Fatima Liban Ahmed lives in Mogadishu, Somalia. She is one of the businesswomen in Mogadishu. She finished secondary school at Mo’asser Secondary School of Science and Technology. In 2016, Fatima joined SIMAD University to pursue her next educational journey after high school. She studied Economics, particularly Statistics and Planning, and graduated in July 2020.

The 3 Words That Define Fatima’s Personality

Fatima’s personality can be described in 3 words. She is dedicated, generous, and honest. She makes her own decisions and is committed to what she does. She gives more than she expects, and she is honest and caring in personality.

The Promising Start-up Journey Begins

In 2020, Fatima joined SIMADiLab, which is a prominent innovation hub in Somalia. The lab used to offer two courses at that time, so she took both entrepreneurship and employability courses. In the entrepreneurship track, Fatima learned how to generate business ideas and solve community issues that require solutions. As part of her journey in the entrepreneurship course, she figured out a problem that Somali women face. “I felt that our girls do not always get dresses that are fit, comfortable, and Islamically accepted and that is one of the reasons behind the idea of my start-up”. It is the business people that determine the market and bring whatever they think can generate income without considering the girl’s clothing choices.

Another reason behind Fatima’s business idea was that she felt that girls have problems with dressmaking men. Girls do not get their orders timely.  “Mostly, you see women in the tailoring places; they are not served well and respectably, they are delayed, and their time is being wasted every time”.

Therefore, for these reasons she tried to help those ladies and solve their clothing problems. She has set up a place where women’s dresses are designed and tailored. That is what the business will be. There will be no men, and they will feel comfortable and freedom to get dressing choices. In Fatima’s business, girls are given different choices of designs and tailoring services, which means they provide products and services at the same time. Notably, Fatima won the best start-up idea in 2020.

Naming Business

For the first time, Fatima named her business Astur Hijabs and by experience, she found that there were two other businesses before her with the same name. She later on decided to change the business name. One of the most beautiful things you will read in the story is that Fatima’s business name then originated from the Holy Koran (Maknoon) which means “hidden beauty” or “the secret beauty”. That was very interesting.

Challenges Faced

When you start a new thing, especially in business, there are challenges that everyone must face, and she was not different. She experienced challenges and the most significant ones were:

Fear

Generally, fear is the enemy of everyone who wants to do something good. It blocks ways to reach goals and fulfill your promises. So Fatima used to fear excessively thinking every time and question herself doubting whether she will be successful or not.

Lack of Experience

Sometimes startup founders are fresh graduates, and they might not study business so lack of experience will be a challenging issue. Practically, entrepreneurs like Fatima didn’t know how to market their business and solve problems, which come with the startup due to a lack of experience.

Financing

Fatima’s favorite quote is “You don’t need money to start a business, but you need money to grow”. Another pressing challenge she faced was the issue of financing her startup. It was easy to start a business with a small amount of money. However, when it comes to growing your business, it requires money to be sustainable in the market and grow substantially.

Tailoring Sector

As a lady, choosing the tailoring sector was challenging for Fatima because the Somali perspective is that they believe that tailoring business is for men not for women.

Tips for The Entrepreneurs

The tip Fatima gives to the future entrepreneurs is that they should critically think about the business idea. Is it worth spending your time, is it unique, is it valuable, and solves real problems in the community? It must not be me too business, if so then you have to think of a different way you can provide the same product or offer the same service.

Another important tip is to start a business with a partner (group). Starting a business alone is challenging. Sometimes you feel stressed, tired and worry a lot. So if you are a group of people, then you can motivate one another; you have someone who stands by your side when you are down. That will shine your hope and you keep fighting for your dream. But who will be your partner? He/she must be someone with you who shares the same vision and is as honest as you are, which is very important.