The UAE entrepreneur who draws inspiration from other female leaders

ABU DHABI // Souad Al Hosani is an exemplar of an Emirati women who is at the top of her chosen profession.

Born and raised in Abu Dhabi, her entrepreneurial outlook has taken her to the presidency of Nexus Business Services, which provides start-up and operational support for companies; the managing directorship of its Nexus Agencies element, and a member of the board of directors at Safetic International Safety and Security consultancy.

She is 28.

"Sometimes, when I work hard and feel exhausted, I feel like taking a break to refuel myself and be ready for the upcoming days, but I am a workaholic," she says. "I love people and I love business. I can never have a break."

A graduate in human resources management from the Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, Ms Al Hosani has worked as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mubadala Development Company, the British embassy in Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Amwal Holdings.

Be Someone, That People Start Admiring To Be Like You

Having completed a training programme for women entrepreneurs, she also received a United Nationals Industrial Development Organisation certificate, while being honoured with a Young Achievers Award by the American Chamber of Commerce in Abu Dhabi. Last year, she was named best female service provider in the UAE.

"After seven years of being in business, I have learnt and enriched my knowledge a lot, with the support of my family, friends, and the community," says Ms Al Hosani.

"My different experiences in the public and private sector have helped me develop, nurture and maintain significant and valuable business and government contacts.

"These opportunities have allowed me to network with professionals around the world, giving me a clear picture of what foreign investors are aiming to achieve by relocating abroad."

Her world is a non-stop one, a whirlwind of meetings and events. But it has allowed her to become a truly global citizen as she promotes the UAE, and gauges the overtures of companies looking to invest in the country.

"I try to switch off at weekends, but I am still available when needed," she says.

The rewards, she explains, are the smiles on her clients’ faces – and the knowledge that her efforts may empower other Emirati women.

"Being a strong female entrepreneur and sharing my experience with people inspires me," she says. "Our leadership has always supported women and encouraged women development on a personal and business level.

"I am so proud about the number of Emirati female leaders we have nowadays – especially our Minister of Youth, who is 22 – and I am proud to be Emirati."

Disclaimer: Following article come from THENATIONAL

Some Sources of Start-up Capital

When thinking about funding for your start-up, it is important to understand different types of potential investors. Not every wallet is right for you.

Figuring out who to raise money from and why will save you time and yield better results. Here are some potential investors to consider for your start-up.

1. Friends and family

Often, the first check comes from a family member or a friend. In theory it is a lot easier to close them because they already know you. In practice sometimes this is awkward, and may lead to awkward situations in the future. For example, if a friend gives you $10,000 and the company goes belly up, you may lose this friend. 

Think carefully before taking money from family and friends. It can be awesome or could be bad.

Every situation is different. Another thing is that friends and family members may not clearly understand the risk and how start-ups work. Take the time to educate them, and if they get it and still want in then you are all clear.

2. Angel investors

Angel investors put in between $10,000 to $100,000 (lower is more common), and can participate in priced or debt rounds. Angels can be valuation sensitive. It is important to distinguish between active or professional and occasional angel investors. 

Ask them how many deals they do per year, and look them up on Angel List. If someone only does a few deals a year, only talk to them if they approached you, someone gave you a warm intro or they have relevant experience and background in your space. Otherwise, infrequent investors should not be on your target list. Occasional angels will take longer to close, and will be more flaky.

Active or professional angels do at least six deals per year. Expect to close them within the first three meetings. It is totally fine, and a good idea, to ask them if they are interested at the end of the first meeting.

Before you meet an angel understand what they are interested in. Don’t go after people randomly. It will be a waste of time. Confirm with whoever introduces you that the introduction makes sense. Target well.

3. Angel groups

An angel group, as the name implies, is a pool of investors sharing deal flow. Angel groups can do priced rounds, and if a significant percentage of the angels in a group are interested, they can lead your deal. 

Angel groups meet regularly, and have regular pitch processes. Some do more due diligence than others, but typically several members of the group would be assigned to do the diligence if your initial pitch goes well.  

Your check will typically range from $50,000 to $500,000. These groups are not syndicates, and unlike AngelList syndicates, they don’t have carry fees. Angel groups are also valuation sensitive, and will typically price the rounds lower compared to venture capitalists.

