Goa Tycoon - JANUARY ISSUE 2023

Volume 2

Issue 1 January 2023

Tycoon

Cheree Tree Concepts

Founded in 2019 by brand strategist and communication coach Rina Barreto Shankar, Cheree Tree Concepts helps businesses to build brand awareness with strong brand communication and marketing campaigns.

Mechgiri

An app-based aggregator platform for garages and spare parts dealers

Navigating the business and startup landscape in Goa

Bodhami

An award-winning ed-tech start-up which provides platforms to assist students in areas like career counselling, learning, corporate readiness and placement

Unique Selling Proposition

Marketing guru Rohini Gonsalves talks about the importance of a product having a strong Unique Sales Proposition (USP) in order for it to get strong sales in the market

Cruising Club India

A yacht rental and event planning fim that specializes in planning and managing events on boat cruises and yachts in Goa

financial planning

Financial planner Manalee Verneker talks about some resolutions one can set to improve their financial health this New Year

Welcome to the first issue of Goa Tycoon for the year 2023. On the cover of our e-magazine this month, we have Mrs. Rina Shankar Barretto. Mrs. Rina is the founder and CEO of Cheree Tree Concepts, a brand growth agency based in Panjim. The agency focuses on marketing communication as a tool to build brand perception, likability, and trust. It helps brands to make an impact in their customer markets using powerful communication and branding strategies.

The inside pages of this month’s issue feature stories on Bodhami, an ed-tech start-up based in Margao, and on Mechgiri, an app-based aggregator platform for garages and spare parts dealers. We have also done a story on Cruising Club India, a venture founded by two Goan youngsters - Swapnil Shirodkar and Prem Sutarin 2021. The firm specializes in planning and managing events on boat cruises and yachts in Goa. They offer luxury yachts on rent and also provide services like gourmet catering, top-rated entertainment and unique personalizations for any special occasion or private event on board their yachts and cruises.

Guest write-ups on the importance of a product having a strong unique sales proposition (USP) by marketing guru Rohini Gonsalves, and on

‘Financial Resolutions For The New Year' by noted financial planner Manalee Verneker also feature in this month's issue of our e-magazine

The Manohar International Airport finally kicked off operations earlier this month with the first passenger flight from Hyderabad landing at the airport on January 5th. The Indigo flight from Hyderabad landed at 9 am at the new airport located at Mopa in North Goa. Union Minister Shripad Naik and Goa Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte were present at the terminal building of the airport to welcome the passengers of the flight. Naik and Khaunte also presented symbolic dummy boarding passes to passengers scheduled to travel to Hyderabad on another Indigo flight, the first one to take off from the airport.

Also, last month, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant launched the Drone Policy 2022. The policy mentions that the government will engage with technical institutes and academia to design drone-related courses for use in sectors like agriculture, horticulture, forestry, healthcare, mining and others.

It also states that the government will provide assistance in establishing drone schools that will offer various courses in drone operations and pilot certification. It also mentions that the government will encourage the setting up of centres of excellence within higher academic institutions to promote research and development.

Well, that’s all I have for you all from my desk this month. I hope you enjoy reading this month's issue of Goan Tycoon. Do share it with your friends all across the world.

Until next month, cheers!

Jessyl Fernandez Editor

Index

01 Cruising Club India

02 Bodhami

03 Cheree Tree Concepts

04 Mechgiri

05 Financial Resolutions For The New Year

06 Unique Selling Proposition

Introduction

Goa, the tiniest state on the western coast of India, boasts golden pristine beaches, palmfringed avenues, flavourful food, delicious Portuguese-influenced sweets, and warm, hospitable people. Also known as the Ibiza of India for its partying. A tropical paradise of flora and fauna, from the very famous 'almi' (mushrooms) endemic to its forests, that grow only on the red mud anthills, to the solar prawns that are fished immediately after the monsoons, Goa is unique. Tourists are also attracted to Goa for its cultural heritage - from the famous old Portuguese churches like Se Cathedral in Old Goa, the 16th Century Safa Masjid in Ponda and Shree Mangesha Temple in Mardol, the legendary Arvalem or Pandava Caves where the Pandavas of the Mahabharat fame lived, to its two unique festivals - Carnival and Shigmo. Goa plays host to many festivals - the International Film Festival of India that promotes cinema, the Serendipity Art Festival, Sunburn Music Festival, The Grape Escapade to name a few. To showcase this varied heritage of culture, art, tradition, food, and people, in 2015 ItsGoa was born. The main aim was to make it the premier portal for all things Goa. We were able to showcase Goa like never before. Soon our blogbased website transcended the virtual space, with the ItsGoa magazine – a sought-after resource for visitors to Goa from countries like Norway, Germany, UK, USA, UAE, etc.

