Standing out for success

They are still a year away from getting their degrees, and funding may be short, but that has not prevented a group of UAE University students from creating ambitious business ideas that might actually fill gaps in the market.

Yasser Labib Al Dehni, 24, wants to start a garage that custom-fits cars. While there are already such garages in the Emirates, Mr Al Dehni's unique selling point would be delivery of the customised car to a customer's doorstep. He plans to call his business Fast and Furious, after the Hollywood movie series of the same name.

"Most of the people in the UAE have the money and the will to customise their cars," Mr Al Dehni said. "All the 23 and 24-year-olds - we love cars."

Students came up with models for innovative and marketable projects for the Entrepreneurship Awareness Event, held for the first time at UAE University in Al Ain last month. In all, 34 student teams presented their business plans in the two-day event that had separate competition categories for male and female students.

"The events [were] to encourage Emirati students studying [an] entrepreneurship course to open new businesses," said Binta Abubakar, who teaches entrepreneurship and marketing at the university.

Columbia Business School in New York hosts an annual "Outrageous Business Plan Competition" to encourage off-beat ideas from students. Among the wacky but creative ideas that the university helped to showcase was Ramensquare, a vending machine that serves up Ramen noodles in three minutes.

While such creative incubators have yet to make it to UAE campuses, the idea of programmes and funds to showcase student business plans is becoming more popular in the Emirates. Big names in the corporate world have been partnering with local universities in recent years.

At the Entrepreneurship Awareness Event in Al Ain, representatives from the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and PepsiCo talked about women in business and ways to get trade licenses, motivating young Emiratis to become business people.

Naeema Mubarak Sarhan Salem Al Tamimi, 21, comes from a business family and wants to start a magazine geared towards Emirati women with a "passion for fashion, food and decor".

Her magazine, which would be called Local Trends, would be "a combination of the past and the present", Ms Al Tamimi said in a blog that she started this month after winning the prize for best business idea presented by a female student at last month's Entrepreneurship Awareness Event.

"Why? Because we have to keep our identity and never lose it even if we have passion [for] what is new and what is trending," she said.

The English-language magazine would be launched in Al Ain but would also target the GCC region because of the similarities among Gulf cultures, Ms Al Tamimi said.

"I did some research and I didn't find a competitor in the region," she said. "There are lifestyle and international [trends] magazines, but no magazine for Emirati ladies."

Abayas, for instance, could borrow ideas from the West and be made international, she said.

Her father and some of her brothers run companies in the UAE and abroad, and she would rely on family resources for funds.

The aim of the event in Al Ain was to demonstrate that each business needs to have a unique selling point to stand out. "We all can't make or sell cupcakes," Ms Abubakar said.

One of the business ideas that did not win was a portable oxygen bag to carry the gas in compressed form.

In the future, if any of the students find themselves in the right environment, their ideas can be marketed, Ms Abubakar said.

For instance, a garage for custom-fitting cars is a good idea because of young people's liking for individualised cars, she added.

While there may be a market for his concept, Mr Al Dehni acknowledged that he would face a challenge in funding his garage, which would be in Abu Dhabi.

He won the third prize among male students at the Entrepreneurship Awareness Event.

Mr Al Dehni plans to take up a job after graduation, save money, take bank loans and seek support from his family before getting into the driver's seat of his business.

"In two years I plan to start this business," he said.

ssahoo@thenational.ae