Start-up With Some Advice Is Always Better

4. Angel List syndicates

Angel List syndicates are the most effective way these days to raise money on Angel List. Syndicates are formed by influential angels, and investments range from a few hundred thousand dollar to more than a million. The key thing is to identify investors who have significant syndicates on Angel List and get in front of them.

If you can get such angels excited, he or she will run the syndicate. For example, the angel might put in $50,000, and then another $250,000 will come via a syndicate. The amount raised via syndicates varies, and is not guaranteed.

5. Micro VCs

These investors are either individuals writing $100,000 or more checks or a firm with $10 million to $50 million under management. They are basically angel investors with larger amounts to invest. They will commit to invest or will say no after two or three meetings. They may lead, and be comfortable with either debt or equity.

Micro VC funds will likely take longer, and would not be too far off from a typical VC. Micro VCs in New York City typically invest $250,000 to $500,000 and can price and lead your round.

These investors care about ownership, but to a lesser extent than a typical VC. They are not looking for 20 percent of your company, but more likely 8 to 10 percent and then invest more in the next round (depending on the size of their funds).

Like with angels, you need to decide if a specific micro VC is right for you. Spend time studying their portfolios. Not only do you need to understand each fund, you need to understand each partner. Partners have different experiences and focus areas and different preferences for companies as well. Target specific partners at a specific fund.

6. VCs

Traditional VC firms have funds ranging from $100 million to $500 million. For seed deals, they would do as low as $250,000 to as high as $2 million. Typically, between $500,000 and $1 million is these investors' sweet spot.They really care about percent of ownership, and would likely only do the seed if they think they can do series A as well. That is, they would want to buy up the ownership to be at 15 to 20 percent after a series A round.

Note that some funds may not have the capital because they are in between funds, but they would spend the time with you anyway. It is probably not the best use of your time though.

Figure out who will be the partner on the deal. With larger firms it is not always obvious. Look at how many companies they are involved with and ask them how many companies they typically manage. In a $150 million to $300 million fund, a partner is investing in eight to 12 companies at any given time. Research how many investments the partner has to understand your chances. 

Ask them what their process is like and how to best follow up. Each firm may have a unique process and you need to understand it up front so you can know what to expect. Set up clear next steps and follow ups. Be direct, and ask if they are interested in continuing the conversation. Try to avoid the vague state of maybe.

7. Mega VCs

Mega VCs are firms that have more than $1 billion under management. These include Andreessen, Khosla, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia and Bessemer. Research if the fund has a seed program. If they do, figure out who runs it and what the process is.

It is likely that there is a partner in charge of seeds and the process is compressed compared to raising more capital.

Recognize that VC funds need to deploy large amount of capital per deal to be able to return their massive funds. Rather than spending time trying to get their attention for your seed round, it may make more sense to start building relationships with them for a series A and B round.

Disclaimer : Following article come from Entrepreneur

Lack of competition stops SME owners from switching accounts, finds CMA

Banks aren’t working hard enough to compete for customers, with SME owners sticking to their original current account supplier when searching for business loans, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found.

Lack of movement within the sector

The consumer watchdog has published its conditional findings of its long-term investigation into 12 banks and building societies that provide personal current accounts (PCA) and business current accounts for consumers and small businesses.

In its report, the CMA noted that nearly 60 per cent of consumers have been supplied with their PCA by the same bank for over ten years, with 37 per cent sticking it out for over 20 years with the same lender.

This lack of movement within the personal account market has been put down to an absence of information on new products and service quality.

Customers are further hampered by the severe lack of any price comparison tools, which makes it harder for them to find a better deal on their current accounts.

This has resulted in just three per cent of customers switching PCAs in 2014, with only 16 per cent of people browsing the market for a better deal. Work has been done to create more competition, with the Current Account Switch Service (CASS) launched in September 2013.

This lack of information from banks is keeping consumers from reaping economic rewards. Consumers that use a PCA with a large overdraft limit can save approximately £260 a year if they switched banks, with the average person saving £70.

SME owners tend to stick with the same provider

Small business owners are suffering the same problem as consumers, with many sticking to the same current account provider when looking for a loan. When the initial free banking period comes to a close, 90 per cent of SME owners stay with their providers instead of going elsewhere.

