Is this the first company that you have started, and what drove you towards it?
it was my sister's idea, she started think to establish the workshop due to her work experience in professional workshop in the city. We decided together to share the knowledge, my study is business management and marketing, and she has technical skills in appliqué.
How did you finance your start-up operations and how long did it/will it take for the company to become self-sustainable?
We started working in small room in our parent's home, they granted us the place and money needed to buy Loom. These was not enough, we still need the money to renovate the room and buy more looms and equipments. For this reason we decided to submit loan application to the Fund for Integrated Rural Development of Syria "FIRDOS". As soon as we got the money, we did the amendments to the workplace and bought four looms.
What are your major products and how are they unique in your business sector? What is your competition?
Exactly what we are doing is to apply the designs and the raw materials which the merchant gives us to the cloth provided also by the merchant using looms and our embroidery skills.
Our final products are embroidered dresses, blouses, gowns which need the innovation in selecting colors and designs, in addition to the accuracy in the work.
Our competition is the workshops dispensed over all the surrounded villages, but fortune this competition doesn’t matter, because we pay huge attention to control the quality of our products, that why our products are high appreciated by the merchant.
How do you measure the success of the company?
Business is making money, for that reason I measure the success of our business by achieving the profit after we pay the installment, wages, and the bills of electricity and telephone. As much as we finish the orders timely, and control the quality of our work, we keep our business gainful.
What was the biggest challenge in starting an innovative business in your country and how did you overcome that?
The biggest challenge for the women to start up their own business is the money, but this problem was solved by the Fund for Integrated Rural Development of Syria (FIRDOS), who is applying micro credit program in some rural areas of Syria, supplying rural community the money needed for establishing small enterprises.
How have you benefited from business incubation?
The Village Business Incubator supported me in several directions; basically we enhanced our skills in the management, marketing, promotion and accounting during the Business Management Training delivered by the VBI staff. As well, a business plan, visibility study, and some promotion materials for our workshop were produced in the Village Business Incubator. Networking with other producers in the same area was enhanced by the VBI, this networking was very important when we receive big order out of our resources, we can share it with the other producers.
In the time being, we receive regular visits from the VBI staff to evaluate our work and give the support as required.
With hindsight, are there any particular lessons or messages that you wish you would have known when you started up your business, and which you like to share with fellow entrepreneurs?
Before starting a business, you have to be conscious of the fact that you will be involved in a long process, which requires patience, dedication, organization and a real effort.
You should devote yourself for the work, if not, you will lose everything.
How are you focusing on expanding your business?
As mentioned before, we receive the orders from the merchant, but we are looking forward to create our own designs, and to market our products directly. To reach this target, we should widen our workplace and recruit more employees.
In the long term, our plan is to export our products out of Syria especially to the Arabic gulf where the embroidered gowns are highly requested.
What is your message to supporters (financial or otherwise) and what is your message to the users of your product?
To market our products out of Syria is long process and requires more efforts and support, that why we still need the support of the Village Business Incubator in terms of training, networking and licensing.
