Commemorating International Women's Day 2010 with Anisha Singh, CEO, mydala

In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements.

This year's theme for the UN-sponsored day is 'Equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all'. It is a day when women are recognised for their achievements irrespective of ethnic origin, culture, economics, or politics.

And, during this very special occasion adgully tried to find out from one of the women entrepreneur, Anisha Singh, Founder-CEO, Mydala, who has recently launched mydala, on opportunities and challenges which a women entrepreneur has to face and is there a government support for the women of India to execute their ideas.

On what has driven her to start mydala and what all challenges did she face before starting mydala, Anisha said, "Indian small businesses which is the backbone of our economy face severe challenges to promote their business and reach their target customers effectively with minimal advertising budgets. mydala allow them to do a risk free promotion and increase their visibility to their target customers by getting business partners to offer great deals to target customers and aggregating customer demand for these businesses which is a win-win situation for both businesses and consumers."

Singh added, "Our business being a completely new business model in India, my primary challenges were two-fold, first working with the merchants on explaining to them the value of a mydala promotion, and secondly, educating consumer on how easy it is to buy on mydala and understanding the "power of group buying."

Mydala was launched in November 2009, and in the 4 months of operation how has been the response of users so far, to this Anisha replied, "The response has been fantastic. Through February, we have sold in excess of 2100 vouchers and our users have saved a huge amount! Our users love the fact that they get access to highly discounted deals which they can never get on their own. We have extremely high standards for the quality of deals on our site. The daily deals also have a broad appeal. There's something for everyone, whether you're shopping for yourself or as a gift. We've seen incredible enthusiasm among customers and merchants. Our growing fans are advocates of the site and continue to help us reach new heights. Also, we place a premium on customer service, from our help line to quick online/telephone response to customer issues. Our motto is: happy customers refer friends."

It has been six decades since India got independence, does women entrepreneurs get enough opportunities to execute their ideas quickly and efficiently here, on this Singh said, "Although the situation has improved in the past few years, women in general in India face problems to get started off in business. For example, one common issue which women face is quick access to funds at venture inception. This is a critical factor which needs to be improved on. Although there are several programs targeted at funding such woman led ventures, they are typically slow at times, bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs."

Most of the women are working now and are even making full use of all their rights but is the government giving enough support to promote women entrepreneurship in India, to this Singh replied, "I do think the government can do much more to support women entrepreneurship. The things they don't have is much visibility and as a result it discourages woman entrepreneurs who need a holding hand to take the initial steps."

She further said, "Prior to mydala, I worked in Washington DC with the Clinton administration at National Women's Business Association helping women entrepreneurs raise funding for innovative women led businesses. I also am on the board of Indus Women Entrepreneurs. I would definitely like to do something similar in India with the support of the Government to build a framework and provide support to aspiring women entrepreneurs."

On International Women's Day 2010, Anisha gave a wonderful message to all the aspiring women entrepreneurs, she said, "Women are as much a part of today's business world as men. The first important step toward successful business ownership is to surround yourself and speak to as many business professionals as possible. This includes a lawyer, who can assist you with the ins and outs of drafting up employee contracts, building contracts, and business deals. It includes an accountant, who is essential to the successful development of any new business. It's important to bounce your idea of a successful entrepreneur and allow them to poke holes in your plan. They can show you what pitfalls to avoid and where to go for the essential startup needs (such as where to get capital)."

So we just hope Anisha and lots of other aspiring women entrepreneurs in India gets as much government support and with their support they can full fill their dreams, and can be a helping hand in the development of the country.