Commenting on the report, Alasdair Smith, chairman of the retail banking investigation, has placed much of the blame on the banks, with financial institutions being able ‘‘to sit back and take their existing customers for granted.’’ Smith added that customers won’t benefit until more comparison tools are created to help customers and small businesses switch without any risk.

‘‘We are considering a series of measures that will have a far-reaching impact on how banks operate and will empower account-holders to search for and switch to the account that suits them,’’ said the chairman.

What is being done to change this?

The credit authority has made a number of recommendations to improve banking services for SMEs, including the creation of a price comparison site for small business owners.

Also high on the list of potential remedies was  enabling banks to prompt business owners to review their account services during so-called ‘trigger points’ which occur in certain situations including a loss of service, closure of their local branch, unarranged overdraft charges or a change in the terms and conditions of their account. For SMEs the trigger points usually occur when their free banking period has ended.

Controversially, the CMA has decided not to recommend changes towards ending free if-in-credit (FIIC) accounts, with the investigation finding no evidence that FIIC affects competition. Tory MP Andrew Tyrie has slammed the CMA on the decision, branding free-if-in-credit accounts as a ‘con trick’.

‘‘It seems reasonable that millions of customers should be allowed to know how much they are being charged for having a bank accounts,’’ said Tyrie.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has welcomed the CMA’s interim findings, with national chairman stating that ‘‘A well-functioning banking market for small businesses is critically important to support UK economic growth.’’

However there are some SME lenders who feel the report doesn’t go far enough.

James Sherwin-Smith, CEO of lending platform Growth Street is concerned that there is no requirement for commercial finance products to carry an APR.

‘‘Without a standard price indicator, it is unclear how SMEs will be able to compare prices, even if the proposed remedies are adopted,’’ explained Sherwin-Smith.

‘‘This is badly needed to help simplify the complex charging structures employed by banks and others to charge SMEs more than they anticipate, and would result in a lower cost of SME finance and higher business and economic growth.’’

Citation from SME Insider :http://goo.gl/ZnVOEe

The truth about hiring and firing in the startup world

Growth, scale, funding, skyrocketing valuations, GMV, and other vanity metrics are fancy terms which are often flaunted by startups. However, these jazzy metrics do not appear to be helping them anymore like it used to. While investors are backing several me-too startups which prioritise scale over getting right and viable business, startups are now exploring ways to spruce-up the bottomline.

Consequently, we see several startups, including biggies revisiting their strategies to curb burn rate and think about profitability.

Massive layoffs lingering Indian startups

Over the past six months, several early and growth stage startups are going for massive layoffs. After Tinyowl, Housing, Helpchat, now Info Edge-funded Zomato has announced 300 layoffs. In February this year, the company had over 1,200 positions opened and six months ahead it laid off 10 per cent strength (largely in the US).

Earlier Tinyowl allegedly fired over 100 employees while Housing laid off over 160 employees (though several media reported about 600 layoffs). Delhi-based Helpchataxed over 150 plus workforce in the wake of its pivot.

Last weekend, Zomato stated in a blog post, “Operations will need fewer people to run the show compared to the past. All these things will also significantly bring down our burn rate, and as we go along, make our businesses in these markets much stronger.”

The announcement also hints at the fast changing dynamics and sharp emphasis on alleviating ongoing burn rate. Last month the company secured $60 million round led by Temasek. Zomato is using proceeds toward strengthening new businesses such as online ordering, table reservations, point of sales, and whitelabel platform.

Shifting gears: road towards profitability

So why are these growth seeking startups forced to fire employees? Serial entrepreneur Kashyap Deorah, says, “Startups are shifting their focus from growth at any cost to road towards profitability.” Lately startups in India have overlooked profitability and unit economics over growth and scale.

Online grocery platform Localbanya, on-demand delivery platform Townrush have also fired employees and are evaluating possible shutdowns as they have failed to raise the required round to survive and lost focus on building sustainable business sans external capital.

Pivot, over-hiring and high burn rate lead layoffs

While firing by Helpchat can be attributed to pivot of business, layoffs executed by Tinyowl, Housing, and Zomato are largely because of over-hiring and increased focus towards profitability. Pivot requires a change in wholesome strategies. Various function and roles become redundant when goal and vision of startups change altogether.

