on their face will be able to earn money. And low within those three or four years after the depression, they were able to actually recover their costs and become highly profitable, and continue to grow even today, hp 1939. Again, tough times in the US at that time, they grew well, hot in 1957. These are all times around a year or two of recession or drop or in or unanswered in the period in which all these companies have

started. And finally, Microsoft in 1975. So if these at least six representative companies can actually do so well, having started in a in a recession, or in a slowdown, or in a place where the positive energy was missing. What's wrong with now is that, you know, something he asked for that matter when it picked up all its properties, or some of its properties at that time, was able to do so at low prices. Because of the general

emotion which was lower at that time. Cut to 2020 isn't at the same time right now. We're actually sentiments are running low, where today, if you need the best people, they are being laid off from the best companies and are ready to work with you at maybe half the price? Is it not the best time to look at setting up a new company, which will feature in this slide? Some years down the line? So I think breaking the first meant that is a bad time to start a business. I think this is one of the best times to start a business. But the real question is different. real question is, are you ready for it? Are you made out for it? You remember these rides where you as a child have to stand up and

show your height? If you're if you're tall enough, which means you're old enough, then you are allowed to go on the roller coaster otherwise they say you're too young you have to go. So the question really is not whether there is a potential outside whether there is there is a market outside whether there are possibilities which are outside. The question really is the roller coaster is there. The question is, are you sizing up to it? Are you ready for it. And today, we will be talking about some of those things, how we can just start making the change within us to be able to take up these opportunities.

I think this slide actually explains a lot of things. We consider business or taking up a new venture has the function of our ability. I'm educated, I'm trained, I can do these things. Therefore I should be able to take up this venture, right? Absolutely wrong.

In order to do a business in order to start a new venture in order to go on your own. You need all these three things. Your ability is but 1/3 of the requirement, your aptitude, your intelligence, your education, your training, your experience, all these count only one of those three components that you can see on your screen right now. Your personality is going to count a lot more than put in a job. Why is that? Because as an entrepreneur as a new venture as a startup, you are an employer and you're

A personality has to be such that can keep the team together. In any other job, you may be a small part of a team, you may be heading a small team, and only your influences around that. But as a founder, as a startup venture, you are going to define the culture of that organization, and hence people who come to you look at your personality. So your personality plays a big role over here. But perhaps more than both these is the third state, which is a psychological state. What is your psychological state? Are you ready to take this up? Well, it's a fact that many of you would be knowing this, that every day new business law setup, and most new businesses, especially small new

businesses, fail a couple of years, maybe five years at most, many of those companies, which have been set up with those fantastic dreams by those grand entrepreneurs actually closed down. Why is that? Is it because of ability? Is it because of personality? Perhaps? Is it because of the psychological state? What is the self image that they had? What were the societal norms? What was the fear of failure? What was the level of patience that they had? There are many people who we know who actually sold out a business at a very low cost because they did not get the result they were looking at. But the person who took it over immediately benefited from it, and was able to take it

to heights that they never thought possible.

Do we have that patience to continue? What is the motivation we have to continue? What is the self efficacy we have to continue? So I think these three components are what are needed in order to make a business or a new venture successful. We'll cover some of these and especially the psychological state. And since I think most of us are from Muslim background, and Muslim religion, Islam, I think we need to also understand and see it from that perspective, because that also dictates our psychological state.

Let me quickly go a little bit to the background. In our in Islam, it is considered at least publicly, people do think it's not proper to have a lot of economic wealth or prosperity. In fact, frugality is considered a virtue, and having a lot of wealth is is looked down upon.

Well, we start with one of the two hours of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam which he often quoted, Allah McFeely Behala Allegan Harami Allah, I asked you for that which is lawful for me, and to prevent me from that which is unlawful while leading the family garment Ciroc and give me by Your blessings and keep me away from asking anybody else for it so that I'm not dependent on anyone else for it.

If you ask me, this is the philosophy of Islam. As far as the economic world is concerned, the world must be halal, it should be preventing in any way from anything which is unlawful and we should be dependent on the blessing of Allah to Allah for it and dependent on no one else for that, which we expect him as the result to give us and also if you look at history, you will find that Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam himself was a merchant

Rasul Allah Azza wa sallam himself was a merchant, and he has had numerous studies on the virtues of a good businessman.

He has himself

shown by character shown by example, encouraged people to take up ventures to take a business. We all know about the Hadees intermarry when he asked this person who came and asked him for some money to get what he had from his house, and he auctioned that among the people for two coins, one of which he said go and get an x. And the other one he said buy provisions for your home, he himself fitted the accent gave him and said go to the woods, cut, cut wood, sell it to the market, and don't come back until you have made a profit from it. And he came back and mashallah he was on his feet economically. So business earning income are not so to say, um, hold on unliked by Islam, the Sahaba

of the Allahu Taala and of major Marine, many of them were Valley businessmen. Of course, they gave up their lot of money for the sake of Islam. Of course, starting with as a postman in their farmer, the Allah Tala and, and of course, the recommand been offered the Lakota language and others have as well, a lot of them. But the most important thing was their wealth was used for the right cause. The wealth was not used for self aggrandizement. The wealth was not used for trying to say I'm so great, I'm so great. I want so much but for a good cause.

