Get Digital seminar

 Today I attended Get Digital seminar. It is about two startup business that started using technology. What they faced and what they did and how they succeeded.           

 The first speaker was MS.Salwa she is the founder of HayaTours which is a company that provides trips throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Salwa hated staying in the home after she retired so she started this company . her company focuses on the history and cultural heritage .The value of her company is to offer high-quality services and to give the expats and experiences and share culture and eat traditional food . She faced a lot of challenges one of them was that it took her nine months to have licenses . she wanted everything to be legal and right and I respect her for that,( here is 10 Big Legal Mistakes Made By Startups ). What was challenging for her also was the distention and how to get there and what fit best for her client . and I found it festinating that she said according to her studying her client that Japanese people love to take bus because they are afraid of the car insurance if they have an accident and that what I like about learning about your customer it proved you with information that helps you to serve them better . She had a wonderful support from her family and husband but not from the government they won’t give her the licenses because she is a female but she fought till she took it . In the start, she connected with her customer via emails and phone calls because she had no office but now she has an office that she can take trips order from it too . Technology helps you when you startups, it save a lot of money imagine if Haya Tours were established in the  80’s  the company will need so much money just to open the store and the cars . but on a lot of cases technology eliminate place nowadays .

 The second speaker was MS. Mashal Al-Deen she is the marketing manager in Vanilla  ,vanilla is a Saudi online company that sells things related to women. She said education is great but you don’t have to work as your educational level tells you, you can work anywhere and anything till you discover what you love the most your passion and your interest is what you will be in future make it guide you( and I remembered this inspiring video where Steve Jobs say, love, what you do) .The company started as an idea from student in internet club, from that they started and now they have 50 employee . in marketing they had a lot of success stories and here some of them : (1) They studied their customer and customer behavior then came up with the idea of email marketing they started to do an email article about the market and such as and people loved it . (2) Double the number of orders , the number of people working in your office don’t tell you anything about your successes when Vanilla shortage the number of their employees and make sure that the right person works in the right place the number of orders increases to the double .It remained me of the story that I read on Forbes click if you’re interested. (3) According to MR Scott Berkun  “Good criticism of a work in progress serves one purpose: to give the creator of the work more perspective and help them make their next set of choices.” ,  costumes that compline is the best employees you can have, Vanilla had one of kind experiences that blow my mind with that. One day they received criticism comment with a solution  and they contact with the critic and them hair her to work for them .

The best marketing is the result of huge data , not a necessary statistic but it can be a social data. Every time someone email Vanilla that they want to open an online store they encourage them and guide them from A to Z , their reasons is that they believe that the market is huge and we want information not only based on our experiences but on a lot of expertness to understand the market better and gather a big data . Their marketing strategies are via SMS messages , emails and social media, cross marketing if both companies target the same people is more efficiency . Influencers , vanilla focus on honesty on their marketing with influencers .

Finally , a startup business is a great way to expand your knowledge and test it. It is like google if you want to learn about anything you can, startup businesses give you the best experiences in work life. Also don’t be ignorant, do not stop learning don’t think for second that you know it all that will limit you . always challenge yourself and stay out of your comfort zone . if your dreams don’t scare you will not work for them . 

 

 References 

Forbes/Richard Harroch. 2013. 10 Big Legal Mistakes Made By Startups. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/10/03/big-legal-mistakes-made-by-start-ups/#42208264488f. [Accessed 24 November 2016].

Forbes/Amy Rees Anderson. 2013. Successful Companies Put The Right People In The Right Jobs. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/amyanderson/2013/02/27/getting-the-right-people-into-the-right-seats-on-the-bus-is-essential-to-a-companys-success/#4c18b06c1071. [Accessed 24 November 2016].

youtube . 2015. لسفة النجاح) ستيف جوبز Steve Jobs [ مترجم للعربية ]. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xTHJmBO3QE. [Accessed 24 November 2016].

Scott Berkun . 2015. How to give and receive criticism. [ONLINE] Available at: http://scottberkun.com/essays/35-how-to-give-and-receive-criticism/. [Accessed 24 November 2016].