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SUNDAY, APRIL 07, 2013

STAR CHAT

Passion for Dreams

Entrepreneur Farzan Mitu Talks to Salman Rob

Courtesy: Farzan Mitu

I changed several schools in my life time. I started in a Bengali medium school, then I was moved to an English medium school, finally I passed my O’levels and A’levels from Salvation International School. I did my BBA from NSU with a double major in Marketing and International Business. After that I completed my MBA from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. My major there was Professional Accounting.

I hated school. I am not an early morning person, so every day was a struggle. The best moments of school will have to be the cultural programmes where I performed on stage in several plays and choreographed a fashion show. Another would be the moment I saw ‘him’ for the first time in grade eight. It was love at first sight and I am happily married to him now. In school I think I learnt what I

needed to learn to pass the exams but it was university that actually made me think, question ideas and plan a future. University taught me to think outside the box.

Now I am a lecturer at North South University and have been here since 2010. I started teaching marketing courses at NSU. I love my job there and am a part-time employee because I need time for my share of business. I basically sell cosmetics and skin care products. I import them from the USA and sell them here. I started this online business in 2007 when I was in Australia and decided to continue it in Bangladesh as well. Recently, I went back to Australia to study makeup artistry at Sydney College of Makeup Art and now I am a professional makeup artist as well.

When I am not lecturing or running my business I like to volunteer for ‘Obhoyaronno’ as an animal rights activist. I have a real passion for all animals, big or small and I love working for them. I recently designed and made a wheel chair for a dog with the help of a local mechanic, something I am really proud of.

When I was studying MBA in Australia back in 2007, I never really liked the odd jobs my friends and I had to do. That’s when I started thinking about opening an online business. I used to buy things like clothing, handicrafts and fashion accessories from Bangladesh whenever I came to visit my family during semester breaks and sell those on Australian ebay. I started with goods worth Tk 9000 and within a year I ended up as a Powerseller on ebay, which means I was making more than 3000 USD per month. It gave me the courage to quit my job and become a fulltime seller. After I came back to Bangladesh, I decided to take a chance and started my Facebook page “NV Cosmetics” to sell premium imported cosmetics. My idea was to make cosmetic brands like MAC, Bobby Brown and Estee Lauder easily available to cosmetic lovers in Bangladesh. NV started getting popular within months of opening and was financially success for me. To keep up with demand and on time delivery, I opened up a little display shelf in Archie’s Gallery at BAFWA Shopping Complex and I started delivering my products all over Bangladesh via post.

For the young readers, never stop dreaming. Never be scared to dream big. Everything I am today was my dream when I was eating ‘fuchka’ at the NSU canteen. Have confidence in yourself, work hard and never compromise your dream for anything.