According to Ravi Gururaj, NASSCOM product and executive council, startups fire employees under three circumstances: they don’t have money and want to raise funds; they don’t plan properly and over hire, or they hire the wrong talent.

Follow-on funding on basis of growth seems very difficult and Chinese connection

Experts believe that a trend of large-scale firing will continue. “Access to follow-on funding on the basis of growth looks very difficult now. VCs used to write cheques to scale oriented startups but now they are cautious owing to several reasons, including a slowdown of the Chinese economy,” adds Alok Mittal, former partner at Canaan Partners.

Owing to a slump in the country’s economy, for the very first time Alibaba and JD.com stocks had fallen by more than 35 per cent from its peak.

“Sudden slowdown of Chinese economy impacted strategies, including layoffs,” points out Kashyap. Startups are all about challenging the status quo and it includes firing. “It’s more like a natural progression. Early and growth stage startups have to revisit their hiring plan when priority changes. But sensible hiring with a long-term approach with each hiring can avoid mass layoffs,” says Navneet Singh, Founder of Peppertap that recently secured $36 million round led by Alibaba funded Snapdeal.

Over the past 10 months, hyperlocal startups had roughly amassed over $170 million risk capital primarily by showcasing scale and projected growth. “Euphoria for investment in this segment is subsiding as investors are turning skeptical about unit economics in on-demand startups,” adds Manmohan Aggarwal, Co-Founder of Yebhi, which ceased its operation last year. “Massive layoffs from startups indicate the fact that funding has dried for such startups,” he says. Yebhi also executed mass firing as it failed to raise further risk capital.

While a few stakeholders believe that if startups need to be 10 times better than other government-run companies or large MNCs, they have to fire 10 times faster. “Startups grow at such a rapid pace that there is no time for a half-yearly performance review and such,” said Anand, Founder of India Quotient, in an earlier interaction with YourStory.

Firing isn’t as easy in India as different geographies

However, aforementioned belief is very much relevant and true in economies like the US and the West. But India is a different market and massive firing doesn’t fit us culturally. For instance, Amazon never tried COD in the US and other markets, Uber never hired specific country head to lead operations but it had to do in India. Presently, the job is considered as a long-term approach and an affair in India. Getting fired from a job is more of an insult in India but it’s not the case in mature markets.

“Firing was not a big low for me, but it was for my wife and parents,” adds a sacked employee of Housing.com on the condition of anonymity. Joining startup is rewarding and risky both. “On the one side it can be a roller coaster ride but on the other side it could be disappointing,” says, a mid-level executive of Yebhi.com. He had to face difficulties in securing the job with the same package at Nexus funded e-commerce firm which ceased its operation last year.

YourStory believes such layoffs are the need of the hour for startups that have hired recklessly based on investor backing on the pretext of projected growth/scale. Gone are the days when entrepreneurs attracted investment on unviable and projected metrics.

Going forward, founders, investors, employees, and the media should be prepared for such layoffs as the time for attracting easy risk capital looks difficult for early/growth stage ventures. The key learning's for startups in this context are, hire diligently, keep a hawk eye on the burn rate, and make strong business fundamentals that are not dependent on the investors’ mercy.

Citation from Your Story : http://goo.gl/5k4tdm

TECH STARTUPS CHASE SOMETHING OTHER THAN PROFITS

At a demo day in San Francisco on Wednesday, Joyce Kim’s presentation of her financial tech startup sounded a lot like a tech startup pitching venture capitalists for funding. She scrolled through a slide deck and stood at a podium, sporting a t-shirt of her startup.

Until she came to her financials. In a pilot, people around the world used her tech to complete 6 million transactions country to country, she said. The fees she collected came out to approximately 20 cents.

Ms. Kim’s venture is not a typical tech startup. It is not trying to join the billion dollar club, and its goal is not to make money.

Her startup, Stellar.org, is one of a new breed of tech non-profits whose ambition is for technology to help solve some of the world’s most intractable problems such as global poverty and climate change. Ms. Kim participated in Fast Forward, an accelerator funded in part by Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Alphabet Inc.Google+0.64%, and investment management corporation BlackRock Inc.

Also this week, startup accelerator Y Combinator announced a new research lab, YC Research, designed to tackle work that requires a long time horizon and seeks to answer very open-ended questions.

