Entrepreneurs (99)
Fail. Learn. Succeed. Lesson From BlaBlaCar’s Success Story to Build a Million Dollar Ride Sharing App Startup
30 Mar 2019 Written by Admin AdminHave heard of BlaBlaCar?
It’s a French ridesharing app startup, born in 2006 that turned into a million euro company.
Though it was not an overnight success. BlaBlaCar founders had to go through many critical crossroads to find success.
Today, the company has basically created a community where it pairs people travelling between cities and drivers with empty seats in their cars. According to the latest news from TechCrunch, the French startup, BlaBlaCar, is announcing its plans to acquire Ouibus, the bus division of France’s national railway company SNCF. For the very first time, the company is moving to carpool and plans to provide both long-distance carpooling rides and bus rides.
BlaBlaCar’s Success Story
BlaBlaCar was born from a personal need.
During the Christmas time in 2003, Frederic Mazzella, co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar, committed to going home for Christmas. But, since he was super busy with his work at Kabira Technologies, he had left his travel plan to last minute.
With the French trains fully booked in the holiday seasons, and only a couple of days to go until the holiday season arrives, he started to worry.
He didn’t have a car, so the options for getting from Paris to his family home, which was 420 kilometres away, were limited. However, her sister Lucie agreed to take a detour to pick him up.
But during the ride, something happened. An idea clicked!
While they were heading down the A10, he looked around and observed that most of the cars had no passengers. He thought, “If I put all those cars with empty seats in a search engine so that people can search the available seats in cars, just like they do when booking the train.”
After reaching, he just couldn’t get the idea out of his head for the first few nights. “I remember waking up and saying, this is not possible, it must exist. But then, he was like, ‘If this has existed, there is no way I couldn’t know of it because I travel a lot.” he says.
Frederic knew that if there were such a thing as online ride sharing service, it would be massive. So, as soon as he returned, he did his research. He found couple of sites such as Craigslist, but it was not what he had imagined. So, he finally contacted a friend, shared his idea, and they got to coding.
Today, 12 years later, Frederic has successfully established his successful ride hailing app startup – BlaBlaCar.
His best ride sharing app startup now counts more than 10 million users in 14 countries. In fact, BlaBlaCar, in June 2014, raised $100 million fundings from blue-chip venture-capital firms including Index, ISAI, and Accel to fuel its growth, and the company now employs 230+ employees all around the globe.
Recently, the company has acquired a Russian Internet giant Mail.Ru’s relatively recent rival offering, BeepCar, in order to develop carpooling services in Russia and address growing Russian demand for a convenient and reliable long-distance mobility solution.
Nicolas Brusson, COO and co-founder of BlaBlaCar, who joined in 2011 after working behind-the-scenes for years says, “What we’re doing is tapping into empty seats in cars, and there maybe 10x times more empty seats in cars travelling between Paris and Brussels than the seats in buses or trains.”
But, there is still an important question that needed to be answered.
How many people are going to adapt this new way of travel?
A lot.
There are already a lot of people who’ve adapted their service.
In fact, BlaBlaCar membership has increased from 6 million in April 2014 to more than 10 million.
Today, traveling in a BlaBlaCar from Paris to Brussels would cost €20, where the train costs €80. Or, if you’re planning a long drive somewhere, you can post your trip details and cost per seat. Though, you won’t make any profit (as it’s against the rules), but taking passengers can offset costs for drivers.
In the 10+ years of journey, BlaBlaCar changed their business model few times to survive.
In the beginning, they deployed a Premium Model, where the overall service remained free yet users had to sign up for additional services. By paying a monthly or annual subscription fees, users can get the benefit of having their posts ranked first in search engine.
However, they soon realized that it was unfair for someone to be at top because they had paid, nor it was financially viable for long run.
After that, they also implemented a Monthly Plan with a flat fee, but it was also discarded quickly. So, like many internet players, BlaBlaCar also tested the advertising model.
But, with trust being fundamental to BlaBlaCar, few concerns were raised that users’ personal data may be passed on to affiliates for advertising purpose so that decision was also taken out.
Then, the Phone Bridge Model came in.
In this model, users could choose to hide their contact numbers while remaining reachable via a pay telephone bridge. But again, with users paying for phone-bridge connection, revenue would also split between the operator and the platform. In addition, it wasn’t scalable globally due to various telephone payment methods being in place across different countries.
Despite all these, BlaBlaCar didn’t gave up.
Frederic once asked his MBA professor at INSEAD business school whether it was possible to have a business model where it’s possible to provide a carpooling app service for free.
“You need a business model or you’ll die!”
This was the response he got.
However, it was the motivation that was needed to explore other options and to begin taking risks.
Creating a business model which would allow a sustainable economic path along with creating value for its customers of the community ended up taking 5 years.
In this five years, the team opened up to failures, tested six different business models, and gained invaluable learnings from each.
Back in 2007, after one year when the company was born, there were many requests from external companies around France interested in integrating a ride sharing application platform in their corporate intranet.
These companies wanted to provide their employees a platform to facilitate travel back home and from home to work.
Despite being this off-track from the main idea of long-distance ride hailing service, BlaBlaCar realized that companies were willing to adopt this kind of business-to-business ride sharing service and pay for it too.
Carrefour, IKEA, and many hospitals were among the first buyers of BlaBlaCar, and additional 200 more companies signed up for it over the years.
Though, a source of revenue of BlaBlaCar until 2011 were being spent on delivering these multiple customized platforms to various companies, and there was no scalable solution as every customer had different requirements.
So, soon enough, they realized that this business-to-business model would not work out in long run and phased it out in 2012.
Now, with today’s business model, they successfully established a mutual commitment between passenger and driver. And, as a result, the inefficiencies faced in all previous models are erased, and number of cancellations were reduced from 35% to less than 3%.
Not only this new business model is transparent and fair, but it’s also scalable that brought growth, reliability and rolled out internationally.
Fail. Learn. Succeed.
Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
While it’s true, but its opposite is encouraged at BlaBlaCar.
According to them, “Fail. Learn. Succeed.” is what drives innovation.
Everyday the BlaBlaCar team continuously evolves the product through iterative processes.
Everyday, everyone at BlaBlaCar are not shy about their failures, but they rather embrace another core values of BlaBlaCar.
By analyzing honestly why something failed, and taking time to investigate what actually went wrong, everyone gets to the root of the problem, learns from it and shares it with others so that they don’t repeat the same mistake.
Similarly, if you ever plan to build ride sharing app, this mindset is what you should have to have.
Why?
Well, first of all, it’s not necessary that the idea you’ve will succeed.
BlaBlaCar succeeded because they iterated until they got it right.
Moreover, even if you don’t have a business model in mind and just want to create a ride sharing app like Uber or BlaBlaCar, it’s still possible to make a business out of it.
Research about your top competitors, from their ideas to where they provide their services, you need to get all information. Then, find out whether they’ve any negative points or suggestions given by their users.
If so, understand the suggestions, and think about how you can solve it and provide it smoothly. However, remember that when it comes to developing your ride sharing app, compromising on its quality can lead to failure for sure.
If you don’t have a technical background, leave it to the experts. Find a top mobile app development company and consult with them. Share them your idea and ask the necessary questions.
What would be the cost for building a ride sharing app like BlaBlaCar?
How much time it takes to build the MVP?
And so on.
Have a clear ride sharing app development plan, talk to your hired team and make sure they as well you test your app completely before the launch.
Imagine you’ve downloaded a taxi app that provides cheaper service than Uber or any other similar platform and booked a taxi from it to get to a place. You waited 30 minutes but no car arrived. The driver didn’t get your request due to technical problems.
How would you feel here as a customer?
Will you ever use the app again?
Guess not, right?
Similarly, ensure that you hire app development company that has tested your app multiple times. A good mobile app development company always takes care of it.
