HIMS

INTERVIEW WITH MS. ALIA KHAN ONE OF

THE MOST INSPIRING WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS IN PAKISTAN
MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR EMERGING MARKETS

SHAHBANO KHAN

SUBMISSION TO: MR. HUMAYUN ANSARI

The Role of Business Incubators in Promoting Entrepreneurship. Developing an
entrepreneurial ecosystem is the best option to put Pakistan on fast track economic
growth.Youth has shown great interest towards entrepreneurship, however, a need of
supportive environment to start businesses and unleash their potential for making Pakistan a
thriving economy is the main objective of this report.

Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
Pakistan

Table of Contents
Women Entrepreneurship Initiatives.........................................................................2
Marketing Assistance.................................................................................................4
Business Plan Development......................................................................................4
Facilitation for Financing..........................................................................................4
Training programs for Entrepreneurship Development.............................................5
Technical Assistance..................................................................................................5
Industry Academia Linkages.....................................................................................5
Future Plans...............................................................................................................5
Engagement of Youth................................................................................................5
Connectivity to markets and people..........................................................................5
Strengthen IPRs.........................................................................................................5
Expanding the network of Women Business Centers (upto 25):...............................5
Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs
in Pakistan:................................................................................................................8

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Women Entrepreneurship Initiatives

The women economic development in Pakistan has been quite ignored and over the years most
of the programs/ interventions have been directed towards removing violence against women,
womens primary education and health care, women crisis centers and most recently a rigorous
drive on political empowerment of women by giving them 20% representation in the National
Assembly of Pakistan. Despite governmental commitment and donors efforts to reduce gender
inequalities, nothing has been done with regards to developing proper women economic action
plan to uplift women socio-economic status. On ad hoc basis, some common facility centers and
vocational/technical training institutes to enhance female participation rate have been established
which provide traditional skills. On the other hand, to mobilize youth energy into economic
sectors, government has launched internship programs and other incentives yet its impact on the
grass root level is not visible due to lack of information and knowledge to young females
regarding these facilities. The result is that many girls become confined to their homes.
Looking at the demand side, during 2000-2005, a large group of urban based educated women
proactively, knocked different government department doors for enterprise development
facilitation. But none of these organizations were able to cater their specialized needs such as;

Offices on affordable rents

Display areas

Specialized training programs to improve employability of females through diversification in

professional skills

Direct guidance and support to young and creative potential female entrepreneurs

Building strong network of Women Business

Information on business documentation

Collectively as well as independently, these intermediary organizations have facilitated on peace

meal basis. However, there was a need for holistic program for enterprise and leadership