These non-profit startups are doing everything their for-profit peers are doing: modeling themselves on lean startups, writing scalable business models and attending accelerators.

“We’re not doing this with the goal of helping YC’s startups succeed or adding to our bottom line. At the risk of sounding cliché, this is for the benefit of the world,” wrote Y Combinator president Sam Altman.

The problems these startups take on resonate with what many in Silicon Valley see as their mission to solve the world’s ills.

The demo day in San Francisco was the culminating event of Fast Forward’s 13-week accelerator program. Started in 2014 by software entrepreneur Kevin Barenblat, founder of social-marketing company Context Optional and social entrepreneur Shannon Farley, founding executive director of Spark, the largest network of Millennial philanthropists, Fast Forward provides workshops, mentoring and $25,000 in seed money to a cohort of tech non-profits. Google.org and BlackRock pitched in $1 million.

“The non-profits said they felt like weirdos because they didn’t fit into tech accelerators as a non-profit, and they also didn’t fit into non-profit communities as tech companies. This program is designed to bridge these connections,” Mr. Barenblat said.

In addition to Stellar.org, eight other startups also presented. They included TalkingPoints, a platform for parents who don’t speak English to text a child’s teacher and Callisto, a confidential way to document and report sexual assault. The founders were more diverse than those at most pitch events. Of the nine founders on stage Wednesday evening, just two were white men.

The approximately 60 angel investors at the demo day opened their wallets after the presentations ended, handing out about $150,000 in funding, according to Mr. Barenblat.

“People can see the passion in the entrepreneurs, they understand what their challenges are,” said Mr. Barenblat.

At the pitch event, held in warehouse-style San Francisco office of Alphabet Inc., Ms. Kim played up her site’s technical chops. “Under the hood, it’s a decentralized, distributed database,” she said. Before pursuing this startup, Ms. Kim worked in venture capital before launching the startup a year and a half ago.

Instead of measuring profits, Ms. Kim determines her success by how many people her startup is able to impact. Her goal is to create the financial system for the world’s poor. There are currently 2 billion “unbanked” people in the world, so she has her work cut out for her.

Citation from Wall Street Journal (blog) : http://goo.gl/5cSvLo

http://www.ventureart.biz/

Important Steps To Exit Your Startup With Proud And Pride

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. In addition, current investors want to see every startup go public or be acquired, as an exit event, so they can get their due return for that investment which has been tied up for the last few years.

For these reasons, I always look for an overt exit strategy in every startup I might consider for an angel investment. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I also encourage an entrepreneur exit focus early, and I really like the specific steps outlined in the new book, “Exit Signs,” by Pamela Dennis, who has helped companies through this critical transition for decades.

Her focus is a bit more on mature companies, but I believe the following eight steps, paraphrased from hers, are especially applicable to every startup and the entrepreneurs who create them.

Your Problem + Our Solution = Success

1. Think about the end game as you start - Running a mature company is totally different from running a startup. Most startup founders don’t relish the thought of managing repeatable processes, greedy stockholders, and endless regulation reports. Yet they often fall into these roles by not proactively preparing themselves for any alternatives.

2. Set a target personal destination and timing - The first step is clarifying your personal goals and the legacy you want to leave. Exiting this startup is not the end, and may be the beginning of something even better, like Bill Gates philanthropy, or your next plan to change the world. At minimum, you need to get an exit advisor to keep you on course.

3. Set your startup health gauges and use them - New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head. If you intend to exit, or even if you don’t, it’s never too early to think what an acquirer or stockholder looks for to assess your business health. This all starts with building a culture and strategy that can survive without you.

4. Tune up your startup value and salability - Even if you don’t have a formal board of directors, it pays to have trusted advisors who will give you regular unbiased feedback on your team strengths and weaknesses, financial and operating ratio norms, and an external view of current company valuation issues. Listen carefully and act accordingly.

5. Build relationships with potential acquirers - The best sale or acquisition is a gradual one, where the acquirer gets to know you through formal and informal relationships. Don’t wait for a distress situation in the business or your personal life, and hope that the ideal acquirer magically appears. Keep a critical lens on payment options and tax implications.

6. Mature your business processes and customer base - Secure your company’s sustainability through multiple revenue streams and customer sets, and solid core business processes. Build an exit-transition plan for yourself, and a plan to retain key talent on the team. Anticipate customer and valued-supplier reaction to any change.

