Resources for Social Entrepreneurs

In my previous post I explored the beauty of social entrepreneurship and its related consequences. I received a mail today morning from an anonymous reader of my blog who requested to share some resources which can help him to venture in this arena.
This post is intended to provide a compiled data sheet of relevant organizations who practice this subject and help budding social entrepreneurs

http://www.schwabfound.org/
Their mission is to provide unparalleled platforms at the national, regional and global levels for leading social innovators that highlight social entrepreneurship as a key element to address social and ecological problems in an innovative, sustainable and effective way.

http://www.ashoka.org/
Global organization seeking to allow "social entrepreneurs to thrive and enable the world’s citizens to think and act as changemakers."

Beauty of Social Entrepreneurship

I reviewed lot of Indian startups which grew over past 3 years ,I observed that in spite of awareness of entrepreneurship in India,almost all well funded start ups focused on high tech ,Internet space or service domain.
When it come to social entrepreneurship there are very few to name.What I see is the lack of awareness about social entrepreneurship. Another challenge in this domain can be to convince the Angel investors or Venture Capitalists,who understand the financial projections,break even time and ROI thereafter. This post is an insight to the beauty of Social Entrepreneurship. According to Wiki, “a social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors”. With this definition in mind, our professional and personal contribution to social entrepreneurial initiatives can be extremely fulfilling both professionally and personally. It’s an old saying -a focus on concerns bigger than yourself and your individual concerns will be taken care of in the background at levels much higher than if you focused primarily on your individual concerns. A biblical reference is “give and it will be given back to you pressed down and running over”.
Of course, in this case, giving come in form of professional contribution not monetary. The beauty of social entrepreneurship as opposed to what may be considered a traditional non-profit is the fact that social entrepreneurs deploy innovative entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. So, in addition to providing for the social good, the solutions are normally innovative and far-reaching thus providing social entrepreneurs with many follow-on private sector venture opportunities after the social entrepreneurial project is finished. This is why, as you contribute professionally to social entrepreneurial initiatives, you can tap into this innovation or innovative professional setting and address your personal and professional concerns many time over. Benefits come in several forms starting with how you can advance your socialization, professional and personal development skills. For example, social entrepreneurial initiatives often require you to interact and collaborate outside of a traditional corporate work environment or a traditional business development environment. This creates immediate opportunities for social, professional and personal growth. Think about it. Most people only interact professionally under the roof of a traditional company or employer and under the direction of a boss. What happens when you interact outside of these traditional confines? You learn, grow, expand your thinking, develop new socialization and professional skills sets and, most of all, help drive the development of new technology innovations and applications . Another benefit comes from the fact that you position yourself to benefit from the global economy. Although many organizations and businesses focus on being the lowest cost producer, innovation is really the key to prospering long term in a global economy and, as noted above, social entrepreneurial initiative drive the development of new innovations and applications. However, innovation is not necessarily linked to producing the next high tech gadget. “The killer apps of tomorrow will not be hardware or software, but social practices.” “To make a real difference, ultimately, technologies must transcend gadgetry and become part of social fabric” -a quote from Business Week. With this quote in mind, today’s social entrepreneurial initiatives underwrite the very essence of weaving the benefit of technology into the social fabric of society or targeted groups of society. The bottom line: you win by either originating social entrepreneurial initiatives or contributing professionally (part time, spare time, etc) to initiatives put forth by other entrepreneurs. Some initiatives are large scale or global in scope and some are local. It’s very easy to do a Google search under the search term social entrepreneurship or social innovation to research both global and local initiatives.Ofcouse one can identify a niche of ideas and give it a shape in this vertical -'Social Entrepreneurship'

All about Chargeback

With the growing number of credit card usage number of fraudlent transactions have increased considerably.Recenly one of my CC statement reflected 2 unbilled transaction of $200 (approx 10000 INR) from some XYZ merchant.I scrached my head to figure out the item which I might have purchased of this value ,but nothing came up in my mind.I knew it was a fradulent transaction.So I decided to go with chargeback.I believe 70% of people using credit card in India is not aware of the chargeback policy.This post is intented to educate those 70% of the credit card customers and merchants on chargeback concept.

A chargeback is the process followed by a credit card issuer that reverses a charge and credits the account holder that amount. This is ultimately a protection offered to credit card holders that is often seen as a benefit or perk to paying with a credit card versus cash.

Through the chargeback process, the merchant that originally sent the charge through refunds the money if a reason for the refund is substantiated. A few of the scenarios that might require the chargeback process to be put to work include disputes over the products received (or lack thereof), errors in the amount charged, and charges that are fraudulent or deceptive.

