Kokab Rahman is a business and career strategist and Founder of Radeya Global – Talent Development & Custom Business Solutions which provides personalized career services and business solutions. She is an expert on the topics of entrepreneurship, e-commerce, career and personal development, and finance, and has written numerous articles and books including Accounting for Beginners and The Handbook of Remote Work Opportunities, available from Amazon.
Kokab traveled to more than 14 countries and 50 cities and loves the entrepreneur – digital nomad lifestyle. Her business motto is providing the best services that deliver results. Her career services have been helping clients get life-changing results, with many of her clients getting jobs at multinational corporations like Ernst & Young, JP Morgan, Marriott, Saudi Re, IPCO Germany GmbH, Crowe Mak, NHS, and Egmont Publishing. Her business, Radeya Global has a track record of high client success rate and 100% customer satisfaction and is highly rated in Google.
Kokab is a Contributor for Entrepreneur Magazine and has been published in major publications and media outlets including Fairygodboss, Expatwoman, BizBahrain, and CEOBlogNation.
What is Radeya Global all about?
Radeya Global provides high-quality career and business services that customers love. Career services are provided to individuals and include resume optimization, career consulting and rebranding, and job search support. Business services are provided to businesses and include content marketing, admin support, flyers and graphic design, website design, business writing and translation service, customer support, and business consulting & mentoring. Radeya Global has had a 100% customer satisfaction rate in nearly 8 years of being in business and many of our customers are repeat customers, having learned that they can rely on the quality they get.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
Having an accounting degree, I started my business as an accounting services provider. However, I quickly saw that the market in UAE where I was located was saturated with such businesses and competition would be difficult. Seeing the demand in the business outsourcing and resume writing areas, I started providing these. Because most of my initial customers were individuals needing career services – and the demand in UAE and the region for quality career services was high – I focused on providing career services to the general public more than the business services, while only providing business services to partner businesses (businesses owned by people I knew).
What are your plans, how do you plan to grow this company?
My plan is to bring onboard an experienced investor who has business acumen and connections and can assist me to take the business to the next level. I plan to focus mainly on marketing the business to reach more customers as well as to collaborate with businesses in complementary industries in order to scale up the business and increase sales and profits.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
Not having a physical presence where customers could purchase our services and not having any knowledge of online payment platforms, especially, when I moved to Turkey. I overcame this issue by offering online payment options. Through collaboration with a Bahrain based online marketing platform, Together in Bahrain, I was able to transition to selling my services selling. Because Together in Bahrain was a trusted online shopping platform, customers was more willing to buy through it than some unknown website. Together in Bahrain was owned by a former English student of mine (along with her fiancé) whom I had met on my trip to Bahrain. We had become good friends and I had provided paid and unpaid business services to the business and the business relationship had turned beneficial in the long run.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
Not spending more on marketing, not acquiring a professional website. I spent money on an expensive business address because some potential clients kept asking if I had an office and that money was wasted with no return. What I learned from it was that one shouldn’t allow everyone to influence their next move. Entrepreneurs are a sensitive lot and easily self-doubt themselves because even we sometimes don’t know what we are doing and why. I learned that the ones who create unnecessary arguments are not really interested in doing business with you nor in getting results. While those who want results make the purchase without raising such unnecessary arguments.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
With services that deliver above-average results and give customers exactly what they want. My career services repeatedly help clients get jobs at esteemed multinational organizations. With both my business services and career services, we’ve had 100% customer satisfaction and zero complaints. Our services take into account what results the customer wants, when they want it, and ensure they get it along with top customer experience.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I regularly read business books and eBooks and take courses and training programs from successful business people (such as Dan Lok, Grant Cardone, Marina De Giovanni); learn from articles and YouTube videos from and about successful entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos; read articles and watch YouTube videos from reputed sources like Forbes, Entrepreneur, CNBC, and Business Insider.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
The Ten X Rule by Grant Cardone because we need to know that success is our duty and we need to put in massive effort to get above average results – the only way to a business that will stand out.
Negotiate to Win by Patrick Collins because we entrepreneurs will always come across people who will challenge us and we need to know how to deal with them.
Dan Lok’s Productivity training because we entrepreneurs need to know how to value our time in order to get the results we want.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
Knowing about the free and paid business trainings / business information out there that we need to know to take the right steps. Every job requires certain skills and running a business is no different. Learning from trial and error is not the best way to learn how to run a business.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Providing services and customer support that customers love as well as providing complimentary additional services. Much of my business has come from repeat customers and the testimonials from happy customers make new customers know they can trust our services.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
Assuming that I already know what services or products I am selling and who my target customer is, I would create a website with a professional high quality landing page which offers something my target customer wants, direct potential customers to it through online ads, and acquire their email addresses and or phone numbers. Then follow up with email marketing or a sales call or both in order to convert prospects to customers.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Have a professional online presence first by investing in a professional website, email marketing, and SEO. Build social proof through social media posting and reviews from customers.
What is your favorite quote?
“Do something today that your future self will thank you for”
– Sean Patrick Flanery.
How can we get in touch with you?
By email: kokab.rahman@radeya.biz or via the contact information on my website https://www.radeya.biz
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