Doris (second right) pressing the crystal ball to symbolically open the Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference 2014, themed ‘Creating and Sustaining Women Entrepreneurship through the Art of Networking’ yesterday.
KUCHING: Today’s entrepreneurs must dare to be different if they want to be successful in business.
Giving this advice when delivering her keynote address to open the Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference 2014 here yesterday, Senator Datuk Doris Sophia Brodie said business people must dare to be different by doing things that others don’t like to do, don’t know how to do and things that others are afraid to do.
She said this was because by being unconventional, they will have less competition as they would be a pioneer in that business field.
“In other words, if you have been doing business the usual way without much success than you need to re-look at your business venture and perhaps diversify because in business you not only need to be witty but versatile enough in order to survive in a very competitive business environment,” she said.
The two-day Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference 2014, themed “Creating and Sustaining Women Entrepreneurship through the Art of Networking” was jointly organised by Swinburne University and Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA).
Doris, who is Deputy Dewan Negara Speaker, opined that theme for this year’s conference was most befitting its objective for a known fact that businesses get into trouble for various reasons.
“Troubles can be attributed to poor management, mismanagement, poor marketing, and various other contributing factors and for this reason, many people, including us, do look at business as a serious and challenging undertaking.
“For, it is a fact that in business, either we make money or we lose money. However, if you don’t dare take the risk, you will never be able to find out, least to succeed,” she asserted.
She added that in business, the other equally important area was networking with other individuals and others in other businesses across industries for it will allow them to share experiences and ideas with one another.
“More important is the fact that we have established contact with someone, and that someone could possibly be our future clients or partners in business or someone who can inspire you to diversify your business boundaries.
“In fact, it is generally agreed that networking is a powerful tool for business undertaking and what people use to say is whom you know is equally as important as what you know,” she said.
She suggested that in Malaysia, women should consider themselves very lucky because their participation and involvement in business was being much welcomed and appreciated by the government.
She disclosed that for this reason, the government on its part had provided various facilities for women to be involved in business.
“Many government agencies like MARA, SMIDEC, TEKUN to name a few, offer loan, grant and funds for women to venture into business,” she stressed when opening the conference which was attended by about 200 participants.