Members of the Tijarah 101 Center of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, SCCI, recently participated in a virtual workshop entitled “steps to develop entrepreneurs in time of crisis”.

The event was co-organized by the National SME Program and Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy in cooperation with the SCCI and targeted those interested in establishing their own business.

Moderated by the financial consultant, Dr. Abdulla Al Awadhi, the workshop touched on the entrepreneurship concept and the necessary skills for the entrepreneur in a time of crisis and how to be adapted to the challenges and harness them.

For his part, Al Awadhi underlined that the entrepreneur should be creative and acquainted with the five skills “ability to negotiate, develop business plans, flexibility and discipline, money management, and market analysis”.

He touched on the methods of resolving crises and handling them through traditional and non-traditional methods, stressing the need to set your priorities and be flexible in changing the activity, service or product in line with market requirements, and to devise new ways to accomplish business and the importance of being positive and optimistic.

Enhancing the role of entrepreneurs

His Excellency Mohammad Ahmed Amin Al-Awadi, SCCI’s Director-General, said: “The SCCI is keen to coordinate with the specialized bodies to attract the training programs aimed at enhancing the important role of the entrepreneurs, especially in light of the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). Our aim is to develop the entrepreneurs’ skills and improve their capabilities to confront all the challenges, by equipping them with the necessary knowledge of management, marketing, projects selection, crisis management, feasibility study, the mechanisms of innovation in implementing projects, and other impactful factors,”

Al-Awadi lauded the efforts of wise leadership in providing a supportive, flexible and adaptive economic environment to face any changes and obstacles, highlighting the stimulus packages tailored to help the private sector enhance its sustainability and stabilize other economic sectors.

Scaling up experiences

Mona Omran Ali, Director of Tijarah 101 Center, pointed to the importance of the workshop in guiding the entrepreneurs towards what should be followed to face any challenges, especially those affecting the small and medium enterprises.

She added: “The strategy of Tijarah 101 is built on organizing a lot of programs and courses meant to enhance the experiences of entrepreneurs to cope with the changes to the economic arena and guide them to the best business activities, in addition to establishing effective partnerships to achieve the common interests between companies to pave the way for a business environment supportive of creating new projects.”

The workshop also discussed factors of project stumbling during a time of crisis, including the lack of planning and future vision and the lack of qualification and training, as well as overlooking the importance of marketing and advertising, neglecting the available human resources skills, besides the slowing down in processing ideas, and the poor selection of the project.