Moreover, you should have an experience of your app prior of how the users will see your app. It needs to be efficient, easy to use, and should deliver high performance. In fact, testing it before the launch will allow you to iron out minor bugs before it reaches to the mass market.
Lastly, remember that there is no sure shot success pill to anything, but giving your idea a go and learning from failures could lead you to establishing a successful product-based ride sharing app business.
source: spaceotechnologies
6 SEO Marketing Trends in 2019 That Entrepreneurs Should Know About
30 Mar 2019 Written by Admin AdminSearch engine algorithms are ever changing, which means that anyone with a website needs to stay up to date on today’s SEO marketing trends. Not only is new technology changing the way humans search, but search engines crawlers are using different criteria to rank your website.
Implementing these SEO marketing trends will help any business stay competitive in 2019.
1. Consider search engines other than Google.
While Google is inarguably still king of search, don’t forget about optimizing your content for Apple and Amazon’s search engines.
Amazon is the most valuable public company on the planet. This means that anyone with a product to sell should conduct Amazon keyword research.
Similarly, Apple’s App Store is increasingly important for driving traffic. Today, over 60 percent of online traffic comes from mobile. But 90 percent of the time people spend browsing on their phones occurs on apps. The future of mobile search could be the App store, not Google.
From a business’ perspective, the increasing importance of the App store means understanding its unique organic search algorithms. These value factors like app click-through rate, engagement and whether keywords match search queries.
2. Quality content is worth more than quantity.
One of the most important Google search algorithm updates in 2018 shifted the search engine’s attention towards content quality. This trend will persist in 2019.
Though backlinks remain important, Google is getting more sophisticated when it comes to determining how good your website content is. Of course, the amount of content you produce is still important. But one of the most significant SEO marketing trends of 2019 is prioritizing quality more than ever before.
Specifically, this means writing long-form content and not misleading search engines or the consumer. In 2019, entrepreneurs should place special attention to on-page SEO. Increasingly sophisticated crawlers are paying special attention to user-friendly URLs, optimizing images, and internal structure and linking.
3. Website speed affects UX and rankings.
Increasing website speed is one of the most important SEO marketing trends in 2019. Luckily, with all the SEO tools available on the market, it’s easy to check just how fast your website is.
Speed is more important than ever thanks to Google’s mobile-first index policy. Of course, website speed has always been an important aspect of user experience. Today, it’s important for Google crawlers, too. Ideally, a website should take less than a second to load, which can be hard to accomplish without the assistance of a qualified SEO firm.
And the faster your website is, the higher Google will rank it.
4. Voice search is no longer a novelty.
With the rise of technology like Siri, Google Home and Alexa, voice search already represents 20 percent of total mobile search. It’s predicted to reach 50 percent by 2020.
In other words, integrating voice-search optimized keywords is among the leading SEO marketing trends of this year. Voice search keywords are often shorter, more colloquial, and in the form of commands or questions.
5. Don’t dismiss linkless mentions.
As its name would suggest, a linkless mention is when your brand is referenced without a link being attached.
While backlinks are still an important factor used by search engines to determine content quality, linkless mentions are given more weight than ever before. This is partially due to the perception is that linkless mentions are more genuine, unlike black hat SEO techniques like paid links. Social media mentions are also playing an increasingly important role in evaluating website quality.
In a Google patent, the company even classifies “implied links” as a subset of a type of links.
6. Structured data is more important than ever.
Structured data is an overarching term for organizing website data. For example, information that you see included along with a website's meta description is structured data. The knowledge graph that appears on the right-hand side of Google is another type.
Its purpose is to make it easier and faster for search engines to crawl your website.
So whether you’re including online reviews or more detail about your content, structured data is one of the top SEO marketing trends to help Google classify your information in 2019.
7. SEO marketing trends for Google and beyond.
Virtually every business in the world is competing for Google rankings. On top of that, Google regularly changes its algorithms and the technology we favor for search will continue to evolve.
The biggest takeaway for 2019 is that mobile is more important than ever. This has a ripple effect: Entrepreneurs must optimize their content for Apple’s algorithms too, as well as follow Google’s mobile updates that prioritize speed and structured data.
Not only that, but other tech giants like Amazon and devices that include voice search are changing what ‘optimization’ means. But above all, a website’s overarching goal should always be to appeal to its audience. The better your content is, the higher Google will rank it.
source: Entrepreneur
Une montre haut de gamme ornée de la Kaaba en 3D, l’œuvre de Christophe Claret, passionné d’horlogerie et de magie
26 Mar 2019 Written by Admin SAE
| Né en 1962 à Lyon, Christophe Claret est admis à l'Ecole d'Horlogerie de Genève en 1978, puis formé auprès du cabinotier Roger Dubuis, où il ouvre son premier atelier de restauration de pièces anciennes. Son diplôme d'horloger en poche, il fonde la Manufacture Claret en 1989, qui devient bientôt une référence dans le domaine des calibres de grandes complications ; puis lance sa propre marque en 2009 une maison indépendante, qui conçoit, développe et produit l’entier de ses mouvements et boîtes elle-même, et fait partie du cercle très fermé des maisons de Haute Horlogerie. Mais c’est une montre particulière qui a attiré notre attention, la Mecca, dont le cadran révèle une micro-gravure de la Kaaba, mise en valeur grâce à un mirascope, une première au niveau technologique. |
Cette année, « Christophe Claret » fête les 30 ans de sa manufacture et les 10 ans de sa marque. Nous le rencontrons à cette occasion, dans la ville du Locle, canton de Neuchâtel, qui constitue, avec la vallée de Joux, le creuset des marques horlogères les plus connues du globe, avec une main d’œuvre parmi les plus qualifiées et expérimentées dans ce domaine.
Pourquoi la Suisse est-elle si connue pour l’horlogerie ?
L’histoire de l’industrie des montres en Suisse remonte au dix-septième siècle, sous Louis VI, à l’époque où les Huguenots[1] ont été obligés de fuir les pays catholiques (seconde moitié du XVIe siècle). Ainsi la Suisse a-t-elle accueilli nombre des meilleurs ouvriers et industriels de l’horlogerie européenne, qui ont constitué le noyau de l’industrie horlogère du pays. Aujourd’hui, même les marques françaises s’installent en Suisse, car c’est là que se trouve la main d’œuvre qualifiée, les machines adéquates, les sous-traitants, etc.
Comment avez-vous créé votre entreprise ?
J’ai d’abord travaillé comme sous-traitant pour d’autres marques qui n’ont pas la capacité de fabriquer toutes les pièces d’une montre, qui sont nombreuses. Très peu de marques réalisent l’intégralité d’une montre en réalité. Puis, lors de crise financière de 2008 et de la baisse des commandes qui ont suivi, j’ai décidé de lancer ma propre marque, ce qui m’a permis de diversifier mes collections. J’ai alors commencé à réaliser des mouvements, et aujourd’hui, nous sommes en mesure de fabriquer nous-mêmes la quasi-totalité d’une montre (85%), en achetant uniquement certains éléments comme le cadran ou le bracelet. En 10 ans, nous avons ainsi réalisé 14 modèles différents. Nous travaillons principalement pour notre propre marque, mais nous avons également une dizaine de clients pour lesquels nous assurons des services de sous-traitance.
Quelle est l’origine du modèle « Mecca », orné du symbole de l’Islam ?
