We know that being an entrepreneur is hard. Long hours, ups and downs and the constant risk that maybe it won’t work out are just some of the hundreds of challengers a normal entrepreneur faces daily. Then you take into account the additional guidance that is out there specifically for Muslim entrepreneurs and it can all get a bit much!

We at Riwaya have spent the last 18 months speaking and learning about what are the best tips to give to Muslim entrepreneurs after launching our own Islamic start-up. Riwaya is an online Islamic marketplace for Muslims to come to buy and sell their awesome products in one easy to navigate place, and you can learn more about our journey and aims here

One thing that we thought may be helpful was to write our top 5 tips on starting an Islamic businesses, key things that we wish someone would’ve told us before us starting out!

1) Make sure you understand Islamic business etiquette

This is something that we believe is key to running an Islamic business. Manners is so integral to our faith but when it comes to business it unfortunately falls to the wayside in our pursuit for profits, deals and getting ahead of competition.

We remind anyone looking to start an Islamic business that operating with good akhlaaq (etiquette) and adab (manners) is key to ensuring barakah enters your business.

“ I have been sent to perfect good character” Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) — Al Muwatta’ 1614

Making sure we fulfil our promises, respond in a timely manners and don’t undercut our brothers and sisters are some small tips that are integral to ensuring your business has Islamic values.

We speak a bit more about this in our blog ‘Day to day business ethics and manners’ so head over there if you want to learn more!

2) Make sure you only sell Halal items

This one should be pretty self-explanatory. Want an Islamic business? Then sell halal things. But this goes beyond the obvious of alcohol and non-halal meat. There are additional aspects like no silk or gold for men’s clothing or the use of Riba (interest) within financial businesses. It in encouraged to have a sound understanding of what is allowed and not allowed to sell within Islam prior to starting out your Islamic business.

It is also important to ensure that your business partners and suppliers are also ethical, allowing you to promote products that push Islamic values.

Within Riwaya, we undergo business checks to ensure that everything on our marketplace is deemed to be halal by rules of general understanding. That way you can buy and sell with confidence that we are supporting Islamic businesses in the right way.

3) Sort our your legal, accounting and funding

Key to any business is ensuring that your legal obligations are done correctly. Whether that is your tax obligations, wages obligations as well as any product payment obligations, ensuring we are honest in all of our transactions and don’t try and cheat the system and not pay our obligations at all.

There are many ways of trying to reduce your tax bill, which is perfectly fine and legal but remember not paying the correct amount of wages or tax at all does not only have ethical consequences from an Islamic perspective but is also illegal!

Additionally, many start-ups are looking at looking at funding their businesses to help with expansion and growth by using investors. It is important to note that mainstream investing isn’t always shariah compliant and so to be on the safe side, try and look at funding options that also ticks the shariah compliant box.

Some examples of resources available to you are:

https://www.qardus.com/islamic-finance-for-business

https://www.islamicfinanceguru.com/startup-funding/

https://www.fundingsouq.com

4) Collaborate with other Islamic businesses

One of the best things about starting an Islamic businesses is the amount of resource that is out there as well as people who are willing to support you and want to see you succeed.

Whether you are in tech, finance, launching a product or still haven’t decided, the chances are there is someone who would have tried to do something similar or can share some advice to help you succeed.

Go to networking events, message people on Linkedin, Twitter or Instagram and try and build those connections that can not only look to add value to your own businesses but also empower others and add value to those that are helping you and creating a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

We’re always happy to help support businesses at Riwaya, so if you want to connect just drop us a message on our contact form here

5) Find additional revenue streams for low cost

Money and innovation are two of key proponents to being successful in business. The ability to come up with low risk additional revenue streams is crucial to an ever changing global landscape.

Furthermore, the pandemic has shown the drawbacks of being over-reliant on one revenue stream.

If you’re looking to sell a product, one easy way to add an additional revenue stream would be sell on marketplaces. Marketplaces like Amazon, EBay or Riwaya offer you the ability to benefit from additional marketing, open up a new customer bases and allow you to enter into new geographies easily.

By joining up to Riwaya, you get the chance to open up to 1000s of new customers as well as the ability to list your items on a site specifically made to empower and support Islamic businesses without having to pay any listing, joining or exit fees. Interested in signing up? Click here and access your free trial and join us in creating the worlds first premium Islamic marketplace.