Published on September 26, 2022

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Why you should be a teen entrepreneur!

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date September 26, 2022
• No Comments on Why you should be a teen entrepreneur!

We frequently hear that so and so is an entrepreneur who has launched his or her own company. It is also true that when we hear the term entrepreneur, we tend to associate it with someone who has started or is starting their own ventures, or in other words, making it on their own. This is correct, as the formal definition of entrepreneurship is the process of establishing a business or organization for profit or for social purposes. To distinguish and separate commercial entrepreneurship from social and charitable entrepreneurship, we used the phrase for profit or for social needs.

Every now and then, young people come up with innovative and brilliant ideas. Nonetheless, they are frequently ‘uncertain’ about how to pursue their great ideas or turn their concepts into business endeavors. This is common because teenagers are at an age where it is difficult to find something that interests them. They may not understand the direction of their lives or how much control they have over them and they’re still trying to figure out how their ideas fit into the bigger picture of the world.

Advice for Aspiring Teen Entrepreneurs!

The BRE has compiled some advice from teen entrepreneurs that you can keep in mind when you kickstart your own startup journey.

1. Understand your industry:

Although some aspects of entrepreneurship are beyond your control, taking the time to thoroughly study and understand your chosen industry is not. Because there will almost always be rivals and similar businesses out there, doing your homework and having a better understanding of the business than anyone else is the best way to get an edge over competitors. The more you know about your industry, the better you’ll serve your customers, the other options and solutions available, competitor pricing, industry-specific marketing strategies, and how to ensure your business stands out from the crowd.

2. Go Slow – Take one step at a time :

When it comes to building and growing a startup, one piece of advice that far too few entrepreneurs hear is to take things one step at a time. This is critical because, as an entrepreneur, you will be forced to deal with many different issues and obstacles at the same time.0

Those who do not prioritize and learn to take things one step at a time may find themselves drowning in exhaustion, rather than realizing that they can only deal with each task or obstacle as it arises and then move on to the next.

3. Be open to change:

When it comes to building a startup, or any product or service, the only constant changes, and the only way to succeed in the face of future changes is to respond to and adapt to them. Competitors will release new products, the problem itself may change, the target market may shift, and so on.

You must keep an eye on your industry, customers, and competitors, and always plan ahead of time to adapt to impending changes that may affect your business.

4. Don’t get discouraged from failure:

One advantage of starting a business as a teen is that the stakes are low, and there is plenty of time for a course correction or a complete redo. As a high school student, you probably do not bear the financial burden of running a household and providing for your family. If your parents have covered the fundamentals, you can feel much more at ease knowing that the outcome of your startup will not have significant financial consequences for you or your family.

5. Ask for help:

While it is possible to be a solo founder, startups are a collaborative effort, and you should take advantage of the assistance, contacts, and partnerships available through your network and the people who support your idea. No founder should jeopardize their company’s success by limiting it to the skills, talents, and resources that they personally possess. In fact, the entire accelerator, incubator, crowdfunding, and venture capital communities were founded on founders and startups seeking advice, resources, or funding.

However, seeking investment isn’t the only time to seek assistance. If you have friends, relatives, or peers who could help you with one aspect of your business, you’ll be much better off if you entrust those tasks to people who are exceptionally skilled at them. Along these lines, collaborating with others can help you create more opportunities.

6. Building a Strong Network:

It’s critical to recognize the value and experience your peers and teachers can offer you and your startup. Take advantage of networking opportunities throughout your degree, including networking events, industry talks, internships, and even coffee morning catch-ups. It doesn’t always have to be in a professional setting; simply getting to know your colleagues on a casual level can lead to a professional working relationship.

It’s a winning combination to surround yourself with a team that is as professional, hardworking, committed, and driven as you are. If you want to learn more about Networking as a Teenager, do check our recent blog on it!

6. A Success Story – Two Teen Entrepreneurs from India!

Being a successful entrepreneur is not a career choice but a path one must take, and starting early is very important! We can learn from the two teens that caused disruption in the Indian Startup Scene with their creation – Zepto! Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, both 19 years old, dropped out of the prestigious Stanford University in California to build the instant delivery service based out of Mumbai – valued at almost a billion dollars!

The startup was built upon the instant delivery model where customers can get groceries – from fresh fruits and vegetables to your favorite munchies – delivered to you in under 10 minutes! Industry giants like BlinkIt (earlier Grofers) and Swiggy Instamart dominated the space until Zepto emerged.