Nous avons imaginé cette montre car aucun modèle haut de gamme ne représentait encore la religion musulmane. Pour réaliser le prototype, je me suis rapproché d’un imam à Zurich, qui m’a aidé à identifier et retranscrire certains éléments de la religion musulmane, au-delà du simple ajout de chiffres en arabe. D’où l’idée d’intégrer la Kaaba au centre de la montre, un élément hautement symbolique de la religion musulmane. Le mirascope, qui permet de visualiser en 3D l’objet qui est à l’intérieur de la montre, offre une dimension mystique parfaitement en adéquation avec ce symbole. L’effet d’optique rend la Kaaba très réaliste, elle semble sortir de la montre, une proposition unique qui n’avait jamais été réalisée jusque-là. Cette particularité a nécessité un système spécifique pour l’affichage des heures, avec des aiguilles en forme de cloche pour indiquer l’heure. Deux autres éléments sont déterminants : d’abord le nombre de série limitée « 63 », qui correspond à l’âge du prophète au moment de son décès, et qui est inscrit en titane naturel ou PVD puisque l’or est interdit aux hommes selon l’Islam ; puis l’incrustation de deux diamants, l’un noir et l’autre blanc, qui représentent la « Pierre Noire », blanche à l’origine mais ternie ensuite par les péchés des pèlerins. À l’arrière de la montre, un troisième élément illustre encore l’Islam, avec un rotor orné d’une carte du monde et des points blancs personnalisant les Musulmans qui tournent autour de la Kaaba, considérée comme le centre de monde.
Qui sont vos clients ? Exportez-vous dans le monde Arabe ?
Nos clients sont en majorité des hommes passionnés par l’horlogerie et l’automobile, d’un milieu aisé. Les montres femmes ne représentent que 15% de notre chiffre d’affaires. Nos marchés les plus importants pour les montres Claret sont l’Asie, la Chine continentale (Hong Kong, Singapour, Taiwan), les Etats-Unis, le Mexique et l’Europe, notamment la France et la Suisse. Nous n’exportons pas énormément au Moyen-Orient et, étonnamment, la montre Mecca se vend aux Etats-Unis.
Quel est le risque d’imitation et de concurrence pour ce nouveau produit ?
Lorsque je développe une nouvelle montre, je le fais par passion et non sur la base d’une étude de marché. Evidemment, je fais tout pour gérer l’entreprise de manière intelligente, selon les règles du marché. Mais il faut reconnaitre que seules les grandes entreprises réalisent d’importants profits. C’est plus difficile pour les marques indépendantes. Nous créons chaque année de nouveaux modèles, que ce soit pour notre propre marque ou pour des tiers. Et il est vrai que cela peut inspirer d’autres marques, qui suivent la tendance. Ce phénomène existe depuis toujours. Le problème est que nous pouvons protéger un mécanisme, mais pas une idée, et dans l’horlogerie même lorsque vous protégez un mécanisme ou un système, d’autres fabricants parviennent au même résultat en utilisant un autre système. Je dirais néanmoins qu’il est toujours avantageux d’être le créateur d’un modèle original, même lorsqu’il est ensuite copié.
Que pensez-vous de la concurrence chinoise, notamment sachant que leur business model encourage la réplication de produits novateurs ?
Prenons l’énergie photovoltaïque : ce ne sont pas les inventeurs de la photovoltaïque qui ont le mieux commercialisé cette technologie, mais plutôt les chinois, qui le fournissent dans le monde entier à des prix très compétitifs. Il en va de même pour les téléphones mobiles. Certes Steve Jobs a inventé l’IPhone, mais aujourd’hui, c’est le téléphone le plus copié au monde, Samsung en tête en termes de nombre d’utilisateurs, suivi de Huawei puis IPhone.
Par ailleurs, nous ne sommes pas touchés par la contrefaçon. Pour reconnaitre une montre contrefaite, il faut regarder le mouvement, qui est très rarement imité. Normalement, les entreprises de contrefaçon copient le cadre extérieur et la boite, mais jamais les éléments de qualité que nous offrons à l’intérieur d’une montre. Si la montre est retournée, nous pouvons facilement établir s’il s’agit ou non d’un mouvement Rolex ou Piaget par exemple, et si nous sommes familiers avec une marque, nous pouvons même distinguer son origine par le bruit du moteur.
Qu’est-ce que vous pensez des montres connectées à écran tactile ?
Dans la haute horlogerie, il y a peu de compétition, mais si nous parlons de l’horlogerie de manière générale, c’est autre chose ! Nous travaillons pour 65 marques horlogères Suisses. En ce qui concerne les montres connectées, nous ne sommes pas concernés, puisque nos clients sont des collectionneurs passionnés par la mécanique. Peut-être achètent-ils une montre Apple parallèlement, mais ils continueront d’acheter les montres que nous fabriquons par ce qu’ils sont passionnés par la haute horlogerie.
Certains économistes parlent d’une crise économique à venir, qu’en pensez-vous ?
La crise apporte aussi des opportunités. Nicola Hayek a su investir quand plus personne ne croyait en l’horlogerie lors de la crise des années quatre-vingt. Il a ainsi sauvé beaucoup d’entreprises horlogères, notamment des entreprises de mouvements. Pendant la dernière crise, j’ai pu remarquer une perte d’activité, raison pour laquelle j’ai lancé ma propre maque pour diversifier mes montres, car j’étais convaincu que sous ma marque je pourrai vendre des montres, et pas seulement des mouvements, ce qui constitue aujourd’hui 60% de nos activités. Notre diversification se trouve dans la technique, l’innovation, l’originalité, la rareté, la qualité et la complexité. Il faut savoir que dans la haute horlogerie, il y a une histoire derrière chaque montre. Par exemple la montre Poker est la seule au monde qui permet de jouer au Poker Texas Holdem’ à trois joueurs plus la banque, avec presque 100 mille combinaisons de jeux.
Comment évaluez-vous votre expérience entrepreneuriale ?
Je suis plutôt le style de Steve Jobs que Bill Gates. Steve était un visionnaire et un créateur et personnellement, je pense comme lui, j’aime être créateur et innovant, j’aime amener de nouveauté dans l’horlogerie. Cependant, je suis passionné par d’autres choses comme l’aérospatial, l’automobile, la magie et l’Antiquité. Dans l’horlogerie, il y a une part de magie. Il y en a dans la Mecca, et encore plus dans le modèle Marguerite. J’ai travaillé avec des magiciens pour cela, et appris certaines astuces. La magie se trouve dans la connaissance, car en réalité les magiciens travaillent sur la base d’astuces que 99% des gens ne connaissent pas.
Dans l’horlogerie, nous sommes confrontés à des défis techniques, donc il s’agit de trouver des solutions innovantes. Mais le défi est également commercial, car pour faire adopter un nouveau produit, il faut convaincre à la fois les journalistes, les détaillants, les intermédiaires et finalement les clients eux-mêmes, ce qui constitue de multiples challenges. Quelque part, c’est de la magie de réaliser un nouveau concept. Nous créons des mécanismes que les clients ont du mal à comprendre techniquement, et les collectionneurs apprécient particulièrement la complexité. Comme pour un magicien, qui est d’autant plus apprécié par les spectateurs lorsqu’ils ne comprennent pas comment il peut réaliser ses tours.
[1] Huguenots : protestants du Royaume de France et de Navarre qui ont affronté les catholiques pendant les guerres de Religion (seconde moitié du XVIe siècle). De nombreux huguenots ont été obligés de fuir (on compte plus de 200 000 exilés) dans des pays protestants plus hospitaliers, comme l’Angleterre, Hollande, Suisse, États-Unis, Afrique du Sud, etc.