Editorial Team

Chief Editor

Jessyl Fernandez

Content Manager

Steve Antao

Content Curators

Prataya Sarkar

Dr. Valerie Pereira

Richelle Brito Carvalho

Dr. Denise Rodrigues

Rohini Gonsalves

Sales & Marketing

Donald Fernandez

Graphics & Layout Shankar Kamble

Social Media Manager Saviola Dias For advertising queries: 9370502124 / 920900512

ItsGoa Media Group

Nordic Intent HQ - Floor 3, PDA

Colony, Porvorim, Goa 403521 Email : mail@itsgoa.com Website: itsgoa.com

Cruising Club India

Article

Cruising Club India is a yacht rental and full-service event planning company based in Panjim. The firm specializes in planning and managing events on boat cruises and yachts in Goa. They offer luxury yachts on rent and also provide services like gourmet catering, top-rated entertainment and unique personalizations for any special occasion or private event.

The company started operations in the year 2021. They operate around 4-5 charters daily at the

compared to the international boating industry, Goa lags far behind", says Swapnil. “The only silver lining is that it is gradually growing in Goa. Goa is the perfect place to start this business and I and Prem wanted to be a part of the growth”, he adds. The team at Cruising Club India consists of 5 people who handle tasks like maintenance of their website, sales and marketing, managing their charters, writing promotional content, and coordinating their events. They also have freelancers working for them on the side.

Swapnil Shirodkar (left) and Prem Sutar (right), the Founder-Directors of Cruising Club India

we provide services as per the requirement of the client”, he adds.

Cruising Club India has a tie-up with Ritz Classic Restaurant in Panjim and Myles high bakehouse, Panjim to provide food & beverages for their events. They have an in-house event planner to plan events for their clients and they also collaborate with artists, entertainers, singers, photographers, dancers and more to provide entertainment at the events organized by them that would keep their guests entertained and happy.

The decoration on the boats is done solely by them. Until last year, they had a vendor doing the decoration for their events, but from this year, they have their in-house team to undertake the decoration for events organized by them. The decoration is provided depending on the theme of the event. Services like Live DJ Music, Duo/Trio/ Full Bands, One-Man Bands, Dance and Entertainment, Flowers and Decor, Drone Videography and Photography are also provided by them as add-on services.

Public Response

Swapnil says that the response to his business so far has been a mixed bag. “While we are getting plenty

yacht business. Most of their clients are people from outside Goa. They include domestic tourists and people from the corporate sector. Most of the local Goans are not aware of the services they provide. Only a few people who stay close to the Mandovi River in Panjim are aware of their business. Many celebrities avail of their services, actress Sameera Reddy being one of their most recent celebrity clients. They also provide discounts to clients depending on the number of hours a client leases a yacht for. The longer the number of hours the yacht has been rented for, the higher would be the discount they offer.

Plans For The Future

Swapnil says that venturing into this business of yachts has been a huge learning experience for him and his partner Prem. Ever since they started Cruising Club India, they got to know about a lot of things that they were previously unaware of. They have learnt about certain missing aspects with scope for improvement. He says that in the next couple of years to come, Cruising Club India will not only focus on charters but will also start focusing on boat building, repairs, software solutions, maintenance and more. “We are just starting and we have lots of plans up our sleeves for the next 10 to 15 years”, he adds.

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Musician Sanjiv Murgaoker entertaining a family group on a motor yacht

Cruising Club India also plans to provide technological solutions to their vendors to help them manage charter bookings. Their services won’t be limited to Goa alone as they plan on expanding to other states that have a growing boat industry. Swapnil says that Goa, being a growing industry for the boat business, is ripe with possibilities for expansion and people should invest in projects like these.

So what are you waiting for guys? Pick up that phone and call Cruising Club India today to book a luxury yacht to celebrate your next New year party, bachelor party, or simply any other upcoming event of yours. And leave all your worries regarding the planning of the event to Cruising Club India who promise to organize an event you will remember for years together.

Make your bookings now!

Cruising Club India

Phone: +91 8793549236/ +91 7387137901

Email: info@cruisingclubindia.com

Website: https://www.cruisingclubindia.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cruisingclubindia/

Bodhami is an award-winning ed-tech start-up based at Malbhat in Margao. The firm was founded in June 2018 by 3 dynamic individuals - Damodar Pai Patnekar, Ashutosh Shankar, and Aarthy Vassan. The start-up looks at the end-to-end journey of the student right from career counselling, learning, and corporate readiness to placement and has platforms to support each of these phases of the journey.

