About the Project :

During the lockdown, I along with my friends, thought of opening a startup. Idea of the Startup was to create a House help providing service. Like ola/uber provide service of cabs on booking, similarly we aimed to provide service of house help on booking. The idea came due to the neccesity of house help during the lockdown, while looking at our house scenario and also others’ scenario, we really thought that people in India, more specifically Surat, required a house help.We aimed to provide people with house help once the lockdown was a bit relaxed. The main motto of our startup was safety and excellence, we wanted to provide our customers with trained maids, as well as ensuring the safety of out employees and customers due to the pandemic. Altough, due to various factors, our StartUp did not come into existance. Nevertheless, I along with one of my friend, did not give up the entire idea and took it as an community service which would provide maids employement, and yes, we did provide them what we prommissed.

Learning Outcomes:

LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
The project, honestly, was quite challenging as nethier of us had any hard core experience about how a company runs. I was the part of Operations team which was assigned to create a data base for maids, also create a list of potential customers. Basically my job required a lot of communicating, and thats where i realised that i could improve on my patience and communicating skills, sometimes I used to get frustrated while talking to the maids as they would not understand what i was explaining. Identfying my weakness really helped me as I moved further in the process, gradually I tried not get frustrated and also improve on my communication skills. Overcoming this weakness really helped me when I had to talk to a specialist in such kind of service, basically I contacted a person who runs a similar company on a larger scale but providing professional cleaners, maids etc, to companies. Talking to him was a very vital part in our project which I did quite well.

LO2:Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
Creating a data base for maids was quite challenging as it required me to call to around 50-60 maids and ask them personal details such as type of work they do, address, preffered area of working, preferred type of work, etc. This task used to really exhaust me as it is not easy to contact so many maids. I havent done anything before such as creating such a data base. They key to overcome this challenge was to be pateint and be calm. When the data base was ready, there was a sense of accomplishment and a feeling as if i had climed the Mount Everest. This challenge had provided me with organising and communication skills. It is very important to undertake new challenges in order to develop new skills. Organising and communication skills are really useful and would help me in the future during projects, or when I am researching on something.

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
As we all know, before staring anything, we need a full proof planning about how should things function. Being the part of operations team, planing was a core aspect of my job. We needed to plan in order to how to begin, what all things should we keep in mind, what measures to take due to pandemic, etc. Organising myself was something which was absolutely necessary in my job we did that by keeping weekly meetings and updating our team members with the progress, we would also divide tasks as in what all has to be done and a deadline was given so that we stayed focused. Normally I am not a really organized person, thus it was difficult for me to function in the begening but then things fell into place. Planning and initialting develped self management skills in me, as I become a lot more organized person. Such skills and experience will surely help me in the future when I work for a company or If I start my own firm.

LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Some tasks were quite exhausting such as creating a data base for the maids. This required a lot of commitment, there were also times when I thought of just quitting and not be a part of the company, but then I would always tell to me mind that I need to be commited, which ultimately helped me finish the tasks. Being commited to the deadlines set in the meetings was also very important, as If the tasks would be delayed then the entire team had to suffer, thus delaying our time to begin with the actual service we intend to provide. The period in which I needed to be commited the most was when people were backing out, and our plan was not being initiated. As I talked above that we did not actually start the company but then persued it as a community service. During that time, our teammates were losing interest, and then, being commited towards the goal and to percieve it as a community project was very important, and I am proud that I did so.

LO5 : Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
I get along with people quite easily as I have a freindly nature, so working with people is not such a headache for me. Altough there are a few instances where you dont really get along well, there were a few times when people used to not comlpete their task on time, so i would get frustrated, but then I dont let anger take over, I calm myself and confront the person asking them reasons as to why did they not complete the task. It is very important to know how to colaborate with people as doing a project as a team is a lot more effective and fun rather than doing it alone. The significance of teamwork was quite there in the project, as it was a startup, we required every member to give their 100% inputs to bring out the best. If there would be no teamwork, it would have taken months to just create the data base. In short, without teamwork, this project would not be initiated at all.

LO6 :Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Unemployement and poverty are the two global issues I catered through this project. Covid-19 pandemic had resulted into several of house maids to be unemployed and they were finding it really hard to survive during the lockdown. We helped provide them with employement and solve their problem of poverty. Unemployment and poverty are two really important global issue as these needs to be catered for an sustainable growth. These issues are not only prevelant in India, but in every country in the world, some are coping up well, whereas some have been seeing deterioirating situations. Knowing about this global issue motivates me to make a difference by doing somthing about it, and thus it provoked me to continue this startup idea as a community service. It feels really good to contibute to solve a global issue, it gives a sense of happiness to help the needy.

LO7 : Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
There were many ethical considerations. First one was that we dont copy someone’s business model. As we were starting a company, we needed to take care that we are not violating any copy right statements. Secondly, we collected personal details of the maids, so it was our ethical responsibility that we dont misuse that data or let it fall in the wrong hands. Also, while we were diciding upon the costings and profit margins, there were crucial decisions to make as in how much to take as profits from the maids etc. Here, I made ethical choice which was to a very nominal amount and not exploit them, altough finally I did not charge any profit margin and just did it as a service for the maids and the customers. After making the right ethical choice, I felt really light and happy as I knew that i had made the right choice which would benefit someone. Initially, I had thought about earning a good amount from the startup, but then I changed my thought and looked at the ethics point of view and just took it as to help the unemployed house maids.

Conclusion
I developed the learner porfiles : open-mided, communicator and balanced. While working in a team, i had to be open to everyone’s ideas and thoughts, thus developing my nature as an open minded person. During the creation of the data base, I required to commicate to several maids, also while researching upon how to train the maids and go ahead with the project, I communcated with an expert in this field. Lastly, this project made me balance my studies, sports and other activities along with giving time to the project. This project has surely benefited others, such as the maids as well as those people who recieved our service. Maids got jobs and customers got their work done, thus resulting into a win-win situation. The best experience for me was to talk to an Expert named : Vivek Desai, director of CFMS(care facilities managment service pvt.ltd). This provided me with a lot of confidence and tought me how to reach to people for their expertise. The goal behind the project was to start our company but it ended up as a community service. I would not label is at failure but instead a journey full of lessons and learnings, and also in the end I did something helpful for the society. All in All it was quite a succesful journey and I am glad to be a part of it.

Evidence Folder : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o7_529axdQCkLv7_xYpkxnDTxyoHpuPQtLJmpTLM0Zo/edit