Abdallah Chatila, un entrepreneur genevois originaire du pays du cèdre à qui tout réussit
11 Mar 2019 Written by Admin SAE|
Né en 1974 à Beyrouth, Abdallah Chatila fuit la guerre civile avec sa famille à l’âge de 2 ans. Après l'Italie et la France, la famille s'installe en Suisse en 1988. Diplômé en gemmologie, Abdallah Chatila rejoint en 1995 l'entreprise familiale de haute joaillerie à Genève. En 2006, il publie « The Diamond Niche », devenu un ouvrage de référence dans le domaine et deux ans plus tard, crée le premier fonds d'investissement en diamants. Dès 2006, il entame une activité de promoteur immobilier et devient rapidement un acteur incontournable dans le canton de Genève. Il est aujourd'hui président et unique actionnaire de m3 Real Estate, une régie créée en 1950 et qu'il a contribué à positionner comme «banquier privé de l’immobilier». Il réalise ainsi des investissements dans les secteurs de l'immobilier résidentiel et commercial, de la restauration et, plus récemment, de l'hôtellerie. Avec la société Rachaya Holding qu'il fonde en 2007, Abdallah Chatila diversifie ses activités : industrie du diamant, art contemporain, santé, assurances ou nouvelles technologies. Il s'est même lancé depuis dans le négoce de caviar chinois. Gemmologue, entrepreneur, investisseur mais également philanthrope, Abdallah Chatila crée en 2011 la fondation Sesam. Il soutient ainsi des projets éducatifs et socioculturels, à Genève pour l'essentiel mais également au Liban. Avec une fortune estimée en 2018 par le magazine Bilan à plus de 200 millions de CHF, Abdallah Chatila compte parmi les 300 plus riches de Suisse. |
Par une rare journée ensoleillée de l'hiver genevois, nous rencontrons Abdallah Chatila au siège de son groupe immobilier, m3 Real Estate, dont les locaux dévoilent sa passion pour l’art. Entrepreneur à succès et touche-à-tout, il nous reçoit en homme simple, vêtu d'un jeans et d'un T-Shirt décoré d'un smiley.
When Najla Al Otaibi started Jars To Go she did it out of frustration. If you are a single working mum living in Saudi Arabia, you don’t have a lot of options for leading a healthy lifestyle. Juggling between work and looking after her 6-year old daughter, the business development manager from Riyadh knew something was wrong when her productivity at work dropped and she was struggling to stay focused. The lack of restaurants around the workplace offering healthy and balanced meals is a challenge that many employees face, but Najla was eager to solve her problem and that of hundreds of other employees in her hometown.
“I’ve always been health-conscious from a young age. Between my work and gym, since I was an adult I would eat right,” she tells us in a phone interview from her office in Riyadh. “The pain started when I came back from the United States where I did my Master’s degree in Hospitality Management. I was struggling with the options on the market. I had tried them all – Diet Center, Diet World, Diet Watchers – but their food is far from tasty, prepackaged, frozen or microwaved which I’m totally against.”
Little choice did Najla have but to prepare her own meals and take them to work. Stored in large jars and stacked up in colorful layers, her lunch was always healthy in bright fluorescent colors full of nutritious ingredients and rich in taste. “My colleagues at work would ask me – What are these? And where do you get them from?” Najla’s meals were starting to get noticed.
All the compliments she received made her realize one day that she could turn it into her business. She created her own website and social media profile and started sending complimentary meal jars to everyone she knew. Says 35-year-old entrepreneur, “For about a month it was all about: Hey, we are here. If you like our food, contact us.”
Najla noticed her word-of-mouth strategy totally paid off when she started to receive a growing number of orders for home deliveries. However, waking up at 3am in the morning to prepare the food, getting ready for work, dropping her daughter off at school and finally delivering the meals all by herself, only to go to work and start her 8-hour shift was a challenge like no other. It was her passion for healthy eating that kept her going.
Yet, it wasn’t until she found herself with an order of 3,000 school meals a day that she quit her well-paying job at Saudi Arabia’s semi-government sector and officially founded Jars To Go. “I struggled with the food that my daughter eats at school. I would make a healthy meal at home and when she goes to school she eats something completely different, so I went and offered to help by providing them with healthy food. They liked the idea and we signed a contract.”
Next came a commercial kitchen and hiring full-time employees to cater to her rapidly growing number of subscribers. Shortly after, the size of orders jumped up 15-fold to 60,000 meals a month from around 4,000 meals in 2016. Jars to Go grew from a small 2-person project to a successful start-up with over 25 employees and top investors from the food industry in less than 10 months. It’s now catering to three schools and delivering meals to individuals and companies through delivery apps and an online off the shelf service.
As a small people-focused business, JarsToGo nurtured good customer intimacy. Najla, who’s an artist by education, says it is the little things that count, like sending thoughtful messages on someone’s birthday, wishing them a speedy recovery if they were sick or sending them a small gift at the end of each subscription. “One time I read ‘1,000 True Fans’ by Harvard Business Review. I absolutely loved it and applied it to my business. It’s better to focus on 1,000 customers than 1 million because this 1,000 will bring you the customers you need and that’s what I did,” she says.
Despite possible assumptions that her food would appeal most to the expat population in the kingdom, Najla estimates that around 98% of her customers are Saudi Arabian nationals, most of whom are female. Greater awareness about food-related diseases is changing consumers’ habits, bringing in a shift in attitude when it comes to having a healthy diet. And yet, the wide-spread perception in the Arab world, says Najla, is that healthy food doesn’t taste good and feels like a punishment. Today she is working hard to change that one jar at a time.
“I love to be creative with my food. I make sure that my food is filling, healthy and tasty. There is a reason why I use the 16-ounce jars – not the bigger, not the smaller. The meal is just the right amount of filling and not to a point when you can’t move out of your seat so you can both get your nutrition and stay productive at work”
The key message that Najla wants to instill in her customers’ minds is that healthy eating is not for a day, it’s a lifestyle and a way of life. To help change people’s mindset, she created a non-profit group called “The Noon Community”, where she collaborates with different organizations, trainers and guest speakers to provide social meetings, knowledge-sharing and workshops all aimed at spreading awareness about leading a healthy lifestyle and a balanced, happy life.
A rising interest is spreading across Saudi Arabia particularly among female enterprises who are receiving growing support from government and their families to start their own business. It’s part of the social and economic change that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is hoping to create with his new vision for the kingdom. The government is also working hard to stimulate local businesses and small and medium enterprises. As part of her work with the Ministry of Education to supply more schools with healthy meals, Najla was introduced to fellow female businesswomen working in the F&B sector. She observed they lack any business knowhow and, as a certified trainer, offered to train them.
While funding for new start-ups is largely available, she says, industry knowhow is more difficult to come by – a problem she experienced first hand when opening her commercial kitchen. “My problem wasn’t the funds – I was growing organically so I didn’t need a lot of investment and I had the financial means to support my business. The issue that I had was knowhow. I went into a field I knew nothing about. I didn’t know how to get the suppliers, what kind of packaging I needed to use, how to run a commercial kitchen, etc. It was a whole new world to me.” Najla says she would have benefited best from getting the knowhow straight from people in the business. Perhaps more robust mentorship and support programs need to be put in place to encourage others to follow in her footsteps. Especially when it comes to female entrepreneurs, she says a lot of work still needs to be done.
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East from Riyadh, some 620 miles across the Saudi Arabian border, Dana Ashkar, CEO and Founder of CAHO Chocolate, is expanding her retail outlets for vegan chocolate across Dubai and planning to enter her product into global duty-free facilities around the world and international retail groups. It’s a big ambition for a business that opened as a small start-up just over a year ago.
“The brand’s vision is global. In the next two to three years, we are expanding into neighboring countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain,” says Dana. She adds: “Being online and able to deliver is a blessing. We are expanding through better logistics and delivery tools. We are also expanding our retail reach to Palm Jumeirah – Nakheel Mall by September 2019 and of course we will have a new manufacturing /retail outlet soon in Dubai and this will be announced soon.”
A family history of diabetes invoked the Lebanese born entrepreneur to create healthy versions of desserts and chocolates with her mother in the household kitchen. Alongside this, she started paying more attention to the ingredients used in the commercially-available chocolates. These were high in sugars, bad fats and preservatives, unsuitable for those with diabetes. This acquired knowledge paved the way to the decision of converting her love and passion to eat healthy into full time work.
Love for the people around her, passion to create chocolates in a healthy way and a greater purpose to serve the community led to the opening of the first CAHO chocolatier in December 2017. The idea is to redefine the chocolate industry by creating chocolates suitable for all; with wide options of sugar-free, dairy-free and gluten-free chocolates well suited for vegans, diabetics and those with other dietary needs.
