By
Aneeta Brightson
The life of a student entrepreneur in the eyes of the beholder is presumably tough. An entrepreneur is a person who organises and manages an enterprise especially a business with considerable initiative and risk. Some of the entrepreneurs had left school to pursue their dreams. Mark Zuckerberg was an entrepreneur who left his school to start Facebook, which was actually a startup. There are many other such role models who motivate the student entrepreneurs to improve their skills and inspiring them to bring out their best.
But our society have this preconceived notion that woman won’t succeed in a platform like business or entrepreneurship. Our society doesn’t encourage the female entrepreneurs and argues that they can’t handle business and it is believed to be a men’s domain. Before the 20 th century, females operated small business as a way of supplementing their income.
In many cases, they were actually trying to avoid poverty and some of them were replacing the income incurred due to the loss of a spouse. At that time they didn’t know much about entrepreneurship or the fact that the ventures of these woman were not thought of as an entrepreneurial undertaking.
Let us take the example of Oprah Winfrey, an American media executive, talk show host, television producer, actress and philanthropist who ended up being an entrepreneur. She is best known for her famous talk show ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’, which was a high-rated television program which gained her the name ,“Queen of all Media”. Now, female entrepreneurs are said to encompass 1/3 of all entrepreneurs worldwide.
The number of self-employed women has steadily increased over the past few decades. About 58% of women entrepreneurs in India started their own businesses fall between the age 20-30.
The life of a student entrepreneur is always challenging. As they have to manage both studies and business together. Student entrepreneur organisations, like the Oxford entrepreneurs allow students to meet successful business people to improve their business ideas. Enterprising Oxford is a Supporting Entrepreneurial of Oxford University which helps the university students to start a venture of their own and create more opportunities for students to become successful entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship allows students to learn more than just their chosen field of study, and creates an interdisciplinary environment to work and develop their business. Let’s meet some of the students who managed to put their skills in use for business.
Among the numerous young entrepreneurs Meh’k Designs is one which cannot be ignored. “Mehandi designs was just a hobby for me in the beginning, which turned out to be my passion and started it as a business”, says Nehala Nazar, 4 th year architecture student. It has been 2 years since Meh’k designs have started and it has metamorphosed into one of her greatest achievement in life. She also mentioned that, the ingredients that are used to make the Mehandi cone is homemade and 100% organic.
She also specialises in different styles of Mehandi designs like Arabic, Pakistani and a lot more, according to the clients. She is a 4 th year B.Arch student at KMEA College of Architecture, Aluva. Along with her studies she manages her business as her sister Hishmiya too helps her with the henna designs.
The venture focuses on bridal hennas and they also make exotic bridal candles. They have an Instagram page with more than 4000 followers. Meh’k designs were also a part of Kochi on fleak and celebrities like Poornima Indrajith, Apoorva Bose, Saniya Iyappan visited their stall.
“When starting as an undergraduate, I never considered myself as an entrepreneur”, says Anjali Kaimal, final year MCA student at Amrita School of Arts and Science, Kochi. She is the owner of Fairy Bakes, where you can get designer cakes, yummy cupcakes and customized cakes and pastries that matches your palate. She was really interested in baking and used to make cakes for family and friends. She started an Instagram and Facebook page, named Fairy Bakes, which turned out to be a huge success with lots of clients.
“I started this as a business back in 2016, when I was an undergraduate student. My family and my friends really encouraged me to start this venture and my mom too helps me with the decorating”, adds Anjali. She also gets orders from celebrities and has baked customized film promotion cakes too. She makes exclusive photo cakes, customized cupcakes, drip cakes and a lot more varieties and also conducts baking and frosting workshops.
“I always wanted to wear different varieties of hijabs and used to search for unique ones. Then I got this idea of starting a boutique of my own which deals in different varities of hijabs”, said Nafiah Nizar, owner of ‘The Hijab Nation’. She is doing her 4 th year B.Arch at KMEA College of Architecture, Aluva.
Nafiah has managed to procure a large number of people in the list of her clientele of her venture which she had given a try on a trial and error basis two months back and eventually turned out to be a huge success. “I was really surprised to see the messages on Instagram and it was really a motivation for me. So I tried my maximum to make my hijabs unique and available at fair rates”, added Nafiah.
She sells varieties of hijab like Internet hijab, soft chiffon hijabs, comfy cotton hijabs, premium georgette hijabs and her best selling one is glitter dusted cotton hijab. With this venture, she also manages another ‘yummy ‘business named, One sweet slice. The passionate baker serves you homemade flower cakes, cupcakes, cake jars, puddings and much more on your platter.
So these young student entrepreneurs teach us that starting a business in high school or college isn’t just about making money. However it is about something much more valuable than that, it’s about their passion and happiness in doing what they love. And also growing and developing your entrepreneurial from a young age, meeting new people, getting appreciated by others and of course, saving money for a better future. We will be able to learn from our experiences and can set ourselves up for a bright and prosperous future.
For more information on individual startups;
Nehala Nazar: MEH’K DESIGNS-https://www.instagram.com/mehkdesigns/
Anjali Kaimal: FAIRY BAKES-https://www.instagram.com/fairy__bakes/
Nafia Nazir: THE HIJAB NATION-https://www.instagram.com/thehijabination/