We also know that in Islam, there is a strong provision for charity and zurka. In fact, the whole philosophy of Islam is that Allah Tala has

giving you the wealth, and you need to give it away in his way to others. And that therefore, if we look at ourselves as only a conduit as a means, then obviously, the ownership of wealth transforms into a stewardship of wealth. And that is the philosophy behind Islam in terms of economic growth. Also, if you look at history, Islam has spread across the world, through traders, through people who went doing business along trading routes, including in India, the first Islamic, shall we say, people who came and accepted Islam, what around the roots in Kerala,

in Gujarat, these were the people who actually saw Muslims who came there to trade, and were so impressed by the religion that they adopted the religion. So again, business and Islam are not contradictory. And another thing which a lot of people say, money and dunya is discouraged in Islam. Well, what is really discouraged, is the love of money, the love of dunya. We are all existing in this earth. And we know that we have to work in this world and use this world as a Muslim, I told Africa as a way to prepare ourselves for the Africa. So the love of money or dunya is discouraged, not in itself, money or Donia. And I think Marle is of course, the Arabic word from all I think I

just told you know, there's another word called armar. Right, which are the good deeds we do at the mall is the wealth we have. The question is, can we convert mall to our Amal? Can we bring that virtue to the wealth, which is actually seen as maybe too worldly to be really noble? Well, I think there are three things if you do we can convert Moll to AMA all this with the condition that we don't have the love of Moll in our hearts? Well, the first is, if we can take care of the why we want why are we earning this wealth? What is our Nia behind it? Is it so that people call me a great businessman so that I become the richest person in this world?

Or is it so that I can earn money to be able to give employment to people? Is it because I want to create a new product that will ease the lives of people bring out a new medicine that will cure people say for COVID or anything of that sort the near? The second is how we earn it, how we earn it. What are the means? Is it halal? Is it haram? Is it not too shabby? Or is it something we doubt?

So what is it if it's pure if it's halal, then we shall actually be doing a good deed by doing that because before in earning this money, we are actually helping people to get their jobs. And finally, the third thing is where we spend all this money. We spent this money we talked about Zakat and charity Allah Allah says in the Quran, you handed in an unfiltered view Marisa Conoco spend from what I have given you, if you have that intention, if you end it for the community, if you spend it for doing good deeds, which will benefit you in your Africa, and Alhamdulillah, the model will itself become more common for you. As you earn money, of course, again, the caveat without having a

love for it in your heart, but only using yourself as a steward. And as a conduit for it, your mouth may transform to more Amahl. Let me quickly go through some of the final slides and then we'll come to the questions. Who is this person? I mean, we all know the first flying machine the first airplane was made by the Wright brothers in 19 103. But there is this person and I mean in person from Islamic history who actually tried the first man first flight by a human being with these artificial wings put on him. Right. And when was this? Can you imagine which year was this? It was about 1000 years before the Wright brothers 1000 years. His name was a bass in the furnace. And he

attempted to fly 1000 years before the Wright brothers. Why am I telling you this? Because I'm saying that the Muslim people the Muslim community has been and should be adventurous, risk taking. And at the front end of cutting edge inventions, technology and change.

Perhaps you lose, we've lost these things. And those are part of the psychological state we've lost. But if you ask me, this community has to be entrepreneurial by nature.

So this is just an example of a passive new furnace. Another myth a lot of people have, well, if I'm not so educated, what do I do? How can I survive? What can I do? This is a little bit of some eminent people in today's economic world, who actually did very well without actually completing school in a full way. For example, we start with Michael Dell, Steve Jobs Apple, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, Bill Gates.

who left his college at 20. Twitter co founder, even Williams, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, Larry Ellison, Oracle founder, the WhatsApp founder, the Uber founder, as well as Whole Foods and so many other people, including if you look at it in India, the Yoruba money, the biggest, the his son is now the richest man in India. He's also been his father was a dropout, his father didn't study, not a dropout. In fact, he was never He didn't even study. So I think this is itself a myth in our mind that unless I am educated in a certain way, I cannot start a new venture. This itself is also not a constraint as far as we are about to start. I think the most important thing is, when you want

to start a new venture, it's about being passionate,

being passionate about what I want to do, what do I want to do? And why do I want to do it? Why I want to do it? What is the purpose behind it? This is the most important thing which keeps you going even when things are not going great. So why do I want to do it? And how I do it? What is my quality? What is my excellence? What is the way that I do it that people will really love? And most importantly, which I said right at the beginning? Why do I do it? Whom do I do it for? If our intention is, of course to earn Halal income for our family, to be able to live comfortably, that itself is a bother. If my intention is that I will take a part of it and give it away as charity, I

will help my community get employment, that itself is another. So being passionate about it, and keeping all these things in mind will help us have that necessary psychological state, having the courage to actually move into that next phase of starting up our venture. How do I start up my venture, of course, there are a lot of legal formalities, which differ from country to country. In today's world, there are also a lot of, I would say a lot of business strategies and methods that you need to follow, we will of course, have to understand these in much more greater detail. But today, I just want to touch upon this whole thing about the correct mindset needed before we start

on a new venture. So I want to ask all of us, what's your VI,

anybody who started his own or her own business, and says that, well, I'm doing my business, but I'm not really making the kind of results I'm looking for. So I'm thinking that I should shut down. Ask this to yourself again, what was my why when I started it, and if you can get this why all the other things will fade in comparison, and you will continue with it. And you will make a success of it. Insha Allah Tala be isn't it lighter. So I think I just want to give you final slide some strategies if you want to start new ventures, some ideas of how you can think of new ventures. Now obviously, there's no one size fits all or one solution for every situation. But there are about four

strategies, you can look. The first is a market penetration strategy, some existing product is there, I will now enhance that product penetration into the market. Now there is a very low risk in this because that product is established, there's a market for it. How can I do this, I can do this by enhancing customer service by enhancing quality. And by enhancing marketing. Say, for instance, there is a certain brand of a mobile that's already quite popular. I want to set up and enhance that times that products, customer quality, the customer service quality, and the marketing and the offers that I'm going to give with it, hopefully, I will be able to get a larger audience come to

me. So this is called the market penetration strategy through it with a low risk, I can actually start a new venture. And with an established product and a market, just differentiating it on these three crowded grounds, I can make my own venture. The second is product development strategy. This has got a reasonable rate. It's about 30% risk. But obviously we are very risk taking people so we should take risks. But product development teams, a new product for existing customers, people who are used to doing things in a certain way, I'm going to give a product which is slightly better, but their need is already their new product development its customer needs. A very good example of this

is Google itself. A lot of us actually think of Google as the prime mover in search. It was not a lot of other people came before it. But Google eventually gave this new product to existing customers of search engines, Facebook itself, how many of you will remember orchid orchid was a precursor to Facebook. But orchid died out and Facebook continued. So new products for existing customers is a product development strategy. The third strategy is market development where you have a higher risk. When you look at existing products for new markets. You go to newer areas, new geographies, new types of customers, and you try and enhance the market pie itself so that newer

people can take it. And finally, which is the most risky option is of creating a new product category,

creating a new product to a new customer. Let's look at Apple iPhone. Right? It's great

added a new product, it created a new customer for it. And it's maintained that customer sector. So I think these are kind of four broad strategies we can use. But within this what exactly will work and how we need to take forward. I'll hope to take those things when we take the questions in this session. So thank you so much for that. I'll hand it back to monsoon by and as we take it on from

Okay.