“The increasing demand for healthier chocolate is evidence of a profound challenge the chocolate industry faces locally and globally. Diabetes and obesity levels – and government concern about them – are on the rise. Health is a challenge CAHO cannot afford to ignore, but rather it lays the foundations of our brand,” Dana explains.
“The other transformational gap the industry faces is sustainability. In an age where consumers are much more environmentally conscious, we realize the need to go beyond initiatives. We produce chocolates free of palm oil, preservatives and artificial ingredients,” she adds.
However, she admits her greatest challenge was financing. “The brand, the retail shop, its ecommerce website, drivers, vehicles and the whole business launched at one time. It was a combination of personal investment and savings. Fortunately, things changed after we opened and the business transformed, Dana says.
“Recently the brand and business model attracted new investors, as they saw our commitment, our success and our drive – and wanted to be part of the CAHO story,” she adds.
Dana describes CAHO Chocolate as an innovative brand and first online chocolatier with practically no competitors on the market. She says the business grew beyond expectations since inception and she’s now aiming to adopt cutting-edge technology to transform the e-commerce customer experience.
“We haven’t been able to determine our customers demographics yet, and don’t think it is ever measurable because our customers are from different ethnicity, living all over UAE, from ages 21 – 65. Women were our main clients until the last quarter of 2018 when we started receiving corporate orders and online purchases from men sending chocolate gifts as well as personal gifts; it takes one bite to get hooked,” says Dana.
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- Even if you've invested 10 or 20 years in your current profession, you can still successfully pivot to become an entrepreneur.
- Starting a business is like having a baby—there never really is a “right” time.
You haven’t missed the boat
Many people think that entrepreneurship is a young person’s game. This assumption is probably because when people think of successful entrepreneurs, the ones that immediately come to mind are college dropouts like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg and Michael Dell. However, college dropout entrepreneurs are the exception, and there is data to back it up. A study by the Kauffman Foundation led by Syracuse University professor Carl Schramm revealed that the average entrepreneur was 39 when he or she started a company. Not only that, Schramm said that “Americans who are 35 or older are 50% more likely to start a business than are their younger counterparts”. Also, recent research led by Javier Miranda of the U.S. Census Bureau and Pierre Azoulay of MIT indicated that for the top 0.1% of fastest growing new businesses in the U.S., the average age of the founder in the business’ first year was 45. So, in a nutshell, it’s never too late to become an entrepreneur. In fact, it could be an advantage to start a business mid-career.
Mid-career entrepreneurs are more successful
Starting a business mid-career could be an advantage for many reasons. The Kauffman Foundation study found that entrepreneurs starting businesses mid-career were five times more likely to enjoy success five years later than entrepreneurs starting businesses right out of college. This is because management experience is great training to become an entrepreneur. Once you’re in your 30s or beyond, you’ve acquired strong skills, contacts and industry-specific knowledge that you can apply to a new business. You are more likely to be financially stable so that you can potentially self-fund your new company, allowing you to incur minimal debt and have greater stability. Mid-career entrepreneurs are also more successful than younger founders because it takes time to get to know yourself. Throughout your career, you learn what you like and don’t like with each position. By the time you launch your business, you have a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses as well as what you need to feel fulfilled as a human being.
Noteworthy mid-career entrepreneurs
Even if you've invested 10 or 20 years in your current profession, you can still successfully pivot to become an entrepreneur. Here are some examples of people who famously shifted careers later in life:
- Vera Wang was an editor at Vogue for 17 years before she became a famous fashion designer at the age of 40.
- Jeff Bezos had a successful career in computer science on Wall Street and took on top roles at numerous financial firms before launching Amazon at the age of 31.
- Ray Kroc spent his career as a milkshake-device salesman before buying McDonald's at the age of 52.
- Bernard Marcus was fired from hardware store Handy Dan at the age of 48 along with his coworker Arthur Blank. The duo later started a rival retailer, Home Depot.
There is never a right time
Starting a business is like having a baby—there never really is a “right” time. It has nothing to do with how old you are, and most likely you will never feel completely ready. The biggest key to get started is to confront the initial fear associated with transitioning from a corporate career to entrepreneurship. Most people today can expect to change careers three to seven times during their working lives. Being in your 30s, 40s or beyond can be a great time to start a business, especially if you’ve planned ahead financially and have a solid support system around you. So, if you are considering becoming a mid-career entrepreneur, it’s never too late. As C.S. Lewis once said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” Dream big, plan well and great things will happen.
Caroline is a business & life coach who enjoys helping people escape their 9-5 jobs so.
Source: Forbes
Being a business owner doesn’t necessarily mean being an entrepreneur. If that was the case we wouldn’t need a new and such a complicated word. If you Google “entrepreneur” it will tell you that an entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. However, economists and some of the most successful entrepreneurs would disagree. According to economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950), entrepreneurs are not necessarily motivated by profit but regard it as a standard for measuring achievement or success. Peter Drucker who is well known as the father of modern management enriches the definition by emphasizing “change” and “opportunity”. He defines the entrepreneur as “someone who always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”
The word entrepreneur itself originates from the French word “entreprendre” meaning “to undertake”.
Having met thousands of entrepreneurs from many different countries and cultures and being one myself I came up with the Entrepreneurship Mix 8P’s. And if the word itself seemed complicated back then when I was studying the course “Entrepreneurship” for my exams, today I can say that being an entrepreneur is way more complicated than that.
So here are the eight P’s that I believe set successful entrepreneurs apart. The magic is formed by the intersection of most or even better all of the traits so the order is irrelevant.
- Passion
Passion is the key source of energy, motivation and hard work. It is the driving force for every entrepreneur. It is what fuels the moving-mountains attitude and belief that anything can be done. It is what defines the famous “WHY” of the Golden Circle of Simon Sinek. If you are passionate about something you thrive to succeed, you love what you do so much that you want to do more of it. And the more of it you do the greater the chances for succeeding, thus getting better than the rest in your area. In his book Talk Like Ted, Carmine Gallo states that passion is the key to mastering a skill. After analyzing hundreds of great speakers and presenters he claims that passion is the one thing in common for all. To use his phrase, which I love, I believe that successful entrepreneurs know “what makes their heart sing”
- Perception
The story of Bata is the ideal example of this key trait. Bata shops can be found all over Africa, even in its most remote parts. The story behind is that by the end of the 19th century, Africa was opening up its market. Many shoe manufacturers sent their representatives to Africa to see if there was any business opportunity in this emerging market. The majority of them returned home, saying, “Nobody in Africa wears shoes. So, there isn’t any market for our shoes there.” All except for the Bata sales team who reported enthusiastically, “Nobody in Africa wears shoes! So, there’s an enormous market for our shoes in Africa!” The market conditions were the same for everyone and yet it was a matter of perception of the opportunity.
It was the same for me when I was launching the first deal platform in Macedonia at a time when less than 1% of the population was shopping online and e-commerce barely existed (no legal framework, lack of trust, a small share of people with payment cards etc.) Most of my friends with whom I shared the idea though that the market is not ready and the timing is not right and yet my company (Grouper.mk) became a success shortly after launching and today is known as the game-changer of e-commerce in Macedonia.
- Potential
Research shows that the brain capacity of an average person is far greater than its usage. The most successful entrepreneurs are willing to sacrifice hours of sleep and skip social activities with friends in order to invest in their potential. They don’t waste countless hours scrolling on social media or gossip, they feed their brain with quality content, they surround themselves with successful people. They are always curious about new things. And while there are differences in the potential that each of us possesses the good news is that our brains can be trained.