Till date, 35,000+ students have undergone career counselling and learning on Bodhami’s AI platform and more than 1900+ Career Counsellors and Consultants have been certified on Bodhami Platform across more than 250+ cities in India

In a brief conversation with ItsGoa, Mr. Damodar Pai Patnekar, co-founder, Bodhami shared detailed insights about the start-up, the services it provides, the major projects that it has undertaken in the state of Goa, future plans and lots more…

Excerpts

What does the word ‘Bodhami’ mean? Bodhami is a Sanskrit word which is made up of two words ‘bodh’ and ‘ami’. ‘Bodh’ means knowledge and ‘ami’ means I. So, people who want to come and gain or acquire knowledge can visit Bodhami. We always wanted something in Sanskrit so that the adoption of the name is easier and better across geographies and languages. Bodhami is a well-accepted word in both southern and northern Indian languages

Give us details about the various types of services offered by your firm. Bodhami looks at the end-to-end journey of the student right from career counselling, learning, and corporate readiness to placement and has platforms to support each of these phases of the journey. Following are the platforms which Bodhami has developed so far:

Career Counselling Platform - Career Counselling Certifications, Career Guidance Report, Stream Selection Report, International Study Report, Job Switch Report, Career Library, Stream and College Selection

Recruitment Platform - AI-based Candidate Hiring Test, Candidate Aptitude Report, Corporate Readiness Report, Life Skills Assessments.

Competency Assessment Platform - Employee Learning Report, Life Coaching Discovery Report, Subject Tests, Corporate Readiness Report, Technical Readiness Report, Job Fitment Report, Skill and Learning Report, Job Based Entrance Exams, Training Needs Analysis, Innovation Index Report Learning Management System (LMS) - Certification Courses, Video Courses, Live Online Courses, Test Series, Assignments, Assessments, Entrance Exams, Subject Tests, Job Specific Exams, Skill Based Courses, Career Counseling Sessions, Life Courses Scholarship and Grant Management SystemManage scholarships, Automated selection process with proctored tests

Career Counseling is only 5-10% of the initial support which is required for the student. Students would need support or coaching on skill upliftment, readiness for entrance examinations, readiness for corporate jobs, placement support in jobs etc. and learning and scaling during the job. This constitutes to the rest 90-95% of the journey for the student across phases of education and work

Bodhami looks at this end-to-end journey right from career counselling, skill upliftment and learning, corporate readiness for students and graduates, scholarships and finally placement/recruitment.

With one Bodhami account over 50+ services can be enabled. For this Bodhami has enabled 5 platform access to each educator to support the student. These platforms include career counselling, learning management, scholarships, recruitment and corporate readiness

How does Bodhami guide young students/aspirants in helping them find the right career? Bodhami psychometric assessment is based on the concept of Holistic 360 degrees of skill assessment and learning. Our psychometric assessments have been created after extensive research and statistical validations by a team of experts who are PHDs, psychologists, neuroscience experts, IITians with AI expertise and HR experts.

We measure students’ unique aptitude, interest and personality which is used to uniquely suggest the desired careers for the student and recommend the

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as part of our career tests (total of 34 dimensions)

What is unique about the platform is that the recommendation is done based on the data of 10000+ actual career professionals from 19 different career streams. Every time a student or a professional seeking guidance on the most suited career takes the career test, the AI algorithm compares the 34 dimensions for the student with that of actual career professionals and comes up with a career recommendation based on the association algorithm.

Give us a brief profile about yourself and your copartners.

I (Damodar) am from Margao Goa. I am an MBA Gold medallist from SJIM Bangalore. I have worked in the digital & business consulting area for over 15+ years. I have worked with some of India’s top companies like Wipro Technologies and MetLife India. In my free time, I play professional cricket for a club, mentor students and professionals in their careers and travel with my family.

Ashutosh is from Delhi and is settled in Bangalore. He is an IIT Kharagpur & IIM Calcutta alumnus and AI and analytics expert. He has worked with big names in the IT industry such as Wipro, Infosys and TCS and has over 15+ years of experience in IT. He is fond of spending long hours in meditation, helping the needy, spending good time in nature and having a good spiritual connection.

She is settled in Bangalore but is originally from Chennai. She is a voracious reader and loves to read fiction. In her free time, she loves to acquire knowledge on varied topics like language, history, and culture.

When did the three of you first meet each other?

The three of us first met at Wipro Technologies. All of us used to work on client programs or engagements where we used to help clients transform their business processes using technology. We have known each other for close to 8-9 years now and therefore share a great chemistry.

What are the aspects that the three of you bring along?

Each of us come with a very diverse experience which was very much needed as part of the building blocks for Bodhami. To build a scaled platform like Bodhami we needed a blend of Digital Experience, technical expertise and the use of Artificial Intelligence / Analytics to drive the unique assessment models. If you look at our cofounding team, this is exactly where we all helped to get the best of the breed relevant experience and make Bodhami happen. Damodar’s experience of digital consulting helped in drawing the future digital journeys for stakeholders on the platform, Ashutosh helped to fill in the AI and Analytics thought leadership to create unique propositions and Aarthy crafted a very strong technology advance architecture to help the platform scale.

