Date: September 30, 2020
With an objective to help members to diversify, grow and achieve success, Zubair Small Enterprises Centre (Zubair SEC) organised a ‘Tajribati’ session on importance of diversifying business income.’ The recently held virtual ‘Tajribati’ session provided an overview on how diversification can be a key business strategy to help SMEs deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and find ways to survive and innovate.
Specialists and participants discussed on why diversification is an important growth strategy for every business. They debated the approaches that need to be applied to diversify revenue streams and how to identify new sources of income. They stressed on the importance of creating or reviewing the resources available in the business. They also discussed the challenges involved in entering a new market or industry that members do not currently operate in.
Abdullah Mohammed Saud Al Dughaishi, founder, Gourmet Taste Sweets LLC, a member of Zubair SEC, who is among the winners of the centre’s Direct Support Programme for 2018 said when his main business was partly affected, he decided to pursue his passion for business related to gardening.
He explains, “Since I wanted to diversify my source of income I started researching about my passion. It took me a month and a half to start especially since it was quite different from what I was doing business in currently. Soon I started business related to gardening which included designing landscapes, laying gardens. My new project achieved great response and I was able to obtain six contracts during the pandemic.”
Ali Said Abdullah Al Rashdi, owner of Muaawana, a member of Zubair SEC, who is among the winners of the centre’s Direct Support Programme for 2016 says access to more than one source of income protects the business and encourages growth.
“While COVID-19 affected our usual income sources it made us look for new income opportunities. We reviewed our plans and decided to alter our marketing strategy and decided to look for daily projects instead of long term one. We intensified our marketing activity on social media platforms in order to reach out to the largest number of people. This helped us to increase our clientele who started requesting our services on a daily basis. This opened a new source of income which covered the losses we suffered otherwise. We were able to face the crisis by adapting to new market circumstances and working hard. we start to search within our own resource seeking new opportunity relaing on our experience and equipments we did sign a contract with SouqMazoon, which is an e-commerce platform, to provide them with call centre management services and vendor relations management services. This proved to be a great opportunity for Muaawana that helped preventing our existing call centre staff from becoming redundant, while at the same time generating new income.
Abdul Aziz Saleh Ahmed Al Mawali, founder of Modern TAJ AFI (Smartech Solution) and also a winner of the fifth edition of the Direct Support Programme 2018 organised by Zubair SEC when his business was greatly affected by the crisis he seriously began thinking about new possibilities.
“With an intention to create a new sustainable revenue stream we created a paid app for smart devices through which entrepreneur or the owner of the project could start working from home with ease. Through this app they can market their project through online platforms that they can design, build, and manage remotely without the need to open a physical store. This new stream of business proved to be a blessing for us,” he says.
Adel Hubeishi, Senior Advisor, Zubair SEC, stressed on the importance of understanding the needs of the market before diversifying.
He said, “Only then businesses will be able to know how to use their resources in the right way. Successful businesses have been able to fast track growth and consolidate gains even during periods of challenges by tapping into different revenue streams. The answer lies in investing your energy and effort to utilies your own resources which could be equipments or relations in generating new revenue streams are relevant and complementary to the customer base.”
The ‘Tajribati’ series serves as a unique platform to connect industry experts with start-up owners and new entrepreneurs to exchange views, discuss common challenges and share best practices. The ‘Tajribati’ discussion series organised by Zubair SEC, a social responsibility initiative of The Zubair Corporation, is aimed at supporting young entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium enterprises. The recent virtual Tajribati discussion sessions have been gaining very good momentum. Members and non-members share insights with their fellow entrepreneurs, discuss matters of concern, share knowledge and experience, and network in a friendly constructive atmosphere.