Many persons talk of entrepreneurship. To some it is a fancy, to some it is a fad, to some it is a serious passion, what is it to you? Are you cut out to be an entrepreneur? I am not talking about the checklist one can fill and tick to see if one is entrepreneurial in nature. Many persons think they are entrepreneurial based on scores on paper and/or based on discussions with other entrepreneurs and attending workshops and seminars. It is one thing to see high score on inclination and aptitude for entrepreneurship; it is something else to actually try one’s hand at owning and managing a business.

In today’s environment, many persons are interested in trying their hand at setting up a new venture. We also have resources that can help. Some years ago, it would be difficult to find places to visit – online or offline for inputs on entrepreneurship in the Indian context. Now we have many such resources; I had in some earlier posts talked about these forums. In this post, I am getting into some more detail.

One vibrant community is OCC (Open Coffee Club) Bangalore. This is part of a larger network of OCC communities and has two ways of helping out.  One is through regular meetings, typically on Sundays. The other way they help and support entrepreneurial aspirations is through their online community, where multiple things are discussed. Then there are the sites nenonline.org and pluggd.in. These have large online communities with useful information and discussion boards.

There are many events held regularly. If someone is interested in seeing what other start ups are upto and how they are coping in this slowdown events are a must to attend. One can benefit from the speakers and the discussions. Events also help establish networks which can help in getting business or associates on board. A couple of these events in the last couple of months in Bengaluru  – TiE Summit and proto.in.  Both these had their own flavours and were successful with a variety of persons attending.

So if you are serious about entrepreneurship, please do participate in these programmes, network and also read through the info on these blogs and sites. Topics ranging from IP issues, to organization structure, from sharing space to bootstrapping and valuation are discussed, along with other key issues. Participation helps. While you may make mistakes and change track, you may also learn from others mistakes and experience sharing.

You can also attend programmes online and offline. NSRCEL (N.S. Raghavan Centre for Learning) at IIMB, conducts programmes for entrepreneurs at IIMB and the next popular programme in April/May 2009 is MPWE 2009 (Management Programme for Women Entrepreneurs). NSRCEL also periodically has programmes on VC funding, Valuation, Communication, Marketing etc. OCC also has discussions at their meetings; TiE has a series of programmes of the TiE institute which are very well received. If there are some other sites or programmes that you find useful, do write in and share your experiences.

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