The teenage duo had founded Zepto in the September of 2020 and started operations in April of next year. Aadit and Kaivalya had started another company – KiranaKart – a service that delivers groceries in 45 minutes or less by connecting traders to their customers. However, the Y-Combinator-backed startup shut down operations a month before Zepto started in April 2021 due to scalability issues.

The idea for Zepto was born in the early covid days when groceries were being delivered after days of being ordered due to the immense demand. They found a gap in the market that could be filled by introducing speedy delivery of groceries. Zepto grabbed the limelight as soon as it came into the market and rocked industry giants – Swiggy Instamart and BlinkIt. They improved inventory control and made the shopping process entirely contactless. Zepto also made the headlines when it raised $10-$20 million in its first round of funding!

The instant delivery/ quick commerce space has set the benchmark for grocery delivery by minimizing delivery times! Their primary goal is to get the goods to the consumer in under 15 minutes by setting up ‘dark stores’ across the country. Dark stores are the backbone of quick commerce and they make the three major tasks of grocery shopping much faster – pick, pack and transport. However, dark stores cannot sustain high volumes but they make up for it through their rapid delivery times.

The earlier giant in the space of instant deliveries – BlinkIt realized that they could not keep up with the 10-minute delivery promise that Zepto lives by as the former’s median delivery times rose significantly – forcing them to shut down operations at many locations.

The 16-year-old CEO of Scope and BRE Alum!

Appalla is a student from Hyderabad, India. He completed his high school education at Birla School Pilani before enrolling in Manipal University, Jaipur, to pursue an undergraduate degree in Data Science. He took part in the Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program in the winter of 2021, where he had the rare opportunity to work on his fledgling startup alongside real-life successful entrepreneurs such as Forbes 30 Under 30 awardees Arun Saigal and Kristin Kagetsu, and BusinessWorld 40 Under 40 awardee Aman Gupta. Over the course of seven days, Appalla learned the ins and outs of essential entrepreneurial concepts such as market research, competition analysis, design thinking, and fundraising, ultimately resulting in a start-up plan which included a smartphone app prototype!

At the age of 16, Ivy Early Entrepreneur Appalla Saikaran was well aware of the challenges of networking with mentors, investors, and other entrepreneurs. He was aware of how nerve-racking

it could be to ask questions and find like-minded individuals willing to collaborate and invest in fledgling businesses. To meet this challenge, Appalla decided to create his own application, SCOPE.

SCOPE is a personalized network that connects entrepreneurs with other entrepreneurs, content, and opportunities. It seeks to create a collaborative community in which users can share their experiences, learn from one another, and ultimately succeed. Appalla was inspired to create this platform after realizing that there are people who are willing to mentor young entrepreneurs like himself. “However,” Appalla believes, “youngsters like myself should be willing to seek assistance.” It is never wrong to ask for help; however, it is wrong to know you need help but refuse to seek it. That was the primary motivation behind my decision to establish SCOPE.”

Benefits of Starting your Entrepreneurial Journey Early!

• It is a marathon, not a sprint! Being a successful entrepreneur requires years of learning and struggle and starting early can only widen your knowledge spectrum. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to experiment and make mistakes in their early years to prepare them for more significant challenges that they might encounter in the future!
• Walk on uncharted paths! When you start out as a young entrepreneur, you have more freedom to explore and learn about new things as time is not a constraint for you. Young adults and teens have lesser responsibilities and have nothing to look back at when exploring different sectors!
• Long-Term Growth Factor. Businesses started by young entrepreneurs have an abundance of time to grow and scale. Achieving success at a young age drives you to pour more of your energy into the same which contributes to increasing the chances of your business becoming big.
• Mentorship! Seasoned entrepreneurs are keener to help out curious young entrepreneurs who want to make an impact. The energy and optimism of young minds really shine through and inspire experienced entrepreneurs to give them good advice and direct them to the right opportunities!

Final Notes

Youth entrepreneurship programs understand the values provided by such a program like – the ability to understand opportunities, take initiative, be a confident individual, and the value of bringing change to your community. Every child can learn how to find their own path to success and prosperity with the help of good mentors and programs.

