Shabbir (Khurshid) Jawrawala, MBA Marketing, having worked for 17 years in Travel business (12 yrs in Gulf) starts a business of LED Lights in Qatar. His motivating and adoptable business journey demonstrates keenness to learn, move out of comfort zone and expand in new field.
He graduated with Bachelors of Arts from Mumbai University, Mumbai, Maharastra, India in 2002. Along with graduation he was working in a travel agency in Mumbai for 5 years. He enrolled for distance learning for MBA Marketing in 2009 from Annamalai University and completed his post-graduation in 2011.
In mid of 2002, he arrived in Qatar and joined a well-established Al-Manai travel agency as a counter staff. Due to his past experience, dedication and aggressiveness in getting jobs done, he was given the charge to setup a new department – Holidays & Leisure. He started with a team of 3 people. At this time there were very few mumineen in Qatar. But once Asian Games were announced in 2006, this brought the boom of Qatar economy and many more mumineen started to settle here.
With his dedication, tactfulness and hard work by 2012 he expanded the team to 21 people. He climbed the corporate ladder to team leader, supervisor, assistant manager and manager. Then came a time when everything was smooth running. Secure income, head of the department, in this comfort zone, he would never think of starting his own business.
In 2012, he was offered job by another travel company to establish a new department in Bahrain, Qatar and Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. He took up the challenge as he was given a budget, free hand to plan and execute the setup of the ‘Holiday & Leisure’ department in 3 countries.
The turning point came in his life when during his vajebaat, the amil saheb of Bahrain advised and mentioned that professional people like him do not take up business as they prefer secure income and are afraid to take risk. He concluded saying “Rozi na zaman Khuda che” ane “Rizq to Kahi si bhi Awse”. This line kept striking his thoughts; the bolt of lightning struck his mind to think other than a secure job and transit to business. Of course, “How and When” was the ultimate big question!
He had to travel regularly between Qatar, Saudi and Bahrain and this gave him opportunity to interact with many of our people businessmen and his network expanded rapidly. He began to realize that this new setup leveraged his entrepreneurial spirit as this allowed him exposure to; how to setup a new business unit from ground up, face the difficulties associated with it and overcome them. Also as in Bahrain, the majority of mumineen are in business; they would always encourage and utter the offer to assist him; whenever he was ready to switch to business. This constant dialogue of the businessmen played a key motivating reminder.
During this time he entered into a discussion with a well known Mumin entrepreneur, who wanted to start a new business unit and was looking for someone who could head that unit. They already had well established hardware business to look after. The discussions continued for over 2 months while all the financial and partnership aspects were discussed. Finally it was agreed that he would offer remote support for the setup. They were granted the Raza Mubarak in December 2013 for LED lights business and the name granted was “Burhan Brilliant Electronics Technology”.
His investing partner put in the capital and they carried out the initially planning, hired people and by April 2014 they launched the new showroom in Doha, Qatar. They ran the operation but after 3-4 months began to realize that remote monitoring and 1-2 days week visit was not working out well to get into next stage. He was then granted Raza to sit on Vypaar bethak. This gave him the courage to take the step to resign from the job as a manager and relocate to Qatar in Jan 2015 as a full time working partner.
It was challenging for him as this was a new business in electronics and he was completely new to it. But as he is still young and is eager to learn the trade. He does part time consultancy in Travel too while the business takes a take while to stabilize. Asked as why he did not venture to setup a travel business, he said the capital required in huge, small margin and stabilization time is large. Therefore he wasn’t keen to pursue in that direction.
His family was very supportive. They said if Aqa Moula (tus) has granted Raza, then don’t look back. This daily support and references in difficult time of temptation is crucial in his successful transition to business, he says. Aamil saheb of Qatar fosters the habit in mumineen, that if you are well established in your business help others mumineen to switch to business and provide the required assistance. This guidance was very helpful as well.
They are now engaged in retail and trading of LED lights and have acquired agencies of 3 different brands.
His skills in sales, marketing and administration are helping him to establish and stabilize his new business. His key trait of managing people is immensely easing the dealing with suppliers, new customers and contractors. He is very thankful to the support, trust and assistance of his business partners.
He is glad to have made the right move before turning 40. Thought many areas are grey for him but there is not turning back. His family is very supportive. He has the habit of learning and thus he is overcoming the technical challenges. Yes there is a learning curve, as he faces obstacles but eventually he lands on the solutions and life goes on.
His current priority is to stabilize the business before spreading out more avenues in the same line.
Shabbir bhai (Khurshid) Jawrawala quotes :
“Work for Yourself”
“Do not hesitate to seek guidance from businessman who are enthusiastic to help transit to business from jobs and grow. This could be financial assistance, mentoring or moral support.”
The Journey is really interesting, inspiring, motivating. Hope to hear more from your end. All the best for your website
Thank You.