We will just Yeah. Okay. BarakAllahu, big brother abdur-rahim For your initial presentation masala. A lot of important points that I brought up, the Rahim has mentioned and I was also making my own notes here. So you mentioned about

this being one of the best time to start a business. So any one of you who felt that COVID is a time when we don't know what to do, we just need to sit Wait and watch. He has in fact, given us another perspective altogether. He says this is one of the best time to start your business. He also went on to speak about well the three important things which are needed to start a business ability, personality and a psychological state. So any one of you who thought that it is only about ability than ability only is 1/3. If you think you have the personality, that also is just 1/3 is the psychological state which completes you to be prepared to move on some other important points which

is mentioned. And mashallah, there were a lot of good points that you mentioned, you mentioned about the philosophy of Islam on wealth, in the form of the DUA, that you quoted of the prophets of Salem, and mentioning about seeking more of Halal saving ourselves from haram and putting a complete dependency on Allah subhanaw taala. That should be our ultimate goal and objective.

The wealth, and this is something I'm sure we will have a lot of questions, I can already see a question which has come to me, the wealth should not be used for self advertisement. But rather it should be used for a good God's. And Allah has given you the wealth. This is another important you know, I just was noting some important points that statements that you were saying, we often tend to feel that the money that we have the wealth that we have is the doing of our own hands, our own mindset, it's our knowledge. But it's very important to remind ourselves that what we have with us has come to us completely from Allah subhanho wa taala. We have these people who we call the ones

with the blue collar jobs, they work really hard. And at the end of all of this, they probably take 1/10 of what a white collared man gets sitting comfortably in an air conditioned environment. So this is complete reform Allah subhanho wa Taala important points about ml and ml, how do you link between the two? How do you make virtue become part of your wealth? That's so important. And the near the intention? Everything depends upon the intention eventually, isn't it? So a lot of important things, and the most important takeaway was being passionate. If you want to start your business, what do you want to do? Why do you want to do it? How do you want to do it? And whom do

you want to do it for? So these are some of the key takeaways that brother Abdul Rahim has shared with us? I'll request others to keep sharing your questions. Some of you have shared your questions with me directly on WhatsApp, the chat box is open. We already have a question. So I'm going to take the question from the chat box.

The question wants to know, what's the best affordable platform to use in order to host and bring alive a new business in order to reach a targeted audience? So the question wants to know about a platform which can be used in order to advertise the products? Do you suggest Facebook and social media page? Will that be sufficient? Or do we need to have maybe our own portal etc, etc. barnacle? Ofek. Thank you so much. That's an interesting question. I think one of the major changes due to the pandemic, which we have seen is a huge surge in web usage, internet usage, and a lot of people moving online. I remember I wanted to upgrade my broadband connection. And the person said, Sorry,

we've run out of, you know, we've run out of the fittings needed for that, because there'll be such a huge demand for it over the last few months. So this is going to be the future. We are moving. And in fact, it's a forced way. But all of us have moved to this. So I see technology becoming the number one game changer in all overall in terms of techno in terms of entrepreneurial enterprise enterprise. And in that context, digital marketing becomes the key differentiator. Now that's got a positive side to it as well. If it was any other mode of activities.

meant that a lot of people who were starting up new ventures perhaps couldn't afford it, it was really prohibitive. And a lot of people couldn't match up to the large corporations as far as the spending on advertisement were concerned. But by using digital media, digital marketing, a lot of people can compete with the biggest brands. So we all move to a more level field. Yes, I suggest use social media, use Facebook, use all the means that are available, try and see how each of them work out to you. And based on that, you will be able to move to a certain level that you can make your next level if it's not a product, which sells exclusively on an on a on an online platform. But to

start with this, because the level of customization that's possible, will give you much more results and impact than in just a general marketing world.

Okay, BarakAllahu Li, we'll take one more question. Now, when you mentioned about the statement, where well should not be used for self advertisement. Rather, it should be used for a good cause. This is a very tricky situation, because now we live at a time when everywhere we see personal branding, which is a very important topic. And by the way, I'm also reading a book on personal branding. So should I actually get away with this book? This is not needed anymore? What is your take on it? Because when you say that it should not be used for self advertisement? Would you like to qualify that statement? Okay, I think the word I used was self aggrandizement, which is sort of

making ourselves the recipient of the credit for that wealth that I've created. So I think it was more of trying to, as you said, take credit for that, or feeling proud of that, or feeling that I've achieved something because I've earned this well, because as you said, and I also reiterated, all this is only from Allah, and that humility is so important when we earn the wealth, because that will just negate whatever we have done otherwise. And so therefore, what I meant was self aggrandizement, thinking highly about ourselves, because of our ability, or the fact that we have earned wealth. Personal Branding is unfortunately a reality. But today, in a in a venture situation,

we are actually talking about product branding. We're talking about enterprise branding. And these are realities, and I am sure that we are our people need to learn these things. Otherwise, we ended up having a bad brand, like made in China right now is not a good brand, at least in most parts of the world. Because that's got a negative connotation to it right now. But we have to make ourselves as a positive brand, whatever product or enterprise we are in. So branding, yes, aggrandizement, no?

