<p>Anamica Cannivady, 37, has a four-year-old son but she still is taking baby steps in her own life, not literally, but in the world of business. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Her six month-old maiden business venture Kiya Fashions, an online outlet for artificial jewellery, is yet to grow into a full-fledged sustainable commercial enterprise. <br /><br />After spending close to 14 years in blue-chip companies at a senior executive levels, she called it quits ‘by choice’ (as she emphatically asserts) to relish the joy of motherhood and also to become a businesswoman.<br /><br />She is not alone. There are hundreds of women in Delhi-NCR who are trying their hands at entrepreneurship, so that they can straddle both, work and family. <br /><br />Some of these women came together at Leisure Valley Park in Gurgaon recently to take a leaf of entrepreneurship from the successful women who played the role of mentors at the get-together. The mentors were CEOs, COOs and managing directors in top-notch companies including Jones Lang LaSalle, Digitas and Artisans Micro Finance among others.<br /><br />An initiative of Biz Divas, the walk was an endeavour to bring women entrepreneurs together on one platform so that they can share their experiences and learn from each other. <br /><br />“What surprises me is that there are some entrepreneurs who are competitors for each other but were delighted to share inputs at Biz Divas mentoring walk,” said Anamica. <br /><br />She was mentored by Smita Mankad from Fab India whose knowledge-sharing was “unparalleled what couldn’t have been learnt even after spending 20 years in business,” she said, albeit a little hyperbolically.<br /><br />Another fledgling entrepreneur 34-year-old Neela Kaushik, mother of a five-year-old runs a company called the Sixth Element which provides social media solution to eight companies. She finds the concept of female entrepreneur very “enabling. One can have a male mentor also but it’s only a woman who can understand our myriad constraints such as that of ‘time’ and ‘money’.”<br /><br />Neela further adds, “A woman can easily understand that maintaining the right balance between success and family is imperative. I will not consider myself successful if I get it at the cost of my family.” <br /><br /> The mentoring walk was an initiative to bring businesswomen together. <br />Sarika Gupta Bhattacharya, co-founder of Altavis and Biz Divas has committed a portion (10 percent) of revenues to Bizdivas with an intent to empower the aspiring businesswomen. <br /><br />Taking about her transition from a mentee to a mentor, Sarika said, “Mentoring is a 360 degree cycle wherein learning never ceases. At Bizdivas, we facilitate the mentoring sessions for young entrepreneurs, but we also learn a lot in the process.” <br />She considers mentorship a virtue ever since she was mentored by Kathy Calvin, CEO of United Nations’ Foundation while she attended the Fortune Mentorship Programme in Washington last summer. <br /></p>
<p>Anamica Cannivady, 37, has a four-year-old son but she still is taking baby steps in her own life, not literally, but in the world of business. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Her six month-old maiden business venture Kiya Fashions, an online outlet for artificial jewellery, is yet to grow into a full-fledged sustainable commercial enterprise. <br /><br />After spending close to 14 years in blue-chip companies at a senior executive levels, she called it quits ‘by choice’ (as she emphatically asserts) to relish the joy of motherhood and also to become a businesswoman.<br /><br />She is not alone. There are hundreds of women in Delhi-NCR who are trying their hands at entrepreneurship, so that they can straddle both, work and family. <br /><br />Some of these women came together at Leisure Valley Park in Gurgaon recently to take a leaf of entrepreneurship from the successful women who played the role of mentors at the get-together. The mentors were CEOs, COOs and managing directors in top-notch companies including Jones Lang LaSalle, Digitas and Artisans Micro Finance among others.<br /><br />An initiative of Biz Divas, the walk was an endeavour to bring women entrepreneurs together on one platform so that they can share their experiences and learn from each other. <br /><br />“What surprises me is that there are some entrepreneurs who are competitors for each other but were delighted to share inputs at Biz Divas mentoring walk,” said Anamica. <br /><br />She was mentored by Smita Mankad from Fab India whose knowledge-sharing was “unparalleled what couldn’t have been learnt even after spending 20 years in business,” she said, albeit a little hyperbolically.<br /><br />Another fledgling entrepreneur 34-year-old Neela Kaushik, mother of a five-year-old runs a company called the Sixth Element which provides social media solution to eight companies. She finds the concept of female entrepreneur very “enabling. One can have a male mentor also but it’s only a woman who can understand our myriad constraints such as that of ‘time’ and ‘money’.”<br /><br />Neela further adds, “A woman can easily understand that maintaining the right balance between success and family is imperative. I will not consider myself successful if I get it at the cost of my family.” <br /><br /> The mentoring walk was an initiative to bring businesswomen together. <br />Sarika Gupta Bhattacharya, co-founder of Altavis and Biz Divas has committed a portion (10 percent) of revenues to Bizdivas with an intent to empower the aspiring businesswomen. <br /><br />Taking about her transition from a mentee to a mentor, Sarika said, “Mentoring is a 360 degree cycle wherein learning never ceases. At Bizdivas, we facilitate the mentoring sessions for young entrepreneurs, but we also learn a lot in the process.” <br />She considers mentorship a virtue ever since she was mentored by Kathy Calvin, CEO of United Nations’ Foundation while she attended the Fortune Mentorship Programme in Washington last summer. <br /></p>
