Reema Mahajan: Insights from the Extraordinaire Business Coach

What is a Business Coach?

A business coach is a guide who supports entrepreneurs in achieving their goals. Business coaches mentor entrepreneurs across various industries and provide one-on-one support. Firstly, becoming an entrepreneur can be an intimidating journey especially if candidates are first-time participants.

When it comes to launching a business, the needs are not just limited to having an investment. Businesses require a proper strategy notably varying across countries and industries. Therefore, a coach with expertise is chiefly mandatory for start-ups and entrepreneurs.?

Biz in the Emirates by RadiantBiz has started the Entrepreneurial Playbook Series, interviewing some of the finest business coaches in the UAE.

In Conversation with Coach Mahajan?

For our first feature, we had the opportunity to interview Reema Mahajan - the founder of Indian Women in Dubai (IWD) which is a business community of women building their businesses in the city of Dubai.

Reema’s story has one of the biggest plot twists, she started her career as a chemical engineer in 2006 and enjoyed her field of analyzing complex systems. However, she soon realized that she was fueled by problem-solving on a bigger scale outside the lab with direct interaction with the clientele.?

With the support of her family, who believed in her caliber and passion. She was able to take this drastic step. In 2007 she enrolled in an MBA program at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and graduated in 2009.?

From then on she has worked with multiple business consultancies and management companies in the UK and UAE, taking on various roles including team manager and development manager among others.

Birth of IWD

During her work in the consulting field, Reema picked up on the challenges that daunted female entrepreneurs as immigrants in Dubai. With limited access to mentoring, networking, and resources, Reema addressed this need in the Dubai markets.

IWD started as a small Facebook group which has now transformed into a platform taking on more than 100,000 members. Reema abandoned her successful career and decided to become a coach and train teams of entrepreneurs.

Notably, IWD has made an impactful impression on the business turf of Dubai by embarking on the journey of creating an entrance for female entrepreneurs in multiple industries.?

UAE’s Initiatives for Female Entrepreneurs

When asked about the progress of female inclusion in the business, Reema mentioned the progression has been inspiring with women increasingly visible across traditionally male-dominated industries.?

For instance, her work in the UAE is vastly supported by the UAE government’s policies and resources chiefly dedicated to gender equality. On the comparison between the UK and UAE markets for female entrepreneurs, she emphasized the relative newness and dynamicity of the UAE markets which has made them open to innovation in a diverse economy.

Moreover, the willingness of the government to adopt digital transformation has encouraged business owners to take on innovational risks. Furthermore, Reema went on to state that the UAE market is relatively more friendly for female entrepreneurs. Especially, since the country offers multiple programs for networking, legal support, and funding opportunities.

Among the seven emirates of the UAE, Reema has worked with businesses across the three emirates of Sharjah, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. And for each emirate, she highlighted their unique benefits for female entrepreneurs.?

For Abu Dhabi and Dubai, she mentioned the benefit of customized industrial infrastructure for various industries and Sharjah’s focus on traditional creative industries has appealed to many female entrepreneurs to prosper in those fields.

Challenging Industries for Women

Besides the immense support from the government, certain inherently male-driven industries have proven to still pose tremendous challenges for female entrants. The IWD entrepreneurs have too faced these hurdles in the industries of finance, technology, and construction.?

But with persistence, Reema has built a team of business owners who have broken down those barriers and as she puts it ‘one woman at a time’. Owing to her versatile experience in the e-commerce, health and wellness, education, professional services, tech-driven solutions, and fashion industries, she has empowered women who choose entrepreneurship while being full-time employees, moms, and housewives.?

In other words, she has harnessed the ‘Nari Shakti’ meaning woman power, from each IWD member to fulfill their full potential. Reema’s first mentees were from the varying industries of travel & tourism, baking, and art. Her mentorship encompasses every aspect of a business including masterclass sessions, marketing channels, networking platforms, and others.

Other than the coaching and mentorship, IWD provides a community of business owners for members to link up with and learn from, sharing their endurance through similar challenges female entrepreneurs go through.?

Inhibitions of Female Entrepreneurs

On the other hand, there are the challenges stemming from self-doubt. Many women question their capabilities to juggle a business and the responsibilities of being a mother or wife. This is one of the reasons, women are not able to achieve their full potential. Although balancing the two responsibilities is daunting, IWD makes sure to address these self-limiting beliefs.

IWD highlights the possibility of managing both aspects of an entrepreneur's life while focusing on switching the narrative by framing the limitations as strengths. Moreover, Reema’s work-life balance is exemplary which is an inspiration to draw from. She believes in setting boundaries, prioritizing what is important, and accepting that it is okay to ask for help.

