This Woman Entrepreneur is Helping Startups Scale Through Co-working

With a background in the field of HR and content writing primarily, I wanted to start off with something of my own after my son was born. The concept of entrepreneurship always excited me as it allows you to execute new ideas, break barriers, and explore new avenues. Being a woman and a mother, I soon realized it was not easy to run a startup in these hard times, especially when launching off.

From paying bills to catering to small business essentials, a huge chunk of your time, money and energy are taken away. I always wanted to reduce the burden for the young startups as they still face a lot of difficulties through their startup journey, specifically women who are dependent and lack financial support.

I had no startup experience at all, but my husband who is also an entrepreneur remained at the forefront guiding me throughout my journey at every step and motivated me to perform better.

Keeping in view the market dynamics and the economic situation, I came up with the idea of a co-working space that would not only be commercially affordable but also cater to your business needs while you focus on your startup efficiently.

My mother-in-law, a single mother and a resilient lady was my prime motivation behind this venture along with my husband and partner Muhammad Saad Khan, who made this venture “Workshack” sustainable with his managerial expertise and industry experiences.

Workshack has been designed to suit the needs of different startup sizes and business requirements, however we are not limited to entrepreneurs, our workspace is open to professionals and freelancers. The prime motivation of a shared workspace is exchange of ideas and networking that helps explore new business opportunities and develop professional linkages. With a strong word of mouth in the initial stages, we later on took the help of social media to spread the word. We tried to be as thoughtful as we could in providing amenities which could provide maximum business solutions. The top most of them are medical coverage of up to Rs. 500K, head hunting services, taxation, cloud services and much more.

Limited research in the product is one of the biggest struggles startups face today. Even if the idea is good enough, they usually fail in the execution stage. I believe that one needs to have the nerves to bear risks and have the aptitude to be a successful startup founder. It's not a piece of cake for everyone. The biggest challenge I faced initially was rising costs of materials when we started to revamp the warehouse we acquired to build Workshack. We had to cut down on a lot of things and create the best possible masterpiece with available resources. There was a time when quitting was an easy option, things were getting out of control and not being possible in the given circumstances. However, we held our heads and faith high and kept going. You just need to believe in yourself and not leave the playing field.

I think a successful business person is not the one who is able to generate maximum pro-fits but someone who is able to provide solutions to existing problems and this has always been Workshack's aim, to provide affordable access to business solutions.

There is no secret ingredient behind making a business venture successful, smart goals, leadership and positivity take you a long way plus never underestimate luck.

Nonetheless, know that luck also favors only those who stand tall like a rock. The best thing that keeps you motivated and going is believing in yourself, putting in your best and leaving the rest to Allah. You simply can't control everything, you will lose control and have to let go of a lot of things and that's OK, be prepared for downfalls, failures and dips.

It's part of the plan, but it does pay off eventually, you just have to stay focused, work hard and determined.