Mr Karlus Maruwa ,Gaon Pradhan, Borbali & Kachomari Gaon and lead Mushroom cultivator was the resource person was the guest lecturer for Mushroom growers.

His topic was mushroom cultivation as a startup and how to grow a small business.

The main points of the session are given below.

1. Mushroom cultivation as a start-up. Do’s and Don’ts 
2. How to grow a small business? How to grow small businesses in a village.
3. The Top 5 C’s in Entrepreneurship
4. Challenges for village-level startups?
5. How to solve the challenges?

Mr. Karlus Maruwa started his session with a brief introduction of himself. He started his session by introducing the trainees. After that, he introduces the topic to the trainees. He explained the topic, "Mushroom Cultivation as a Startup and How to Grow a Small Business." At first, he told the trainees about mushroom cultivation, the process, and how to get a good profit from the cultivation. Moreover, he told the trainees how to grow a business in mushroom cultivation and which things they needed to work on and which things they needed to take care of. In his session, he also told the trainees about entrepreneurship; in this, he said that the process of setting up a business is known as "entrepreneurship." The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, businesses, or procedures. He then added by saying that, in entrepreneurship, the person is the sole owner of the venture, so to be successful, one has to make plans before starting the business. Before starting a business, he suggested a few things like the selection of the place of business, availability of resources, availability of raw materials, targeted consumers, the market, demand for the finished product, etc. Moreover, he has given insight into how to grow small capital into big capital. He told the trainees to be motivated, have a clear vision, have a passion for doing something, be confident, and take care while making any decisions.

The 5 C’s of Entrepreneurship

1. credibility
2. clarity
3. conviction
4. capital
5. and concentration in execution

He shared his ideas about mushroom cultivation and the challenges he had to overcome at first, like capital, required materials, the market, etc., and how he overcame them by applying proper planning. He asked the trainees to share their concerns about starting a business in their respective areas. The trainees shared their problems, like capital, shyness, and family problem. Mr. Karlus added a few more points about the trainees' difficulties, such as obtaining resources, producing finished products, and dealing with marketing issues.

Nevertheless, he suggested some points on how to solve the problems. Since the trainees are women and belong to village areas, they would have problems in their families, so he told the trainees to involve their families, especially their husband and their children. He also told the trainees to learn to manage their time, discuss their plans with their families, etc. He added that the trainees could take help from the nearest bank and take small loans since most of them belong to SHG groups. Furthermore, he told the trainees to save money and make better plans.

He concluded the session by encouraging the trainees to be bold and start a business. He also shared a few successful female entrepreneurs who started their businesses from the scratch.