Wajhi Haider (SP17-BAF-010) Success Story

This is a story of my uncle who built a successful business alone. About 45 years ago, my uncle
went to Belgium for studies and after completing his studies, he started doing job there as it was
difficult to live there normally so he to do multiple jobs at the same time, he always wanted to do
a business but he did not have enough money to do business as he was not financially strong at
that time. After two or three years he got frustrated with job as it was very difficult to keep it up
so he started saving some money for his own business. In six or seven years he saved enough
money for his business. Then he opened a small grocery store with the name of Sunshine
African Foods in Brussels, Belgium. At that time when he opened up it was one of the few
businesses who are dealing with Indo-Pak and African products. At that he had no experience in
that type of business so he usually goes to docks and wholesale markets of different cities and
countries to buy product in bulk and sell them in his shop. After some time he learned the way of
doing business and manage to import products from different countries mostly Pakistan, India,
China and Africa. In which he imports all the Indo-Pak produced agricultural products like
basmati rice, sugar, salt, mangoes as well as dry fruits. From Africa he imports coffee, cashew
and chocolate. From china he imported mostly the cosmetics products because they were cheap.
He imports all the products which were not locally produced and easy to import.

In Belgium whether you going to open small or large business you have to register first your
company and then start the business. That’s when he came up with the name of Sunshine
African Foods and registered as a company. In his job days he came to realize that the area
where he was living, there was a café, meat shop, fruits and vegetable shop and bakery but there
was not a single grocery store in which there was everything. So everyone in that area including
him had to shop from grocery store which is almost 25-30 minutes away and very inconvenient
because at that time not everyone could afford car and personal transport was very expensive,
even now a days it is. That time he saw an opportunity and had come up with the idea of opening
a grocery store that had everything. When he started he did not had everything because of limited
space in the shop and also limited financial and human resources as he was the only one to look
after his business. After things started to run smoothly, he hired one person for his help because
he knew the business is going to expand and it did now he had four–five employees working for
him. He earned enough money from his business to buy a house there so he did.

After some time he had this amazing opportunity to expand his business as the building at back
of his shop was for sale at very reasonable price so he saw it as opportunity to expand his shop
because for business expansion he is going to need a space, he purchased it and expand his shop.
Now his shop is this big to have different section of everything like grocery, cosmetics, meat,
fruits & vegetables etc...

Before his business, my uncle always had a financial problem because of family responsibility.
But somehow he managed to save some money for study in Europe. He told me that in those
days he had just enough money only for his necessities. But after his business things started to
ran smoothly. After starting his business he had not too much financial problem as he was
gradually increasing his source of income. He always says that you cannot cut down expenses
because in inflation your expenses will be just your necessities and you cannot live without
necessities. Whenever you find an opportunity to increase your income sources, always do it. As
he also did it now his income is based on two sources: Business and Rental. Whenever he had
enough money he invested it in a real state. That’s how he managed his financial issues and also
there is ups downs in every business.

He also had a business of furniture showroom with the name of Sunshine Furniture’s in
Pakistan at Multan road, Lahore. That business was also running good but due to Orange train
his store was demolished as there was going to be an Orange train station in that area.
Government paid compensation but it was not enough for a running business and he suffered
loss. With the compensation he received, he again invested it in a real state.

When start he started his business he adopted traditional marketing style like Pamphlets and ads
in newspaper. But dealing in Belgian culture he learned that word of mouth marketing is very
important. So he did some actions to build his company’s name in the market which are as
follows:

1. It is really a good gesture and highly appreciated if the owner of the business helps you to
carry your things to your car even if the employees are present. Belgians feels more
respected in this way.
2. If the customer shops above 100 or 200 euro he just wave off the cents. For example if
customers bill is 110.37 euro then he wave off the 37 cents and some people really
appreciated it. It is another way that to build a good company name in the market.
3. Always be humble and show good moral before customer.

He told me that with these actions he built an amazing company name that even now next
generations of some families always shop at his store. When he started his store he had nothing
but he work hard now he had multiple properties in Belgium as well as in Pakistan from which
the rental income is enough for him and next and next generation of him.

His store is so popular that even he was interviewed by Brussels local journalist and the article
based on his struggle and success was published in Belgian newspaper.

He did not involve that much technology like online app or website as he should involve. This
way he missed the opportunity to serve the online community and earn way much more. And the
biggest mistake he did in his life is to trust every illegal Muslim especially Pakistani immigrants
because he suffered several losses because some of them and paid huge penalties several times.

He always taught us that no matter how old you are always find your passion and work hard
because if you work hard Allah will grant you whatever is better for you. But he also taught us to
do business no matter how small it is because it is always better than any job.