Date: July 14, 2015
Throughout the month of Ramada, Zubair Small Enterprises Centre held a number of interactive discussion sessions titled “Tajribati” – meaning ‘my experience’ in Arabic’ – for entrepreneurs and owners of small enterprises from both members and non-members of the centre.
The sessions were designed to shed light on a range of essential topics for entrepreneurs through the participation of a number of entrepreneurs who shared their own experiences with the audience. In addition, a number of experts and well-accomplished business attended the sessions and discussed a range of key issues that are of interest to the SME sector and supporting entities.
This series of sessions falls within Zubair SEC’s strategy towards supporting entrepreneurs and small business owners to enable them to take full advantage of the experiences and successful models and to be in close contact with experienced business owners from the private sector, particularly in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises. Another key objective of these sessions is to display successful experiences and projects of senior entrepreneurs as a form of guidance models for fellow entrepreneurs, and help create the needed support and assistance for each other by exchanging experiences and difficulties encountered during the course of the launch of their small businesses and how to overcome such challenges.
The idea of the discussion sessions:
The idea was launched in the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan by holding discussion sessions each week at Bait Al Zubair. Two of the Centre’s members were invited in each session to share their experiences in the management of small business and the handling of challenges, difficulties, solutions, and ambitions. At the same time expert speakers were invited from the private sector to share their experiences and intake on small and medium-sized enterprises and engage in a dialogue with entrepreneurs and participants through putting forward some ideas, solutions and experiences within different types of small enterprises. “Tajribati” sessions continued throughout the holy month of Ramadan gathering a good number of entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses. The topics varied according to the interests of entrepreneurs and what they would consider of importance to be presented and debated in the presence of specialists with vast experiences, and in a transparent and friendly atmosphere.
First discussion session:
The first “Tajribati” session hosted a number of small and medium enterprise owners who are specialised in the design, execution and selling of interior decorations from inside and outside the members of the Center in addition to Joukh Al Husseinieh owner of “Al Shumookh Engineering Consulting” and winner of Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme for year 2014. The session also hosted Jose Lora, Chief Operating Officer at The Zubair Real Estate (Inmaa) who is also a volunteering specialist advisor at Zubair SEC.
The evening commenced with a brief on Zubair SEC and the services provided to the owners of small and medium enterprises, then Joukh Al Husseinieh shared her experience since the establishment of her enterprise, and discussed how she progressed successfully and how she managed to rely on her self-confidence and determination to succeed as she was hindered by more than one obstacle for various. She also said that she would not have achieved this success if it wasn’t for the guidance of the experts. She encountered a problem after she was assigned her first tender which was the bank security as a number of banks refused to give her for the absence of guarantee and to solve this problem she became a member in Zubair SEC, which directed her on the best ways to obtain bank facilities and how to apply for such funding. She then got the bank facility within one week allowing her to seize the opportunity to obtain numerous tenders.
After that Jose Lora discussed the most important success factors for owners of small businesses such as self-confidence, as a key factor for owners of such projects to obtain new businesses. He also touched on four key points for success; practical experience, customer service, providing solutions and maintaining delivery dates and quality. He explained that practical experiences can be solved by obtaining one partner or more who have the right experience; be ready to visit client after being contacted within 24 hours; and treat the client as if he is your only client or the most important one. The other thing is not to wait for the client to tell what the solution is – if the client has a problem we need to provide the solutions to this problem and discuss it with the client. Also it is important to be ahead of work schedule, give ourselves a time break and not to push ourselves to a tight delivery deadlines while maintaining and ensuring product or service quality.
He also pointed out the lack of focus on learning technical aspects necessary for entrepreneurs, but rather depending on recruitment of technical expertise; we have to focus on learning administrative matters such as customer service, marketing and other aspects that will assist in expanding the business. The session was concluded by opening collective discussion and questions, the most important of which are; How do I maintain those I trained and taught the profession from moving to big companies especially when they will receive better benefits, salaries and incentives? The answer of the participants was summarized as follows; tasks and responsibilities should be assigned to the employee according to his role in order to enhance his confidence in the establishment and his significance to it. It is also important to the employee to be aware of the vision, tasks and objectives of the project, which in turn will create within the employee a sense of being a part of the success of this company and that his role is not limited to the performance of his job but also to the greater role which is achieving the goals and vision of the project.