What was the idea that you had in mind while starting this firm?

We realized that most students made poor stream and career selection decisions due to uncertainty and lack of

(From left to right) Aarthy Vassan, Damodar Pai Patnekar, and Ashutosh Shankar, the founders of Bodhami

awareness. Students were aware of only 6-7 careers on average when in modern times, 2000+ lucrative careers were on offer. Over 45% of the students were ending up making a wrong career choice with 95% of schools and colleges not having any formal access to career counselling and mentoring. This problem was even more concerning in rural and semi-rural areas compared to metros.

As corporate professionals, we often came across professionals who were quite unhappy with their current work and that is mostly attributed to not getting the right career guidance at the right age and stage. This problem was even more evident in young graduates coming from rural or semi-urban backgrounds where the only career options they primarily knew were engineering, medical and govt. jobs.

We also saw the common problems in a large number of young engineering and MBA professionals joining corporates is that they were not quite ready to directly start their professional careers and organizations had to spend months polishing their technical and soft skills to make them ready for the hands-on jobs. When we look at the numbers, we found that over 95% of students in India don’t even have access to career counselling, mentoring or structured skill upliftment. This is where we really wanted to bring about a change and have an advanced and scaled solution which can reach to the bottom of the pyramid and do upliftment at the ground level. That too with a very reasonable cost (low cost – high impact) This motivated us to create an end-to-end platform which starts with career counselling and then provides them with mentorship & job readiness programs and ultimately links them to the recruiters in the right areas.

Who are your major clients?

Around 95% of our business comes from B2B or Business to Business. 5% of our business is B2C orD2C (Direct to customer). Since we have varied products, hence the kind of target audience we partner with are also different.

Our career counselling and skill assessment platforms are used by Schools, Institutions, Trainers, Counsellors, Teachers, NGOs, State Governments, Departments, Life Coaches etc. Our recruitment platforms are used by recruiters, placement consultants, and corporates.

Our Scholarship Platforms are used by NGOs and Corporates. Our Learning Platforms are used by NGOs, Schools, Institutions, Trainers etc.

Some of our big clients include – Department of Education (Government of Goa), Care India Foundation (an NGO in Mumbai), SBA Emerging Youth Scholarship and Mentorship Scheme in Himachal Pradesh, Asha Society (Telangana), Keystone (Gujarat), and Teenr (Chennai and Bangalore).

Any major projects done by Bodhami in Goa? Bodhami partnered with the Government of Goa, Education Department to enable a state wise roll-out of the career aptitude testing and career counselling program across the state of Goa. Bodhami trained 700+ teachers across Goa on career counselling frameworks, methodology and usage of the AI-powered platform for administering career tests, generating career reports and conducting career counselling sessions.

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More than 18k students of class 10th and 12th across 250+ schools and 12 talukas in the state answered aptitude tests and were imparted career guidance along with personalized career reports. This was the first time such an initiative at this scale was driven under the vision of Chief Minister, honourable Dr. Pramod Sawant.

Post completion of the program, Bodhami also presented detailed analytics on district, taluka & school levels to the government to identify specific skill gaps & ideate ways to design learning programs across these skill gaps.

What sort of support did Bodhami offer in innovation and entrepreneurship through structured assessments and training?

Bodhami partnered with the Goa State Innovation Council (GSInC) and for the first time in the state of Goa launched an initiative called the Innovation Test. The test measures the innovation quotient which will include 9 core innovation dimensions - namely Creative, Inventiveness, Passion, Learning, Motivation, Adapting, Risk Taking, Interpersonal, Problem-solving, Technology Acumen and Curiosity.

The Innovation test was launched by the Chairman of the Goa State Innovation Council, Shri Jose Manuel Noronha in collaboration with Bodhami. Every applicant or student gets a 15 Pager personalized innovation report which will highlight strengths, weaknesses, improvement areas, innovation dimensions and learning courses to drive

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innovation and entrepreneurship for the applicant. The innovation test can be taken by Students, Young Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Faculty and Professionals.

The Innovation test will help to drive a culture of innovation among the students and youth. It will encourage entrepreneurship and innovation by guiding them with the right free courses around innovation and self-entrepreneurship. The innovation test will help to scientifically measure and improve Innovation Quotient and core competencies in innovation. This initiative will help to drive innovation culture and avenues across the state of Goa.

The innovation test can be simply taken by clicking on the innovation test link on www.gsic.in. The applicants can directly download the innovation report which also contains learning learning courses to improve their innovation score.

Any awards that your firm has been felicitated with? Bodhami was the first start-up from Goa to have ever won a National Award to date for the phenomenal work they have done in the field of rural enablement, career guidance and skill assessment. Bodhami received a cash prize and a yearlong mentorship from StartUp India as a winner of the award.