People must recognize the valuable link that exists between education, the community, and the workplace. Mentors are essential in showing young people how it all works together to achieve a single shared goal. Youth entrepreneurship programs can show young people this connection and the positive impact it can have not only today but also in the future.

Although it’s never too late or too early to start your entrepreneurial journey, experts believe that people that start early have much better chances of being successful in the long run. If you want to master the skills of entrepreneurship and get the opportunity to connect with mentors who are the leading entrepreneurs in their field, then apply for Big Red Education’s Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program today!

 

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Ideating for your business in High School!

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date September 26, 2022
• No Comments on Ideating for your business in High School!

Ever thought what goes behind starting a business? Does just having a product or service help you start your own business? Well, the answer is no! If it were that easy, wouldn’t every person in this world already have their own start-ups? One may say from the forefront, that starting a business is easy, you just have to have a product that you want to sell. But the number of things that go beyond just the product to start a business, is rigorous and the main hassle. 

Out of the million procedures to bring a business to life, one of the foremost things is the ideation of it. Ideation is simply the process of generating ideas including gathering information on ideas and collecting thoughts about those ideas. Ideation is used to make improvements to existing products or services, in addition to generating new ideas and concepts for future developments. It is the creative process of generating ideas through various techniques including brainstorming, prototyping, brainwriting or maybe just sketching. 

Why is ideation of a business important?

Often questioned, how does ideation help in the development of a business idea? Well, the answer is: it acts as a fundamental base for every business. For any entrepreneur to start their own business, they need to brainstorm on either one of the existing ideas that intrigued them or think of several ideas, to build onto something unique.

It is just like when you, as high school students, are to decide which subject stream and courses to choose, you brainstorm and think what’s best for your career and future. You don’t randomly hop onto one of those courses, but instead do a wide research and brainstorm in order to choose the best out of the lot.

Similarly, starting a business involves several ideas and brainstorming that leads to a sparkling idea which you feel is a need in the market that will be profitable, and so you use that idea to position your work. Without ideating as to what, how and why you want to start a business, you can never make or achieve goals.

Ideation doesn’t only help start up a business, instead it helps in the constant improvement of the business. If you don’t have a thorough process of ideation, then there are high chances that you are unlikely to see improvement in the business leading to loss of deliverables and customers.

It’s just like saying you started a new trend of thrift business but after that one unique idea of having a thrift store, there is nothing beyond it. Will you be able to sustain yourself and your business in the market? No right? Because there are competitors in the market consequently thriving on new ideas, and for you to keep up in the market you need to keep brainstorming and bringing new ideas to the table.

What do you do with the unique product that you brought into the market? You sell it to your customer. Your customers are the ones who actually buy and use your product or services, so being able to deliver what they actually want is the key to success. Getting ideas from existing customers will not only help you retain the customers that you already have, but it will allow you to transform your products and services into more attractive options for other consumers.

How does one ideate?

A myth that is floated in our generation is that creativity flows amongst only some of us. However, all of us are creative, be it a toddler or an 85 year old man. Creativity is just the thought of creating something which doesn’t pre-exists, or is an innovation to something pre-existing. It is true that creativity can be subjective for every individual, as something that is said to be creative for one might not be for the other one. 

As Kriti Thakur said during the Ivy Early Entrepreneur workshop, everyone is born creative in their own manners. You may just not know your creative side yet. So if anyone asks you if you are creative and you don’t know the answer yet, you should say you are still exploring your creativity rather than denying yourself to not be creative. Some ways in which one can ideate and bring new ideas are: 

1. Creativity is the key

I believe creativity is an important ingredient required for ideation, along with other skills like vision and ingenuity. Does this mean that you have to be creative to generate good business ideas?  I certainly do believe it plays an important role and can’t be done without. The challenge for many people, however, is that they either have little confidence in their inherent creative abilities or don’t have the courage to express and tap into it. The idea generation process is much like the creative process in that we are putting forth something personal to be judged by others. You must have the courage and confidence to submit ideas that others might think are frivolous or ridiculous. It’s appropriate to remember what George Bernard Shaw wrote: “all great truths begin as blasphemies.”

If you are confident, you will be exposed to new ideas and perspectives which will help enhance your creativity skills. They will consciously and objectively influence and feed your creative abilities, and perhaps are one of the most productive ways one can continue to develop their ability to generate great ideas.

