METEOROLOGY GEL-1370 Chapter Three Chapter Three Air Temperature.
Chapter three
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www.bqdoha.com bq | SMBs+ENTREPRENEURSHIP I VIRTUAL OFFICES 78 Qatar Family Bookshop, one of Qatar’s oldest bookstores, finds a new lease of life with its third location By Khadiza Begum, Doha It’s a calm day in Barwa Village, and by the side of the road bq locates a bookstore. The managing partner is a middleman who loves being around books and can easily get lost between their pages. It feels like he holds the knowledge of the whole world and more in his little store. Fifty-nine year old Oussama Hammad takes a look back to share his journey… bq: How did you get into the book selling business? Oussama Hammad: I earned a master's degree in the profession of bookselling in Lebanon and it made me fond of being around books. In 1980, I moved to Qatar and since then I have been in this business, first as an employee, and later I was assigned as managing director and also own a share of the business. There were other reasons to come to Qatar at that time as Israel invaded Lebanon, so I decided to keep working in Qatar to support my family. bq: Tell us more about your store, including its history and location. OH: Up until 2008, the Family Bookshop used to have a large showroom in the Al Nasr area, but we had to move as the building was demolished, so a new mall which is still under construction, could be built. Due to the high rent of the show- rooms just before the world financial crisis in 2008, we had to rent a smaller shop in the Aziziya area, then we moved to the Barwa Village in 2012. bq: How do you finance yourself? Do you use banks for loans? OH: In the eighties, we used to depend on our sales to finance our business as well as on some bank facilities (so it was not really a bank loan but a kind of credit facility), but now after having credit accounts with many publishers abroad, we are able to depend on ourselves. Usually, publishers give us an average of 90 days credit; so when we place orders, we do not CHAPTER THREE Name: Family Bookshop Type: Bookstore Partner and managing director: Oussama Hammad Nationality: Lebanese Location: Barwa Village the most active in trying to grab the opportunity created by SME businesses. Non-life insurer AXA Gulf recently launched a dedicated sales unit offering insurance solutions for SMEs in the UAE. Its study reveals that only 11 percent of SMEs were fully confident of their insurance company. They still see obstacles with growing business and cite a lack of confidence, over-com- plexity and lack of knowledge of the importance of explicit insur- ance. The study also showed that SMEs often prefer to remain uninsured or underinsured as they are under the impression that their key risks cannot be covered. Focus on performance Another area that has benefited due to renewed focus on SMEs is corporate governance. It was announced earlier this year that Dubai SME has engaged and partnered with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to enhance corporate gov- ernance capabilities of the Dubai SME100 companies. Dubai SME co-organized a two-day workshop with IFC to help CEOs of these companies and their senior management teams to improve their corporate governance practices, and highlight its role in fostering sustained enterprise growth. Dubai SME100 identifies the top-performing SMEs in Dubai to help groom them into bigger and more sustainable enterprises, and support them through their growth into larger, internationally-oriented companies. Al Janahi maintains that SMEs play an essential role in developing the economy as they are the source of innovations and new business creation and are a powerful driving force for private sector growth and development. “Dubai being a non-tax economy, it is critical that our SMEs start early in their corporate governance jour- ney; as this will help them achieve a more professionally-man- aged organization in the long term. This will in turn help them attract good talent, clients and investors,” he explains. The proverbial gap between the cup and the lip is narrow- ing for SMEs in the region. If there are gaps, they are being addressed, challenges are being tackled and the ground is being prepared for a greater surge in the future. How- ever, Roberto Mancone, head of Global Business Products, Deutsche Bank, believes there is an urgent need for dialogue and consensus on the priorities facing SMEs as we now enter what can officially be called The Age of the SMEs. “The emer- gence of the much-discussed West-East corridor opens up fresh opportunities, but also poses questions about pricing and competitive advantage that many SMEs won’t always be equipped to handle,” he says. It is inputs such as these that led to an event – SME Beyond Border – which provided a vital tool- kit on key issues. The more such initiatives are launched, the better it will be for all SMEs. Dubai SME data reveals that 95 percent of registered businesses in Dubai consist of SMEs and they contribute more than 40 percent to Dubai’s GDP and 42 percent of its employment. Yet, they receive only 4 percent of bank lending
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Transcript of Chapter three
www.bqdoha.com
bq | SMBs+ENTREPRENEURSHIP I VIRTUAL OFFICES 78
Qatar
Family Bookshop, one of Qatar’s oldest bookstores, finds a new lease of life with its third locationBy Khadiza Begum, Doha
It’s a calm day in Barwa Village, and by the side of the road bq locates a bookstore. The managing partner is a middleman who loves being around books and can easily get lost between their pages. It feels like he holds the knowledge of the whole world and more in his little store. Fifty-nine year old Oussama Hammad takes a look back to share his journey…
bq: How did you get into the book selling business?Oussama Hammad: I earned a master's degree in the profession of bookselling in Lebanon and it made me fond of being around books. In 1980, I moved to Qatar and since then I have been in this business, first as an employee, and later I was assigned as managing director and also own a share of the business. There were other reasons to come to Qatar at that time as Israel invaded Lebanon, so I decided to keep working in Qatar to support my family.
bq: Tell us more about your store, including its history and location. OH: Up until 2008, the Family Bookshop used to have a large showroom in the Al Nasr area, but we had to move as the building was demolished, so a new mall which is still under construction, could be built. Due to the high rent of the show-rooms just before the world financial crisis in 2008, we had to rent a smaller shop in the Aziziya area, then we moved to the Barwa Village in 2012.
bq: How do you finance yourself? Do you use banks for loans?OH: In the eighties, we used to depend on our sales to finance our business as well as on some bank facilities (so it was not really a bank loan but a kind of credit facility), but now after having credit accounts with many publishers abroad, we are able to depend on ourselves. Usually, publishers give us an average of 90 days credit; so when we place orders, we do not
CHAPTER THREE
Name: Family BookshopType: BookstorePartner and managing director: Oussama HammadNationality: LebaneseLocation: Barwa Village
the most active in trying to grab the opportunity created by SME businesses. Non-life insurer AXA Gulf recently launched a dedicated sales unit offering insurance solutions for SMEs in the UAE. Its study reveals that only 11 percent of SMEs were fully confident of their insurance company. They still see obstacles with growing business and cite a lack of confidence, over-com-plexity and lack of knowledge of the importance of explicit insur-ance. The study also showed that SMEs often prefer to remain uninsured or underinsured as they are under the impression that their key risks cannot be covered.