I (Damodar Pai Patnekar) was awarded the eminent Goans achievers award - which is an award given to only 2 Goans from the Government of Goa as part of 60 years of Liberation of Goa.

Bodhami was selected to be one of the chosen start-ups at the International SCO Start-up showcase event which hosted 8 Nations.

Bodhami's platform is the only career counselling platform in India which is assessed and validated by the Quality Council of India (QCI).

Goa State Innovation Council Chairman Mr. J.M Noronha along with a few students who took the Innovation Test designed by Bodhami

running your firm?

Getting the right people to work with us has been a major challenge which we have faced ever since we started off. We looked at over 3000+ profiles to select the right set of 10 resources we wanted to onboard on the team. All of us have worked together like one big family right from day one.

In this fast-moving economy when much bigger MNCs are seeing an attrition rate as high as 28%, quarter on quarter, Bodhami has hardly seen an attrition rate in the last four years. Thanks to the team which has always shared and believed in the vision of bringing about a change at the grassroots level. Keeping costs under control is another challenge that we have faced while running this firm. We draw a parallel from WhatsApp which was launched and managed by a team of only 8 across the world.

We looked at the five-year horizon of how the business model and platform should shape up and what all journeys and products should be launched on the platform year-on-year. We also looked at which technologies would help us automate this entire process. This is because we knew that if you have to reach scale then automation is the only way possible to keep the cost under control. Therefore, the choice of cloud and Artificial intelligence technologies for automated flow and decisionmaking is what is planned. As we have envisioned, most of our journeys are now automated and we have a team of 10 members who manage the

is the way forward.

What are your future plans?

Currently, we have 1,600+ professionals including educators, counsellors, psychologists and HR professionals who have gone through detailed training. Till date, 35,000+ students have undergone career counselling and learning on Bodhami’s AI platform. We aim to create 1 Lac+ micro-entrepreneurs and impact the lives of 50L+ students through them in the next 5 years.

Finally, any message or words of advice that you would like to share with our readers?

Bodhami truly believes that every child is unique and has potential. It's very important to identify the right skills, interests and personality of the child and find out where the child would shine. Just ho we can’t judge a fish by how fast it can climb a tree or an elephant by how high it can jump, similarly, we can’t just judge each child by how many marks they get or whether they can get into Science, Engineering or Medicine or Not.

Each child once he gets the right career path would eventually be able to become a skill full and happy individual. Hence career counselling from the early age of 8th standard should be a mandatory birth right of each student to make the right choices.

For more information about Bodhami, visit Website: www.bodhami.com Email: customer.support@bodhami.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bodhamis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodhami

Bodhami Co-Founder Mr. Damodar Pai Patnekar being awarded with the Eminent Goans Achievers Award at the hands of Goa CM Dr. Pramod Sawant (Image Credit: Goa News Hub)

Cheree

Cheree Tree Concepts is a Brand Growth Agency with a special focus on Marketing Communication as a tool to build brand perception, likability, and trust. Based in Panjim, Goa the company helps brands to make an impact in their customer markets with powerful communication and branding strategies. The company works on offline and online marketing to develop a strong brand presence and growth strategy.

Their belief is that "the quality of our connections with customers (and the brand image that the community perceives) depends on the quality of our communication." Through a complete understanding of the brand's target audience, they have been able to develop and execute campaigns for clients in Goa, and internationally. What sets them apart from Digital Marketing and Brand Agencies is their ability to combine 20 years of the founder's experience in Brand Management, along with expertise from a diverse team of social media, SEO, digital strategists and brand consultants..

Founder’s Profile

The Idea Behind Starting Cheree Tree Concepts

The company was founded by Rina Barreto Shankar, a personal and business brand strategist and communication coach. Rina started the firm in 2019 when she moved to her hometown Goa after a 15year-long stint in the corporate world in Mumbai.

During her time in Mumbai, she worked with various advertising agencies and was part of the team that developed brand campaigns for brands like HDFC Bank, Airtel, Samsung, Tata Indicom, Unilever and Godrej. Her 15 years of corporate experience in branding, communication and employee motivation strategy as well as her experience working with an NGO in Mumbai helped her get a strong perspective on the human communication model and brand communication strategy - both critical aspects of influencing a target audience.

To enhance personal and professional communication, Rina also facilitates workshops on the Human Communication Model. She mentors business owners as well as students, helping them develop confidence by mastering communication techniques. She advocates for Personal Brand Building as a powerful strategy to develop one's presence and impact as an entrepreneur or an influencer.

Rina says that every business requires an experienced and empathetic entity that can understand the nuances of its brand and plan its marketing communication so that it can earn the trust and loyalty of its customers. “Effective communication is critical in raising a company’s brand image, fostering trust and earning respect”, she says. An established firm constantly requires support in communicating with new customer markets, creating promotional material to launch new products, rebranding themselves to appeal to newage customer segments or attracting the best talent. New businesses may need to announce the launch of their brand and create awareness via a humancentric communication model. “With my experience with multi-national companies, I realized that I could address these needs effectively,” says Rina.

