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Fatima Al Shirawi

Fatima Al Shirawi: Defining Supremacy with Expertise

In an interview with Insights Success, the Emirati Founder and Entrepreneur of The Gracious F, Fatima Al Shirawi shares her great insight towards organization’s journey and its specialized solutions and services. Also, she broadly discussed about company’s core competencies and about how company is establishing in the market.
Fatima is a BA in Sociology and Marketing from George Washington University, she is also Certified from Polimoda Fashion School in Florence and London College of Fashion as a Certified colour Consultant accredited by The Colour Affects Institute.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Fatima and Insights Success:
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to appeal to the target audience?
The Gracious F started as an Individual Colour Consultancy firm to support individuals to enhance their day to day through science of colour, might that be in their aesthetics or their emotional balance. Within following years our individual clients had requirements within their corporate, interior and fashion segments to increase their productivity and revenues through support of colour science. Past few years The Gracious F has also been catering to all major segments of business with tools of colour science, and is now also a accredited educational platform that offers trainings within Luxury Retail, Management universities and Government entities. Our diversification has been natural once the knowledge of colour science and its benefits spread within the region.
Describe some of the vital attributes that every entrepreneur should possess.
Apart from Passion, motivation and market adaptability to cater to your audience within your business concept, Research, a lot of Research was vital. Therefore, these would be the Vital Attributes every entrepreneur should possess.
How do you strategize your game plans to tackle competition in the market?
I strongly believe there is no such thing as direct competition in the colour consulting segment, however all the similar concepts motivate me and my team, to exceed in our performance for every service we offer. All other organizations in the similar business concept compliment somehow our concept, and our first approach is to see how we could collaborate in the future with similar organizations, in order to create and perform more efficient and greater combination of services within the field of colour.
What are the frequent challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the workplaces and what are the ways to tackle them?
I will not lie, being a women entrepreneur has not been an easy path, especially within the region I started my operations, where women entrepreneurs were only existent and identified in some specific industries, such as interior, Fashion, FMBs and Government Organizations. Women worldwide are sometimes not taken seriously, and constantly put into an intimidating spot, my solution for this has always been, craft and perfect your abilities and show your challengers you are the best within your industry.
What were the primal challenges and roadblocks you faced during the initial phase of your career as an entrepreneur?
My primal challenges were associated to managing my finances, as I had no investment support when I started my journey within this industry but had imagined my company and expansion. My first step was to prioritize my needs, my initial investment was applied to my organizations marketing tools, such as my website and PR in order to offer awareness to my target audience in understanding the science of colour and its benefits, which by the way will always be consistent. To afford this strategy, I was located at a shared office for a few years and had a virtual PA for support. Yes, it was a one man show and this was not easy.
Where do you see yourself in the near future and what are your future goals?
This is my favorite question, there are many things I see myself and The Gracious F doing in the future. However, the most significant goal is to be the leading colour consultancy firm globally. Which will allow me to support individuals and corporations in achieving their goals. The key is to understand that the colour psychology is a personal enhancement technique when it comes to individuals and a revenue generating science when it comes to organizations and firms, not a philosophy.
What is your advice for budding and emerging Shepreneurs?
Have no fear, take the challenges, no business is small or big, it’s your concept and attitude that make you a successful “shepreneur”