In fact, this has been the foundation of IWD: to not sacrifice personal happiness for the sake of professional success.?

Running a Business

Business coaches are mostly known to mentor start-ups but not only has IWD worked with established businesses but also failing ones. When asked about her approach to dealing with such mentees, Reema first addresses the question of what went wrong.?

Then the work is centered on learning a lesson from the failure, and after that, the focus is shifted in a new direction. Despite the downfall, Reema believes the mentorship needs to work on building resilience as negative experiences become a powerful asset in future ventures.?

The key job of a business coach is to align the business operations with the goals and objectives set by the owner which IWD prioritizes. In the case of small businesses that do not aim for growth, Reema mentors the owner accordingly with respect and no judgment. However, she encourages business owners to be open to change, to be adaptable, and to keep an open mind about growth as goals also change over time.?

Evidently, business coaching can be overwhelming as it is like running multiple businesses as if assuming responsibility for the success and failure of a business. How does one deal with such pressure? Reema ensures to draw the line between being a mentor providing tools and running and controlling the business for the owner. This has enabled her to be the great mentor she is.

On whether a business coach can or cannot save a business from failing, the IWD founder implements the same logic of how it is an entrepreneur's decision to execute the guidance and tools provided by the mentor. This goes for success as well, even to succeed the entrepreneurs need to take charge and make their own decisions.?

Accolades & Aims

For her efforts, Reema has gained great recognition including ranking as Asia’s Top 100 Power Leaders in 2023 and winning the Inspiring Woman of the Year in 2021. As a result, she recognizes the importance of representation and the magnitude of her influence on women and girls around the world which further motivates her to persevere in the face of barriers.

In addition, Reema has also inspired men and young boys who reach out to her with queries. They are able to acknowledge the new perspectives that women bring to the table which is a positive sign. Using the factor of Dubai being a multicultural hub, she also mentors women from different nationalities as IWD embraces diversity wholeheartedly as any new perspective is valuable.

Apart from being an inspiration, she draws inspiration from other powerful women including Indra Nooyi and Priyanka Chopra who have both broken the glass ceiling in multi-billion dollar industries across the globe.?

Subsequently, Reema is a personality who can compete for an all-gender inclusive award category and inspire everyone alike. But when asked about it, she said that she chooses to prioritize the impact that IWD is creating, while acknowledging that titles can amplify and increase the visibility of their mission.

Even though IWD is rooted in Dubai, it has attracted mentees from around the world. With its digital platform connecting international mentees has managed to create a global network for business expansion.?

Thus, IWD aims to grow and currently, it is going for regional expansion, addressing the demand of immigrant entrepreneurs across the Gulf enabling them to take full advantage of the unique economic and cultural business environment of the region.

AI & Advice

The business landscape continues to evolve with the persistent advancement of technology. Has it made doing business easier? According to Reema, it has done both by easing the accessibility of information and streamlining operations, but it has also intensified competition in the markets.?

This may seem like a stalemate but it gives consumers a variety of choices to pick from whilst lowering barriers of entry for businesses to join the markets with low setup costs.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of these inventions which is deemed to replace jobs and make life easier. Could AI replace business coaches?

Reema answered this question eloquently, emphasizing that the tool is data-driven and can be used to aid business coaches but since business coaching goes beyond data insight, AI can complement coaches but not replace them.

Onto the expert's advice, when asked about the top 3 mistakes all business owners need to prevent from occurring, she mentioned the negligence of financial management, lack of clear value proposition, and inflexibility.?

Entrepreneurs overlook these needs, the importance of having a unique selling point which is the key to attracting customers, managing the budget of the business as it can even lead to a business going bankrupt, and the necessity of adaptability in an everchanging market with competition driving an entrepreneur out of business.

Entrepreneurs definitely need guidance and every now and then a heads-up, IWD provides that community, to learn from other people’s strengths. Reema mentions the lessons female and male entrepreneurs can learn from each other.

Self-advocacy is the strength of men which includes taking bold steps, being assertive, and publicizing achievements. Embracing this confidence can allow female entrepreneurs to exploit the benefits of self-promotion.?

Whereas female strength lies in resilience and a customer-centric approach while focusing on long-term gains instead of immediate ones. Hence, adopting these traits can improve their business acumen.?

On a final note, seeking advice on behalf of all start-up business setups in the UAE regarding the struggle. The key pointers Reema revealed are the importance of understanding the local demographic and its culture especially if you are an immigrant entrepreneur as a unique blend of innovation and tradition creates success.

Additionally, building a strong network is vital and should be worked on from the get-go. Seeking support through mentorship should not hesitate an entrepreneur, as mentors prevent costly mistakes from being made.