Let’s Talk: Fempreneur Secrets
In conjunction with International Women’s Day in March, we had the pleasure of having Huda Hamid, the founder of Fempreneur Secrets and co-founder of Blissful Studios, over in our studios for an episode of Let’s Talk: Fempreneur Secrets.
Fempreneur Secrets is truly inspiring - it is an online community empowering women to start and sustain their own businesses. Blissful Studios on the other hand, is a video production and live-streaming service company in Singapore.
We sat down with Ms Huda Hamid to learn more about the art of business from a woman’s perspective.
Q: You are a source of inspiration for many women out there, who are your own sources of inspiration?
My main source of inspiration varies; depending on the situation, I will find different sources of inspiration. But in general when it comes to the world of entrepreneurship and fempreneurship, I do look up to women entrepreneurs who are successful themselves. My favourite of all time is Marie Forleo. I also look up to Sophia Amoruso as well as Oprah Winfrey. To bring this closer to home, my biggest source of inspiration is actually Vivy Yusoff, because she managed to build a fashion empire in just a short amount of time. So these are my inspiration for business-related stuff.
But whenever I need to source for balance in my life, I always go back to what our Prophet S.A.W. taught us. I also read stories of Khadijah R.A. So that’s all the inspiration that I get to create a balanced business, being a woman entrepreneur.
Q: Being a fempreneur yourself, what are some characteristics that a female entrepreneur should possess?
Female entrepreneurs, or what I like to call Fempreneurs, are daring, fearless and willing to go that extra mile to create an impact that can change the lives of others. Women entrepreneurs do not create a business for themselves - it’s always for a bigger purpose. Whether that bigger purpose is for the benefit of the family, or the community, or to impact global change.
Women starting businesses often start with this big picture in mind, and that is also okay. We dream big, we will go big as well. So a woman entrepreneur needs to get there by not only looking at short-term goals, but also long-term goals. And I believe that at the end of the day, women, when we start businesses, are building a legacy so that we can impact and create change in the lives of many others in the world.
Q: You’ve worked with a broad network of inspiring women, do you have any stories to share with us?
As part of my work at Fempreneur Secrets, I also empower women in ASEAN who are underprivileged. So these women are earning below S$30 a day. And one of the things that I find really inspiring about them is their drive and their motivation to get out of that financial struggle that they are going through. One of the ladies that I am in contact with lives in Myanmar. At the time we were very on the ball, we were very excited, every week we would message each other, communicating. And then all of a sudden she went missing for about two, three weeks.
Then I received an email. In the email she said, ‘Hi Huda, I am standing at the border of Myanmar right now and the military has already shut down our communications. So this is my best way and approach to reach out to you. I’m writing this because I wanted you to know that I did not give up. I tried my very best but I will not be able to pursue the business forward since there's political unrest. I hope that things will get better and when things do get better, the business will continue.
I thought that was really, really inspiring, seeing how you are in that situation and you still have the common decency to inform your ‘guru’ that I can’t make it, but it’s not that I’ve given up on myself, I am trying but I just can’t. That was really inspiring.
Q: For those who are not confident in themselves, what is your best advice to them?
If you are fearful or not confident to take one step forward to start a business, or do whatever it is that you’d like to do, the first thing I want you to do is to really empower yourself.
Also understand that the difference between someone who is fearful and someone who is fearless, that gap in between, that gap is knowledge. If you fill yourself with lots of knowledge, you’ll start to realise that there’s actually nothing to be afraid of. It’s just like going swimming for the very first time - you don’t know how to swim. The first lesson that the coach will always tell you is to step into the water. Because once you step into the water and you get yourself familiarised with the water, and then when you go home and you do more research about how I can breathe underwater and what’s the best temperature and things like that - so once you get the knowledge, you’ll realise that there’s actually nothing to be afraid of.
You just have to start doing it and gain the knowledge and experience, where you’ll gradually gain the confidence, the fearlessness and eventually you’ll be the confident and fearless entrepreneur that you desire to be.
To get to know how Ms Huda started her entrepreneurship journey, her reasons for focusing on this particular industry as well as some challenges new entrepreneurs face, watch our full interview with Huda Hamid here!