7. Build a positive data bank and presentation - Well ahead of any planned move, you need to assemble hard data to support your historical and projected performance and sustainability. Your valuation and salability depends on the credibility of this effort. Plan to spend 30-60 percent of your time away from running your business during this phase.

8. Lead your way out rather than wait for a push - The win-win startup acquisitions and successful transitions to public companies are led by the entrepreneur, rather than happen passively. You need to proactively engage the right people, drive improvements where required, and pay attention to all the external and internal factors gating success.

According to Dennis, an astonishing 87% of small and mid-size business owners don’t have an exit strategy or plan, leaving them to die at their desk, or get pushed out on terms they don’t like. If you are like most entrepreneurs, who look forward to a life of pride and profit after their current startup, it’s time to take some steps to make a startup exit more than a wistful dream.

Disclaimer :- Following Article Come From Forbes

Back To Business

Ahmad al Mutawa's 'awakening' moment, as he likes to call it, was when he was living the life in Dubai - drawing a big salary and staying in a big apartment.
The University of Southern California graduate had, towards the end of nearly two years' employment at an oil services major, an epiphany of sorts: that he needed to pursue his passion as his career.

Within two weeks of having his 'moment', he quit his job, went back to his home country Kuwait and started his own initiative.

He returned in 2007, a year after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's downfall when much of the uncertainty that had plagued Kuwait as an investment hub was slowly beginning to lift.

More and more Kuwaitis have since begun to take the big leap to entrepreneurship in the oil-rich state, where jobs for life for nationals in the public sector have long been an established mechanism to distribute state largesse. Of the 410,000-plus Kuwaitis in employment, nearly 75 per cent work for the government. In comparison, only 21.8 per cent work in the private sector, according to Kuwait's Public Authority for Civil Information. There has been an upward trend in the number of Kuwaitis employed in the private sector in the last couple of years, however - only 18 per cent were employed in the sector in 2012.

Kuwait has long emptied its state coffers to pay high public wages and that situation is unlikely to change even in the current environment of low oil prices that is likely to make the country incur a deficit of $27 billion for the first time in 15 years, for the 2015-2016 financial year.

In fact, Kuwait is considering a bill to standardise wages to provide the nearly 45 per cent of state employees currently earning below the proposed pay scale an increase of 18 per cent in a massive spending exercise that will cost the country KD350 million ($1.16 billion) in the first year of its implementation.

However, despite high public sector salaries, Kuwaitis are making the transition into private business. Like anywhere else in the world, it is mainly "for independence and having a sense of purpose," says Kuwaiti-based venture capital (VC) investor Mijbel al Qattan.

Mohammad al Meer, who is founder of Google Developer Group Kuwait, says that part of the reason for Kuwaitis seeking to be their own employers is a tendency by state entities to delegate work to private sector contractors.

"Usually in the government, it is the third-party contractors who are implementing the actual solutions," he explains.



"Some engineers think that it might be better starting their own projects or businesses instead of working for either government or a bank, and only be in charge of looking or watching the third-party company doing the actual work."

With Kuwaitis no longer content to sit in government jobs and watch others do their work, many in the country are organising events to spread awareness and hone skills to start their own businesses.

Al Qattan, for instance, co-founded Startup Kuwait, an active initiative he says is aimed at enabling tech-fuelled entrepreneurship to flourish in the country.

Al Mutawa's consulting firm Mubaader Services also helps Kuwaiti small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) develop business plans and succeed. The firm, he says, has supported a portfolio of 850 clients and projects over the past six to seven years in Kuwait and helped more than 80 businesses to establish themselves in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).

When it comes to supporting entrepreneurs most of the initiatives in Kuwait have largely been private sector-led and funded. However, this is set to change this October when the government is expected to launch the delayed $2 billion National Fund for Welfare of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, which had been approved by the parliament in 2013. The intention is to provide entrepreneurs with 80 per cent financing for their projects, with the remainder 20 per cent guaranteed as a loan by Gulf Bank, Kuwait's second-largest lender.

Al Mutawa, who consults on the fund project, says when it does come into force it will be good news for Kuwait's entrepreneurial community.

"What they're formulating right now is the new businesses fund. For example, if you have a new idea, you want to establish a business and you want a loan or something.

