Community bazaar in Abu Dhabi

It all started with a complaint about a refrigerator.

"My marketing professor was complaining about how she needed a new fridge, but couldn't find a second-hand store that would buy her old one," 21-year-old Zayed University finance student Latifa Al Romaithi said.

She was talking to Gulf News about the inception of the community bazaar that will be held today at 4pm in Khalifa Park, Abu Dhabi.

It occurred to Latifa and two of her friends, Hind Al Nuaimi and Fatima Ali Bin Salim, to introduce to the community the concept of the ‘Moving Souq' — an Emirati version of a garage sale.

The first thing they did was head to the Community Service department at the Abu Dhabi Municipality to register their idea and complete the required paperwork to hold this event.

They then set up registration and started spreading the word through social media for anyone who would be interested in participating.

The girls were pleased by the reaction they received from the community; the message spread and in no time, they had 25 registered community members, who will be selling handmade accessories, used books, clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery and other items this evening.

"We decided we would be charging Dh200 per stall. A small amount of our profits will be used to cover our costs and the rest will go to charity," Latifa said.

"Putting this together wasn't easy at all, especially that we had to run around for paperwork, while keeping up with studies and our other activities, but with support from our parents and friends, it's finally happening."

Follow them on twitter: @MovingSouq

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Smart cookie hopes to open store in Abu Dhabi

                                   

Frustration, boredom and unemployment resulted in a 23-year-old Emirati turning to baking for solace. Khulood Al Muhairi's answer to a life not going exactly her way was to create cookies.

"It was the end of 2009 and job hunting wasn't going too well," she said, recalling the difficult days.

That is when Khulood started baking up a storm in her kitchen. Two years later the cookies are in great demand in Abu Dhabi.

"I've always enjoyed cooking. I see it both as a passion and an art. I used to make pastas and salads in my free time, but baking was a new experience," she said.

"One summer day, I decided to make dessert for my family and friends. I started playing with peanut butter and cookie dough, and that's when it all began."

To her joy, everybody loved the cookies and asked her to bake some more.

She started experimenting with ingredients like chocolate chips, coffee, pistachio, coconut, cinnamon, ginger and almond. It resulted in Khulood creating five different original cookie flavours.

Then her older sister suggested she start a little home business. At first Khulood was hesitant.

"I wasn't sure at first, I thought it was a silly idea, and I was scared of failing, but with the insistence of my sister and close friends, I decided to give it a try," she said.

It was then, with the support of her family and friends that her brand, ‘K's cookies', was launched.

"With financial support from my mother in the beginning and help from my friends in the brand concept and design, I launched a Twitter page dedicated for cookie orders."

Word started to spread, and the orders started coming in. 

In no time, K's cookies had more than 200 followers on Twitter. She then started taking orders by phone and by e-mail, and later launched a website.

During that time, Khulood got hired for a full-time job in the media department of a company in Abu Dhabi. She was forced to divide time between her day job and K's cookies.

"I spend the day at work, come home and rest for an hour. I then start baking at 5pm and sometimes that goes on until after midnight, depending on the orders that I need to deliver," she said. "It's extremely tiring working all day, taking orders, arranging for deliveries and dealing with last-minute cancellations."

She said: "My cookies have a certain quality and standard, which my customers are used to. It's not easy finding the right ingredients for that while being cost-effective."

In a year's time and if all goes according to plan, Khulood is hoping to open a K's Cookies store in Abu Dhabi.

Her advice for every young person with an idea, hope or project in mind is: "Dream, dream and take action. Be courageous, be confident, take the opinions of the people around you and accept constructive criticism."

Follow her on twitter: @Kscookies
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Emiratis blaze their own trail to entrepreneurship

It all started while on a trip to India almost two years ago. Four young Emiratis were united by a common desire to make something for themselves — and the way they chose to do so was to become entrepreneurs.

Mohammad Kazim, 28, one of the four, said: "My friends and I were just sharing thoughts and all of a sudden the idea of establishing our own business came up."

Faisal Lutfi, 27, said: "Back then we weren't exactly sure what the business was going to be, but the initial idea grew when we returned home and started meeting regularly to explore it."

Slowly the idea of Allinque — a personal assistance service based in Dubai — evolved.

"A few discussions and brainstorming sessions later, we came up with an innovative idea that would tackle an issue that many young professionals struggle with daily — better use and management of time," Ahmad Al Ashram, 28, said.

"As soon as we completed the financial model, we moved to the pilot stage, where we tried out the service on 80 of the people we know to test the process," Faisal said.

In January the project went live. Allinque, which targets young working professionals, provides its members with assistance in their daily tasks that they either do not have the time to do, or need to delegate.

Whether the task is to make a restaurant reservation, pick up laundry, buy groceries, send birthday balloons or finish bank paperwork, if it's legal and doable, the Allinque personal assistance service will take care of it.

The company offers three types of yearly contracts. A gold membership provides 40 hours of service per month, a silver membership gets 20 hours and bronze allows 10 hours. Information about the company can be found on its website www.Allinque.com.

One of the team's biggest financial investments was in the sophisticated software. As soon as a member rings the call centre, the system automatically links the number to their file, which pops up for the personal assistant, allowing him or her to be assisted in an efficient manner. The system also tracks the number of hours spent on each task.

When a member makes a request, he or she is sent an order confirmation via a phone text message within minutes. They are then regularly updated on the status of the request until it is completed.

All staff are signed into a binding client confidentiality agreement to protect the people who use the service. Since its launch, Allinque has attracted a diverse group of clients.

"We have Emirati, American, Lebanese, Indian, British and Saudi customers," Faisal said.

"We once received a request from a customer to wrap a car which he was giving to his wife as a gift, and we did it," Ahmad said. "Another request was to transfer a sick cat from Abu Dhabi to Dubai for surgery. We also managed to find a way to do that."

Certain services — especially hotel, ticket and travel reservations — are not limited to the UAE. An Allinque personal assistant can plan the logistics for an international trip and make all the bookings and reservations required by the customer.

So what would be the best advice that the group would like to give other entrepreneurs? "Do not venture into a new business without preparation and planning but also don't wait for years to execute," Khalid Gobash, 29, said.

"There is no perfect business book, plan or strategy that guarantees your success."

Follow them on twitter: @AllinquePA
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