2. Constraints drive creativity

What drives you to find your sphere of creativity? It is the constraint. Constraint drives creativity. For example, Imagine a scenario where you are to compete in an inter-house art competition where you have 15 minutes to make something out of recycled materials, and another where the same task needs to be done in 90 minutes. Where would you be better off in terms of creativity? At 15 minutes precisely, because that’s when you have time constraints and want to showcase your best piece. When you are given 90 minutes for the same task, you are usually laid back, losing out on your creativity. 

A brain works better and more creatively when there are any sort of constraints held on it. It functions more efficiently and you are able to be more creative and come up with newer ideas. In contrast to an environment where you are free to showcase your creativity with no restrictions, you end up not thinking about it much (in technical terms, stop brainstorming) thereby, ignoring the importance of ideation. 

However, the famous quote “too much of anything is equally bad,” also holds true. If one is highly restricted from taking over any task, or coming up with new innovative ideas they end up becoming demotivated and sacrificing on their ideation power. Thereby, missing out on the creativity they possess. 

3. Test your creativity in order to generate new ideas

What if you are very creative but don’t exhibit your creativity in front of others? This leads to hindering your confidence and most importantly your creativity. The ideal process for enhancing creativity ideation is by identifying one or more businesses, testing them, and then continuing to develop the idea that has the best possibility for success. Market research and surveys can only help test that creativity to a certain extent. Whereas, the true test of the business’s viability is solely dependent on the customers. While an idea can spark very quickly in your mind too, it is important to see how easy or complex it is. Mostly, all ideas you think that can be easily put out may already exist in the market. 

The creation of the business starts with an idea. The process of evolving your idea and concepts may include levels of testing through prototyping, designing and iterations. During this process, one may stick onto their original idea or may even mold and morph into a whole new idea, which never struck our minds as entrepreneurs. Broadly, three categories of business ideas exist on the basis of which one uses their creativity. Considering these three business categories one can help spark their next great brainchild or validate existing ones:

• New: When a firm comes up with a totally new invention or business idea. The word “new” is denotative of something that absolutely doesn’t exist (currently or the past). For example Segway, Artificial Intelligence and other product inventions. It’s easy to confuse a new idea with what is really an improvement or disruption of an existing or traditional way of doing something. Truly new and unique ideas are hard to come by, so don’t get paralyzed by thinking this is the only source of viable new ideas.
• Improvement: this is the proverbial better mouse trap. Most small businesses fall in this category where you take existing ideas and improvise on them by delivering it in a better way, either directly or indirectly. For example: LED lights, virtual handbooks etc.  
• Disruption: A new and revolutionary way of doing something. Our modern interconnected world – supported and made possible by the internet – now allows us to completely reinvent, transform and disrupt entire industries. The internet and other technologies are not the only way to execute on a disruptive business idea, but it certainly has. For example: Uber, AirBnB, all e-commerce platforms etc. 

Did you notice, even though there are 3 categories of how businesses function in terms of their product, one common thing is ideation. All of these require you to be alert, and crack the code to creativity. Be it a whole new idea or even improvising on something, it requires a lot of research, mind-mapping and extensive ideation process.

What are the best ideation strategies?

Now that we know what ideation means, why we need to ideate and much more, it is important to understand the best yet common strategies businesses use to ideate to thrive for newer ideas. As customers play an integral role in a business, it is necessary to know ways to collect customer ideas. These include:

1. Conducting research

It is essential for a business to con

duct research amongst their customers in order to get the baseline data verified to move ahead. Without understanding the needs and wants of a customer, a business can’t stand alone. There are many ways to conduct research, some of these include; survey, focus groups, experiment groups, polls, interviews etc. 

Although interviews can be taken more seriously, and be more specific to each client, it is not very feasible to take many interviews due to several constraints. On the contrary, surveys can be sent to a large target audience, however, can lose its importance at times, as everyone doesn’t take the survey seriously. 

Like interviews and surveys every research method has its own advantages and disadvantages, however, it is us as a business who need to decide what best suits us. 

2. Asking customers directly

The second strategy is to directly contact customers. Although it is very beneficial and can help receive personalized feedback from every customer, it isn’t the most feasible alternative. Since, people are not willing to answer feedback calls due to many reasons. For being able to receive contemporary feedback, the brand should be able to provide incentives for people providing feedback.

