By: Sara Waqar

”Are you tired of your current employer? Do you wish to put your brilliant and innovative ideas into practice? Do you want to make money online? Attend our webinar and we will teach you so and so. Sign up to our newsletter and we will provide you with the best and up-to-date tip of how to become an Entrepreneur. Our tips will help you make money and become rich in no time…”

And so the richy rich promises go on and on and on…

No matter what business venture you are about to enter, whether it is online, offshore or home based, would you read further? The amateurs would, on the other hand, the experienced will also read it, why? In order to laugh at the busted promises, such words make. Many end up being victims, The powerful words used to entice the reader are very intricately woven, because they know their prey’s psyche, and that is what makes them successful (and readable).

It’s true that everybody these days wants to gain chunks of money through internet or through any other business or any idea they could get hold of.

ENTREPRENEUR has thus evolved as being the coolest term these days. Everyone wishes to term themselves as an entrepreneur. It sounds cool and hip, makes one in vogue. Entrepreneur! become richy rich overnight.

Twitter, facebook and blogging etc, have given birth to a new way of making money, which is, catching the target through online presence.

A few days back I heard someone saying,

“My son is an Entrepreneur”. Ending it with a sarcastic laugh, “That is what you say when you don’t have a job.”

I did not know whether it was a joke or what. So with a little chuckle I turned the conversation towards a new topic which was miles away from Entrepreneurship. But this does not solve the problem, entrepreneurship is a big”?” (Question mark)

The other day a notification from twitter said, ABC is following you on Twitter. I logged in at twitter in order to search that particular ABC, and what I discovered was three tweets on ABCs profile which said,

“Now how to make money through twitter? Someone help me make some moneyyyy puleeezzz.”

Rich overnight, with minimum effort? Well yes, this is often the main goal of all the acquisition presented to us. Are these flop online marketing efforts? Most of these appear out of insecurity, instability and a desire of reaching the top with minimal effort within a minimal time. These are the key ingredients of failure. Lack of identifiable goals and role models often lead one towards the wrong way.

“Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.” E Joseph Cossman

“A Leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way” John C Maxwell

You must be thinking who exactly was John and why did he quote this line, simply because John C Maxwell is a leadership expert. He has had the honor of training 5 million leaders across the world. In order to jump in something new experience is required, and this experience can be achieved through “the experienced”. A role model, a guide is necessary for reaching the top. Because his experiences and ideas help you choose the right way.

Do not choose your way on your own, guidance is highly necessary. Because over confidence may not be the key to successful planning and healthy growth.  That is what Larry Kersten meant when he said,

“Overconfidence – Before you attempt to beat the odds, be sure you could survive the odds beating you.”

Take risks only when you know that you are ready for them, remember, support, experience and passion are the key towards successful entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to role the dice with their money or reputations on the line in support of an idea or enterprise” Victoria Claflin Woodhull

It’s time that we should be aware of these false acquisitions, as (often) they are mere words pulling their targets towards them. Falling prey to such exciting and enticing words does not always work out.it all comes through hard work. Figure out what you want to do, how you want to do it and when exactly are you ready for it. Because at the end of the day

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow, Not next week but Today. The true Entrepreneur is a doer not a dreamer” Nolan Bushnell

Contributed by Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry

Google Chrome has become one of the robust browsers out there in a short span of time. Google Chrome has been applauded for its clean user interface, speed, and features. Though it is claimed to be one of the fastest web browser available, but it is still in beta and lots of features are missing. Users who are not satisfied with the Google Chrome browser features have an advanced version of Google Chrome named ChromePlus to play with.

ChromePlus is a browser build on Chromium with all the features of Google Chrome and aims to provide the most easy-to-use browser based on Chrome. ChromePlus is produced by Maple Studio. Along with all the features that Google Chrome browser sports, ChromePlus comes with some added features such as mouse gesture, super drag, IE tab, context menu download support, etc.

Key features of Google ChromePlus:

ü  Double click tab to close page

You don’t need to locate and click the small “X” button on the tab to close it. In ChromePlus, you just double click the tab area and the page will be closed for you easily.

ü  Super drag

Drag a link in the page with your left button and drop it somewhere else in the page. This can create a new page (tab) to open the link; Dragging and dropping a block of text in the page will create a page and search the text with your default search engine.

ü  Mouse gesture

Mouse gesture is the arrow trace on the page while you hold on the right button of your mouse. In ChromePlus, you can make efficient commands with easy mouse gestures. Practiced mouse gestures can save you quite a lot of time and make you feel more fun.

ü  IE tab

Some web pages uses IE controls and thus can only run in IE currently. IE tab is designed to visit these pages. Just pay attention to the icon in the right of location bar.

ü  Download Tools Support

Download Tools Support – if you have installed NetAnts, Orbit, IS, FlashGet3, FlashGetMini, NetX, WebThunder, or Xunlei, you can simply choose any of them to download a particular file. Right-click on the download link to see the supported tools.

Most of the ChromePlus features are available in some form or another within other browsers. The IE Tab functionality is also available in Firefox which renders an Internet Explorer window inside your browser to give you access to those IE optimized sites without leaving your preferred browser. It’s not all that much considering all the potential you get from full-on add-ons (which are already beginning to find their way to Chrome, but it’s a decent feature boost if you’ve been wanting any of those particular tools added to Chrome.

ChromePlus is freeware and currently works on Windows only. It can be downloaded from http://www.chromeplus.org . However, users of 64 bit machines have reported problems on installing it on their Windows 7.