Okay, here's some more questions which have come our way, we'll first take the question on the kind of business one should start. So should I do what everyone else is doing? Or should I start thinking differently? So you did mention about market penetration and finding out about products, etc. But this basic question still remains an answered, what kind of products should I start working on? So if I'm a person who's sitting at home right now listening to you, and I don't know where to start from? What advice do you have for me? Okay. So as I said, there is no one formula or one solution that will suit everyone, you've got to look at it in your own context. But what I want to tell you

is a few tips on this, there are some things that you definitely would be more comfortable in some things that you would really like to do, what are your skills? Your first level of analysis? Is not the market, the first level of analysis is you? What is it that I am more comfortable in doing? Am I looking at it? Am I a person who's very good in organization? Am I a person who's very good in logistics? Am I a person who's good in marketing? And based on these? What kind of organization can I create around that? There are several models that are available, but all I want to say is that that model will depend on you and your organization's capability. One of the simple models that have

been there around for several years is white labeling, which means I buy some products from a manufacturing country, for example, China, and I sell it branded in my name through my website. Now that has been a standard practice across the world, including some of the big brands, who actually bought those stuff from China branded as themselves and sold that at a premium. Now, is that the kind of business that you can or would like to do? Or is it something that you as a professional, have some quality in you that you would like to offer? Imagine I mean, as you said, somebody may be sitting at home right now and looking at this. Now sitting at home has become the new normal, as

they say, right? What is it that you can do from home, which earlier you couldn't do? Teaching, for instance, it's a whole new world that's opened up. I want us to go beyond our thinking about what can I sell? I want us to start thinking of what new things

I do in the new context of COVID. I mean, if you ask me, there is a huge market potential to create a low cost simple machine, allowing children to study at home, which is not a laptop, not a mobile, every student today has got to study at home. And they are using either a laptop, which is the parents, or a mobile, which is again from their parents or so. And they are facing problems because they are having access to the entire Internet. But if somebody was to create a child safe, simple to use a tablet as which has got inbuilt some of these conference software's that are used, it could have a market. So the point is, there's no easy solution for it, you've got to really think and you

know, one of the ways to think of it is just take a walk, I know it's difficult these days, but take a walk and see what are the pains people are facing? What is it that you think is a problem and find a solution to it? Just doing the normal stuff? Does it excite anybody? But there'll be no big why. But ask yourself, do you know how Uber was built Obon was a very, it's a very simple solution, or that you think of it, people had mobiles, which had their GPS on it. And drivers of taxis and mobiles would have the GPS on it. All it needed was somebody to connect it. But where did the idea come? When its founder was standing on the curb for an hour waiting for a taxi, but couldn't get a

taxi to stop? He said, Why don't I create something that will link both these mobiles and allow me to ask that person to come here, he could be sitting on the other road and not knowing I'm needed here. So pain is the first point to identify where can I do it? Pain Relieving, is the best way to build the new business venture, which can solve if you can solve your pain for a lot of people, you actually got a fantastic business model.

Okay, Mashallah. So if you do step out for a walk, the guidelines needs to be maintained, please maintain social distance, make sure you put on your mask, and then of course, you can move out and start thinking of a good idea. And in fact, because of the COVID norms that we are living in, and I think the example that you gave off a student friendly, a Peritus, which can actually help them with without, you know, damaging them, the screen time, etc. And all the filters which are needed the blue screen filter, etc, which could not be very expensive, and can also benefit them is an amazing thing. And I'm sure, there must be some brains, which, which have already probably started working

on it, considering we don't know how long this pandemic will last. Well, a lot of questions coming in this one is on the money part. So you've touched upon everything. We've spoken about earning money through business. But before we get into business, we need to put in money to start a business. Where will that money come from? Considering the fact that in the Muslim world today, we don't find a lot of easy steps of borrowing, the borrowing is an issue. You don't have a lot of Islamic banks and finance in many of the countries. And this question comes from a country where there is no setup. So how do you expect people to start a business Gone are the days where and

Abdullah narrowleaf could come to Medina. And because of the bond of brotherhood, someone else would be willing to offer half his farm to him to start this business? That's not possible today. So in a situation like this, what advice do you have for a person who wants to start business and how much money it will be needed? How does he work out all that?

I purposely did not address this question. Because one, this question is very specific to different countries, as you said, depending on the business model, depending on the banking models over there, but also because I don't think that is the make or break factor for any new venture. We like to think like that, because that is an acceptable excuse to the world.

Everybody can be told well, I didn't have the financial backing. So I didn't start a business. But believe me, this is not an excuse. Tell me one person who has actually started his big business who was actually rich, none of them, right. They started from absolute poverty. And that's how they actually made their movement up. Yes, they access funds, but how did they access the funds, they access funds by showing performance by showing results by moving up? And that's how I suggest we do also that we mentioned that most of the industries or the earlier business when I'm talking about what people who needed a huge amount of money. Today in a very virtual world. The the norms for

requirement of funds have come down a lot, a lot. As I said earlier, advertisements would cost you millions, but today to advertise on social media requires very small money. So the ways that you should actually be doing I'm not saying you don't need any money, but yes, you I'm just saying don't use that as a mental excuse to stay away from this and say I don't have money.

