Interviewer: Mahmoud Mansi
“Engineering helps your mind grow, and teaches your mind to think out of the box, which helps in finding solutions to mostly everything and sometimes unexpected solutions. So of course it helped me a lot in starting my project…”
Noha Bennis
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE
Noha Bennis is an animal lover, an enthusiastic traveler, an air yoga practitioner and a young entrepreneur who lives in Alexandria. She studied Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering at Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport and graduated in 2007, worked in corporate for some time then she founded her startup “Fresco Gelateria” in Alexandria, Egypt.
THE INTERVIEW
1- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What inspired you to start Fresco? The need to work? The need to make extra income? Or is it something else?
Noha Bennis: I have been working in the field of pastries and desserts for over 7 years, and I wanted to expand my work and be more creative. But actually the main reason is my love for ice cream, so I decided to open an Italian Ice cream parlor (Gelateria).
2- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How did you prepare yourself to become the Managing Director of Fresco?
Noha Bennis: I had no experience with ice cream whatsoever, so first thing I signed up for a Gelato course in Italy in one of the best Italian gelato schools. There I learned about Gelato and also they taught us how to manage a Gelateria. The rest of my knowledge I gained from the experience and the market.
3- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How did you start your recruitment process from scratch? Were there any challenges?
Noha Bennis: We published an ad in one of the recruitment papers and a lot of people applied for the job. We interviewed them all, and we were very picky with choosing the right staff. Depending on their experience with ice cream, serving and dealing with direct clients.
One of the challenges we faced is that many people who are looking for jobs do not read the job ads well, so they apply for jobs that wasn’t mentioned in the ad, for example we asked for ice cream vendors and they are looking to work as a cashier. And some with other qualifications who want to apply for jobs they are not qualified for.
4- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Creating a startup, you had to recruit employees to work in different departments. Which was the most difficult post and why?
Noha Bennis: Recruiting the shop manager was the most difficult of all. Because I was looking for someone experienced with dealing with everything like the staff, the clients, and on top of all this I was looking for a problem solver; someone who can handle and face any problem.
5- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Which is more important in a startup, to cutoff expenses or sell more?
Noha Bennis: Selling more is more important.
6- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How did your background in engineering support you whether directly or indirectly in starting your own project? Is there any similarity between engineering and creating a business?
Noha Bennis: Engineering helps your mind grow, and teaches your mind to think out of the box, which helps in finding solutions to mostly everything and sometimes unexpected solutions. So of course it helped me a lot in starting my project, it taught me how to be creative. In my opinion, there is no similarity, they complete each other.
7- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: When you first launched Fresco, did you reply only on the place to create awareness in consumers’ minds, or did you use other methods?
Noha Bennis: I used social media to create awareness. We posted articles to introduce the differences between gelato and ice cream to costumers. Most of the people thought that gelato is the Italian name for ice cream, which is not correct, they are totally different products.
8- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: As an engineer, from your observation what are the common problems that face Engineers in Alexandria?
Noha Bennis: Being an engineer in Alexandria is very difficult. Because limited posts are available. All of the company’s head offices are based in Cairo, so usually engineers have better opportunities in Cairo.
9- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What advices do you have for people who want to create their own project?
Noha Bennis: Study it very well. Don’t have high expectations at the beginning and not to be depressed! Be creative. Learn from your competitors don’t imitate them. Last but not least, run your own business, don’t leave it for anyone to run it for you even if you see them perfect, still no one will care about your business as much as you do.
10- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What advices do you have to already existing startups?
Noha Bennis: Every business has its own difficulties, don’t give up quickly, face them. Listen to your clients, they are the ones that will help you grow and improve.
11- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: As an ex-employee, what was your criticism regarding the corporate work style? Do you have any advice for management to make it more appealing for the employees?
Noha Bennis: The working environment is very stressful and consumes so much of the employees’ time, leaving them with no family time and social life which are very important aspects of life. The Management sometimes forces employees to work extra hours and sometimes weekends too, which causes the people to be very stressed and angry all the time and this can reflect on clients and family members.
To get the best out of your employees, Management should try to create stress-free working environments, avoid burdening employees with extra working hours and most importantly, no working on weekends.
THANK YOU