About the Author:

Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry is a telecom engineer by degree. He’s a serial entrepreneur, a social media analyst, a pastime blogger and an IT consultant. He’s also currently chairing the Lahore chapter of IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) and has won IEEE Region 10 Leadership Award during his student life.

Do We Have a Silicon Valley in Pakistan?

Pakistan still stands at the 20^th position and India enjoys the first as far as software exports are concerned. Do we need help from world`s IT giant, India? Should India act as a role model for our Software Industry? What is your opinion?

Most of the IT companies in Pakistan and India belong to expatriates. Some of these companies are run by foreigners and still others have investments from the West. But in case of India, IT firms, whose managers have worked in the West, are generally more expensive than those working in Indian firms, which creates problem as they demand high wages. The willingness of Pakistanis to return home, from the West, is in complete contrast to most Indians who attend schools or work in the West and never look back. But we wonder how India has top IT Industry than any other country in Asia.

Indian city Bangalore is known as The Silicon Valley of India as it is a major hub for IT companies. Do we have a Silicon Valley in Pakistan as well?

And then the question arises “Do we need India’s Help?”

Waqas Khaleeq, from Smart Logics said,

“Undoubtedly India is the Asian tiger when it comes to Software market. Firstly, Indians are more saturated in international software houses. As a matter of face 34% of employees in Microsoft are from India. Secondly, the strength of software professionals inside software houses is a measure of market capture. The largest software house in Pakistan has almost 250 – 300 employees while India’s largest software company (Tata Consultancy Services) has 140,000 employees.
Thirdly, Total revenue earned by software development, technical consultancy and software outsourcing of India is way far above that of Pakistan. India aims for 60 billion USD. And Pakistan touches 4-5 Billion.”

Bilal Ahmed, a Software Architect said,

“It is because in Pakistan multinational companies are afraid of investing due to the growing political instability. On the other hand, almost every software market leader has its office in India. We, Pakistanis are far behind in research as well. We are only concerned with the immediate money making things while research is a long term payback and we are neglecting it. India’s education system is focused mainly in what is new and innovative in the Software market and we Pakistanis are still following the same old syllabus. Which is not even practical any more.

But on the other hand, Pakistani Software professionals are better than Indian Software Professionals. I have personally worked with some of the Indians and therefore have an idea. (This should not be taken as true in all the scenarios). Pakistani Professionals are more focused on quality, while Indian’s are more focused on the quantity. When it comes to Ethical issues, we are much better than Indians. (Not all the fingers are equal, so leaving a few). They will easily sell you the ideas of other client and even the whole project with a little makeup.”

Waseem Hassan, a Software Engineer, said that, “Questions arise in our mind that whether the IT entrepreneur, investors, policy makers and also dynamic IT Industry in Pakistan and India are similar or not.

When we compare IT industry, it is clear to us that Pakistan’s Software Industry is relatively small in terms of manpower and employment. One study on this comparison shows the total employment at 60 of the most prominent firms, is around 5000 people. Last year alone, Indian exported over $17 billion worth of IT services to the world.

There are several significant differences which explain why Pakistan’s Software Industry is half the size of India’s Software Industry. First, the degree of concentration in the Pakistani Software Industry is much less than that of India’s. There are no Tatas or Wipros in Pakistan. The ratio of revenues between the most successful and the median firms in Pakistan is around 1:100 and in India it is 1:2000.  Second, Pakistan has seriously suffered (and continues to do so) from a weak human resource, both in terms of quality and quantity of its product. This, to our mind, is the single most important hindrance in the development of Pakistan’s software industry and the key differentiator between where it stands today vs. where India’s software industry stood a decade from now.

As we know we are lacking in IT industry so from my point of view it can be improved. Most importantly government should take interest in it and should draw an elaborate and long term plan. And for most of the organization IT should be on the top of agenda of CEO.  We should deploy IT in core industry to achieve competitiveness and for business promotion. IT should be used for solutions not for record keeping only. Awareness about IT in public sector should be enhanced and public sector spending on IT should be increased.”

But then again, the question arises, how long will it take? Do we have time for implementation of above mentioned options. Such solutions have been given by many, repeatedly. But still we face major problems. The greatest dilemma lies with the fact that the

“Government of Pakistan has failed to appoint a suitable minister for IT and Telecom. IT and Telecom sector has been playing a major role in our countries economy for the past seven years and has contributed over Rs300 billion to the national exchequer from 2005-06 to 2007-08. Various operators have invested over $8.8 billion in telecom infrastructure during the same period. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in telecommunications stood at around $5.6 billion, which on average was over 30 per cent of the total FDI between fiscal year 2005-06 and 2007-08.” The News

Farhan Khalid, a Web Specialist and Software Lead, said,

“A good website developer will get up to Rs. 25k for a beautiful website in Pakistan. The same developer can get up to $2000 dollars from the States! The choice is obvious, go where there’s more money. Organizations that are not computerized are mostly small and medium enterprises. Due to the declining economy these small companies do not have resources to purchase their own Point-of-Sale (POS) systems and ERPs.
The market is huge, there is competition everywhere. Pakistanis face competition from India (one of the biggest outsourcing engines in the world, if not the biggest) and several other countries. The sea is huge and even though we are capable to a considerable extent, there are a few sharks and we can’t always get all them.”

Many strategies have been implemented by the government over and over again, but ‘have we succeeded’? Yes we have (to some extent), but the credit of this success goes directly to the people of Pakistan and to the Pakistanis who are living abroad and providing employment opportunities for the people in Pakistan. With the growing cross-border competition one wonders about the future of Pakistan’s Software Industry.