Why can't you do it? Well, well, you really do need money. And it's a good idea to have somebody else also with you in your business as an investor, you know, why not because you need the money, even if you don't need the money, get somebody to invest in your business, because that builds and accountability. Because if it's your money, and you're making a loss, you're not answerable to anyone else. But the moment it's somebody else's money, you feel a little ashamed, and you will make a double effort to try and make it to do get a profit on it, rather than make it go down. So do have somebody invest now who do you get this money? Who do you get people to invest? Now, usually

business books tell you that three F's, friends, families, and fools. Now who are those fools, those fools are people who can be sold your business idea, and who will trust in you enough to be able to invest in you now you've got to make those pitches, a lot of us actually say, Well, if I got finance sitting at home, I'd start the business tomorrow. But I won't go out and pitch after all, I'm not begging them for anything. Well, you know what, the first thing that you have to do when you start your venture is put our own self, our ego, at the corner, just have to put it outside, you're going to go there and go to pitch it to people and you want to pitch it to people and you want to pitch it

to people. An example of this is Colonel Sanders, KFC, right. He started it at the ripe old age of 65, after his retirement, and he had this wonderful chicken formula, which he wanted to sell, and everybody was everybody was ready to buy. But the problem was, he wasn't ready to sell it as a recipe. He wanted a share of every piece that was sold as a franchise and nobody was ready for that. He went he was rejected. He went he was rejected. 1009 rejections later, somebody said are reluctant to Yes. And today KFC is what it is. So the point is make your efforts go out and talk to people. Because you will also know how good your idea is when you pitch it in front of people. And don't

think people don't have money. Just as today we are looking at a loss of jobs, there are also people who are taking in people in jobs, right? So just as you need money, there are people sitting in the Muslim world who would like to invest, you need to connect with them. Yes, there is a lack of ecosystem. That is true. We need to work people who are hearing this right now and who are part of make can make this ecosystem happen have definitely have a role in building a platform that both of them can connect together. But even until then, I suggest start with your friends, family and make pitches to anybody. Because if nothing else, you will get free advice. Everyone's good at that. And

that will help to make your plan even more watertight, and yourself a better success.

Okay, thank you so much. I think the last point that you said,

about making pitches that is so crucial, unless and until you believe in what you're planning to do, and you're not, and you're willing to share it with others and get them on board, you will never be able to make the start. So making the pitches is is extremely important. Here's another question, which has to do with and I think you just touched upon it when you said get an investor on board. So I have two questions. And I'm going to combine both the question, one of the question wants to know, what advice will you give in order to choose a right business partner, and you are a co founder also in an organization? And the second question is, Do I need a co founder for a business to start a

business? So you said get an investor to start a business? Is the investor the same as a co founder or a partner? Or are they separate? What is your advice? And what are the prerequisite to have a right business partner? Okay?

None of us has got all the skills that are needed to start a business that's accept that. And there's a fantastic formula which says, hire or partner, your weaknesses? Hire or partner your weaknesses? What does it mean? Whatever it is that you don't have, hire them, or get them in as partners. Now that requires a very, I would say, objective self evaluation to be able to understand what are my strengths? What are not my strengths? And how do I get the right people to be able to be with me in that. Now, frankly, speaking, a co founder or an employee doesn't really make a difference. In fact, one of the great ways of actually hiring a person is ask yourself, would I have

taken this person as a co founder? I always tell this when hiring hiring in any big company, the question you should ask is, would I have taken this person in a senior position? Would I have taken this person as a co founder? And if your answer is yes, then that person is right for you even as an employee, otherwise, no. So I would say whenever you're looking at human resource, when you're looking at part of your team, you need to have the people whom you will be complementing, not duplicating. And the understanding levels have to be very, very high. Now how do you develop that obviously

Friends is not the only way or the right way to do it. Business ventures have to have a formal relationship, even if it's within friends, we need to understand that each one of us is contributing and bringing our own understanding our own value to this whole thing. And to be able to do that it's important to be able to have those complementing skills. No, how should we have an investor? And why should we have an investor, as I said, the investor a hands off investor, a person who merely invests is one option. The other is to have a co founder, where you have each one of them actually investing and being part of the business. Now, that, again, depends on the kind of skill sets, you

need a very, let's say, a very professional service organization where you need people to come up with specific skills, we'll need co founders who've got those skills, not necessarily the money, for example, a consulting firm, or maybe an educational institution, which I'm right now working on, does not really need people with funds to come in as co founders, because the fund requirement is not that high. What we need is the right kind of people to have that skills to take this education and teaching model forward. So we are having co founders of people with the right mindset, with technology, with education with the kind of academic background that we need, and the funding is

coming in from an investor who's purely an investor. So I think using these as criteria, I think you should really look at it, but having an outside funder is always better, because all of you together have an accountability to him or her or that organization. So that would be my advice on this. Okay. All right. Beautiful feet. That's a very important point. In fact, there's something that you mentioned about skills, that it's not about having all the skills and that was another question which had come in. So I would still put in this question here. How do I know whether I have all the skills required to start a particular business? So it's not important to have all the skills but

unpackage? Just correct myself? How do I know I have the necessary skills to start a particular business? And also to manage the day to day operations? Okay, so what are the necessary skills to manage a business? If you ask me, I think it was Henry Ford, who said this, he said, I make sure I'm the dumbest person in the room, when I'm with my employees,

which in other words, means I hire people better than me. He also said this, I believe, which he said that if only I have no great skill, only one skill to get people better than me to work for me.

If you have this one skill, that's good enough to be a businessman, what else do you need? I know a lot of people were actually very, shall we say less,

less educated, very technologically challenged, but who are great at managing people who are great at managing conflicts among team members, who are great at giving a perspective and a and a paradigm to people and organizations. And these people actually have been the founders and entrepreneurs who have created huge businesses. So I don't think that a lot of skills you need to have except this one skill of being, as I said, the personality skill of attracting the right people retaining them. And also that we mentioned, there are, you know, what is the kind of work you talked about entrepreneurial skills that are needed, but a lot of entrepreneurial work is actually very, very,

very, very routine.

It sounds very glamorous to set up a new company, I'm a board of, I'm a director on the board, and we are making a pitch and we are giving an investor presentation. But that's 5% of your time. 95% of the time it's those same cold calls, is those same brochures is those same mailings are those same packing is those same complaints. Life is like that, let's accept it, entrepreneurship or what we see as entrepreneurship on the media, as people who are successful, right? You have so many people who are projected to be absolutely fantastic, happy, glamorous. Well, that's only 5% of that time, the rest 95% is back breaking work, and boring work, what kind of skill skill you need for that, if

you just have persistence, that's enough. So if you're persistent enough to be able to continue with it, even despite problems, if you are, let's say amicable enough to get right people to come and work for you. And if you're enterprising enough to allow them to do what they want without letting your ego come in the middle. That's all you need to be an entrepreneur

All right, thank you so much. That was really insightful, the motivation that you gave mashallah, may Allah bless you for that. There's a question Do you or your organization offer any startup workshop where you cover step by step approach through which a person who attends will be able to start his or her business? Is there something which you have in plan to start? We are we are and how can people get in touch with you?