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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development of women in Pakistan to enhance their potential and facilitate in their endeavors.
Hence, SMEDA stepped in to support the development of this marginalized segment of
economic enterprise. SMEDA immediately, reached out to businesswomen nationwide through
its helpdesks at key business towns around Pakistan.
Our extensive interaction with Women Entrepreneurs (WEs) at various platforms clearly
indicates that lack of business management skills, information gaps and lack of networking are
major impediments in the development of women led businesses in Pakistan. It is in this
background, different intervention/ projects are being undertaken by SMEDA, independently as
well as with local/ international partners for complementing each others efforts in reaching out
for Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan. The main activities include:
Women Business Development Center (WBDCs): As per the demand of WEs, the WBDCs at
Karachi, Quetta and Swat are in process of establishment which will be opening within 2012.
Owing to the success and growing demand of WBIC, a proposal for opening new centers across
Pakistan including AJK and GB on similar lines has been submitted to government of Pakistan
for approval of funding. The objective is so to give equal opportunity to educated house-wives
and young girls in other regions for setting up a successful business in a flexible working
arrangement that fits well with their role as women. WBICs Clients are women from diverse
backgrounds reflecting multi-faceted nature of Women Businesses are its Clients. Especially
WEs dealing in manufacturing, trading or services sector (excluding clinical doctors, dentists,
lawyers and NGOs) stand to gain the most from this facility. Of course there are flexibility to
accommodate novel business ideas, mooted by Women Entrepreneurs (WEs).
Capacity Building Program for South Punjab: SMEDAs WED Cell during 2011-12 designed a
program for capacity building of WEs of South Punjab with consultation of chambers members.
The program included, training program titled Enhancing Exhibition Skills, in which 50 WEs
participated. Also provided sponsorship to 20 WEs at Islamabad Expo 2012. Moreover,
organized market exposure visit to 16 WEs at Lahore.
Pre-feasibility Studies: Over 180 pre-feasibility studies prepared to assist the start-up and these
studies are easily downloadable from SMEDAs website (www.smeda.org.pk). WE oriented
studies are Day Care Center, High School, Montessori School, Internet Caf, Private Hospital,
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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Medical Transcription, Boutique, Flower Shop, Wooden Furniture Workshop, Beauty Clinic, and
many more.
Opportunity in Exhibitions: SMEDA in collaboration with partner organizations have sponsored
over 120 Women Entrepreneurs in different local exhibitions and 5 ladies went to SME
Technology Fair, 2009 Mauritius.
Marketing Assistance: SMEDA provides advisory services to WEs to develop proper
marketing plans, export documentation, labeling, proper brochure & website development along
with registration of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Copyrights.
Business Plan Development: SMEDA develops customized and demand driven
business plans for entrepreneurs.
Facilitation for Financing: SMEDA has signed MoU with First Women Bank Limited
(FWBL) to provide financial assistance on priority basis to WEs having adequate work
experience in their line of business. Moreover, SMEDA offers advisory services assistance for
securing finance/credit from various financial institutions. Side by side provide advice on
financial cycle management, inventory management, and efficient production management.
Training programs for Entrepreneurship Development: Conducts training
programs across Pakistan covering management, technical and skill development training
sessions, in which more than 300 ladies have already participated.
Technical Assistance: provide information to WEs on latest technology innovations as
well as industry based machinery and tools requirements. Moreover, for energy efficiency
management, special team provide hands-on-support.
Industry Academia Linkages: SMEDA has build a close liaison with different
universities gender studies department for conducting need based activities such as
Entrepreneurship Courses & Seminars, Internship with WEs, exposure visits to Chambers &
Industrial clusters, and meeting with Women Role Models. Some of the institutions linked up
with SMEDA are Punjab University-Lahore, Fatima Jinnah Women University- Islamabad,
Peshawar University, and Karachi University.

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Future Plans
The future strategy has been designed keeping in view the targets set forth in the National
Economic Council Implementation Plan of Framework for Economic Growth 2015-16. We plan
to undertake following activities for WEs across Pakistan:
Engagement of Youth: Strengthen our linkages with women colleges/universities to run
entrepreneurship development sessions, create internship opportunities and arrange visits to
industry.
Connectivity to markets and people: Create more opportunities for WEs to
participate in Local Exhibitions, and jointly organize Exposure Visits to different markets e.g.,
Faislabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, & Lahore.
Strengthen IPRs: Equipments WEs with relevant information for branding, labeling and
seeking intellectual property protection for their creative work.
Expanding the network of Women Business Centers (upto 25): As per
the demand of WEs, the WBCs at Karachi, Quetta and Swat are in process of establishment
which will be opening within 2012. While, the success of WBC in other regions have raised the
expectations of WEs operating in other regions and we have received demand for setting up new
centers in Multan, Gujranwala, Islamabad, Abbotabad, D.I.Khan, Muzaffrabad-AJK & Gilgit-GB
on similar lines.
Conduct a need assessment of Women Entrepreneurs across Pakistan to design comprehensive
capacity building program.

Training programs on following topics:

Power of Social Media (Gmail, Facebook & Tweeter)

Effective planning for Product launch

Export Markets & Marketing (non traditional products)

Business Plan Development

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Legal Issues (Contract Mgmt, Taxation, Company Regt.)

Export Import Documentation and Financing Schemes

Small Business Management: Boutique & Textile Designing Business

The programs mentioned above were designed keeping in view the demand of the WEs in that
particular region.
SMEDA women clients categories

WEs running businesses from home

Females keen for business

Would be start ups

Need office in attractive commercial location but want to avoid hassles of maintaining an
independent office

But dont want to venture on an independent office Straight away. Need some flexible
Setting to test prospects of their business

Still stuck with the Question to do or not to do business. Needing advice and concept
clearance

You may become part of SMEDA network by filling in the form. In case, you need business
advice, or jointly want to undertake capacity building program for your particular chamber or
association members, kindly contact us for further details

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Standing tall against Male Dominant Society & Businesses are the
most arduous challenges of Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

Joseph Conrad once rightfully said that:

