Rise of a female entrepreneur against all odds with the help of Alibaba.com

“When I completed my studies and came looking for a job, it was very difficult for me to get one. I started off as an employee managing Alibaba.com account for a big merchant. I never knew the skills of making business with Alibaba.com would change my life. Today people come to me seeking help to start their export business. All thanks to Alibaba.com.”

- Saira Ashraf, Founder, Alaf Industries

Story

Saira hails from a small town in Pakistan, born and raised with 6 sisters and a brother. With great zeal and passion, she completed her masters and got to the nearest big city Sialkot looking for a job. However, it was very difficult for her to get a decent job in the initial days. After much struggle, she managed to work as an account manager for a big merchant who already was an Alibaba.com gold member. Saira saw a huge opportunity right in front of her. She realized that export, e-commerce, and B2B can be a real game changer for Pakistani exporters in years to come. She put all her energy and time to learn the platform really well. She attended all the trainings available in Alibaba.com and elsewhere in the internet and understood completely how the platform works and how to get business using Alibaba.com.

Solution

Gradually she started to implement her learnings across various account holders and started to generate outstanding businesses for her employers so much so that she created a name for herself in Sialkot. People started to come to her to get trainings on how to win in Alibaba.com and how to succeed in export. After getting enough exposure, the gradual next step for Saira was to start something of her own. Initially, she took Alibaba.com membership and started by being a trader. With her skills and the scale of Alibaba.com, she was more than confident that she would get good number of business orders in a short span of time to break even.

Success

Only in the first 8 months, Saira has made a revenue of PKR 25 Lakhs and have sold her products to buyers all across the globe- Netherlands, France, Spain, Canada, Italy and Saudi Arabia to name a few. Today, only with the success of Alibaba.com, Saira has set up her own manufacturing facility with 8 employees. At the same time, she is also training multiple female entrepreneurs in Sialkot about the opportunities they can create for themselves. Saira is slowly shaping the future for herself as well as the next generation of Pakistan with the power of Alibaba.com.