Services Provided

Cheree Tree Concepts helps brands to reach out to their target markets by crafting content- it varies from radio scripts and magazine articles to hoarding designs, marketing collateral, blogs, brochures, and social media content. From a launch event to announcing a new brand, to designing in-store and outdoor branding at retail locations, to logo, website and marketing collateral designs, the firm has helped businesses to communicate their brand impactfully. “With a healthy mix of traditional brand strategy and digital marketing & PR, we support brands at all stages of their growth”, says Rina.

Clients Served

Rina and her team at Cheree Tree Concepts have had the privilege of developing brand strategies for diverse clients over the years. Their clientele includes brands from the health & wellness sector, interior design firms, women entrepreneur platforms, training

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Rina at a panel discussion at the Business Talks 2020 event in Panjim

institutes, recruitment firms, and many more. Rina says that her clients value the trust, transparency and complete understanding of the brand that comes to her naturally over the years, having worked across many different industries and markets. “We are one of the few brand-building agencies that integrate personal branding as well as employee engagement in the overall brand-building strategy, thus enhancing the client company’s brand image”, she says.

Accolades Received

Rina has received many awards for the work that she has done in the field of women empowerment, youth development and entrepreneurship. In 2019, she was felicitated with a Certificate of Excellence by Womennovator, a virtual global incubator for women entrepreneurs for her continued work in the field of women empowerment. She was also recognized at the Inspirator Life, Leadership & Learning2Learn Success Summit 2020-21 for the work done by her in building inspiration for youth.

Challenges Faced

While setting up Cheree Tree Concepts, one of the major challenges Rina faced was finding talent that was willing to start and grow their careers with startups. “Having to juggle various roles at the beginning of an entrepreneurial journey can be really challenging if you do not integrate yourself into the start-up ecosystem and build your personal brand”, she says. "Along with building your business, it is equally important to make time to create value for the community - conducting training sessions, panel discussions and growth mindset workshops have all been part of my personal brand building - and it can be as exhausting as it is fulfilling".

Future Plans

In the years to come, Rina plans to develop a tech platform that will create a unified window of convenience to manage a client’s brand assets in one place – from brand designs and content to marketing and PR campaigns to social media assets – thus helping clients save time, money and effort in building their brand’s image.

Her Message To People

Rina advises people to create value in areas that they feel strongly about – be it in providing guidance and mentorship to youth, women-led small businesses or by documenting one's learnings and making them available to others. She also says that one must not allow someone else’s definition of success to control how one conducts one's work and life. "Have a strong sense of self - and build your personal brand image to serve your work-life goals" she concludes.

She strongly believes in cultivating the youth and small women-led businesses - especially in a small state like Goa, where we have the avenue and reach to lend our knowledge to a segment of society to which we can add value to. Website:

Rina with the award she received from Womennovator for the work done by her to support women entrepreneurship

Mechgiri is an app-based platform that works as an aggregator for garages and spare parts dealers. The company was founded in 2016 by three brothersVassant, Girish, and Gaurish Salgaonkar.

Their father Mr. Gurudas Salgaonkar had been running a brick-and-mortar garage in Panaji since 1972. Taking the pulse from the family business, Vassant, Girish and Gaurish decided to give their father’s business an elegant touch of technology by launching Mechgiri. The company is certified as a start-up by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India and the Start-up Promotion Cell, Government of Goa.

Founders’ Profile

Vassant Salgaonkar holds a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry and an MBA degree in Marketing. He has more than 12+ years of work experience. Before founding Mechgiri, he was employed in a Fortune 500 multinational company as a technology and sourcing executive.

Girish and Gaurish, both hold diplomas in Automobile Engineering. Before founding Mechgiri, both of them were working in the family business started by their father. While everything was going smoothly, Girish met with a serious accident. To take forward his father’s business, Vassant resigned from his well-paid job and started supporting his brother in the family business. Since Vassant was very techsavvy, he came up with the idea of launching a mobile app which could serve as an aggregator platform for garages and spare parts dealers. This led to the birth of Mechgiri.

How It All Started

Mechgiri started with a dream to set up a car garage in every city, but there were challenges like economic feasibility, the attrition rate of skilled manpower, etc. “The idea of an aggregator app for car garages materialized, where we could build a network of garages for our clients for hassle-free car servicing”, says Vassant.