3. Post-action feedback forms

Post-action feedback form is nothing but a form sent out by the business, after the customer has used their product. This is taken in order to get experienced product feedback, which will be more specific and valuable as this will give their real thought about the product. And whether as customers would they give it another chance, or buy it again.

Conclusion

To conclude, ideation plays a vital role throughout the business, starting from its foundation, to improvisation. Without ideation a business cannot sustain itself in the market. By testing and implementing ideation techniques in your organization, you can more effectively tackle the biggest business challenge: Solving the right problem. If you can accomplish that, your company could be the one out of the 10 that sees success. Lastly, ideation doesn’t happen overnight or stand alone. It requires a team, different perspectives, and constraints. 

More importantly, it is necessary to understand that no idea is a ‘bad idea’, in fact these ideas that we refer to as ‘bad’ are the ones that lead us to the ‘best idea’ and bring the most success. So if you ever come up with a business idea, be it good or bad, don’t leave it until all stones are unturned, because you never know what will happen next!!

Published on August 31, 2022

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5 Ways To Become A World Champion of Student Entrepreneurship

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date August 31, 2022
• No Comments on 5 Ways To Become A World Champion of Student Entrepreneurship

It’s never too early to be an entrepreneur. After all, it’s not like anybody made a rule that you couldn’t be successful before graduating from college.  Entrepreneurs relish a challenge, and few things are more challenging than juggling education and innovation.

Plenty of entrepreneurs start out at surprisingly young ages. Tech magnates such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates found success during their school years. Of course, unlike these two, there’s no guarantee of a rich family being your safety net. So you need to follow some core strategies to become a successful entrepreneur before finishing.

Why Should You Be a Student Entrepreneur?

Being a student is hard enough. Worrying about classes, paying off student loans, and juggling a social life means most students probably don’t even consider adding work on top of it. And yet, many students give it a try anyway. Why? Well, there are quite a few benefits to pursuing entrepreneurship during your early years.

Real World Experience

Entrepreneurship lets students have valuable experience that will help them later in the professional world. A lot of the stress of graduating comes from the culture shock of working. Starting early, in essence, dilutes the culture shock when you eventually graduate. That experience also looks great on your resume. After all, plenty of businesses value experience as much as they do degrees.

Head Start on Networking

Building connections with people now will help your ventures later. Once you’ve graduated, you now have the ability to give even more funding or focus on your projects in college. Not only that, you now have access to the relationships you’ve built over the years. It could even get you a job in a company with people you enjoy working with. Networking is essentially an investment in people, and starting early means you reap those investments once you graduate.

Extra Income

Paying off student loans is a pain, scholarship or not. A part-time project to earn money means you can pay off your debts much earlier than you would have otherwise. Simple as that. More money is also just a smart thing to do. It gets you ready for emergencies and of course, more funds to treat yourself with on special occasions. If you’re willing to put in the elbow grease, there’s really no downside to having more money.

Gives Purpose

Sometimes, it’s as simple as giving yourself a concrete goal.  Many students find themselves getting incredibly bored with their coursework. The lack of a goal past graduation affects their mentality. By venturing into entrepreneurship, students give themselves something productive to do besides the grind of student work. It may not be for everyone, but it’s certainly effective for those who do benefit from it.

Must-Have Tips for Entrepreneurship

These are the fundamentals of what you need to be a successful entrepreneur. You’re bound to learn more on your journey, but it’s important to prioritize these 5 tips to find stable success. 

Build a Safety Net

The absolute first thing you need to do is build yourself a safety net. It’s important to have an independent safety net in case of emergencies or sudden plan changes. Emergency funds, without most people’s knowledge, have saved millions of businesses throughout the years. It’s because people often underestimate how important safety nets are until the very moment they need them.

For example, you suddenly get into an accident that was completely unavoidable. With a safety net in place, your venture’s only loss will be however long it takes you to recover. You will not need to sell off any assets nor take away from the profit of your business. As a student, your safety net is simply a savings account and some small insurances. Ask your parents or a friendly adult to help you set these things up.

Network Whenever Appropriate

Opportunities may happen at any time. Still, a great way to raise your chances of finding one is through networking. Most people have a lot of anxiety about networking. Some think it unnecessarily makes every conversation “business”. That doesn’t have to be the case. Networking is simply building relationships with as many people as you choose.

