Nouf Subah, A young entrepreneur who turned her passion into a full-fledged business. Nouf was also one of the winners of the 3rd edition of Chance 2017, an entrepreneurship development program. Read on to find out more about Nouf and her passion for desserts.
Tell us briefly about yourself: where you were born, your educational background, etc.
I am Nouf Subah, born and brought up in Bahrain. I graduated from the University of Bahrain and pursued a bachelor’s degree in B.SC Computer Science and a master’s degree in business administration.
Who has been your inspiration?
My mother has always been my inspiration. My mother has always enjoyed cooking traditional savoury dishes and sweets for us. I have grown up watching her and learning from her. However, I have always been inquisitive to learn more about the making of sweets especially pastries. During special occasions like Eid, I would prepare the sweet dishes by myself to our guests from scratch. Once my sister told me that I was gifted and I had a lot of potential. Since then I started to focus on evolving that gift. At a very young age, I had loved to collect the recipes from the newspapers and would love to attend many cooking shows and that’s where I discovered my passion for cooking. I started to buy cooking books where I would spend hours reading them to educate myself and would further look for opportunities to set up my own buffet starting from the savoury dishes to the sweets for our guests.
Tell us about your project?
Nouf’s Treats is a home business established in 2012. The bakery provides various selections of bake’s whether it is from our traditional kitchen or from other countries in the world. Nouf’s Treats holds true to its vision of being a new concept with a traditional feel in order to become a favourite spot for Bahrainis and tourists.
What were the challenges you faced in the competition?
My MBA degree helped me a lot to enhance my business skills and help me start my business from home. I have always had the ideas and vision about how my business should look like, with Chance 2017, the programme helped me understand the areas I should focus on and introduced us to successful entrepreneurs by whom we got inspired a lot. I would say one of the major challenges would be speaking about my business and convincing people that my passion can actually be a full-fledged business and it can be a success.
Tell us about your association with this project? Where did it all start and how?
As mentioned earlier I set up my business at home, I was constantly looking for space at my house to work, as I was using my mother’s kitchen and I wanted a space of my own. Once my business started to grow and the orders increased, I realised it’s high time to get a place of my own where I could devote all my time to building up the business. So, I got my own kitchen, a place where I could work and carry out all other business activities.
What are the other things that interest you?
Sport, Travelling and photography.
What kind of help and support do you seek to help reach your goal?
Financial support is important for any startup business, however, my aim is now to hire a qualified team in my bakery and to set up a decent place. Thus I would say for small and medium entrepreneurs financial support is really important to reach our goal.
What is your message to the aspiring entrepreneurs of Bahrain?
Hold your dream & stay committed to your goals. Don’t bother yourself to follow someone else, challenge yourself, stay focused and be creative.
If there is a lesson you will take back from this competition what would it be?
Reveal your business idea, believe in yourself and your idea and work towards it.
Any other interesting projects in future that you are coming up with?
Cooking classes for kids.