January 20th, 2015: Prominent female entrepreneur Ambareen Musa has shared the triumphs and tribulations of starting up the UAE's first financial services comparison website at the fourth of this season's 'Executive Mindset' workshops, hosted by Canadian University Dubai (CUD) in association with Shane Phillips Consultants.
'The Dot-Com Entrepreneur: Making Money in Cyberspace' was the subject of this month's workshop, which brought together business executives, aspiring entrepreneurs, and CUD staff and students, to hear from Ms. Musa about the strategies and tactics she employed to start her innovative online venture, Souqalmal.com, as well as the challenges she overcame along the way.
Ms. Musa, who hails from Mauritius, started her first enterprise - an online property portal - as a 21 year old student in Australia. Throughout her 14-year career in financial services, she worked for organizations such as GE, Bain & Company and MasterCard, giving her a 360 view of the financial services sector.
Recognizing a gap in the market, Ms. Musa gave up a steady job and used her own savings to start up Souqalmal.com in May 2012. Her vision was to create an independent, transparent portal for consumers to compare banking, telecoms, insurance and education products, in one place.
Less than three years after its establishment in the UAE, the business has experienced considerable growth and is about to launch similar services in Saudi Arabia. However, this success did not come without challenges.
Ms. Musa explained, "In the beginning I faced a lot of barriers. The banks were very resistant to the idea of a site that put them up against their competitors and it took some time to get them on board."
With a young child, Ms. Musa was also challenged with balancing the responsibilities of motherhood while raising funding for the new enterprise and marketing the service in an environment unfamiliar with the concept.
"You have to be focused and disciplined", she explained, "I do set aside time to spend with my family every day, but I'll always carry on working in the evenings at home too. No matter how organized you are, running your own business is a 24/7 lifestyle."
Offering advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience on raising capital for a new business, Ms. Musa said, "The best approach is to tell a story of growth. I started out with my own funds but once we had a functioning site and started to show revenue it became easier to attract investors."
Tackling questions on the challenges of marketing an unknown online business, Ms. Musa explained how finding new ways of engaging with the public - publishing research or using social media in innovative ways - can help to position and grow a brand.
The workshop was presented by leading Executive Search Consultant, Shane Phillips, who gave his own insights into personal branding, advising participants to go beyond a CV in reaching out to employers.
The next workshop in the series will be held on 1 February at CUD, with more inspirational leaders sharing their professional insights into the UAE's business landscape.
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