Azul

Posted by Fadzuli

April 26, 2008

When the odds hit you. You bounce up and move on with what you have started with.

I have a hard time trying to remember the points mention by Mr Azul. Insyallah I’ll do my best to share what we learn from this Entrepreneur whom have made himself in the Halal Business. Indeed Azul is a role model to follow since his business is based on Islamic way of life.

After graduating from Singapore Polytechnic and serving NS, Mr Azul started work with IBM until 25 years old where he decided to be an entrepreneur. For two years he studied the Halal market. His ideas were great but he did not know where to present this ideas to until he became part of Muslims Connect where a few other Muslim Bros helped him to get connected with a Dato in Malaysia.

At age 27, Mr Azul received SGD $5 million in capitalist venture to start his business. With that he went on to explain to the various Food Manufacturing companies to understand what Halal is all about. These food manufacturing companies were not supportive of these ideas, therefore he had to move on to different countries like Thailand where he too got cheated.

In a few years Mr Azul lost almost everything, he mentions, “Money change how our partners and I did business. We almost got strayed away from our initial intentions.” Eventually learning the tricks and trade, he approached another Dato, this time he did not ask for money. All he wanted was an endorsement. By receiving this endorsement, he went to other countries to do the same. With those endorsements he managed to convince the bank to give him a loan. Therefore today Mr Azul’s business has been going great. An exciting 10 year journey according to him.

Learning Points

Doing business in another country:

You have to learn the culture. The cultures from country to country varies so much. It is vital to know how the country is run and the proper research to get you ahead doing business there.

Return to initial ideas that you have set to do:

Your ideas might stray away from your initial intentions. Therefore set a mission for your business and always realign yourself to this mission.

Believe in yourself

This has been mention so many times, without self believe nothing of what Mr Azul has done would be achieved today. Same with us, get yourself inspired and believe in whatever trade you wish to pursue and work hard.

Preparations & Being ready

What I truly learned from him is about preparation. Before Mr Azul actually approached the Datos with his ideas. He got everything ready. From the presentations file, working time line, to the ready contracts - my gosh and the lists goes on. Really he was already ready to fight the war, what was required is just implementations.

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If you have any experience doing business in other countries do share yah..I’m starting to move into the world market and making more friends overseas.