Driven by technology, Mechgiri comprises a team of auto service experts and auto spare-parts dealers that manage and deliver top-level expertise and merchandise to proud car owners, with the motto,

Mechgiri App Interface

Goa CM Dr. Pramod Sawant with Vassant Salgaonkar (right) and Gaurish Salgaonkar (left) at the launch of the Mechgiri app

‘We Care.’ Having registered as Mechgiri Autocare India Pvt Ltd, the company launched a mobile app for car owners, by way of tie-up with over 250+ service centres at 54 locations across Goa. The services they offer include mechanical, electrical, AC service, tyre puncture, road-side assistance and many more. The app is also loaded with additional features such as car codes, car servicing sheets, etc.

Their Vision

With a dedicated team of 6 members, Mechgiri works together with its network of partners to create a smarter, more connected global business community. They form strong and lasting partnerships with like-minded enterprises to create solutions and take them to the market. Working together, they help their mutual customers to meet their auto servicing challenges. With access to the broadest portfolio of auto technicians and spare-part dealers in the industry, their partners are control points that deliver quality and timely expertise. “Our vision is to create a unique bond between auto technicians and car owners and make the servicing experience more productive, more efficient, and more reliable, and encourage innovation to overcome challenges”, says Vassant.

For car owners who are looking for a friendly neighbourhood garage and hassle-free service at any time which is economical, Mechgiri is that friend who helps in catering to all said needs.

Challenges Faced

Just like other businesses all across the world, the operations of Mechgiri too were badly affected by the pandemic. Post Covid, things changed economically as well as strategically for them. “Because of Covid restrictions, we had to modify our expansion plan and focus on surviving the after-effects of the pandemic, as it was difficult to make both ends meet”, says Vassant. “However, we are happy that the pandemic has made people more tech-savvy and we take this as an opportunity to grow our business panIndia in the years to come”.

Future Plans

Mechgiri recently launched an Annual Maintenance Servicing programme for cars with a unique idea of warranty on servicing. “To start with, we are giving a warranty on mechanical servicing done under the annual maintenance programme, where we will not be charging anything on labour charges on all the mechanical servicing done for one year”, says Vassant.

In the next couple of weeks, Mechgiri is planning to launch a new updated version of its app, which will be more userfriendly and will come loaded with new features. They also plan to scale up their operations across India in the next couple of months. If anyone is willing to join the company as an investor, partner, employee or in any other position, they may contact Mechgiri on WhatsApp at 9604666247.

The Mechgiri app is available for download on Google PlayStore.

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Financial Resolutions For The New Year

In this article, noted financial planner Manalee Verneker talks about some resolutions one can set this New Year to improve their financial health

Article by: Manalee Verneker

New Year resolutions don't have to be just about diet and exercise. Sometimes the area in your life that really needs attention is your finances, and as we begin 2023, this is an opportunity to reset and reassess. The New Year is a great time to rejuvenate your finances. Here are some New Year resolutions to help improve your financial health.

Track your expenses

"A penny saved is a penny earned" is a very wise quote by Benjamin Franklin. We all earn a decent income by the end of the month which would be categorized as salaried income or business income. But most of us do not know where and how our money is spent. Tracking your expenses can be one of the important resolutions you can set this new year. The best way is to use an expense management app that automatically recognizes all your online banking, debit and credit card spending. Moreover, these costs are automatically classified into various categories such as shopping, dining, transportation, etc. You can also view a pie chart displayed to analyze the areas you overspend which can help you curb unwanted expenses.

Build your emergency fund

If an emergency strikes, you'll be in trouble without an emergency fund. An emergency fund can be a lifesaver when unexpected challenges come to your life, such as unemployment, accidents, or pandemics. If you don't have an emergency fund at the beginning of the new year, it's time to plan one. First, calculate your monthly expenses to determine how much you need as an emergency fund. This should include not only rent and mortgage but also utilities and basic expenses. Many financial experts agree that you need at least three to six months of spending, but it doesn't hurt to overestimate how much cash you need in an emergency.

Review your financial goals

Review your financial goals based on future spending and investments. When was the last time you checked them? If you haven't had time lately, it might be time for a review. We generally suggest our clients to review their financial goals every year. Just to be sure that your investments are aligned with your future goals. Also, it is important to have clear financial goals. For example, you can be specific like "I want to reduce my car loan and save Rs 3,00,000 by the end of the year."

Make a Plan to Pay Off Debts

It is advisable to have a plan to reduce your debts, i.e. car loans, credit card outstanding, education loans, home loans, etc. Easy access to credit has significantly taken away financial discipline.

Create a Financial Plan

Making a financial plan is more than just choosing a few stocks to invest in. You have to consider your current financial situation and your future financial goals and draw a roadmap to achieve them. It is also important to draw a timeline and understand your risk appetite before you determine your asset allocation. This may require a lot of research or consulting with your financial advisor to help you create your customized financial plan.