This manifests itself differently for each entrepreneur. Some are comfortable with face-to-face meetings. Others do their networking through social media. Sometimes, it’s as simple as supporting a friend’s business by buying one of their products. The point to be remembered here is that you build good relationships with people. When the time comes that you need something, they’ll be much more open to accepting and giving favors.

Take Budgeting Seriously

It is essential to save money while in college. Whether it’s student loans or saving up capital, budgeting is the cornerstone of every aspect of your business. Money talks, and you can’t have money if you don’t budget properly. Some people assume that cutting out luxuries is all you need to budget properly. However, it’s a much more active aspect of the business than that. Pretty much everything you do affects the bottom line.

This doesn’t mean starving yourself, mind you. Staying happy is part of serious budgeting. What’s important is finding the balance between your own happiness and your venture’s success. It’s why luxuries are always the first to go.  These provide short-term happiness. Find hobbies that won’t break the bank. Cook your own food whenever you can. While you won’t be perfect all the time, what’s important is you stay on track.

Focus on a Niche

One of the failures of many businesses is being overambitious. They try to do too many things at once. Instead of giving their all towards one thing, they split their attention between several. This is why finding a niche is important. A niche significantly streamlines your plans and goals for the future. It’s also much easier to duel with other businesses when your attention is entirely on its success. It also allows you to build expertise that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

A primary focus is just a smart thing to do on all fronts. It’s more convenient, as it means you only have one thing to worry about. It’s more lucrative because you aren’t competing on several different fonts. People love going to a place where they know what they’ll get immediately. It also simplifies marketing’s messaging. A clear goal is best found when you focus on a niche, not when you throw darts at a wall until something sticks.

Never Stop Learning

No matter how successful (or not) you may get, it’s important to never stop learning. Always take note of how each transaction and venture goes. Learn from mistakes, and capitalize on successes. It doesn’t stop there. You should also try to set some time aside to learn outside of school. Simple things like reading books from successful entrepreneurs or attending workshops do wonders.

It might be cliche, but knowledge really is power. Knowledge is how you gain everything you need to be a successful entrepreneur. It gives your drive purpose. It gives you the information to spend profits wisely. When entrepreneurs stop learning, then they’ve already failed. Because learning never really stops, unless you choose to stop learning. 

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My Experience of the Business of Sports 101 Program

• Post author By tbrg
• Post date August 31, 2022
• No Comments on My Experience of the Business of Sports 101 Program

First and foremost, I identify as a Virat Kohli fan.

What intrigued me the most about the Business of Sports 101 program, a BRE experience which promised to explore the intersections between sports and entrepreneurship, was the chance to learn what makes Virat Kohli’s brand so effective. Having been an avid fan of the Indian batsman since his pre-captaincy years, watching his brand arc from a mouthy, aggressive young cricketer to a fiery, disciplined captain has been nothing short of an odyssey. Hence, while sitting down for this program, I was extremely excited to understand what makes his brand work and resonate with fans in the world’s largest cricket-loving nation.

What is the Business of Sports 101 program?

The Business of Sports 101 program is a Big Red Education experience which brings together business and sport. Conducted by mentors from the team of Rajasthan Royals and Deakin University, the program throws light on the strings which keep the sports industry running smoothly; and over a period of two weeks, the course gives its participants the ins and outs of sports marketing, sports science, finance, management, and sports media while connecting them to the best athletes, managers, and administrators in the business.

Across the program, participants explored different fields of sport business from sport management, sport organization, marketing, broadcasting, sport development, sport science through sport coaching. Each day, industry experts from across the sport business spectrum led the discussions, lending their personal experiences and trade secrets to the young sport entrepreneurs. They explored these varied careers through academic discussions in which they taught the students the foundations of their field, and answered any questions they had. Bringing an international perspective to the table, these globally acclaimed mentors studied these fields through both an Indian and global perspective; making the discussions more accessible and useful for the students.

The mentors also did not shy away from rallying along with students’ choice of sports, players, and topics of interest and exploring their fields through those points of access — for instance, during the session on Sport Analytics and Athlete Performance, the mentor, Dr Dan Dwyer, explained the difficulties athletes face while training under high pressure situations like huge crowds by introducing the example of student performance in school events, and how stressful it almost always is to deliver your best when a huge group of people—in this case, your parents, teachers, and friends—are expecting so much from you. Similarly, Dr Dwyer emphasized, it can often be stressful for players too to train and perform under huge stressors like a tournament semi-final, a huge crowd of fans, etc. These kinds of relatable examples across the program significantly enhanced the sessions’ impact, and left positive, long lasting impressions.

