Interviewer: Mahmoud Mansi
Edited by: Mennatullah Hany Zieneldin
“People who work in large organizations and so, work hard, follow clients, achieve targets and get pushed to the limits, just to please the real owners of the organization, if they pay the same effort for their own businesses, they would build a kingdom of achievements and at the end of the day it is something to call their own ”
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah
THE INTERVIEW
1- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How did you first start?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: When I was still a student I used to travel to the states and work there during summer vacation as a salesperson in a shirt retail store.
2- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What were the challenges that you faced on the job?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: Travelling abroad is full of challenges, starting from the first step away from home to any country different from your own, my main challenge was convincing people that our T-shirts or products were better and different than the other 100+ stores on the same boardwalk!
3- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: When you were searching for the job, how were you interviewed and tested?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: Actually they were in need of new salespersons so they didn’t actually interview me. A guy just gave me a quick orientation, explained about the products and their names. However, I was kind of lucky that the guy was Egyptian so he wanted to help me out, but still in a professional way.
4- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What are the main qualities a clever salesperson should have?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: A clever sales person should have a strong convincing ability and knowledge of every item that he/she sells, also a great deal of self-confidence.
5- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: When you first started “The Shirt Guy”, how did you create demand for your own product?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: Through word of mouth, through my contacts, friends and relatives… I spoke with everyone about it even before even establishing it, so everybody was excited! Some of them supported me by buying some T-shirts as compliments but they were surprised by the quality so they recommended me to their friends and then the word of mouth tool became the most powerful tool that stood by me and still is.
6- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: You have a very clever designer – Passent – how did you interview your designers? How did you test their skills?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: I have a confession; we don’t hire designers but we check if they have creative backgrounds that can help us transfer to them our way of work. Mostly, designers ask for high salaries and force us to follow their ideas, so our staffs mainly customize and edit customer’s logos and designs, they don’t create them from scratch unless someone asks for it, they let me create it or they ask for my help so we can implement them together.
7- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Why do you think your staff chose to work in your startup rather than working in an organization?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: First of all, our job is cool, all of them never saw the process of printing T-shirts before, so they get impressed before they even sign up with us.
Second, they see the outcome right away and that makes them feel proud that they make something useful everyday
Third, they don’t wear uniforms every day, but only when we’re at events or exhibitions, we don’t ask them to cut their hair or trim their beards, music and TV are on all day long they normally feel like they’re home.
8- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How did you find your team? How did you recruit them?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: At first I worked from home for 10 months by myself, implementing, delivering, marketing and designing without any help. A few months later, when my office was ready, one of my relatives recommended me one of his neighbors. In the beginning I thought he wouldn’t be of much help, but I needed anybody that can help me. Later on, he proved that he was the right guy for the job.
9- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Tell us the story behind The Shirt Guy, why is this your passion? And why did you prefer this over having a stable job in a large organization?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: People who work in large organizations and so, work hard, follow clients, achieve targets and get pushed to the limits, just to please the real owners of the organization, if they pay the same effort for their own businesses, they would build a kingdom of achievements and at the end of the day it is something to call their own.
10-HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What role did your family play in supporting your message?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: My family consists of two heroes: my father who’s been and still is my role model, he taught me that work is the main objective in anybody’s life. He worked very hard to help us maintain a secured and stable life, although now he is a partner in an owned business recently, he gave all he could for the big organizations that he used to work for. Same goes for my mother who’s 55+ and still works for one of the biggest banks in Egypt if not the biggest. Just to prove me the same point of my father about being a hardworker.
11- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What is your criticism regarding current fashion?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: Actually I’m not much into fashion, but summer outfits especially for girls somehow surprise me every year, that I feel like in 20 years they won’t be wearing anything!
12- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Currently you are doing your army service as a soldier. How are you managing your business? And what positive or personal traits did you learn from being a soldier?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: I believe that now is one of the hardest times in my entire life, as being away from my business was too hard for me at the beginning. My fiancée is currently managing the business and I have to say she is doing a great job, and I kept in touch with her whenever I could. Being a soldier gave me patience and high resistance.
13- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How are you willing to make your project grow?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: Getting new machines with higher technology, appearing to the people with a new branch as my office isn’t in a main avenue so most of our visitors aren’t just walk-ins, they’re seekers.
14- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Who would you encourage to create their own startup? Why?
Ahmed Abbas Mesbah: Students who are nearly graduated, because they would be full of power and energy and don’t have much worries as they’re still young and creative, they don’t even need to quit their jobs in order to build a startup.
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Thank you so much Ahmed for your great interview, initiative and for inspiring different angles of the society through your work.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shirtguyy/