Secure your family with health and life insurance

Insurance is one of the means to protect the future of not only your child but also your family. Very similar to building fire alarms. It may not be used routinely, but detecting certain levels of smoke that could be a sign of a fire can save lives. There are many types of insurance plans, but the most important is life insurance. You need to understand life's uncertainties and make plans to ensure the financial security of your loved ones. Also having adequate Health Insurance is equally important as it can pay for your medical emergencies, hospitalization, contraction of any illness and treatment in future.

About the Author

Manalee Verneker is the founder of Financial Wisdom, a privately established financial services firm based in Goa, India. Financial Wisdom was founded by her in 2021, after just less than a decade of experience in the field of personal finance. She is a Certified Financial Planner (CFPCM) from the Financial Planning Standard Board India and a Chartered Wealth Manager (CWM) from the American Academy of Financial Management. She is passionate about personal finance management, and financial literacy and is a strong advocate for financial advice that focuses solely on the individuals.

She can be contacted on:

Phone: 8378080888

Email: manalee@financialwisdom.co.in

Website: www.financialwisdom.co.in

Instagram: instagram.com/_financial_wisdom_/

Website: www.itsgoa.com I Instagram: @_itsgoa I Facebook: Itsgoa

All marketing activity is driven to cause sales. Sales can be caused only if we deliver value to the customer. It is important to understand concepts like features, advantages and benefits.

Features are parts of the product or service. They are intrinsic to the product itself. They make the product unique and compete with similar category products in the market. Features include the look and feel, technical details or ingredients. They make the product or service work in a certain way. The features make the product/service bigger, better, smarter or easier to use.

Advantages are how the features translate into use for the customer. The advantage is what the customer sees in order to choose your product over a competitor in the same category. The customer notices the bigger, better or smarter qualities that the product has as Advantages.

Benefits on the other hand are the way the product/ service leaves a customer feeling. It is about the experience of the customer. So while a 5 star energy rating is a feature which gives the buyer the benefit of saving electricity and therefore cost saving is the benefit.

A certain engine in a vehicle is a feature giving better mileage which is a benefit to the buyer. Benefits are essentially about the outcome of having a certain feature. It's the value that the customer derives from having a certain feature in the product.

As marketers or sellers it is important for us to communicate the features and advantages to the customer such that the value is evident to the customer and the buying decision becomes easier. How do we do that?

make it a value proposition for the buyer. It is all encompassing and leaves the buyer with no doubt that this is the perfect product/service for his needs. The USP is the way the product is presented to a prospective buyer.

Consider that an electronic product has used a cheaper variant of a component. So the advantage is the product is now cheaper for the customer. The benefit is the product is now affordable. The USP is communicating that this is the cheapest product in the given category.

When a prospective buyer sees that it is the ‘cheapest', he is already looking at it favourably. The closure of the sale is easier. We note then that the USP is not talking of the component or its uses or ability of the product itself. Instead it is talking of it being 'cheapest'. This the USP is oftentimes a deduction from the features, advantages and benefits of the product.

A "99.9% germ free" or "27% more effective" or "isse sasta aur accha kahin nahi milega" etc are USPs of the said products. The USP is the chief component of all advertising campaigns. If an advertisement fails to deliver the USP as a real fact, it fails entirely. The only job of an advertisement is to drive home the USP in an unmistakable way.

It isn't necessary that a product has only one USP. It is the skill of the seller to come up with enough USPs to present the same product to various Target Markets or Segments. While 'cheapest' may appeal to the price sensitive buyer, it will dissuade an esteemneed buyer. He may want to hear the 'state of the art technology' pitch. Or another ecologically conscious prospect may want to note 'least carbon footprint' etc.

We create the 'Unique Selling Proposition' (USP). The USP is using the features, advantages and benefits to

Often, the USP has nothing to do with the features, advantages and benefits of the product. Some

products sell only because they are the oldest in the market. People buy because they trust the brand/ shop/seller. Others but because it was created by a certain person. People buy an iPhone, just because it is an Apple product, the house of Tatas is used to sell anything, fashion items are bought simply because they are a certain brand or designer. In this case, one uses these attributes as the USP.

Therefore, one can conclude that deriving the right USP for what one is selling is the starting point and final nail of a sales pitch. There can't be a successful sales pitch without a strong USP.

"If you don't distinguish yourself from the crowd, you will be the crowd"

USP is that distinction from the crowd.

About the Author:

The author, Rohini Gonsalves, is a gold medallist in marketing, sales management, and sales promotion from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. She holds more than 15 years of experience in the field of marketing and sales, is a marketing consultant, and also the founder of Sevarat, a Panjim-based start-up which provides geriatric care services to elderly patients.

Anyone wishing to avail of her services may contact her on:

Mobile: +91 8329 857965

Email: rohini@sevarat.com

Website: www.sevarat.com

Facebook: @GoGetterRohini

LinkedIn: @rohini-gonsalves-sevarat

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