Well, we are designing, as I mentioned, our organization, our lifts, which is academy of life and futuristic sciences was, in fact, developed during the COVID. Because we saw this entire COVID as a great opportunity for the leap frogging of technology based learning.

If somebody was to say, six months ago, or maybe a year ago that your children will be studying at home, using a technology enabled computer, all of us would have laughed and said, Well, you know, education can't happen like that. But the fact is, last six months, all of us have been going through that. And that's not only for our children, but also for all of us. And so we have seen a lot of changes that have happened. Most of the colleges, schools and others being down, a lot of education has transformed on the web. So what we thought is, well, let's not replicate or duplicate what they're doing. But let's fill in the gaps that are there. We're talking about life skills,

we're talking about the skill is I just talked about, how can I actually be a good team player? Who teaches that? Well, not really teach that but train that who can? Who does that? Not really many people? So we thought let's Why don't we create something around that entrepreneurship? Well, we have courses like VBA, which gives you the skills and then techniques, but what do we actually need in terms of the inner qualities of me to be able to be a good entrepreneur. So we are in fact, on the process of developing that course, right? Now we've got one course out, which is for learning processes. It's called marks and intellect. The second course is going to be on entrepreneurship.

And hopefully, we'll have that in due course, my email id is of course, shared on the presentation. So that could be one way of connecting, please. Okay, there's a question. And this has to do with the two questions. But I'll come to the second one later, we'll keep it towards the end. When and how will I know that my business idea with which I had initiated my plans, etc, is going in the wrong direction, and I need to stop?

How long do I persist? In fact, a correlated question is, and I'm going to put up this question now, how do I know? Or when should I plan and exit from the business? So there are two parts here? The first part, of course, is, when do I know when my business idea is going wrong? And I need to pull the plugs. And the second one is exit strategy. In both the cases, one when the business is not doing well. And second, if the business is really doing well, but I don't see further growth. So when should I pull the plugs? Yeah, thank you so much, okay. So okay, an average startup, once it gets on the market, and gets, let's say, a good price. Average is a little higher, I would say a

lower side of it is 10 years.

It takes 10 years for a startup to get onto a market and then get get an investor or get, you know, get sold at a good price. So what we look at, oh, you know, a startup with a founder got sold at this high price is actually 10 years of hard work. Let's get that in mind first, because when we have the image startup, we somehow think he started it yesterday, and he sold it today. Even if you look at WhatsApp, if you look at even India and Flipkart, all these companies have spent a huge amount of time building their base, nobody is here to buy your name. They are buying your systems, they are buying your processes understand this once more, the more you make the company dependent on

you make your venture dependent on you, the lower is going to be your price.

We call that person a center printer, not an enterpreneur he makes the entire organization centered on him. A lot of people do business you know who set up the shops, everyday morning, they go through the shop, the persons are waiting outside the shop, they take out the key and give him so the person opens the door. And then he goes in and cleans and this person sits on the cash the whole day is telling attend to this person attend to that person is taking money from him putting it in his cash giving it out. Do you think he is a he's an entrepreneur?

He's actually employed in his own company.

You know the definition of an entrepreneur, a person who even when he's not there, the organization works as well. Our usual test of an entrepreneur is if you're a true entrepreneur, I give you two weeks paid holiday when the circumstances are very difficult. But if I could give you a paid holiday overseas, without any access to laptop, mobile or any other means of communication with your organization, and your organization did as well, if not better than when you are around, then you've got your organization set up. So the real challenge and this is what people pay for. They don't pay you for your name for your company for your product. They actually pay you for your systems. They

pay you for your connects, they pay you for your database. Those are the kinds of things that they pay you they don't pay you for an idea. Okay, let me also bring another myth to the front right. A lot of people think if only I had that one.

Great bright idea. I started my company and I'll become a hit overnight. There is no great idea, believe me, there is no great idea. It's simple ideas, ordinary ideas, which are persisted, which make a great company. And that persistence is about the ability to implement the execute scalar systemize, and then sell. So I would say, as far as selling is concerned, make sure you've got it at that stage, where even without you the organization can run, then only you will be on the market and the average average, I would say the lower edge of that is about 10 years. So that's the kind of time you should do. Now how should you know if the company's is going the wrong way, and you should

exit right now. This is something we need to evaluate regularly. And one of the best worst times, or one of the problems we do is when the company is doing really well, then we don't do it.

We think oh, when the company is making a loss, and I should worry about whether I'm doing the right things? No, when the company is doing very well. That's the time you should actually be wondering, a lot of companies are closed down. Kodak is one of them not closed down, but actually reduced their sales and lost a lot of business. Why was that? Because they didn't see the imminent threat from mobile phones that came in, they didn't see the change to digital technology when it was happening with Nokia, I didn't see it because it was doing too well. So I would say whether you're doing whether things are changing whether you should be doing something that should be a regular review,

regular review, this is a part of a regular strategy review, which should be done maybe every six months in an organization. And when you find that you move to the wrong direction, all you need to do is to revert change, it does not mean I'm going to jump out of the boat, you're in the sea, the boat is yours. restore it

is not a it's not a rock you can restore it. Your organization can be reshaped. General Electric. One of the companies I quoted is one such example.

In the end of 18 hundred's formed and still relevant today, why? Because it has reinvented itself at every stage reinvented itself at every stage. So don't think of the organization as a static thing, which either has to succeed or has to go kaboom. rather think of it as a living being which is being guided by you steered by you in the direction of the market.

