My journey toward establishing Sabiha footwear and Sabiha shoes has many twists and heavy setbacks. Despite the barriers, I had never backed down and continued to persevere conscientiously throughout the process. And every time I felt like giving up, I consoled myself by recalling what my parents had taught me long ago, that Allah (S.W.T.) gives success to those who work for it. With this belief, I confronted every challenge that life threw at me with a zeal to win at any cost.
At the beginning of my career, I worked as a part-time employee in the fabrics knitting department of a buying house called Ecotex Factory. Even though we had to work long shifts, the pay was decent, with just enough free time left over to do something else on the side. Thus I pooled in my savings of BDT 5,000 and purchased a stack of T-shirts, intending to hawk them near various footpaths near my residence.
My side-hustle proved to be a pleasant surprise when profits surpassed my meager investment. And so, I reinvested all my T-shirt earnings back into this little venture to develop it further. Eventually, as business boomed, I used a big chunk of my provident fund from the factory (around BDT 38,000) to purchase a large stock of shirts and rent a shop space in a market. In retrospect, I should have been more prudent with my investments rather than going all-in, but that is the way life is sometimes. You either take risks and achieve success, or you make mistakes and learn from them.
The risks I took initially gave me great returns for a year. However, events went entirely out of my control and caused me to lose my hard-earned business when the market owners abruptly decided to demolish the market. I and many others were left with almost nothing to save for the mounting losses. With no money to open another shop or start a new business, I had to return to Dhaka to find a job. Fortunately, due to my prior experience and good network, I soon took my old role as a knitwork employer at Grameen Fashion. While at that time, I bleakly thought that I was back to square one, the Almighty had planned for me something entirely new.
As months rolled by, I grew restless and impatient at my factory job and wanted nothing more than to light the entrepreneurial spirit within me again. After much deliberation, I again started a side trade selling street food near the factory gate. The sharp decline from being a business owner to a street food seller was a jarring and depressing experience. However, I moved forward, and soon cash started pouring in, allowing me to add more food items and even buy a cart. Another facet of this side job was that I was getting acquainted with many people around nearby factories who convened near my cart for food and friendly conversations.
Over time, I built a good relationship with one of my customers who was the officer in charge of AMCO footwear, who became an avuncular figure to me. Upon hearing about my misfortunes, he encouraged me to sell some of his factory’s export rejects. Since I didn’t have any funds, he paid for the stock out of his pocket and told me to keep the margins.
Even though I didn’t know anything about shoes, I couldn’t let an opportunity like this go to waste. Keeping aside my food cart business, I roamed around different footwear markets and showrooms with the export reject footwear to look for price quotes. The owners loved the Japanese export shoes so much that in the end, I got orders for eight dozen shoes, even though I had only one dozen in stock. After my uncle heard about the large order, he allowed me to take more than 12 dozen shoes without any deposits. I was amazed by the trust that my uncle and others at AMCO had in me. And so, I was determined to honor this faith.
Eventually, I managed to sell all the shoes to various showrooms for a considerable sum and made BDT 12,000 in net profits. Having this new line of business open for me, I knew that this was the right way to go. Therefore, in 2014 with my wife’s help, I invested more money to purchase stock-lot shoes and sold them to different shops or hawk the rest near busy roadsides. The more I continued through the path, the more I got acquainted with shoe suppliers and buyers, ultimately forming a well-connected network.
After a year at this game, I was able to rent a warehouse and named the first company ‘Sabiha Export Shoe Collection’. Getting a permanent location was a huge plus point, as buyers could purchase directly from one place. During this time, I received my first large order worth over three lacs from a buyer with showrooms in Somalia.
Getting this order was the turning point of my life. I resigned from the factory job and focused entirely on the budding footwear business, completing several high-value shipments for local buyers. And within a span of eight years, I have employed over 50 employees and even established my current companies.
The Covid pandemic and its resulting economic crisis could have wreaked havoc on my business. But due to the Grace of the Almighty, I was able to utilize my experience and stay afloat. To ensure successful sales, I made several calls to my loyal clients every day. When required, I also took the risk and went to them myself. Because of these measures, I could generate enough cash flows to survive the crisis. Despite incurring over 12 lacs in losses and laying off around 56% of the workforce, the business still came through.
My firms only sell to local customers, but I hope to start exporting in the future. In time, I also plan to create another firm called Sabiha Knitwork which will solely deal with creating upper forma flynet cases for shoes. Producing these cases in-house will drastically reduce my cost of production, and I can gain good returns by selling any excess products. With only a fresh loan of BDT 50 lacs, this new company and expansion can become a reality.
I got to know about LightCastle Partners when they visited my factory with offers of marketing and business development support. Overall, I am very excited to collaborate with them and the B-SkillFUL training program. I believe this will allow me to scale my business to new heights.