So how does the chargeback process work?

1. If a cardholder has reason to believe that a charge should be revered, they must call the credit card issuer and explain the situation or contact them online by logging into the account center and filling out the appropriate form.

2. Usually, the credit card issuer will advise you to call the merchant first to have them reverse the charges and try to resolve the issue through that means. Other times, they'll take immediate action on your behalf.

3. When the merchant refuses to take action or reverse the charges directly, the credit card company will begin their own investigation into the matter and try to determine whether the charges should be considered legit or not from the standpoint of the cardholder.

4. If the charges are deemed incorrect or fraudulent, the credit card company will post a temporary credit to your account and then request to have the merchant's card processing bank refund the charges as necessary.

5. At this point, the merchant's bank will usually review the matters themselves to make sure the reasons are legit.

6. If they determine that the merchant's charge is indeed incorrect or fraudulent, they'll go ahead and refund the charge and the matter will be considered complete and final.

There is quite a bit of back and forth throughout the procedures and the chargeback process can end up taking quite a bit of time. Practicing patience is really the only option. While it is only right that both parties to the transaction get a fair chance at trying to resolve the matter and having their say, it's also good to know that most credit card issuers will go to bat for their cardholders when such a situation does arise from time to time.

Impact of Global Economic Slowdown:An Overview

I am not an economist just a common man who is brainstorming every fortnight to identify possible root causes and figure out potential solutions for the economic slowdown.I decided to gather economic data, compile information and find intelligence with these.The financial crisis that is occurring across the globe has led to the global collapse of stock exchanges, property sales, financial markets and industrial development. Several organizations have lost their money and have closed their business organizations leading to massive job loss for individuals. Well-qualified and experienced people with excellent education and respectable backgrounds who had secure occupations have lost their jobs within a few months leading to turmoil on the country’s economy.

Apart from the global recession, negative factors like elections, declining demand for housing, higher interest rates for mortgages, worsening inflation, crackdown on industries and moderate generation of electricity have forced closure or cutting down on staff strength of several organizations especially in the automobile, Information Technology and housing sector. “Survival of the fittest” is the recent trend of existing manufacturers to beat global bankruptcy and economical crisis. Revising business strategies and improving one’s portfolio is the need of the hour. It was an extraordinary and shocking revelation to comprehend that Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Bear Stearns, some of the greatest finance companies, just collapsed due to the credit crunch.
The impact of the global economical crisis affecting numerous countries is still difficult to predict though the government has intervened to prevent businesses from financial breakdown and many are now focusing on debt management. Banks have reduced their interest rates on loans and provide liquidity by conferring loans on financially starved companies thereby containing bankruptcy there is also the option of consolidating your debts to make life easier.

Now the question is: US Recession Inevitable?

So, is recession inevitable? Well, if the definition of a recession includes "no longer being able to spend more money than one makes," or collectively changing expectations about wealth and the common good, then the answer is yes. If we continue on a path of breakneck consumerism, we will trade our economic security. No one is going to complain that Americans will always spend. After all, as a market of last resort, the US consumer has, time and time again, been able to keep the growing world economy robust and secure. But if these attitudes don't change, a recession will be the least of America's worries.

As the sub-prime mortgage scandal continues to play out badly for many US companies, more and more questions have been raised as to whether the impact of a slowdown in one area will translate into a nationwide, or even global, recession. Growth prospects within the US are limited for this year by the unprecedented scale of bad securities that have become investments for many companies around the world, exposing them to grave losses and destroying investor confidence.

According to polls, more and more Americans are becoming wise to the potential crises and have shored up spending, in turn triggering further softening of retail markets. One cause of this problem with American consumer spending, the practically guaranteed market for many goods even in tough financial times, is that the borrowing people must first default on their mortgages before the securities (that their loans have been repackages and distributed) can truly become worthless. The speculation (or realization) that they will be unable to pay off their loans has led to the economic slowdown of the past several months, even though mortgage defaults have barely hiccuped in the same period. Nevertheless, the certainty of two million or more foreclosures over the next year cannot translate into hefty consumer spending, because so many consumers will be unable to make ends meet and many more will be on the verge. While a plan has been introduced by the Bush administration to freeze mortgage loans for an unspecified number of borrowers, no reference to the specific criteria used to decide who is eligible has yet been made. Thus the underlying cause of this shifty-eyed economic malaise is in no way addressed. Now the President has stated that the economy at large runs a great risk of recession without his impending stimulus package.