"They will launch it within the next three to six months. They're hiring people now. It's a very positive step. It is one of the biggest funds in the world [for SMEs]."

Another important feature of the fund grants is "project leave", Al Mutawa explains. This allows a government employee who may be unsure of taking the risky step of leaving his comfortable job to start his own venture the option of returning to his old employer should his new business not prove successful.

While the government's latest incentive takes time to be refined, the private sector in Kuwait, like most sectors of the country's economy, also enjoys a degree of government subsidy.

The government guarantees bachelors with university degrees a minimum of KD690 to work in the private sector, over and above the salary paid by the employer. The amount rises incrementally for those who are married, and those with children. In contrast, Bahrain provides between BD50 to BD100 for their nationals employed in the private sector.

However, the big question on everyone's minds is whether Kuwait can afford such a scheme at a time when its finances are squeezed.

Al Mutawa says it is only natural for Kuwaitis to rediscover their natural entrepreneurial instincts as that is how the nation has always done business.

"I had people coming to me and telling me - you have oil, $10,000 salaries [per month], so why would you want anything like this in Kuwait where there are high salaries and people enjoy luxurious lives?" he said.

"I responded by saying that Kuwait, from the beginning, since the nineteenth and into the 20th centuries, in our blood we have this entrepreneurial spirit.

"Kuwait has always had open trade, they speak languages, they go to India, they go to the west. This is part of our culture, from the very beginning."

Optimistic as that may sound, access to finance remains difficult for SMEs in Kuwait. An article on the Kuwaiti entrepreneurial scene in Forbes noted how the country needed to develop a "more entrepreneurial culture" that encompasses its expatriate population as well.

Premlal Pullisserry, an expatriate entrepreneur who began warehousing SME BoxIt in Kuwait was able to develop his business idea thanks to the help provided by Kuwait-based business accelerator Sirdab Lab.

Pullisserry, who recently succeeded in attracting more funding to expand BoxIt across the region, says that other expatriate entrepreneurs have not been so successful.

"Being an expat has lots of pressure, because we are here on a very short term visa and it could be that if I [as an investor] give you certain amount of money, the person could disappear in no time," he says.

"If you are a Kuwaiti person, it is much easier for you to get some angel funding because you can invest a sure amount every year."

Another challenge for entrepreneurs in Kuwait is the difficulty in attracting foreign investment into a country, which is infamous for being one of the world's worst places to do business. It ranks 150 on the World Bank's Doing Business 2015 index.

"We tried to raise funding from Kuwait, but it is proving extremely difficult for us to get that moving," says Pullisserry.

"Even one of the Kuwaiti VCs who recently approached us said that, even if you have to receive our funding, you have to move your legal entity out of Kuwait, which means that even the Kuwaiti VC firm will not be in a position to fund us with our legal entity being in Kuwait.

"So that really opened our eyes, in terms of where to place our legal entity as a startup and we had to look at options outside Kuwait. The natural option was Dubai."

The UAE is the go-to option for many Kuwaiti SMEs that want to grow. A report by research firm Marmore noted that in Kuwait an entrepreneur has to deal with 11 government interfaces to do business, while that figure ranges from four to seven in other GCC countries.

Raghu Mandagolathur, who heads research at Kuwait-based asset manager Markaz, says that despite much development on the small businesses front, there is a lot more work that needs to be done to develop the sector in Kuwait.

"Though there is official support for SMEs in Kuwait, the concept of successful startup SMEs is still new to the Kuwaiti business culture," he says.

"Thus, rather than completely fresh startups, investors and banks may like to fund franchises, wherein there is a proven brand backing the investment, and there is operational support and training available for the applicant.

"The archaic bankruptcy laws can also unnerve new entrepreneurs."

For a country that is now realising the perils of a lack of diversification from oil, the low crude price era could ironically prove to be a boon - as well as a bane - for SMEs development, adds Mandagolathur.

"On the one hand, the government is likely to bolster attempts to grow the SMEs ecosystem in order to strengthen non-oil growth," he says.

"On the other hand, falling oil receipts may tighten funding available for SMEs, both in terms of private and public sector channels."

Should the Kuwaiti government succeed with its new initiatives to help the entrepreneurial community, it would be a win-win for its economy as well as its long term future stability.