The audience asked a question on how to seize opportunities? And the answer after deliberating with the specialists was that in today’s business world you have to create these opportunities rather than looking for what is available. Creating opportunities starts with having access to the latest developments in the market and the general client’s orientations in the market by devoting at least an hour each day to read the economy sections in newspapers and follow up on social media sites.
Second Session:
In the second “Tajribati” session Zubair SEC hosted a large number of attendees. The session discussed the topic of full time commitment to manage one’s project. Yasser AL Abdullah, Owner and Founder of Memories Studio and winner of Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme for year 2014, participated in the discussion session along with Aisha Baaboud, Founding Partner of the White Hands Centre and one of the winners of the Direct Support Programme for year 2015. Mohammed Al Farei, Managing Director of Zeenah Group, shared his experience as a model for a leading Omani entrepreneur, who had the experience of a full-time commitment to manage his own business and shed light on the most important points required for a full-time project management.
One of the main points addressed during the discussions in relation to the full-time commitment to the project that the project owner can be distracted and cannot focus on his work and the time and effort is consumed by his career and cannot risk to engage in projects or work deals mainly for fear of failure in execution the assigned work. The owner of the project after giving a full-time commitment is more successful in building relationship with customers in an easier and faster approach. Then the focus on the private work becomes more with better planning to be able to develop the project outcomes and improve the overall quality with faster expansion and gain of larger deals.
The discussions also pointed out some of the most important obstacles and difficulties faced by those wanting to give a full-time commitment to manage their projects, namely capital and lack of work security.
Third Session:
In the third “Tajribati” session, focus was shed on the importance of exposure to international experiences, as the audience discussed a number of recent experiences of Zubair SEC members in this regard. The session hosted Ashraf Al Mazrou’i, Founding partner and CEO of Qafilat Al Madeenah company, to share his long experience in respect to benefiting from international experiences towards the success of his company.
Commenting on his participation in one of Tajribati sessions, Jose Lora, Chief Operating Officer at The Zubair Real Estate (Inmaa’) said: “SME’s are the pillars of most economies and all of us need to lend our support. I personally enjoyed my participation in the Tajribati, I get energized when talking to entrepreneurs that are excited about their vision for the future; their enthusiasm is addictive.”
The continuation of “Tajribati” sessions after Ramadan:
Due to the prominent success of these discussion sessions and the benefits gained and expressed by the attendees, Zubair SEC will resume this interaction experience after Ramadan, to be held once a month through bringing together members of the center and other experts from outside the Center with a range of various experiences to discuss key concerns of small business owners and topics of interest.
In this respect Lina Hussein, Head of Communication and Social Impact at Zubair SECcommented: “In line of Zubair SEC’s interest in nurturing communication channels with entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium enterprises, the Centre has launched in early Ramadan the Tajribati initiative that gathers participants in debating friendly and transparent atmospheres to discuss topics of interest to all, and to shed the light on a number of selected experiences. We like to extend our gratitude to all who have participated in the first Tajribati sessions so far, and we are happy to announce that due to the positive feedback we received, Zubair SEC will continue holding such fruitful sessions throughout the year, through different frameworks that would be of interest to many”.
About Zubair Small Enterprises Centre (Zubair SEC)
Established in June 2013, the Zubair Small Enterprises Centre (Zubair SEC) is one of the initiatives which emanated from The Zubair Corporation’s Social Responsibility strategic vision towards the Omani society. The vision reflects the corporation’s belief in the importance of small enterprises (SEs) in enhancing the national economy and contributing to sustainable socio-economic development. The centre extends business mentorship and guidance to Oman’s promising member entrepreneurs as well as financial support to selected entrepreneurs every year, to help them succeed and grow in a sustainable manner.
For more information on Zubair SEC, please contact the Communications Office at info@zubairsec.org