Focus on performance Another area that has benefited due to renewed focus on SMEs is corporate governance. It was announced earlier this year that Dubai SME has engaged and partnered with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to enhance corporate gov-ernance capabilities of the Dubai SME100 companies. Dubai SME co-organized a two-day workshop with IFC to help CEOs of these companies and their senior management teams to improve their corporate governance practices, and highlight its role in fostering sustained enterprise growth.
Dubai SME100 identifies the top-performing SMEs in Dubai to help groom them into bigger and more sustainable enterprises, and support them through their growth into larger, internationally-oriented companies. Al Janahi maintains that SMEs play an essential role in developing the economy as they are the source of innovations and new business creation and are a powerful driving force for private sector growth and development. “Dubai being a non-tax economy, it is critical that our SMEs start early in their corporate governance jour-ney; as this will help them achieve a more professionally-man-aged organization in the long term. This will in turn help them attract good talent, clients and investors,” he explains.
The proverbial gap between the cup and the lip is narrow-ing for SMEs in the region. If there are gaps, they are being addressed, challenges are being tackled and the ground is being prepared for a greater surge in the future. How-ever, Roberto Mancone, head of Global Business Products, Deutsche Bank, believes there is an urgent need for dialogue and consensus on the priorities facing SMEs as we now enter what can officially be called The Age of the SMEs. “The emer-gence of the much-discussed West-East corridor opens up fresh opportunities, but also poses questions about pricing and competitive advantage that many SMEs won’t always be equipped to handle,” he says. It is inputs such as these that led to an event – SME Beyond Border – which provided a vital tool-kit on key issues. The more such initiatives are launched, the better it will be for all SMEs.
Dubai SME data reveals that 95 percent of registered businesses in Dubai consist of SMEs and they contribute more than 40 percent to Dubai’s GDP and 42 percent of its employment. Yet, they receive only 4 percent of bank lending
JANUARY 2015
bq | SMBs+ENTREPRENEURSHIP I VIRTUAL OFFICES 79
have to pay in advance. By the time the invoices from the sup-pliers are due, we usually get collections from our outlets and are in a position to pay publishers and keep the profit margin for us.
Bookselling is the art of ordering the right books at the right time from the right supplier, and it is as well an art to promote and advertise books and sell them the right way
bq: From where do you source your raw materials? OH: We buy most of our books from the UK, UAE and also from India.
bq: How many customers typically visit you?OH: Usually, we receive 10-15 customers per day, but we do concentrate more on distributing to other booksellers.
bq: How big is your shop and what do you pay in rent? Do you feel the rent is a challenge for you? OH: This shop is 500 square feet in size and the rent is QR 11000 per month. Sure, the rent is too high and the high rents directly impact businesses by raising the average total cost.
bq: What other challenges do you face? And what do you do to stay ahead of them? OH: In the beginning our problems were limited as the market was small, but there was an advantage for us as we were one of the few bookshops in Qatar providing English books. The biggest challenge is that the margin on books is not as high as the international prices of the books are known. Also, there are millions of publications appearing in the world each year, so we need to be very careful to choose the most appropriate
and suitable books for the Qatar market.
bq: Also, your store stocks and specializes in what types of books?OH: We try to carry a little of everything since we are a family bookshop, and we specialize in general English books. We have a special order service for individuals and schools and other private and government institutes. We are also a dis-tributor for most tourist/Arabian books and maps of Qatar and Arabia.
bq: Do you recommend books to your customers? OH: Absolutely, we have a lot of regulars. A lot of people have specific interests and we always keep on top of what's new in their specific areas.
bq: What do you love most about your job, about owning a bookstore?OH: It is true that there are more businesses in other fields in Qatar, but for me working in this educational field began as a hobby. Bookselling is the art of ordering the right books at the right time from the right supplier, and it is as well an art to promote and advertise books and sell them the right way. Also, my favorite part is meeting all of the wonderful people; when I sit here and think of all the wonderful people I have met, I am so blessed.
bq: The book industry is experiencing changes, influ-enced by trends from print to digital. How will inde-pendent bookstores fare in this digital age?OH: It’s true that bookstores are under pressure from e-book sales. But I think the experience of buying books from a store is not really matched at all by an electronic device.
bq: Do you have any advice for those who want to enter this industry in Qatar?OH: I do not consider just anybody who is trading books to be a bookseller, because I believe bookselling is an art founded by having the education and background to choose the books and so on. So I would say as things are consistently changing with the times, a newcomer has to care passionately about this business.
bq: What are your future plans? OH: Our plan now is to strengthen our distribution depart-ment as we do have distribution agreements for Qatar books and maps and other Arabian books. Our goal is to open more retail branches in malls or on main streets in the future, which will give us a higher margin in cash direct sales and improve our cash flow. Such a plan will be very profitable, but we are waiting to get enough capital to be able to invest in this line.
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