But before this kind of “on purpose” training happens, it is worth mentioning that it all begins with our parents. First with their DNA (which is not in their control) and second with their home growing and teaching (for which they are fully responsible). According to one study by Rauch Foundation 85% of the brain develops until the age of 5. Therefore the environment of a child’s earliest years can have effects that last a lifetime. Therefore governments and entrepreneurship development programs that seek to create more and more entrepreneurs in this world should start by teaching parents how to raise entrepreneurs or people with an entrepreneurial mindset who will use their potential and thrive, instead of pushing accelerators and incubators to find or create entrepreneurs during later stages when brain elasticity is lower.
- People
When talking about people in companies I always like to quote Zig Ziglar – ‘You don’t build a business. You build people, and people build the business’. People make good or bad decisions. Every single business depends on people (regardless of industry). That marketing manager that made that lousy decision to approve those ugly billboard designs, that salesman that negotiated the best deal that broke the sales records, that customer care person that impacted your perception about a particular brand. Every single thing in life depends on people. The success of a company, of a business unit, of a whole country, depends on the people. Even when we travel and explore new cities our opinion about that city is not solely affected by the beautiful nature or the architecture but people living there play maybe the most significant role – their energy, culture, attitude, hospitality influence our impressions.
Every entrepreneur, leader or manager with a vision needs a team that supports its vision to make it a reality. It is up to the ability of entrepreneurs to find the right people, to communicate the vision, to attract talent, to invest in building and sustaining their skills set, their energy, attitude and positivity.
- Persistent Learning
Since I was a little girl, my mother taught me to strive for knowledge and be the best at whatever I do. She would say “You can have houses, cars, and wealth but one day it can all be gone. The world is not always righteous. The only thing that no one can take away from you is your knowledge. If you have the ability to acquire knowledge, to be a fast learner you will always be able to generate new income and build new things.”
And today, to add to my mother’s lesson I would say that another thing that no one can take away from us is our passion.
Persistent learning means learning anytime, anywhere from everyone. Outstanding entrepreneurs are able to absorb valuable information and knowledge for everyone like sponges. Being a fast learner is a must for entrepreneurs in today’s faster than ever changing world.
- Permanent Change
Everybody wants change but nobody wants to change. The resistance to change is in our human nature but the faster we train ourselves to accept and adapt to change the faster we will become better. Successful entrepreneurs are flexible, they can adapt and change quickly. The ability to perceive change as a positive thing, to react and adapt to it is one of the most powerful skills. As Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Or as Michael Jackson says “I am starting with the man in the mirror and I am asking him to change his way… If you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make the change.”
- Perseverance
Imagine you have departed towards your very desired travel destination. You have planned and fantasized about that magnificent place for so long. You start your journey and suddenly there is a big rock standing on your way. So what do you do? If you have some strong friends you might call them to help you push the rock away. If you don’t have any strong friends your solution might be to climb it. But you don’t know how to climb. So you take climbing lessons and come back with your new skill and climb that rock and continue the journey. It is the same in business. The “rock” symbolizes any kind of obstacle you might face (it be a financial issue, can be a marketing issue, you name it). The “strong friends” are the contacts, networks and people you have in life that can help you out. The “climbing lessons” is any new skill that you don’t know at the time or are not interested in but you go and learn it because that is your only way to continue towards your goal.
During the past eight years of extensive hard-work, overcoming barriers, removing rocks, dealing with all sorts of situations, making decisions, working with different characters and meeting people from all over the globe I learned a lot. In fact today I am grateful for all the struggles, for all those ‘rocks’ on my way, for every problem solved (that seemed unsolvable at the moment) because it made me more flexible, adaptable, resourceful and more knowledgeable. It simply helped me gain a competitive advantage and be a better and stronger person.
Nothing in life comes easy (at least success and good things). If you have a mission, if you have a passion it will not be easy. The road will be bumpy, the will be rocks on the way, some of them will be light, some will be super heavy but if there aren’t any rocks one thing is sure – you are not on the right road. It won’t be easy and we should ask for easy because that way no one will be able to copy what we create.
- Proactiveness
Most people only do what they are asked, meeting the very minimal requirements and expectations (or even worse some under deliver). They need to be delegated and even micro-managed. Successful entrepreneurs initiate – they see the bigger picture and foresee the circumstances. They are proactive instead of reactive, they play offense, instead of defense. And this is what makes them hard to replace in any given environment.
Source: Forbes
When Sham "Levant" culture meets German technology for manufacturing Arab cheese
06 Feb 2019 Written by Admin SAEIt was an icy day when we drove to Germany to meet with the business pioneer Abduljalil Saymoa at his lab in Illingen, 200 km northwest of Stuttgart, the famous city of the automotive industry. During our trip the European cities were very quiet, yet they were shimmering with lights and bright colors celebrating the New Year. It was interesting to find out the creative and fun ways the locals invented in order to protect the ornamental flowers from the bitter cold using brightly colored suits and red caps at times, or at other times covering them with cloth and putting golden belts on them. Despite the low temperature at this time of the year and the cloudy sky, we were excited to visit the first plant in Germany that produces a kind of cheese, which is well received by German citizens, and even won an award.
From the moment we arrived at the factory, it was clear that there was great interest in the project, especially among the Arab community traders who wanted to buy different varieties of Arabic cheese.
After visiting the factory, we took the car with our cheese pioneer to tour the cowshed which was behind the idea of establishing the factory. There are about 90 head of cattle. It was divided into several barns (pregnant cows, milking cows, and small calves). We have also talked to cattle breeders about how they manage to take care of the cows and the differences in cattle breeding between Switzerland and Germany, where Switzerland follows a more stringent system. The following is the text of our interview with the entrepreneur Abdul Saymoa.
For starters, tell us about your journey from Syria to Germany.
I left Syria at the end of 2011 to Egypt where I stayed until 2014 searching for a better life. We were about 400 people traveling on boats and it took us 14 days before we reached Italy. I saw people drowning in the boats of death in front of my eyes. After arriving to Italy, I continued my journey to Germany to finally settle in the city of Illingen, where I founded my current business….
There it was amazing to meet one of the people who got on the “refugees boats”, the boats that soon turn into floating tombs that are then swollen by the waves of the Mediterranean. We told him that those observations deserve to be documented in a book to recount the horrors of this journey.
The question that comes to mind is why choose a cheese production project? Is it related to your work in Syria?
Yes, I worked in this field in Syria, and it was also a result of the difficulty of obtaining a job. I have experience in the cheese industry, and I did not find factories for Arab cheese in Germany. It was only imported. This was enough to start producing Arab cheese in Germany. The Arab community is also a big community in Germany, and there is even a street in Berlin called ‘Arabische Strasse’. This large community desires this kind of cheese.
In the beginning I was not allowed to start working without a professional certificate. According to a rule that was laid down 10 years ago, I was required to apply for the profession certificate. This was the most challenging problem. I had to study to gain German knowledge and experience. Usually, it takes 4 years, but since there are German citizens who have been practicing this profession for a long time, the authorities had to find a solution by bringing experienced professionals to a training course for a few days and then passing an exam whereupon the trainee will be able to practice the profession.
It was not easy, I had to study German terminology. I had to study hard during the five days in the university. I was the only Arab who took this course. I had the support of my German partner, especially in understanding the chemical terminology used in German. The test committee was composed of university professors. The questions were very precise and in the end I got the certificate.
I learned German language through practice and daily life with natives. I started the project after a year and a half after arriving in Germany.
Tell us about the difficulties you faced to establish your project, as a foreign man or as a refugee.
The first and biggest challenge was the professional certificate. Then there are administrative and organizational tasks that you need to complete in order to start the project, and that is not generally easy because there are many requirements to be completed before starting. The difficulties I faced were not mainly related to being a foreigner, and there were aspects related specifically to the need to obtain a certificate to practice the profession. However, it was remarkable that other technical and logistical obstacles were not taken into consideration regarding the way German companies worked. It took a long time to obtain the equipment and extensions necessary to run the project. For example, we waited a year and a half to install the device to pump hot water to the machines.
