Mohamad Ashraf is a 34 year old banker who decided to start a business selling dried flowers all around Egypt with his wife. I decided to interview him to see why he decided to start a business in such a different field from what he's used to.
Q: Introduce yourself
A: “My name is Mohamad Ashraf, I’m 34, I’ve been working for 13 ever since i graduated from the faculty of business Helwan University and we founded Soy Creations three years ago”
Q: What Inspired you to found Soy Creations?
A: “I’ve loved flowers for a long time: their colours, the bouquets, the flowership and I find the industry fascinating: they make a lot of shapes and use a variety of flowers; you also don’t have to make anything, you only have to organise natural flowers to see what fits with what in terms of colour, shapes and smells. I’m fascinated by the seasons and how some flowers you can find in the summer and others in the winter, so I’ve always loved flowers; I’ve even always made bouquets myself so I can choose what to put and learn more about flowers. I wasn’t always sure what I could call my hobby, but I found that flowers really are my hobby; I don’t mind talking to people in flower shops for hours on end and asking about flower making, but truth be told, Soy Creations started as a coincidence.”
Q: How was it a coincidence?
A: “When I started learning more about the world of flowers, I found that there are some plants that could be dried, there are others that look worse when they’re dry and others who look worse when they're wet. Some flowers could last for a week or even a month. There aren’t many shops selling dry flowers, even though a lot of fresh flowers get thrown away when they’re ruined. Dried flowers can last for months or even years, and I started asking more about them, and experimenting to see which flowers look best when dried. After a while, two of my close friends had their birthdays and I made them birthday cards with some dried flowers I had, and they liked it. Later on, another one of my friends who I had made a card for had an open day for her clothes business, so I asked her if I could sell some cards and she agreed and helped me a lot. I made around 10 or 12 and I sold almost all of them, which really surprised me as many people told me they liked it. It was very simple though, the glue wasn’t the best and I had to stick them together and I only really used simple shapes and colours. I told myself why not make a page selling cards and I tried to see how we (with his wife) could innovate in card making. Like in adding glue, keeping the flower safe from the delivery process. When I finally had a vision, I went out to look for a printing press that could print cards. Sadly, the page was a failure as the cards were just as expensive as the delivery, which didn’t make sense for anyone. One person asked us if we could just make a bouquet of dried flowers, and we slowly started selling more, which made us pivot towards it. Dried flowers weren’t very famous at the time (three years ago) as most people just bought artificial flowers, which I personally really don’t like. We started improving our bouquets a lot, and I learned that you just have to take advantage of the opportunities around you, and not let yourself be lazy and let them pass you by; we even did things we had no idea how to do as it was another opportunity. At the end of the day I hope we can present something different: something economical, sustainable and beautiful.”
Q: Is there a story behind the name Soy Creations?
A: “No. We searched for words that are related to nature and we found that Soy means “Earth” in Nubian, and we liked that it was related to nature and that it’s easy to remember because of the soy sauce we all eat.”
Q: Are there any flowers grown here in Egypt that are underrated?
A: “There are many flowers native to Egypt that have been underappreciated lately because of the importation of foreign flowers. We still try to use them as they’re still pretty and smell great like:”
Bird of Paradise
Gladiolus
Tuberosa