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with
men.
When it comes to entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs, specifically in Pakistan, face a lot of
uphill challenges. Male dominant society proliferated with chaotic challenges & primitive
doctrines of the majority in Pakistan are some of many challenges of Entrepreneurs in Pakistan.
And still those women entrepreneurs who manage to surpass these challenges and achieve
success in their respective entrepreneurial ventures; demand huge applause & appreciation. Its
in these spirits that I envisioned to promote the untold story of Women Entrepreneur in Pakistan.
Something that can be heralded on global scale. This term report is meant as an elixir to enrich
the entrepreneurial mindset in Pakistani masses and bring the heroic Women Entrepreneurs in
Pakistan under the limelight and town talks. Being Mr. Humayuns most darling mentees got the
opportunity for exploring the Global Entrepreneurship through different ways such as the
internet and personnel meetings in Karachi. And after an extremely insightful & astute session by
Entrepreneurial Guru i.e. Mr. Humayun Ansari, I got engaged in conducting interview of the
Pakistani Woman Entrepreneur that was under the reach of my umbrella. I conducted one
interview and its my pleasure to share with you all. Story of Ms. Alia M Khan running two
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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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businesses with remarkable success. May this story intention to inspire the ones with these
exemplary Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan and to give due credit.
Alia Khan is a successful business woman of Pakistan who currently runs two businesses
namely, the Oyester Fabrics and Al-Huda Mustaqeem Travels & Tours. She is a true source of
inspiration for modern women. Through her hard work, she has established herself as a great
entrepreneur and one of the dominant business women of Pakistan. She is among 10 Dominant
Business Women of Pakistan.

Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women
Entrepreneurs in Pakistan:
Q1: Hello Ms. Alia Khan. Thanks for being here to share your story with the world. So
would like to share with readers about the line of your business?
My pleasure. I am actually running two businesses at the moment:
Oyester Fabrics
In this Fabrics business, I basically buy & sell fabrics at much competitive price in the market. I
also have Fabrics production unit as well. I also have expedited on exporting fabrics to foreign
countries as well including Hongkong.
Al-Huda Mustaqeem Travels & Tours:
A travel agency that specifically offers attractive Umrah Packages. It also has IATA license. For
accommodation & other facilities, I also have obtained license from Saudia Arab Government as
well. I am also working to offer Hajj Package sooner as well.
Q2: What are your personal objectives?
Personal Objectives: Through Innovative research file patents and commercialize machines,
products, and processes that will revolutionize textile industry. To establish as Industrial Textile
Business supplying Technical fabrics and Technical textile products to other international market.
Specialties

Cloth Structure of woven & knitted, Non-woven for end use based on design geometry.

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Psychology of clothing science.

Market research, trend setting.
Management skill.
New yarn developments.
Export product and New development.
Cost control by product design skill.
Reduce product cost by improvement in quality.
Project Evaluation of Technology, Tech-com product feasibility plan, Pay Back period,

ROI calculations, etc.

Rich experience in designing, systems of work culture Good command on CADs.

Q3: Amazing! So how did you land into your entrepreneurial career or in other words, how
did you become one of the aspiring Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan?
Before starting my Oyester Fabrics business, I had a job in textile Industry namely Zahoor
Textile. That experience added a lot to my exposure and insight as how this whole textile
business actually operates. I emphasized a lot on learning knitty-gritty details of business
operations there. Then firstly, I started Fabrics Trading company and I used to buy Fabric at low
cost and sell it at still competitive price in the market in addition to exporting abroad. And then I
expanded my business gradually and launched my own Production Unit. Then in 2000, I started
travel Agency company (Al-Huda Mustaqeem) with the USP of offering economical Umrah
package.
I had immense belief and confidence in myself. And I was of the conviction that I have a huge
phantom of talent and potential which isnt being leveraged during my job career. I was feeling
my abilities to be limited by my job oriented career. I wanted to breach it and had the strong urge
that I should work for myself instead of working for others. Should build my own fortune instead
of working for the rest of my life hired to build others.
Q4 How much take home do you earn to fulfill your objectives?
The term take home seems to make me embarrass to answer right now because people will not
believe that was this the initial actual amount for which I started (laughs) this all. In the
beginning because I was new in the market and had little experience my take home amount was
around 45000 to so on (Blushing). But thanks to the grace of Allah my business flourished and
right now I earn in millions. My ROI is greater than all the expenses or rather the investments