Okay, thank you so much for that we will be trying to wrap up, we'll take another couple of questions. In fact, there's a question which I think you just touched upon it. So in case you would want to add something more to it. How do we keep a company fresh and not let it die? Like many companies have you just mentioned about reinventing? It would be nice if you could just explain how do we keep reinventing?

In this time, I talked about the strategy refresh. A strategy. Refresh is not only a management jargon, but it's about looking at the organization within it's looking at the environment outside, it's looking at the competitors. If you look at these three things regularly, you will be able to get a perspective on what's going right, and what needs to be put right. What are things that are happening in my environment that will change the company that will change the products that I'm doing? And how can I adapt to that? What's my competitor doing, that I should be aware of, and perhaps even learn from, and what's happening inside the company that I need to change. If you can

work on all these three sites regularly, maybe every six months, you will be always re energizing your company and coming up with newer ways. I'll tell you what the problem happens when you move from an entrepreneur, to become a businessman. That's when problem happens. Until you are an entrepreneur, the VI is very, very short. Why am I doing this business. Let me give you an example of Bill Gates. Whenever Bill Gates would achieve a target or Microsoft or GE or target, everybody in the company would get a click which would say thank you for being a part of our effort to make this world a better place.

Not to achieve so many sales.

The Y was so important and it was kept. But when you reach a certain level where you have business or auto mode and you're growing and you're doing things right, then somehow the focus shifts from the y to the how how do I keep making more money and that's the time we actually lose that energy. So remain an entrepreneur right through which means always have that large perspective. Always think afresh. Always think of new opportunities that are coming if you can remain that your organization will remain fresh. If you become a typical businessman was only interested in how can I increase churn and how can I enhance profit? Your organization is not beautiful.

Okay, this is a very interesting question.

And I think you will be the right person to answer this. Have you both agreed to wear blue today or it's just a coincidence

Yeah, so it

Both of us were feeling blue and both of us are from the same city coincidentally. So the a lot of coincidences today mashallah will just quickly take a couple of questions, there is one on the issue of networking. And nowadays we have a lot of people who get into networking with the purpose of

promoting the businesses. However, we know the Hadith of the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam, where the prophet peace and blessings be upon him mentioned about that believer who, whenever he comes in company of another believer meets him for the sake of Allah. And then we have today the concept of networking, when we meet another person, we don't meet him for the sake of Allah, but we meet him for the sake of business. So how do we do Halal networking? And isn't that the business option also, please.

So, even when I take a training program on networking given to a non Muslim audience, I tell them the purpose of networking is not to enhance your business.

The purpose of networking is to help that person solve the problem through you or your contacts.

Let's take this as a philosophy. Whenever we meet somebody, networking does not mean distributing visiting cards. That's what all of us take, oh, I went to a networking conference. What did I do? Oh 200 cards gone. You know where they're gone tomorrow in the respective does builds. They don't serve any benefit any purpose at all. We think we're doing networking and not what we are actually supposed to be doing is try to understand whenever you meet a person, how can I help this person, whether through my product or through somebody else whom I know who can help make this need, or close this need. And that is exactly the purpose that you're looking at. When Allah Allah Allah,

Allah rasool Allah Salam says that need them for the sake of Allah, try and help them in whatever way you can, that that's what you're doing. And if incidentally, you have a product which serves that need, you are allowed to promote it mentioned, and that's it. But the intention is to help them if you have that intention, that not only as a Muslim, but even as a normal businessman, networking will really be successful, rather than appearing to be a very, very feral and a very in just a formality that people are doing. In fact, those networks don't work. I've had so many visiting cards, I get a conference, which go into the dustbin the day after. So make that one connection,

which will give you a fantastic result, rather than 100, visiting cars distributed out which nothing will result over there. So be selective. There's a couple of books on these things you can read. One is called Never Eat Alone, right? The whole philosophy of networking is given him that and it says, Your real point, should we actually to try and help a person not to sell your own business, not to sell your own product. So if you have this philosophy, which is actually the right philosophy for networking, as a Muslim, or otherwise, and if you use that, then I think it will be within that within the limits.

Okay, Never Eat Alone is the name of the book, if any of you have not made a note of it yet, Never Eat Alone, you can check it out. A couple of questions are in fact, we just almost done with this, we have a person who wants to know,

when you talk about the different organizations in your presentation, you were giving out the names of all prominent entrepreneurs who start from the scratch. And they came from a very impoverished background. And yet, they created a name for themselves. Most of the names which you gave over there, in fact, all of the names that you gave over there were people from different other communities. We don't have many from our own community in that list. Is there any specific reason that we have not been able to make it to that list so far? And secondly,

how fair would it be? Or what is the exact learning that we should take from their life? Because we know that there are a lot of limitations in the belief as well. So what should ideally be a lessons that we should take when we study about their life?

Yeah, so first, let me take the first question, which is why are not as many Muslims seen in that list? Well, I think I touched upon it, I think there is a general perception that wealth and pursuing wealth is not a good thing. So therefore,

we should actually abhor it or we should actually just use it for our limited purposes and not really go behind it. While I agree with it. As far as I said, it's not for me if I don't have the wealth in my heart. I mean, that's, that's what somebody said, you know, that pray to Allah to give me a lot of wealth, pray to him also not to give me the love of wealth in my heart, if I can actually have that, shall I say, detachment is difficult, but if I can have that detachment, then pursuing it is not bad. But somehow I think all of us have been thinking that No, we should not go with it because then we will be kind of diverted from the real purpose on earth. But I would say it

requires a level of understanding a level of preparation mental

Li and from the immense state, if we can do that, then we can and we should pursue it. There's also another reason for it, why we should pursue it these days. I think those are the reasons why we haven't really pursued it all these years. But I think that today, you see, at one time, it was a, let's say, a power based world, right, where people who had the biggest highest power they would win, then it became a sort of, let's say, an education based world, whoever had the highest education, the scientific changes, and that country dominated. And today, it's technology and other things. But essentially, what is happening today is it is all being translated into economy.