The students were also given the opportunity across the sessions to spend time with each other in groups and work through adjacent problem questions. Across the program, students ideated about varied issues, and designed possible solutions. As a part of the session on Sport Organization, conducted by Dr Steve Swanson and Pamm Phillips, they pooled their ideas to build an optimal sport organizational model which could be implemented in India. Different groups chose different sports, and tried to unknot logistical issues like cities, players, stakeholders, etc. Similarly, as a part of the session on Sport Marketing, conducted by Zameer Kochar, the Chief Marketing Officer at Rajasthan Royals, students were encouraged to ideate about different social media campaigns the Rajasthan Royals team can possibly execute to improve its brand.

Besides potential sports entrepreneurs, the mentors also interacted with the students like fans. They offered them both exciting sneak peeks into the behind-the-scenes of their favorite teams and players, and a better understanding of the role fans play in building and maintaining sports brands. Different mentors explored the fans’ positions from different perspectives like sport marketing, sport coaching, etc.; such that by the end of the program, students had a comprehensive idea of the importance of sport fans. By treating students as fans, the mentors were also able to more effectively build a bridge with them and bond over the primary reason why we were all present there – our passion for sports.

21st Century Skills: Colleges, Internships, & more!

By the end of the program, students felt capable of dipping their toes into the sport business industry through different avenues like university courses and internships. A Grade 9 student from Oberoi International School (OGC Campus), Daivik Mathur, said, “Big Red Education’s workshop provided me insight on the different requirements, skills, and strategies required to excel in the field of sport management.” 

Another young student, Diya Piramal, currently studying in Grade 11 at Dhirubhai Ambani International School attested, “The Business of Sports 101 course was extremely informative, enjoyable and interesting. The sessions were held by various field professionals who were able to guide us through their own experiences.” Students across the board found the Business of Sports 101 program to be an extremely exciting and useful stepping stone in their educational and professional journeys for the first-hand sports business experience they were offered and the exclusive networks to which they have now been granted access. 

At the end of these two fruitful weeks, the participants smoothly transitioned into working on their promised live projects with the Rajasthan Royals team. All the students were divided into three (3) groups; each group working on a different problem statement: 

1. How can Rajasthan Royals increase its merchandise revenue?
2. How can we increase Rajasthan Royals app usage during the off-season?
3. How can we create a new anthem for Rajasthan Royals which resonated with our players, Fan base and the state of Rajasthan?

It is an extremely exciting opportunity for anyone to work on live projects with the team of the IPL giant Rajasthan Royals; but especially for sports enthusiasts like these young students, it is truly one of the most exciting moments of their lives. Over the period of these projects, students have soaked up immeasurable knowledge and future-ready skills from industry experts. The sheer impact of this opportunity on their professional futures cannot be overstated. 

Big Red Education’s Business of Sports 101 program effectively introduced students to the range of careers they can choose to pursue in the sports industry, and also offered them tips on the different resources they can utilize to carve their paths. With sessions from varied mentors and frequent guest lectures from university students themselves, currently studying Sport Business at Deakin University, the BOS 101 program provided its participants with a gamut of knowledge about the sports industry.

Virat Kohli, and my love for Sports

As for me, I sat down into this program with one question: What makes Virat Kohli’s brand successful? After these two, too short weeks, I am pleased to write that I can now at least attempt to answer this question. What makes Kohli’s brand so successful is an unimaginably grand plethora of notions and intersections like his image of the aggressive boy from Delhi who wears his heart on his sleeve, to his emphasis on fitness and discipline, to his bonding and mutual respectful relationships with international giants like AB de Villiers, to his meteoric rise from a young Sachin Tendulkar fan to a peer of the Man himself, to — many, many more factors. But, beyond all the strings that need to be pulled to showcase Captain Kohli, the inaccessible celebrity as Virat, the accessible young cricketer who fans adore; what primarily and foundationally matters and counts is performance. 

Beyond everything that all the young sport entrepreneurs learned at this program, what they principally understood was that player performance is paramount — everything else is secondary. Besides a chest full of trade secrets and sport stories then, what these students took away is this: a better understanding of the importance of perseverance and hard work, and a rejuvenated love for sports.