RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT KURIOCITY
It is rightly said that ‘One Idea Can Change Your Life’ and Alvina Almeida’s idea won her the 12th National Business Plan Competition (NBPC) for her plan of providing ‘organic – pot plant gifting to customers’ held at Jaipur, organised by I Create (I). The award includes a cash prize of `50,000.
Alvina from Fatorda who is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in science in Carmel College for Women, Nuvem had won the second place in The Regional Business Plan Competition that was held in the month of December 2017, and therefore she was selected to represent Goa in the National Business Plan Competition held in Jaipur. She says: “I participated in the NBPC because I don’t know when I will get this opportunity again, meet different people and increase my outreach. And I never visited Jaipur so that was another experience gained. Also, I wanted to always represent Goa at the national level.”
Her business idea is about ready-to-gift decorated potted plants and customised vertical gardening sets. She wants to start the business because she thinks it is a 100 per cent eco-friendly business. “The main motto of my business plan is green gifting where you gift potted plants thereby you are not gifting an item but a family member to your loved one. You create a special memory for that special someone,” adds the 18-year-old.
Talking about the vertical gardening sets Alvina says that they can be used for kitchen gardening thereby doing away with the need for more land and you can eat healthy food. She adds: “The vertical gardening sets can be also used for decoration purposes, we custom make the sets according to your needs and design.”
About what made her business plan different from the others, she says that according to her the plan was very doable and practical. “It was a practical plan with very clear-cut financial details,” says Alvina. She also feels that in this age of sustainable development and the need of the hour for eco-friendly products, it gelled well with the audience.
However, to reach to the top of the NBPC was not a cakewalk; she had to attend a two-month workshop on entrepreneurship conducted by CIBA in the month of July 2017 where she learnt soft skills such as communication, survey and analytical skills. From then on whenever business ideas struck her as interesting, she would pen them down in her diary.
Though a plan about plants was always on my mind, she says: “My commerce teacher Gladys knew I was interested in business and informed me about the I-Create workshop held in the month of November.” This workshop taught her the hard skills that are finance – accounts, cash flow, profit-loss and everything required to keep your business growing. After attending that workshop, she was armed with the soft as well as the hard skills needed to put the plan into action.
When asked whether she expected to win, Alvina says: “Yes. Once all the business ideas where presented I knew I had secured my position in the top three. But wining was not my true motive, it was not even in my to-do list because I was given a platform where my idea was going to be presented and will be tested by a varied audience, so what was crucial for me was the feedback.” She adds that she just went with the mindset to do her best.
Alvina is the first Goan student to win this competition and she feels proud to be one. She has also fulfilled her childhood desire to make a difference and to be an inspirational figure to the masses. “When I would read about our iconic Goans and most of them being the first Goan to achieve whatever they did in their field, I wanted to be the first Goan somewhere,” she says.
The young entrepreneur adds that by participating in such competitions a new door opens in your life, sometimes you discover a new talent you never knew you had it in you. She says that along with the technical side you grow as a human being.
Her interest in plants grew naturally as her family was also into plants. Her grand uncle, Fr Inacio Almeida was an agriculturist who had a farm in Valpoi and she would visit there often. Alvina adds: “Also my mother loves gardening.”
But her interests are not just restricted to plants; she does a lot of researching about random topics just to satisfy her over curious mind. She likes to gain experience in all types of activities and hence grabs any chance to learn something new. Alvina says: “I love reading be it fictional, non-fiction, and classic anything except horror because that is one genre I do not really want to indulge in. I dance and also love making crafts.”
An extrovert by nature she doesn’t like the term ‘all rounder’ “I am a simple minded person who wants to be a jack of all trades and also master of all,” she concludes.