I also had to work on the project plan. Fortunately, there are many organizations and associations that have helped me such as Chamber of Commerce "Industrie- und Handelskammer - IHK www.ihk.de" and "Business Angels: www.business-angels.de" we also joined "one two-three competition: https://123g-networking.de" I have received assistance in processing the necessary papers to obtain a loan from the bank. In addition to that I also received tips on how to make the project successful from other business pioneers with experience in managing projects.
Can we say that the bank was the main source of funding for the project? Is capital required for the project owner?
Not only the bank, there were several sources of funding. The capital is necessary for the owner, but the amount needed is not necessarily large, as you can start with about 25 thousand euros. Though, I was able to get financing of about half a million euros. The multiple funding sources were personal capital, a bank loan, and the Business Angels organization. Recently, a private investor joined us, in addition to many other offers from private investors who wish to invest in the project.
The project has competed for the financing of "Business Angels" with approximately 1,500 projects. It was selected in the first phase to be among 50 other projects, and was selected in the second phase as one of the three most innovative projects. The project eventually received financing, as funding without collateral requirements, to be returned later.
Have you founded the company on your own?
The project is a limited liability company, which made it easier for me to get a loan from the bank. Because as a refugee I have a residence permit, therefore, I cannot get a loan from the bank if I do not have a company.
I had a German partner from the beginning, Riehm's family, the owner of the cattle farm. Sure, I would not buy cheese while I know how to make it. I bought big quantities, which surprised the family. You cannot drink that much milk. I was buying milk to make it to feed the family, and also to store it.
Riehm’s family plays an important role in the project, as it is responsible for the administrative matters and communication with the government. I was focusing on manufacturing, marketing and managing the plant. It plays the role of the local partner of a foreign investor.
So how did things evolve?
At first I asked them about the possibility of preparing the cheese at their farm for reasons related to logistics aspects such as the place and tools. Consequently, came the idea of manufacturing cheese in trading quantities. I did not think it was so difficult. I thought it was possible to get a place at their farm to prepare the cheese. It gradually evolved from preparing the cheese in the family farm to marketing it in the local market. We were meeting and asking Arab and Turkish shops owners about the possibility of buying Arab cheese. The responses were very positive, as many expressed that they were importing that cheese from France and there were no local suppliers in Germany. This was a great motivation for the Germans to buy too. Then we asked government agencies about the requirements for establishing this project, we learned about the need to obtain a certificate of practicing a profession. That was when I had to attend the intensive course and already passed the special exam. Note that this session is organized once a year and available in only three universities. It was a surprise for my German partner that I passed considering the difficulty of the tests, which were very specific, in German, and lasted for about an hour, but luckily they were oral.
We started production with about 300 liters. We then raised the quantity to 500 liters and after that to 1,000. The production capacity is expected to be raised to 2,000 during the next week (during the second half of January). We also hope to reach the level of 4000 liters in the next two or three months.
The permanent number of employees in the factory are about four workers and we hope to increase the number to six, while we need to hire about ten people to reach the plant's maximum capacity, and we hope to do so in the next few months.
Marketing remains a big challenge for any project. Does this apply to yours?
For me, marketing was the easiest part. As we asked the shops before starting, and while the product was mainly available in the market, it was also necessary to provide a high quality product. I also had my experience in marketing and trading since I was in Egypt, where I had my business in selling clothes.
There are many customers, mainly Arabs and Turks, while the Germans are gradually buying our products. There are several large shops that buy from us, such as the famous REWE Markt, which buys our products in large quantities. We are also exporting, but we are currently limited to EU countries such as Sweden (mainly), France, Austria and England. This is given the presence of Arab communities of course.
We knew you received an award, could you tell us about it?
In the context of the competition organized by the Association for Artisanal Dairy Products in Organic Farming "Verband für handwerkliche Milchverarbeitung im ökologischen Landbau = VHM", which is held in Munich, we received the "Publikumspreis de VHM" Prize for one of our products "Surki cheese", a mixture of Arabic and German cheese.
Where we competed with thousands of cheeses and I did not expect to get the award . The evaluation depends on the taste as well as the benefits of the product.
What types of cheeses are being produced in the plant?
Mainly all kinds of Arabic cheese. Starting with Baladia cheese, Akkawi, Almznrh, Chalali, Haloum, Arabian ghee, Quraishah and sourki…To give further clarification, the Chalali cheese for example is a cheese that is cooked then shaped like strands. As for how to prepare the cheese, he said that it is a mixture of Arabic and German recipe, where Arabic cheese is made with German specifications. The process is distinctive by sterilization or pasteurization, which is more stringent, because the machines used provide high standards and work automatically.
Your project gets from different institutions? How did you get that support?
Land Auf Schwung, an agricultural enterprise support organization, provides funding without re-payment, where we received about 50,000 euros, which indicates the quality of the project.
He also mentioned the role of "econets", an association of the European Union to support young entrepreneurs, and provides advisory services for the success of projects.
Our business leader also told us his experience with the "Business Angels" Foundation, which provides funding for outstanding projects and how he felt about the project evaluation committee. This is where the owner of the project is subjected to difficult tests and a large number of questions that require specific and clear answers. He said that he answered hundreds of questions to prove the project is commercially viable.
What advice would you give someone who wants to follow your steps to become a business entrepreneur?
In general, the entrepreneur must be patient and persistent. I have seen many of those who tried to carry out projects, but they gave up when faced with the first challenge. The entrepreneur must be ready to face an endless number of obstacles, considering that he still faces difficulties despite the success of the project. He also stressed that the fact that he's a foreigner who lives in Germany gives him extra motivation to reach success. He desires to change the stereotype of foreigners in Europe. He mentioned his big commitment from the very beginning to seriously find and obtain work of any nature. He admitted that German language was the main obstacle to get a job in the beginning, saying that maybe that inspired him to start his own project.
What are the prices for the final consumer and the volume of your sales if possible?
Prices vary depending on the type of cheese. They range from € 9 per kilogram for Baladia cheese to between € 15 and € 16 for Chalali and Samn cheese. Sales volumes can not be given specific figures, but sales can be said to cover costs whether fixed costs of around 13,000 euros and the cost of milk purchases of about 16,000 euros per month.
What are the main challenges of the project and what is the future outlook?
Given the success of the project and the expansion of production, the limited milk we receive is one of the obstacles we face at the moment. When asked about the possibility of buying milk from another farm, he said it was not easy, because cattle farms are committed to distribution agreements with other companies for several years.
With regard to the future outlook, we look forward to building another factory with a higher production capacity in the near future, God willing.
Finally, Abdul expressed disappointment with the Arab press, whose coverage did not adequately cover the project. While by comparison it received wide coverage from the German print, audio and visual media. Especially by being a successful example of the integration of Syrian refugees into German society.
In conclusion, this story of success tells us a lot about the challenges faced by refugees and how they have been a reason for experimenting and moving forward with the project and achieving great successes.
The address of the factory and the website of Sham Sar "Sham is the Levant, and Saar is the German region"
CHAM SAAR GmbH, Lebacher Str. 46, 66557 Illingen-Wustweiler https://www.chamsaar.de
Institutions which give support to entrepreneurs
- Industrie- und Handelskammer - IHK ihk.de
- icunet: icunet.ag
- Business Angels: www.business-angels.de
How Ad Tech Entrepreneurs Can Combat Google and Facebook's Dominance
28 Jan 2019 Written by Admin AdminHow Ad Tech Entrepreneurs Can Combat Google and Facebook's Dominance
The best way to secure a share of the growing market? Avoid head-to-head competition with the duopoly and instead seek out new opportunities -- like these.
Although few consumers have heard of them, ad tech firms have been operating behind the scenes for the past decade or more, creating innovative processes such as programmatic advertising (automated ad buying) and header bidding. Once fueled by the huge growth in online ad spend and an abundance of cheap venture capital, the rise of ad tech startups is now waning thanks to the duopoly held by Facebook and Google.
