10 Tips To New Entrepreneurs To Be Successful Within UAE Industry

Emirati business leader Khamis Al-Sheryani and his team launched an innovative electronic application called “Rafeeg”, which is the first of its kind for home maintenance and decoration services, aiming to provide an opportunity for users whether they are individuals or companies to access the licensed maintenance and decoration companies in UAE.

Al-Sheryani, the founder of the app said about his innovation, “an electronic market “Rafeeg”, that allow users to access the licensed maintenance and decoration companies in the UAE, as it provides access to more than a 1000 licensed companies in the country and comparing them according to important information such as service fees, business exhibition and people’s opinions which is also helps users to choose the best company suits them to do the work they need directly, and all this can be done with the press of a button (click), without the need to leave their house.”

The Founder of (Rafeeg App), Khamis Al-Sheryani has participated in the final version of the Palace Pioneers Competition. It is an initiative launched by Prince Andrew, Duke of York in 2014 to support entrepreneurs by providing them with the best opportunities to reach mentors, instructors, consultants, distribution systems, supply and investments opportunities. Al-Sheryani was one of the winners of the UAE version for 2019 year.

And here are the 7 tips listed below to help entrepreneurs in their businesses.

a)     Take Advantage of similar past innovations: It was necessary for me as an entrepreneur to study previous and similar innovations around the world in within the same sector as well as other sectors and fields to start grinding the feasibility of the project, to ensure diagnosing and knowing the needs of the market and users and to know from where to start as a business. This step includes also diagnosing competitors to determine strengths and weaknesses, then to proposed values provided by the app. (Rafeeg App) to users.

b)    Assign a team of experts to oversee and manage the continuation of monitoring for such important operational activities, as well as following up on developments and innovations to maintain the provision of the modern services compatible with market and customers’ requirements.

c)     Applied Techniques: As the application includes several innovations, devoted to ensuring the ease of use and effectiveness which is desired by users, homeowners and companies alike, including instant chat, that users can chat with the companies directly and they can also exchange photos and videos in order to facilitate the completion of the agreements.

·        However, Rafeeg App. Provides users with a system of tenders that allow them to submit a request for proposals from companies and receive them to make a comparison between them from both financial and technical approaches (sides), in order to determine the company that is most suitable for awarding business to it.

·        The Application (Rafeeg) has a call center system that allows customer service employees to follow up on the requests of users, responsible for their requests to make sure of the immediate response and to ensure the completion of their work as required.

·        Rafeeg App. Presents a performance dashboard according to pre-agreed performance indicators and targets. This dashboard enables services providers to determine their levels and measure their weaknesses to help them improve and develop their employees’ skills.

d)    The goal of innovation: for us as Rafeeg Application, the main goal of creating the app is to fill a gap that was found in the market. Where there were challenges in the community related to employing or hiring maintenance and decoration companies and retail shops specially during such epidemic (Covid-19); it starts from the need to leave the house, then go to industrial areas to look for specific maintenance company or providers to deal with, and ensuring its efficiency as there are no standards and indicators for such that indicates the efficiency of such company. So, many people use the easiest way by running a web search, or asking recommendations of family and friends for people they have worked with previously, but this is subject to evaluation of one person which is not accurate. Thus, Rafeeg App bridges such a gap by being the trusted reference for the homeowners connecting them with specialized and reliable companies, and allowing them to give other customer’s feedback on each company. So, they can evaluate and choose the most appropriate one for them.

e)     Difficulties: We all face challenges on a daily basis, and it's normal for entrepreneurs as well to do so. But what distinguishes us as entrepreneurs from others is that the UAE environment provides us with the benefits of the Government initiatives and incentives that they launched and which is supporting the SME environment and companies, and which makes us as (Rafeeg App) be there.

f)      Expansions: As an Emirati Entrepreneur and businessman, I have no intention to launch other Applications and would rather focus on developing (Rafeeg App) and advise all the new entrepreneurs to focus on one project at time and not to distribute resources and focus on several projects.

g)    Growth: Instead of other new projects I would rather look for geographic expansion and adding more services to become a one-stop shop for all services.