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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that you call in the financial language which was quite insufficient in the start of the business but
because of my partner I had the courage to stand tall.
Q5: Which sub segment of the target market did you chose and why?
The sub segment of the market that I chose in the commencement of my business were the local
small markets for the textile business like Rabi in Tariq road, Saima cloth warehouse etc mostly
the markets of Nazimabad because initially my target was to introduce my product to local
customers with cost effective strategy so that there should be repeat sale of my cloth.
Whereas for my travel agency business I started with minimal amount of packages which were
quiet attractive for the customers and with the grace of our Lord everything went well. Right
now I serve all types of market starting from upper class to lower ones.
Q6: What sales were needed to make the revenue you earned through your take home
amount?
To be very honest your teacher Humayun is one intellectual person I wish to meet him because
the types of questions that he has phrased are unpacking the hidden me (smiling).
Well returning back to the answer the sales that I needed to earn the revenue in order to have the
amount from which I can say that this business is worth it was quite devastating in the beginning.
The sales that were needed in the very beginning were more than 20 warehouse selling of cloth
and it was very hard to achieve this. I made quite a hectic schedule by visiting the warehouse
persons and making them sure that this product will work. I offered quite good packages to them
such as in the beginning I gave them the cloth without taking any money just on the condition if
it will sell more then I will take money from them. Hence constantly doing such tactics I
achieved the sales that I wanted and built a good will with the suppliers. Sometimes I offered
discounted prices to suppliers, then sometimes I offered them sweet little gift like suits for their
wives etc all these strategies made me achieve the desire sales and a great competitive advantage.
Q7: What is Entrepreneurship in your words?
To me, Entrepreneurship starts with faith in your ownself. For me its the hybrid of passion and to
be yourself and catering to your financial needs by working for yourself and achieving your
dreams. And while running your startup/business, you must strive t to be self-sustainable asap.
Generating your own resources.

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Q8: What are the key challenges for you as Entrepreneur or the ones that Women
Entrepreneurs in Pakistan face? Or the challenges that you faced when you were starting
up?
The main challenge for women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan is that its utterly a male dominant
society. This fact itself poses a lot of challenges for us women. When I started up, I faced a lot of
challenges in my entrepreneurial business like I faced a lot of rejections during deals &
transactions. People used to belittle me by saying that what women has to do with fabric/textile
business? They used to assault my moral by saying that I should open a beauty parlor and cant
run this fabric business. The environment in Pakistan has the fibers which creates huge
discouragement for women entrepreneurs.
But still when I started off, I found an educated male partner who was sane enough and had faith
in my skills and abilities. And despite all challenges & hurdles, I remained consistent and opted
for perseverance. Also, in businesses, Links & Relations are extremely important. And like other
entrepreneurs, I also faced the cold start syndrome problem i.e. I had no links and it took time to
develop those.
Q9: How do you Market your products/Services?
We mainly leverage Internet, leaflets & billboards for marketing our business and reaching out to
our targeted audience. At the moment, we are not using Social media proficiently and are lacking
the roadmap to capitalize it.
Q10: What is your current size of business? Are you satisfied with its growth?
For me, sky is the limit. And I call my business to be still medium in size. And I am still
concerned and working out ways to grow it beyond limits.
Q11: Where did you get the investment of your business?
Initially, I was lacking the funds and capital to start the business. In this regard, my partner
helped me out and provisioned the capital needed to kickstart the business.

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Interview with Ms. Alia Khan One of the most Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs in
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Q12: What was the role of Luck in making you one of the successful Women entrepreneurs
in Pakistan?
Oh I think luck is extremely important in my success. I highly believe in Luck. Luck is about
finding the chances and then reacting and capitalizing them. In this regard I think that the role of
luck in my success has been incredible.
Q13: What are your key learning as Entrepreneur? And what message would you like to
give to our readers especially the women/female aspiring to become Entrepreneurs?
In business, one faces a lot of difficulties. In fact avalanche of challenges. But if you remain
consistent and try as much possible to help out others, your chances of success increase a lot. I
think there should be platform for women where they may improve and groom their skill set.
Where they may learn the fundamentals of doing business and get the exposure. I personally
think that SMEDA is failing to deliver on its commitments and values and hasnt been doing
anything practically positive for the betterment of SMBs in Pakistan. Women generally lack
confidence while starting their business but I think that if you have the education, skills and
belief in your abilities, nothing can stop you from claiming the greatness that you deserve.
The story of Ms. Alia Khan highlights the challenges that Entrepreneurs face in Pakistan
especially the women entrepreneurs. Mr Humayuns efforts, continuous push of tenacity rings
and his believe in me made me achieve my goal to highlight the hard work of women on global
scale which is highly commendable and I hope that this may kindle the entrepreneurial passion in
the female sector of Pakistan; resulting into the consolidated economy of our country.

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