Ghassan Fadhal began his true journey towards becoming an entrepreneurship guru when he was a scholarship student in New Zealand studying for his Bachelors of Aviation in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering. During my time there he had already begun to establish himself as a social entrepreneur without even knowing it, initiating and co-founding the Omani Student Society of New Zealand and the Muslim Club within the Campus; catering to the needs of students and helping them acclimate to the new culture as well as serving as a support group for them.
It was at this time, that he also had the pleasure of living with a business family who would engage with him on business talks over dinner, including some innovative business ideas and discuss what could work in Oman. It was at this point that Ghassan truly decided that he was not going to be only an engineer for the rest of my life.
“When I came back to Oman and during my six year stint at Oman Air, where I worked as an Aircraft Development Engineer, I involved myself in training and attending everything I possibly could concerning entrepreneurship and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs),” said Ghassan. “It was a good time and financial investment to prepare me for what was to come. I managed to build a good network in this area and when an opportunity arose for me to move to another career in support SMEs, as an In-Country Value professional at Daleel Petroleum LLC, I jumped at it.”
This new position helped Ghassan get closer to entrepreneurship and helped him create a number of SME programs in support of local entrepreneurs. “Entrepreneurship became a passion for me, perhaps even an obsession. My coffee discussions with friends and family all now revolved around entrepreneurship and business ideas. At the same time, I started my side gig as a coach and speaker and also co-founded the Andalusia Spa with my sisters.
“Around this same time, I decided to try a few new things and get a feel what kind of business would work for me. With trial and error I eventually discovered what I was really good at helping others perform better at their business and as leaders,” he said. As a result, Ghassan Fadhal the Social Intelligence and Entrepreneurship coach was born. Today, under Ghassan Fadhal Enterprises LLC, he established BizNas Entrepreneurship Advisory Services, a company that caters to the needs of entrepreneurs. He is also in the process of co-founding ‘A La Parte’, a shared economy platform for the buying and selling of spare parts globally.
We caught up with Ghassan to seek his advice on entrepreneurship and what young entrepreneurs need to look out for when starting out on their own business venture. Here are the excerpts from the interview:
Why did you take up entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I am still employed with an aim to grow the business for me to move into it fully. This pattern has been an effective model for lot of successful entrepreneurs worldwide. So yes, I work at a corporate job but it is to help me finance my business. Entrepreneurs like myself seek three main things – making a positive change, freedom, and making enough money to be financially independent. These three things can be achieved through entrepreneurship, but it requires dedication and hard work for a substantial amount of time. I always advise businesses that they need to think of surviving over a long term within the market in order to be successful.
Do you ever stop learning? How do you continue to educate yourself?
My greatest assets as an entrepreneur, are my ideas and knowledge; as such, I consider continuous learning essential for me to grow. I try to learn from as many sources as possible. There are however three primary sources of knowledge that many successful entrepreneurs rely on – reading books and journals, attending courses, and learning by asking and discussing with experts. Many of the entrepreneurs I have coached achieved success in their businesses after developing the habit of reading.
What do you enjoy most about your job? Is there something you are most proud of?
In the entrepreneurship advisory business, the thing I enjoy most is the continuous exposure I get to new innovative ideas and business models. I am also happiest when I see how a business transforms, grows, and achieves success after being advised by us. I am most proud of the fact that I have guided hundreds of SMEs in Oman and that our efforts have been recognised with the MENAA Best Personal Brand Award 2019.
What role do your partnerships and relationships play in your career?
One thing I emphasise and put a great deal of importance on is my network, relations, and collaborations. In todays entrepreneurship culture, collaboration is a key factor for success and you need to be open to working with other organisations by forming strategic partnerships. You have to remember that you are as strong as your network and your business is as strong as its strategic partners.
Please share with us some of the challenges you feel young Omani Entrepreneurs face.
Some of the challenges a lot of Omani entrepreneurs may face is that the regulatory systems and business environment in Oman is not yet matured to cater fully towards modern entrepreneurship and requires more progressive improvements. We also have challenges with the local culture not yet fully accepting social entrepreneurship as an accepted career path for individuals and they mix up business owners with job seekers still looking to start up their own personal businesses. Another obstacle to growth is that the Omani market is a small market and not big enough to create scalable businesses. If you have an innovative business solution you might need to expand outside of Oman to make it big.
How different is your coaching methodology and services? Tell us more about your own start-up’s journey so far?
When it comes to BizNas, our SME advisory service, it came as a response to the needs of SMEs in the market not having many places for entrepreneurs to go to for help. We started slow with online services where we offer coaching services and support mentorship programs for our clients. What makes us unique is we try to solve the dilemmas small businesses face, especially with regards to having to deal with key business functions such as marketing, finance, HR, legal, etc.
How do we do that you ask? Instead of them having to hire an army of employees they can’t afford, we provide them expert coaches and mentors specialised in these areas to advise them and solve the problems for them for a fraction of what they would have to pay as a salary for an employee. Our Moto is “Making Business Simple” and our slogan is “Business For People”. We have been offering this service since 2016 and for some time now we have been involved in collaborations with Tawasul and Al Rudha on their programmes, Mulhimat and EBDA; which were sponsored by BP for three batches each.
This means that we were able to make more from our B2B than from our B2C, which in turn has helped us keep our prices low and affordable for individual entrepreneurs seeking help. In fact, since we established, we have been able to offer a lot of free programs and pro bono consulting for student start-ups.
What are your most prominent pieces of advice for budding entrepreneurs? What are the first things they need to be aware of when getting started and what do they need to do to maximise their chances for success?
Number one thing is to have the right idea. All businesses are ideas and great portion of businesses fail due to the idea not being the right one in the first place. It is worth discussing the idea and refining it over and over again. The second piece of advice I have is to start small and nimble, to test the idea in the market first. I use a model I call the “Instapreneur” where I advise to start it first on Instagram and sell it to about 100 customers, learning from the feedback and then scaling it to 1,000. Once that’s done you will have enough data to decide if this business will grow and you will be able to move it to a physical location if applicable. Of course this will work only for some types of businesses; for others we would need to check and discuss the best possible approach.
How can a person know if a business sector or niche is the right one to enter?
My criteria for starting a business in any given sector is based on three key factors that I call “the great business idea triangle,” wherein the sector should have:
- A great pain point that you are solving. The more the pain point for the customer the more the return
- Large number of customers willing to pay for your solution.
- Your ability to deliver, compete, and reach all those customers. Higher level competition might hurt you and unless you have the ability to serve them at a level that is exceptionally better, most will go to your competitors.
What are the most important qualities that one must possess or develop in order to be successful as an entrepreneur?
Insight and forward thinking, a positive mental attitude, emotional and social intelligence, patience and hope, and a continuous growth mindset.
What are the largest pitfalls that budding entrepreneurs in Oman can face and how can they avoid/work around them?
Not having control over cashflow and not understanding their finance. A good accounting software will save you a lot of hassle and give you better understanding of your business model and operation, as well as help you plan ahead and fix problems.
Also, many try to be protective of their ideas and don’t share and discuss them with experts who are willing to help them. It is always a good idea to have people you can discuss with or be part of a support group of other entrepreneurs, who can provide you with insight and solutions to your problems. I personally have a master mind group that used to meet on a weekly basis before COVID, but we are trying to stay in touch virtually now.