Unfortunately, no one who can't pay for their house will be able to pay any taxes or credit card bills (which famously outpaced the median income this year), or for other things that cost money. A tax cut may be able to stem the defaults for a little while if implemented quickly, but if the Federal Reserve (the other institution that can help steer the economy) is any example, lip service and hawkish reticence is likely all the average American can expect. As job creation slowed to terrifyingly low numbers in November, (a paltry 18,000 new occupations) the US government finally issued a statement that growth cannot be expected to surpass 2% this year. Before it even started.

Why a management program is essential for Entrepreneurs:A breif SOP

Entrepreneurship is a new religion; some are blind followers, while some have the steam to write the rules of this faith. Entrepreneurship involves many things. Innovative ideas do not always suffice to build the base of a venture. The right idea may become the influence, the inspiration for setting up a business, but its implementation requires many different efforts. Resourcefulness in terms of man power, brain power, financial power, and a proper business plan which could actually work to yield profits are indispensable. For this, one requires to walk that extra mile. One has to know how to manage resources, both material and human. It starts with idea generation, plan of execution, integration of essential elements, and finally implementation. You have an idea, and you want to make it big. First, you need to convert your idea into a product, and then you need to know about all the fundamental methods of marketing my product, and finally about making my product reach global market. You would need to know how to work, and make others work, through team building, towards a common goal; to make your dream, their dream. For achieving this, you need to inculcate all the soft skills a management program has the potential to provide you with. You have the passion in you, which you wish to harness with the managerial skills and marketing concepts. You wish to learn the skills yourself, because it is only you who understands your product the best. So together with the skill set you will learn through a management program you could able to project your product better than anybody else. You should have a heart of an entrepreneur, and brains of an innovator. You would like to join a management program to give yourself the opportunity to know the pedagogic principles that hold the basis of entrepreneurship and their different forms of application in the real world, and to interact with like minded future entrepreneurs. A management program would provide you the opportunity to get the exposure to the business worlds and international markets.

 

                                         

Simplicification of Attraction and Distractions

The universe runs based on laws. It is through the awareness of these laws governing our universe that living becomes more joyous and easier to manage. When you resist the laws of the universe, it doesn't negate the existence of the laws, it simply makes it far more challenging to achieve what you most want to achieve, because you are working against the universal current instead of with it.

For example, if you are driving down the road in your car going 115 kmph, and suddenly come to a very sharp curve; it makes no difference if you accept Newton's First Law — "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction." The law is true regardless of your belief in it or not. What does make a difference to you is your awareness, acceptance and response in relation to that law. If you aren't aware of the law, and you don't leave enough time to slow down and take the curve at a reasonable speed, you will suffer the possible dire consequences of your choice. If you are aware, and still resist its validity, you will still suffer the same consequences. If, however, you are aware and embrace the law, you then give yourself the freedom to make a choice that can attract far more desirable consequences — namely you go around the curve with ease and grace completely safe to continue your travels.

Becoming aware and embracing the laws that exist gives you the freedom to create and manifest your life with far more ease. Ignoring or resisting the laws of the universe leaves you in a constant battle — struggling against the natural flow. You put yourself into a situation where everything is ten times (an arbitrary number of course) harder than it has to be. And, as you may agree, the intention is to make life easier not harder!

The Law of Attraction is one of these laws. Based on Quantum Physics, the law states: All things, both physical and non-physical, are made of energy. Energy by law attracts that which is vibrating at the same speed. Thus, if you are vibrationally tuned into "X," you will attract more "X" to you. If you are focused on "Y," the universe gives you more "Y." There is no judgment on good or bad in relation to what "X" or "Y" is. The universe gives you exactly what you ask for — wanted or unwanted. And the way the universe knows what you are asking for is through your focus. That which you place your focus (your energy), and thus vibrate in relation to, is what the universe reads as your request. So, if you are resonating with the emotions of sadness and frustration, you will attract experiences that match that vibration. The universe doesn't assess that you may not want sadness; it only gives you what you are asking for. If you are focusing on not wanting something, your focus is actually still on that thing you don't want. This means you are actually vibrating more strongly with what you don't want than what you do want. The universe, making no judgment, simply gives you what you are focusing on.

In order to use the Law of Attraction as the tool it can be for making life easier and more joyous, you must first identify what is keeping the law from being successful. What I have found, working with those seeking to learn and use the Law of Attraction, are the top three distractions that sabotage your results and keep you from creating and manifesting with 100% success. In essence, what keeps you from taking the curve with ease and grace to continue on in your travels.