And we know today that even small countries are doing tremendously well, just because they are able to have the economic control. I keep saying this, that if, in earlier times in the prophets, Allah Wa, Salam Stein, there are certain qualities and skills that the people needed to have, for example, the ability to fight in a battle, right, you needed to know how to use a sword, you need to know how to use a shield, you need to know how to ride a horse. You know, today also, you need to learn certain skills that will allow you to survive and thrive in the battlefield of the world today, to be able to project that dominance.

And those skills have changed, those tools have changed. And so the way to do it today is to again, be contemporary, be excellent.

We all know the story of of Hazzard earlier the Allah Tala and who, who was fighting, but for Allah, and when somebody spat on his face, he left him alone saying that now my nurse comes in the middle, I'm not going to kill you,

let us use the economic tools like that, let us use it for the sake to be able to use it for the welfare of the people.

And if our own nest comes in the middle, then we shall be detached from it, we have to develop that level of quality within us. So I think that is the first reason why we have not done it and why how we should do it and why we should do it. The second question is, how much can we learn from them? Well, there is an old I think person say which says, look at the flower, not the hand, which gives it look at the flower, but the hand would gives it so anything good that you can take, let us take it our apprehension of taking anything from somebody who does not share the same beliefs prohibits us from taking also things which may be useful to us. So therefore, whatever is good from that which

we can take, which is permissible to us, let us take that because after all the prophets Allah wa sallam also said that hikma is the last wealth of the believer, wherever he finds it, he should take it. So take whatever learning you're getting from anywhere as long as it is within your beliefs and your limits.

BarakAllahu li for that, mashallah, the lot of other questions which have come in, but we have limitations of time. And also, I would like to mention that the speaker and myself we both are from a part of world where it's almost close to midnight now. So we will need to wrap up the session for today. However, I have shared the Facebook link of the speaker, you can find him on Facebook as a Rahim Cal ARAHIMC A L so you just do facebook.com/ara H I M C L and the email address was shared during the presentation. So if you just rewind the video, you just go back a few slides sesh sessions, you'll be able to get the details BarakAllahu fake brother Abdul Rahim. Before I conclude

the session, I would like you to make your concluding remarks. And then I will take over to conclude the session. Inshallah.

Thank you so much for all the questions. They were really insightful. I think all of you have that inner thirst to be able to go forward. And I just want all of us to understand that entrepreneurship is as much a game of the mind as it is about the finances, the product, the business plan, the investments. I think if all of us were to just understand that the need for us to play this game, in this world today is a requirement to be able to re establish ourselves as a respected, respectable community. We would play our roles in it. And another thing let me tell you, I mean, we know a lot of Muslims in most countries in in many of the subcontinent countries, at least, are very poor. And

that's sometimes shown as a as a reason why we can't really do well in business. Well, let me tell you why the slides I showed you. That's our biggest advantage. biggest advantage. The people who are actually poor are the most enterprising, most entrepreneurial for

For them, survival itself is enterprise. I think we need to create those of us who are in a position can try to do that help connect people who can fund them. Give skills to these people, and see how they can come together with the right values and the right you know, that that as we say, the right pain for the entire community in their hearts so that they can actually evolve as entrepreneurs, responsible individuals, responsible citizens and responsible members of the Ummah, I wish all of you a good entrepreneurial journey. And I encourage all of you to take that first step even if it's a small first step and insha Allah hope that Allah Allah gives all of us Baraka in this direction.

BarakAllahu li a lot of wise you know words which have come from Brother Abdul Rahim I have made a note of them, and I can see many of the others have been sharing it in the chat box as well. Survival itself is enterprising, look at the flaw and not the hands which give you and be an entrepreneur, not the center printer. That's something new which I learned today from you, Brother Abdullah. Hey, Mashallah. And I have been attending your workshops and webinars in the city of Kolkata and Masha Allah Now, the fact that we have a very large audience in the virtual space as well, we hope that you will come up with more workshops and webinar and on behalf of the

International Open University, we would like to thank you for taking your time out. And we hope in the future, we can work on similar projects where we can reach out to a larger audience which can be beneficial for the community, beneficial for the ummah. Self belief is a very important thing that we need to have. And that is what a believer has a believer supposed to have a self belief, we have been blessed with intellect. And our intellect is benefited when we open the pages of the Quran and read it every day, because Allah has revealed the Quran to us to make us more wise. So it's extremely important that we keep ourselves attached to the speech of Allah subhanho wa Taala we hold

on to the teachings of the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him, we go back and reflect into the ways and practices of the early generation of the Muslims in every aspects of our life, because the way they dealt with themselves, their lives, etc. It's an example for all of us. So let us go back and look into all of this. We have one more session coming up next week, which will be the concluding session of the BBA webinar series, which we've been running for the last six weeks. And it's a very important topic again, and something which is correlated to what we did today. Today we spoke on how to start a business venture. Next week, we talk about the importance of business ethics

in Islam. And we have Mufti acid girl who will be joining us. He is also a faculty member at the International Open University. He will be joining us to discuss his views and give us some important tips which we need to keep in mind. As business ethics is concerned. I remind all of you that we are currently in the admission process. So if any one of you have not yet visited our website, the International Open University's website, please take our time, visit our website, register for our courses. We have courses in Business Administration, Islamic Studies, education, psychology, Islamic banking and economics a host of other programs. So I look forward to each one of you participating

and joining us for our courses. And we have lots of webinars which will keep coming up in the coming months. Stay tuned. Remember to subscribe to this channel. Join us on our Facebook page as well. And one more reminder brother Abdur Rahim can be reached his Facebook page. The details will be shared in the chat section as well. A little later. You can connect with Brother Abdul Rahim as well. BarakAllahu li calm we will once again time brother Abdul Rahim on behalf of the IOU for taking time out and attending all of you just like Kamala Ferran for taking a timeout and attending the session. With that we will conclude with the DUA Subhanak Allahumma will be handing a shadow on the island as

the federal cover to Blue Lake was Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh