In the first session, we have presented how to write a resume, a basic Business Plan and have the concept of business of your own.
Like anything, the first stage will be your vision and concept. You may have dreamed about your own business, putting your passion into practice and still make $$$$$$.
Be consistent in pursuing your ideas and what better place to start than jotting down these basic first ideas, and allow them to take shape in your mind, envisioning the success after Re-Entry. Remember, every marathon runner started with one block or one lap on the track and then build his/her way up.
Starting your own business will follow that exact same path.
When my husband and I started our international business, decades ago, we started in the attic of my mother-in-law’s home. We were just married, broke, did not even have a dining set or matching kitchenware. But what we did have, was a vision, commitment and prepared to work hard.
I had a day job, but worked after hours building our business brick by brick.
When we had laid the foundation, by placing cold calls to large companies and presenting them our distribution plan, my husband borrowed $ 5000.- which was intended to furnish our apartment, but when the companies wanted to meet him, he bought the cheapest plane ticket to the US, a friend gifted him a laptop and he got ready to travel. I stayed back, our son was 5 at the time, I had $200 for the month, when I would get paid at the end of the month, it would be spent on the rent, utilities and repayment of the loan instalments. We did not have a home phone and all I had, was an old cell phone, which I used sparingly. Groceries and gas for the car had to be paid. It was hard and difficult, for the first time in my life, I was facing this hardship. But my husband left, armed with the solid sales and marketing plans to present to the prospective partners. And yes, he came back with potential, but small business deals and for the first time in a long while, I began to see the light and our corporate journey took a flight.
These life lessons were hard, but the reward that comes from constantly seeking knowledge and educating yourself and having a healthy routine, check lists and monitoring yourself, will lay the foundation for a healthy entrepreneurial skill set, which will never leave you.
I come from a very solid family life, both parents working hard, stressing that we must have a college degree, a driver’s license, a car, a savings account, enjoy life with friends, before we even thought about leaving home, getting married etc . These have proven to be very valuable life lessons and I cannot imagine how lost I would have been in today’s society if I had been deprived of such upbringing.
In prison, I have maintained my healthy routine, albeit very challenging, due to limitations on anything, staff shortages and numerous daily altercations and fights between incarcerated individuals, we have to endure many lockdowns, having a detrimental effect on programming and maintaining that healthy routine.
But, where there is a will, there is a way.
Sherida Nabi