The first distraction is getting caught up in what others believe to be true or not. There are many who will argue against the Law of Attraction. They will provide their proof of how the law doesn't work and why. They will ridicule your naivety and do whatever they can to "talk you out of" believing. My question to you is, "How does what ‘they' think actually affect you? How does someone else's path and journey determine what is true for you?" There will always be opposing ideas and truths that assist each of us in living the life we came here to live (thank goodness). Resisting that there are other ideas is unproductive. But, abandoning what resonates within you out of fear of being ridiculed or looking foolish is extremely counterproductive to your own journey. The Law of Attraction is based on focusing on what you want. If you fall prey to focusing on your fear that the law doesn't work, that is exactly what you will experience.

However, I must mention that, if you question the validity of this law and are attracting those who provide you an opportunity to address that question, you must honor what you are attracting. If you simply resist your questions and what you are pulling toward you, you are actually focusing on ignoring yourself instead of connecting with what is true for you.

The key for responding to disbelievers (and not getting distracted by them) is focusing on your own knowing (inner source), instead of focusing on what you "know" (which is only a small part of the total you). Your knowing will tell you if the disbelievers you are attracting are there to confirm your knowing, expand their own awareness with your perspective or confirm what they already believe, which may or may not coincide with what you believe. It is all a perfect attraction. Everyone working on what they most need. So, embrace the questioning of others and allow them to believe and focus on what they most need for their journeys, while connecting with your own knowing, which is all that is important for your journey.

The second distraction is over emphasis on the physical manifestation of now. Instead of choosing to focus on the non-physical possibilities of now, where creation begins, you put all of your focus on what you can physically see, hear, feel, touch, etc. Note: they both occur in the now. The second, however, being a physical manifestation, can often become more real to you because it is experienced with your five senses. The reason that focusing on only your physical manifestations is a distraction is that you don't allow your imagination to create and nurture (with the required focus and energy) the desires that are now being born in the non-physical. At every moment you have the opportunity to focus on either physical or non-physical realities. They are both equally true. However, you cannot experience the non-physical quite as easily as the physical. As the Law of Attraction is solely based on attracting that which you give the most focus to, you end up being distracted by what is in the physical instead of being energized and inspired by what is being born in the non-physical. When you get distracted by only what is, and it is not what you want, you create more of it. However, when you embrace what physically is, while focusing on what non-physically is, you then have more opportunity to create what you truly desire.

The last distraction that I have found to be most prevalent is conflicting intentions. This is a distraction that is usually hidden from yourself, but still has the same detrimental effects on creating and manifesting what you most desire. Conflicting intentions are the intentions you have that are directly or indirectly in opposition to each other; that if brought into consciousness and articulated would actually make the other impossible, improbable or irrelevant. And, as I said, you are usually not aware of the conflict, which is why it can distract you from focusing even though you aren't aware you are being distracted.

One of the reasons this happens is because people don't break their desires down into categories. For example, when you list what you most want, you may start with desires such as a job that utilizes all your skills, tucking your kids in every night before they go to bed and taking a yearly vacation with your best friends. Although each of these desires is a part of the big picture, they each are also goals that fall into different segments of your life. The first is a career goal, the second a relationship goal and the third could be a pastime, a relationship or a financial goal. By just writing down the most immediate desires that pop into your head, you end up missing many of the subsequent desires and hidden desires that live in each of these various areas of your life — what I call the Nine Environments of Holistic Living. By not breaking your life down into more manageable segments, you don't give yourself the opportunity to really flesh out what you are seeking in each of these very real and often competing areas. It is in the unarticulated desires that conflicting intentions are born.

To make this clearer, let's consider an example. Let's say you have a desire to meet a mate for a long-term relationship, while also having a deep desire to rise to the top of your profession in the next three years. You meet an amazing person and find that this person doesn't want you to work so much. He feels neglected that you are always putting your work before him. You start to feel very frustrated. You begin to believe that you cannot have the success you want in a career and the success you want in a relationship. However, the truth is that you simply did not articulate clearly enough when you were asking and attracting what you wanted in a mate. You may find, hidden deep in your belief structure, that you equate being loved with a person who heavily relies on you and needs a lot of your attention. So, you did attract the person you were seeking (albeit unconsciously). And, when what you asked for showed up, you found out that that you were actually attracting someone who would not support your desire to rise to the top of your profession. The conflict is within you. You didn't articulate clearly enough (allowing your hidden belief to come to the surface) and ended up with only part of what you wanted.

