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Huda Janahi's meteoric rise from a stay-at-home mother to a successful award-winning businesswoman is a remarkable example of true grit and determination.
With three established businesses already flourishing and a fourth in the pipeline, Ms Janahi, director of Global Cargo and Traveller Services (GCTS), is busy closing ambitious deals and taking her companies to greater heights.
She has just signed a merger worth BD1.15 million ($3 million) with the Kuwait-based Global Logistic Company which enables GCTS to spread its wings regionally.
Since treading into the forays of cargo business Mrs Janahi's sole aim has been to grow and develop GCTS which is why at times she pushes herself to the limit with long working days and handling the occasional business matter in the middle of the night.
"We had a unique shipment of dolphins and sea lions coming into Bahrain from Moscow at midnight. So with my son, Khalid, who was eight then, in tow, I went to oversee the transportation of the animals from the chartered flight to the dolphin park," remembered Mrs Janahi of the experience almost four years ago.
The enterprising businesswoman stresses that no cargo shipment is impossible as she strives to take on the challenge of handling unique projects thus giving GCTS a distinctive edge in the market.
Mrs Janahi has a hands-on approach to her work and prefers to be amongst her employees instead of ordering her staff around from the environs of her office in the upper storey of her workplace in downtown Manama.
She conducts her daily dealings with the self-confidence of an experienced businesswoman but her beginnings were far from easy.
She was refused a commercial registration (CR) by the Ministry of Commerce for the first year in business.
"Their reason being that they don't give a cargo CR to women," she said.
Her single-mindedness and her desire for self development led her to join the UN's entrepreneurship development programme (better known as UNIDO-ITPO, Bahrain Model of Investment Promotion and Enterprise Creation through its Arab Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship and Investment Training, ARCEIT) in 2001 where she learned how to improve her business. In fact, UNIDO-ITPO/ARCEIT helped her to secure a CR in her name and provided her with finance to help her business grow.
Now after more than six years in business and starting from a one person office in a small rented space in Muharraq, Mrs Janahi manages a staff of 60 employees.
She has come a long way from beginning with a start-up capital of BD1,000. She is now managing assets worth BD1 million which includes GCTS only. Her other two enterprises are Global Courier Services WLL and Regional Trading Establishments which includes advertising and a shop in Al A'ali Mall selling original F1 grand prix products.
The secret of her success she says is her husband's, Fawzi Tolefat, unfailing support, her father's insistence since Mrs Janahi was a teenager for his daughter to enter the workforce which inevitably became ingrained in her and her thirst for knowledge, self development and her ambition to reach the top.
Mrs Janahi has won many accolades in her journey to success namely 'Shaikh Muhammad bin Rashid Al Makhtoum Award for the Young Business Leaders in Best Start-up Business in 2005', 'Investor of the Year Award 2005' presented by Jordan's Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
She was also ranked 46th by Forbes business magazine in its list of the 50 most powerful Arab women. Huda Janahi is also a model example of a success story for the UN entrepreneur programme in the Arab world.
Huda Janahi's name is synonymous with success. She is a volunteer at Shaikha Hessa's 'Injaz' programme where she teaches young Bahraini girls the potential of empowerment and how to become entrepreneurs.
Three women in her family have already started their own enterprises with Mrs Janahi's encouragement.
She attended her first Women in Leadership Conference in Dubai in 2004 and hasn't looked back since. Whenever there is a women's conference Mrs Janahi doesn't hesitate to vocalise her success story to empower women to enter into the business arena and into the man's world.
As she embarks on a 'Women in Business' conference in Oman this month Mrs Janahi is upbeat about the upcoming event. "I will discuss how a mother-of-two made it possible to enter a male-dominated business and converted a paltry initial investment into a multi-million dollar venture," she said.
Her message to women who want to start their own venture: "Never stop trying because there is always light at the end of a tunnel. Take on challenges head on and you will be able to overcome them but if you are weak then you won't be able to achieve anything."
