12 Apr 2016

Abayology: How harmony and balance can be your best companions while starting and growing a business.

While I was not the typical guest to this type of delicate showroom in Nasr City, the aroma pleasantly hypnotized me that I became even more curious about the story of this business.

Abayology is a 6 year old fashion brand started in 2011 by two friends Maye and Heba. The business inspired by their own passion and talent in designing their own edgy “Abaya(s)” – an oriental robe-like garment, often considered too classic.

Ladies from their society started inquiring about the source of  their abayas which provided enough reason for them to turn their passion into a business with the motto of “change your abaya style”.

Started online, the business had been growing steadily and today, the partners manage not only a showroom and two sales outlets but they were also able to start their own factory to support their business and aspiring fashion-designers in Egypt.

So far, it seems like a classic success story of mature partners, steadily growing a business that they are very passionate and enthusiastic about. But what ready made it outstanding is that the two co-founders managed to maintain a successful marriage and a strong family with 6 kids.

I started digging in for answers and after getting as much information as I get, I think I’m discovering the secret ingredients to building a business while maintaining balance and harmony in different areas of our lives.

1. Maintain a Collaborative Attitude

A primarily ingredient in the success of Abayology, is that from the outset the partners have maintained a collaborative attitude throughout their journey, D’Factory, created by Abayology is serving aspiring Fashion designers to produce their vision the same way the partners has done years before.

With a belief and focus on building a better environment for the emerging fashion design industry in Egypt, the collaborative attitude has also came to be very helpful to support Abayology’s expansion and future projects.

2. Managing Expectations

One of the traps of starting and growing a business steadily is conveying overly optimistic expectations, Abayology manged to reflect their state, capacity, availability and delivery time clearly to their customers, partners and designers they are working with. Building a sustainable long term relationship, a solid community and many returning customers.

3. Balanced Exchange

What I found wonderfully inspiring is how the partners while enduring the responsibilities of sustaining and growing a business in challenging economic conditions managed to also maintain a successful relationship with their spouses, kids and expanded family.

4. Clear Communication

One secret for maintaining a balanced relationship turned out to be Clear Communication on each party’s responsibilities and expectations and consistent review and open communication on what needs to change.

Maintaining clear communication also have supplied the partners with enormous support from their partners when the going gets tough, the reality and openness in communication made it easy to access support when needed.

4. Sharing the Journey

The partners also managed to integrate different areas of their lives, they didn’t draw a wall between their work and home life or tried to manage them separately, furthermore their active engagement in work and home life didn’t hinder their ability to contribute to their community through inspiring other young ladies to venture into starting their own business.

This integration of home, work and community lives provides the needed fuel for self fulfillment and enjoyment of the journey that while being tough at times, can be enormously enjoyable for those who know how to survive the challenge of inducing harmony and maintaining balance.

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Learn more about the journey and stages of starting and growing your own business from Egypreneur’s Survival Guide, check more details and request an interview from:https://www.egypreneur.com/survival