2017 saw global digital ad spend reach new heights -- $88 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Of course, of the 21 percent market growth over the previous year, 90 percent went to Google and Facebook. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that the number of independent ad tech firms has shrunk by 21 percent since 2013. In fact, the only thing that’s shrinking faster is the investment in it. Stats collected by Crunchbase analyzing almost 2,000 venture capital deals in ad tech reveal that, by the first half of 2017, investment had dropped close to 80 percent from the peak in the first half of 2013.
Google is notorious for identifying up-and-coming competitors early and pursuing aggressive acquisition strategies. At the same time, Facebook’s 2.27 billion monthly active users mean that the social network is sitting on a goldmine of market research. It’s counterintuitive, but in a space dominated by two hungry giants, ad tech entrepreneurs need to think small to stay around.
Dodging the duopoly
The best way for ad tech entrepreneurs to secure a share of the growing market is by seeking out new opportunities instead and avoiding head-to-head competition with Facebook and Google. For example, linking data from offline purchases at brick-and-mortar retailers with online consumer data can create cross-platform identifiers that deliver tremendous value.
Streaming video is also quickly emerging as a space where startups can find potential in new revenue channels. As Amazon enters the ad business, devices such as the Echo and FireTV can enable startups to deliver ads right into customers' homes.
While there’s no guaranteed way to regain investor confidence, ad tech startups and independent firms should keep in mind that market dominance doesn’t necessarily equate to either quality or preference. In light of the slew of scandals that have rocked Facebook, concerns of consumers and regulators are rising. By focusing on transparency and vetted data alone, it might be possible for ad tech companies to win over new customers.
To further differentiate themselves from the duopoly, ad tech firms should take the following three steps:
1. Consolidate with the competition.
Viable companies in the ad tech space are beating Google and Facebook to the punch and consolidating with one another before they get swallowed up by the duopoly. Not surprisingly, the prevalence of this practice is contributing to a stark decline in the number of independent ad tech firms.
Based on research by LUMA Partners, The New York Times reports that just 185 firms remain as of the second quarter of 2018. Terry Kawaja, who led the research group, explains that “While all industries go through a maturation curve, this one faces a particular need for consolidation. So many of these companies were not profitable.”
2. Target audiences outside the duopoly.
A recently formed ad tech consortium including AppNexus, MediaMath and LiveRamp is attempting to target audiences interacting outside of Google and Facebook through the use of cross-platform identifiers. The two tech giants command tremendous value because their logged-in user bases have historically been easier to target, but the new consortium should make media investment outside the control of Facebook and Google more efficient.
To increase investor confidence, the consortium has adopted a self-imposed code of ethics covering critical issues such as privacy and security. These topics are a growing concern among those using the dominant platforms, adding another differentiator for the consortium’s consumers.
3. Identify niche markets.
To win precious ad tech dollars, entrepreneurs must do something that’s difficult for massive companies to pull off -- focus on niche markets that are high-value and low-volume. For example, Israel-based navigation app Waze targets users who want to optimize their travel and avoid speed traps. Because users rely heavily on location services to get value from the app, Waze can target them with highly customized, location-specific ads.
Google Maps couldn’t compete with the unique and high-value feature offered by Waze, so the tech giant bought the ambitious young upstart for a figure reported by TechCrunch to be $1.1 billion back in 2013.
Advertising is a lucrative market. As ad tech spending continues to rise, Europe’s implementation of the GDPR brings hope to startups and smaller companies that regulations might slow the pace of acquisition established by Facebook and Google. The window could be brief as the giants adjust to the learning curve, but if there was ever a time for disruption in the ad tech space, it’s now.
Source: entrepreneur
These 4 Business Trends Will Have a Major Impact In 2019 -- Watch Them Closely
01 Jan 2019 Written by Admin AdminYou've likely experienced your fair share of ups and downs throughout 2018, so to minimize the "downs" side of the equation and lead your team in the right direction in 2019, think about starting to prepare now.
While setting some New Year’s resolutions on how to improve your leadership skills will certainly help stimulate better results in the future, it's equally essential that you monitor the trends that could affect your industry -- and the business world as a whole -- in 2019.
Thankfully, you won’t have to depend on guesswork to know what changes could be coming your way because there are specific business trends that experts have described. Here are four of the biggest to keep your eye on:
1. Increasingly diverse payment options are coming.
The seemingly countless headlines about Bitcoin and blockchain may no longer be as prominent as they were at the beginning of 2018, but they've illustrated an important trend unlikely to go away: Customers are looking for more flexible banking models and payment methods.
Speed and security are a big part of the equation, which is why the ABA Banking Journal predicts that contactless credit card payments will become an important trend in brick and mortar transactions. Allowing customers to tap or wave a card at a payment terminal to quickly process a transaction falls perfectly in line with the norms of digital shopping.
Of course, many customers don’t want businesses to merely adopt new credit card technology. Enabling your company to also accept non-traditional payment methods -- be they through applications like Paypal or alternative funds like Bitcoin -- could also prove key to winning new customers in the new year.
2. It’s time to embrace AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) really started to enter the mainstream in 2018, with chatbots and virtual assistants making their presence felt in a wide range of industries.
Each of these advances is designed to improve the customer experience or streamline business operations, and all of them could have a big impact on your bottom line as customers become more and more comfortable with AI.
In a phone interview, Omer Khan, founder and CEO of VividTech, explained to me that, “Today’s chatbots and virtual assistants are able to handle more customer service tasks than ever before to better facilitate the customer journey. As they utilize machine learning to better respond to customer requests, these interactions become even more efficient.
"We’re also seeing chatbots that integrate the brand personality to further streamline these online conversations and improve company results," Khan said.
Though not every AI application may be necessary for your particular business, it's important that you analyze the options that are out there and consider how they could improve your processes and services.
3. The shipping wars will continue.
The priority customers assign to shipping that's free and fast is bigger than ever before — and that’s not going away any time soon. Amazon, Walmart and Target all entered a major Black Friday battle in an effort to sway customers with superior shipping deals.
Other major retailers like Home Depot, Best Buy and Nordstrom are also trying to improve their free shipping options. Direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands will soon be focused on more than just transit time. Maintaining brand quality, owning customer data and improving the entire shipping experience will also prove essential.
In fact, customers are placing an increasing value on free, fast shipping. Nearly 60 percent of shoppers in one Alix Partners study agreed that they “browse for products based on their preferred shipping options.” Some were even willing to spend more on an individual product if free shipping is available.
For ecommerce businesses, adjusting the product lineup isn’t going to be enough to win new customers. Providing a faster, more streamlined delivery process could prove a key differentiator for building your brand.
4. The gig economy and remote work are here to stay.
The Fed has estimated that as many as 75 million Americans participate in the gig economy in some way. Our increasingly digital and decentralized world has also created more opportunities for people to launch their own business ventures. These trends have led to a sharp increase in remote work, with over 43 percent of employees, according to a Gallup survey, working at least part of the time from home.
Though the gig economy may not have had much of an impact on your industry yet, there’s no denying that shifting priorities in employment will continue to make a difference in the workplace.
For one thing, employees are placing more value than ever before on having a flexible work environment that allows them to spend more time out of the office. Adapting company policies to allow for remote work could help improve employee retention, but it must be managed appropriately to keep productivity at appropriate levels.
Finding the right balance for achieving flexibility and high-quality results will prove crucial as businesses try to keep their best and brightest from jumping into the gig economy.
Ring in 2019 the right way!
As this list illustrates, new business trends are poised to disrupt everything from marketing to employee management. Is your business prepared to handle the challenges ahead?
By doing your research now, you can better identify how to successfully incorporate these changes into your business model so the competition doesn't leave you behind.
Source: Entrepreneurship Middle East