The great thing is that by becoming aware and articulating desires for all the areas of your life, you can identify where there may be conflicts before manifesting what you don't want. The key is in being aware of what you want in order to manifest the exact situation that will work for you. That is why it is imperative to not only know what you are desiring in each of the areas of your life, but to compare each of those areas and seek out where there may be conflicts hiding below the surface. Many times conflicts show up because you are subconsciously holding on to old, unchallenged beliefs from your childhood or past experiences. By breaking down your desires and then going through a comparison analysis (which is one of the imperative steps in my program), you can proactively address what you are focusing on and why. When you bring the hidden conflicts to the surface, that are sabotaging your results, you can remove them and truly focus on your desired outcome.

The Law of Attraction, when understood and used properly, can make life easier and far more joyous. Inherent in the law is your ability to focus on what you want and not what you don't want. By taking care of the distractions that keep you from focusing, you can increase your success rate to 100%.

Every day is an opportunity to become more aware and practice. Find the tools you need to assist you and use the laws to make your journey joyous and your travels ongoing.

Web 2.0 a jargon for online businesses

By now you've heard the term "Web 2.0"... but what does it mean and why is it important for all marketers? Here's a quick explanation and my thoughts on the importance of the Web 2.0 movement."Web 2.0" is a weird phrase. It began as the name of a conference, but the people organizing the conference didn't really know what they meant by it. Mostly they thought it sounded catchy. However, "Web 2.0" has since taken on a meaning. There are some interesting new trends on the Web, and it's the nature of a phrase like that to adhere to them.From what I can gather, Web 2.0 is all about the social networks being created on the web. Websites like Digg, MySpace, Flickr, Blogger, Wikis, etc. are all operating inside this bubble we call Web 2.0. If you want a really detailed explanation of Web 2.0, visit the site that started it all at http://www.oreillynet.com. I'll save you a lot of reading... it's complicated – but incredibly simple at the same time.Web 2.0 simply defines the evolution of the world wide web. It describes the Internet as it was intended to be - a resource that allows for information creation, sharing, and dissemination. Why is this important to us as marketers? Because marketing is all about WOM (you guessed it, "Word-of-Mouth"), building brand, and communicating your message.If you've been following the blogging circles lately, you’ve not doubt heard of the latest controversy- blogging for payment. The idea that someone would actually pay you to blog about their products or services would only be possible in the Web 2.0 world. Yet it’s indicative of Web 2.0. In this environment its all about information sharing, ideas, and communities with similar likes and dislikes.The viral nature of Web 2.0 is contagious. Just visit Digg or Del.icio.us and you'll soon find out what I'm talking about. As a marketer in this environment, you have to understand the importance of viral marketing and managing your marketing messages - even creating a buzz around your products.Some of the leading brands have been doing this for ages… Nike giving away their sneakers to the best athlete at a school; PowerBar giving away samples to athletes, and so on. The only thing that’s changed with Web 2.0 is vehicle. In addition to ‘feet-on-the-street’, there are now online tools – communities that are available to spread your message.Developing a StrategyThe best way to utilize this new technology is to really understand the value that each has to offer. Begin with a clear understanding of your desired outcome. Then, consider the tools in your tool box. For example, if you want to communicate how customers feel about a given topic or issue, maybe you want to blog about it… or conduct an interview via a podcast.You should approach your Web 2.0 with the same strategy you use when developing your traditional marketing plan. An integrated approach always works best. Regardless of the vehicle, apply the same basic marketing standards you do today. Use messaging points, create value, and segment.

Love vow

Last Night I was going through 'N' number of profiles posted on a matrimonial site ,while casually browsing the internet.Most of profile reflect that they are looking for true love from partner .Can we find real love on internet ? I believe the reason is that we do not know what love is, which means we can’t identify it when we see it! We are looking for the dramatic, life altering, breath holding love we read about and see in movies. That isn’t love...it is just good acting and we paid well to see it! We can’t find love on internet because we aren’t 100 % honest while online. If we are honest with ourselves and others we will all be in a better position when it comes to love. I think we should make a personal vow to not try to find love online until we are sure of what we want and not until then. We will save yourself and other singles a lot of time! Think about this...how can one get to an unfamiliar “place” without a map or without someone giving directions? Most of us go online looking for love but we are wearing a blind fold and earplugs. So, with that being said, how are we going to find love? We can start by removing the blind fold, the earplugs and listing what we want. Let be honest, and right it down. We can always go back and change it. Make list and use it like a shopping list. Let it help us find what us know we want and need. We will only be able to find love online if we are brutally honest with ourselves about what we are looking for and what we ideally want!